Ultimate Spiderman

BTW - see the poster version of the cover to USM #100 (which is out there somewhere) to have your fears re: the Clone Saga, um, allayed.

OK, Bagley's people might look odd, but I love his Ditko Spidey-mask moves.

Andrew you do know that the next story is called "Clone Saga" yes?

Bagley's not my favorite artist either, but he's solid.

Even the introductions of parts of Spidey-lore I have no great affection for (Silver Sable, Carnage) have been well-handled and fit in perfectly with the tone of the book. The Spidey-Kitty relationship really shouldn't work, but it does.
Bagley is competent and a decent storyteller and thats good enough on a title like this. Any other artist would feel strange after so long.

as spiderman series go, it's up there w/ the conway-andru + stern-romita jr runs for fun+consistency

You really think this is as good as Stern/JRJr? I think that run is amazing.

Does it get better?

The art is pretty meh but I really like the coloring and at least it becomes less bad as the series goes on (at least so far, I am on like 60-something?). Parts of it are SUPER LAME (so far the Black Cat/Elektra bit is ultra-boring, also the whole Kraven subplot) but parts I really like for no good reason (the Venom thing was SO SAD YOU GUYS). I still can't decide if I want to start buying monthlies though.

Also this panel:
http://static.flickr.com/78/185160317_879f3de95a.jpg

In contrast, THE LETTER Peter writes to MJ (issue #13, plebes) is awesome.

i agree w/ jessie that while there are dodgy moments in the bendis/bagley(shudder) run - yeah, the black cat/elektra stuff doesn't really work at all, the early issues are bit TOO timestreched - over the long haul, it is a very satisfying superhero bk. whatever else his faults, bendis writes a great villain - norman osbourne and the kingpin and doctor octopus are gd and nasty, and i like the ambivalence of fury throught the ultimates universe.

but again, i always find Bendis pretty readable - ok, he's riffing on tarantino/mamet/elmore leonard/george v. higgins etc but i also think that some of the storytelling devices he's used - the placement of dialogue balloons onthe page, the slow burn build up, the commitment to chat, etc - were not common in comics before bendis - he has, for better or worse, established his own style/voice RELATIVE to the rest of mainstream comics (nearest model is Frank Miller, obv) - which is quite rare + difficult, i wld say

Like anyone, when I think of Bruzenak, I do basically think of him as the lettering on Chaykin comics. But he also did the Matt Wagner/Joe Matt Batman/Grendel, most or all of Mr Monster until Gilbert decided that shithouse Comic Sans typing would do just as well, I think lots of First comics and presumably loads of other rubbish. Powers being one of the few Bendis comics I've given a fair go to probably underscores the connection in my mind, but it's there in eg Fortune & Glory.

nb: it's entirely possible that I haven't read enough Bendis to know what I'm talking about

I really don't get it. Especially the art, although I never do with that air-brush color/manga-style pencil look. In that big a bite, it just seems like the same thing over and over again storywise.

So I just read v21 in trade, "War of the Symbiotes" (#123-128). The book is still entertaining, I suppose. I'm sort of amazed Bendis just took the storyline he wrote for the DS video game and changed some details (instead of Peter getting kidnapped after he bonds with the suit again, he fights the Ultimates!) Also, there's this one incredibly annoying issue towards the end of it where (I'm guessing) Bendis wanted to let Immonen play with some layout stuff (several sets of pages of long vertical panels) mixed it with terrible WALL O' TEXT. For like 6-8 pages. And that terrible use of Chaykin/Miller bubble-leading device mentioned above.

And why does he keep doing those bad double-page spreads with odd block grids, so you have to read across the two pages, then go back to the left page and down, then read across again? It's so unintuitive with the panel separations - and he does it in all his books. That and WALL O'TEXT have always been two of his trademarks that bothered me but if the story and dialogue are good enough I can generally ignore it, but damn, it seems like as a writer he should be beyond this clunkiness.

In the intervening three years I haven't read a single panel of this bullshit.

Not my Spider-Man.

Waid's last three-parter was fun.

waitaminute, we're getting our universes mixed up here.

Can't help reading thread as "Spultimate Mider Man"

Also, I'm a dumbass who sometimes doesn't know when to quit.

So was I, which is why I saw it through to the end. tbh I was glad it was over - I kept wandering through arcs thinking "this kinda sucks, but not quite enough" and hoping the next one was going to be good. As it was the only Ultimate book I was still reading, fuck knows what Ultimatum was about because it never explained it.

Yeah, I have a similar feeling about it, kind of just waiting for the end of this. I guess it deserves some kind of credit that I totally stopped caring about the other Ultimate books too, but this one I still want to bother to finish and see how they wrap it up (I suppose, since I gather all the Ultimate books got rebooted this year?).

The latest issue published (#133?) was clearly supposed to be the last one. As I hinted, reading it outside of Ultimatum didn't make a heck of a lot of sense, and I cynically suspect Marvel will have to put it in an Ultimatum trade. No reboot though, everything is cancelled now I believe.

I was just looking through CBR news archives yesterday and reading about the reboots. Where did you hear that it's all cancelled?

Two "requiem" issues (w/ Bagley and Immonen etc.), and then "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" (Bendis/Lafuente) launches in August.

Bagley's run on USM put him up a few notches in my estimation. Kinda reminds me of Don Heck...I don't care for the way he draws faces, but he's no slouch at layouts.

I´ve been devouring this, about thirty issues in... It´s good! Likable characters, engaging storylines. Been ages since I got stuck into a good superhero comic.

I didn´t like the art at first, but I´m pretty much a full convert now.

I want to be Ultimate May Parker when I grow up.

I was going to revive this one of these days to talk about the, ahem, NEW DIRECTION, but I guess I shouldn't spoilerize this thread.

Marvel Ultimate comics were kind of a gateway drug for me getting back into superhero comics and they did some cool stuff, but man did Marvel screw it up bad.

I am quite enjoying the NEW DIRECTION even if I don't really see the point of it.

well, they needed to do a hard reboot right? might as well give it a shot (Though i haven't read any ultimate spidey in about 5 years)

the new ultimate spidey is superb! I really like Bendis when he takes it very small and personal and emotional, and the art is fantastic. The body language and expressions of these young boys is spot-on, like I always see a panel that reminds me of my own kid.

Agreed, this is by far the best thing Bendis has going on these days.

i read the first hundred+ issues of this a little while ago and it was great. Never gonna need to see it again tho'.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/a-super-hero-who-looks-like-my-son/

cool cool

Miles may be my favorite character Bendis has ever written. I wasn't 100% on board with the narrative need for his mother's death, but it's still a great book.