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Review: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #150

By | November 25th, 2010
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by David Lafuente, Sara Pichelli, Joelle Jones, Jamie McKelvie, Skottie Young (plus a ton in the back-up)

Not only is this officially the Ultimate Spider-Man 150th issue anniversary, but it is also the 10 year anniversary of the birth of the Ultimate Marvel universe!! Can you believe it?? We can’t either! To celebrate, Eisner award-winning series writer Brian Michael Bendis has created this triple size extravaganza and gathered together a stellar lineup of amazing artists!! A reunion of the greatest artists of not only this historic book but of the the entire line of Ultimate Comics. Poor Peter Parker has made such a mess of his life as Spider-Man that the other super heroes are forced to gather together and decide once and for all what to do with the young wall crawler. Guest starring the New Ultimates, the Storm Siblings, Ben Grimm, Iceman, Kitty Pryde and a slew of surprise stars! Also includes reprinting of Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special #1 featuring an all-star artist line-up!

The flagship book of the Ultimate Universe celebrates a major anniversary at 150 issues this week, and it does so with Bendis doing what he does and a slew of artists joining him to make it all pretty like.

Find out what I thought after the jump.

Spider-Man of the Ultimate variety has been not just the flagship Ultimate book for its 10 year existence, but the most consistent book Marvel releases period. The fact that they’ve managed to keep the same writer on it for the entire time helps a lot, as Bendis knows these characters inside and out and guarantees a level of quality other writer rotating books cannot hit regularly. It ensures a consistency of vision that takes the creator owned level of ownership and accountability but puts it upon a superhero book, and the results have been nothing short of spectacular.

Recently, Bendis had been promising to take this book in a direction that no one had ever seen before, and in this issue he starts kicking that off. This issue finds Carol Danvers, the new Nick Fury for all intents and purposes, talking to Iron Man, Captain America and Thor about the potential of Spider-Man and whether or not they should stop Spidey from being a hero or something else. Each sequence earns a different artist, with the opening action sequence from David Lafuente, the bulk of the story coming from Sara Pichelli, and stories featuring Iron Man, Captain America and Thor that come with art from Joelle Jones, Jamie McKelvie and Skottie Young respectively.

The story itself is fun to read, as we’re given a sort of break down on what exactly Spidey means to the Ultimate Universe and a look at whether or not his rather reckless brand of superheroics is good for New York City or not. The final turn is obvious most of the way, but it is also awesome and will lead to a new direction for this book that I am incredibly excited for.

From an art standpoint, this book is very good throughout save one section. While I love Joelle Jones, her art on the Iron Man section feels very uneven, blocky and like its scale is off. It’s not a very attractive section, and it kind of throws off the flow because the main team of Lafuente and Pichelli turn in some beautiful work (Pichelli is such a perfect fit for this book) and McKelvie and Young turn in wildly different but equally great work in their section.

The back-up is a really touching story about Spidey during a time where he felt lost and whether or not he wanted to keep up the life of a superhero. Featuring a TON of different artists (including everyone from stars like Alex Maleev and Frank Cho to indie gods like Scott Morse and James Kochalka), this story is an occasionally beautiful story that kind of drills down to the core of the character for readers. Plus, Mark Bagley!

Overall, this book was really solid. Am I happy that I paid $5.99 for it? Not really. But there is a ton of content here and a lot of really talented creators from all across the industry combining to tell two exciting stories here. It’s definitely an ideal way to celebrate a big anniversary.

Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy


David Harper

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