Ultimate Spider-Man continues to provide high school drama and comedy, mixed with superhero action/adventure. I must admit that this series really reminds me of Buffy the TV Show. There’s a lot of character drama about teenagers, mainly Peter and MJ. But there are also a lot of other characters around them, either their classmates, or some new superheroes/villains (though, too many of them are teenagers, what a coincidence!).
In Irresponsible (40-45) a new super-powered teenager is introduced, however he’s not as responsible as Peter, so makes a mess. Luckily for him both Peter and the X-Men are looking after him. I don’t remember who Geldoff was in the 616 universe, did he have anything to do with the Clone saga? There’s also a nice character moment with Aunt May talking to her psychiatrist, trying to deal with everything that happened to her. Her guilt goes way beyond Uncle Ben and covers Captain Stacy and Gwen.
Issue 46 is a flashback to around issue 21, which I thought was odd. It adds a new adventure at the end of that issue, this time involving Sandman. This is just an excuse to lead into the mini series Ultimate Six, which itself is just an excuse to have the Ultimates involved in Spider-Man. It’s a very simple story pitting Osborn and other villains against the Ultimates and Spider-Man. It’s very action oriented, but it could have been told in 3 issues, instead of 7.
Cats & Kings (47-53) is about two story threads revolving around Kingpin. I liked the thread about JJJ and the political candidate. When Peter and Spider-Man confront JJ, he realizes he’s been unfair to them. We learn why he was so against Spider-Man, and there’s a very touchy scene with Peter. On the other hand we have two new teenage girls: Elektra, who works for Kingpin (this version is very different from the original Miller one), and Black Cat, an amusing but ultimately unlikely love interest for Peter. This is also where we find out about Kingpin’s wife (too similar to the 616 version).
Hollywood (54-59) is a light-hearted story with Doc Ock showing up during the filming of the Spider-Man movie (lots of cameos there, Bendis had a lot of fun). When Peter finds himself in Brazil I really thought he was in a very difficult situation, but the solution was very obvious. Gwen finally finds the truth about Peter, it was really inevitable. But it gives himi someone else to share his secret with and who can cover for him.
Unfortunately that doesn’t last long, but in the next arc Carnage (60-65) is introduced and murders Gwen. I found that shocking, since Gwen just had a very nice talk with MJ, and they seemed to really hit it off. But Conners really messed up and Peter is now responsible for another death. I really loved the epilogue issue, where Peter just has to deal with Gwen’s death. Another fine character issue.
After such a dramatic turn of events, Bendis gives us a more light-hearted two parter starring Wolverine, in the classic body-switch story. This was really just a fun story and even Bendis appears at the beginning of the comic almost apologizing for it. Next we get a two parter featuring Johnny Storm as the new student. I would have liked for Johnny to stay as a regular of the cast, but he’s gone by the end of it. The last two parter features Doctor Strange, or his son. This brings Peter to his nightmares about Gwen’s death, and we’re back to full on drama.
But that drama is nothing compared to the Hobgoblin arc (72-78) with Harry back into the real world after SHIELD has been taking care of him. Norman really messed with his head, so Harry is now doing whatever Norman implanted in his mind. During this arc MJ is annoying and does not listen to Peter, even though she should know better. I think Peter was right in being angry with her, and he broke up with her for her own safety. That was really hard to do, but I felt for his motivations. The last issue is all about MJ after the break up, she realizes what she did and still loves Peter. At this point I really don’t see them being apart for long term, they just seem to be meant for each other.
This continues to be my favorite Spider-Man series, really giving us some interesting characterization and some fun action. Mark Bagley continues to impress, and I still think his style is more suited to Spider-Man than the current Trinity series. Bendis also seems to have a lot of fun introducing the Ultimate version of many secondary Marvel characters, unfortunately he cannot delve too deep into their characterization, since Spider-Man is the star, but I like reading their appearances every once in a while.