It had previously been noted by Rich Johnston that Sara Pichelli would be working on Brian Michael Bendis’ “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man,” but to what capacity her role would be save at least providing art on issue #15 was uncertain.
Today at Marvel’s “Next Big Thing” panel, it was shared that she would be working in a timeshare with David LaFuente on the book starting with the previously announced issue #15, with her first arc starting with issue #151 (post renumbering).
I agree with what ComicsAlliance suggested in that Marvel and Bendis is looking to churn out issues at a faster rate, and that getting an artist like Pichelli (whose style is fairly complimentary to LaFuente’s) to alternate arcs will allow for that without too much of a difference in the art styles. I’m a fan of Pichelli, and her initial pages look like they’ll be a perfect fit.