(w) Brian Michael Bendis
(a) Sara Pichelli (line art) Justin Ponsor (colors)
After the six-issue crossover with the other "Ultimate" line titles, the Ultimate Marvel universe version of Spider-Man, Miles Morales, is back to his own adventures, this time facing off against a character who's been a Spider-Man staple since he was first introduced in the late '80s: Venom. While Venom's appearance in this title was teased in issue 16.1, it's only now that we readers get to see him in his full frightening glory.
In issue #18, Miles runs out of web fluid and turns to his friend Ganke to unlock the secret of the formula that the late Peter Parker has left behind. In the meantime, Detective Maria Hill investigates the death of Betty Brant (as detailed in the aforementioned UCSM 16.1) by interviewing Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and Venom wreaks havoc on the now derelict Oscorp Industries facilities. Miles' dad Jefferson, on the other hand, is reaping the unwanted consequences of having fought HYDRA during the "Divided We Fall" storyline.
Issue #19 features an extended throw-down between the new Spider-Man and Venom, with some rather shocking though not entirely unexpected collateral damage resulting.
Brian Michael Bendis does not waste a whole lot of time leading into the Venom confrontation; the issue spent on setup is well-judged, with plot developments from the last story arc being nicely followed up, such as the question what would happen to Miles once he runs out of webs (i.e. will it be that simple to recreate the fluid from Peter's formula? The answer is amusing), and what is the backlash of things like Betty Brant's death and Jefferson Davis' actions? Issue #18 touches on these issues quickly and judiciously, with two of them, Brant's death and Davis' fate, left as questions to be resolved in the issues to come.
It would be easy to dismiss issue #19 as nothing more than a slugfest, but to my mind the context for it was pretty well-established in what was basically a talking-heads issue. One could say that Bendis got all of the talky-talky stuff out of the way so that he could focus on the battle. Not only that, but there are plenty of fun vignettes in the Venom fight, such as the results of Ganke's first attempt to produce web fluid, Miles' attempt to disguise his voice from his parents and his attempts as well to remember how Peter Parker beat Venom previously. There is quite a bit going on in the course of the fight.
And what a fight it is, courtesy of returning artist and Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli. I was already a fan of Pichelli's when she took time off from this book to draw the Spider-Men miniseries, but what was immediately apparent to me upon seeing her return to these pages was that she has significantly stepped up her game, perhaps in response to the favorable response her substitute artist, David Marquez, got during his stint on the book. Her signature style is still very much intact, but the level of detail packed into the two issues, especially her frightening depiction of the very well-known Venom, is simply on another level compared to her previous work. Her action sequences always had a nicely dynamic quality to them, but here, they couldn't jump off the page any more if the comic book was printed in 3-D format with glasses to boot. This is wonderful stuff. I really hope Pichelli sees this storyline through to its conclusion, because she is a huge part of what makes this confrontation as engaging as it is.
Soon I will have been following UCSM for two years, which is the longest consecutive streak of single-issue comic book collecting I have done since I stopped collecting regularly in 2006. While the last story arc was a little bit of a hiccup in terms of the storytelling quality, I have to say that on the whole Brian Bendis has really pulled me in with this particular vision for Spider-Man.
4.5/5
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