Fancy Meeting You Here: A (Very) Late Review of Ultimate Spider-Man #3

 written by Jonathan Hickman

drawn by Marco Checchetto 

colored by Matt Wilson

I was tempted to review this alongside the next issue given that I got them both quite late, but given that this is Marco Checchetto's last issue before he is spelled by a different artist, and given that the first mini-arc of this  new storyline kind of ends at this point I thought it merited a review all on its own.

So Peter Parker has finally adopted a definitive look for his new crime fighting guise, courtesy of his daughter May, and continues his crusade. Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker roll up their sleeves and get to work transforming the hellhole they have acquired for their new office into an actual news operation, and the mysterious man in green armor antagonizing Wilson Fisk may have actually met his match in a rather deadly assailant who gets his target every time...unless Spider-Man has something to say about it. 

Familiar faces from old Spider-Man stories pop up again, but as is the case with everything that's come before so far in this title much has been changed. Best friends are now strangers, and what was once a hand-sewn costume is now a proprietary piece of tech.

I'll lay off the hyperbole; this book isn't the second coming of Jesus or the absolute best Spider-Man story I've ever read in all my life, but it is engaging and fun, and it does have me intrigued to see where Hickman and his rotating team of artists are going with this story.

Truth be told, since I jumped on this Ultimate Universe revival last year I have found myself questioning some of Hickman's changes to the Ultimate Marvel universe as random or arbitrary, but so far these creative choices have worked to the betterment of this particular book, so I'm not really inclined to complain. 

I'd also like to add that I really enjoyed Checchetto's work here. He really does have a distinct and attractive style, and at a time when veterans like John Romita Jr have turned into caricatures of themselves and notorious tracers like Greg Land are still getting work, that's a very good thing.  

The first-three issue mini arc ends on an intriguing but largely upbeat note, and while we're clearly a way to go from the first story arc properly wrapping up I have to pat both Hickman and Checchetto on the back for launching a credible new entry in the Spider-Man mythos.

8.5/10 

How Much Longer, Marvel? A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #42 to 44

written by Zeb  Wells

penciled by John Romita, Jr.

inked by Scott Hanna

colored by Marcio Menyz

I'll cut to the chase: what has been billed as the next big "event" in Zeb Wells' current run on The Amazing Spider-Man ended without any significant change to the current status quo, without any cheap deaths or any meaningful moments of character growth for  Peter Parker or, for that matter, anyone in his supporting cast. "Gang War" plays out in the course of these three issues, with several criminal gangs going head to head, in particular the gangs of Tombstone, the Kingpin, the Rose, the Beetle and Madame Masque. Inevitably, one of them manages to come out on top. Whoop-dee-doo.   

I don't know what it was about this particular story that Marvel thought would be so compelling. It's not like "Kraven's Last Hunt" or "Coming Home" or any of the fun Marvel stories that put Peter Parker through such a wringer that, even though the status quo remained by and large unaltered by the end of those stories, Peter himself emerged from them a changed man.  This simply doesn't play out that way.

Even sadder is the artwork on display here, if one can even call it that. John Romita Jr. has been drawing comic books for the better part of five decades now, including some of the most important comic books ever published by Marvel, so to be honest it borders on depressing to see him tarnish his legacy illustrating a book so emphatically mediocre, especially one which is characterized with mean-spirited storytelling directed at one of JR Jr's very favorite Marvel characters. It honestly feels like he's been phoning it in for these issues, which I don't even consider worth reviewing individually.

I want to love this book again, honestly. I'm glad that the novelty of having Ed McGuinness rotate with JR Jr has yet to wear out for me, apart from the fact that McGuinness is apparently tasked with illustrating the one story thread of Wells' that I actually find compelling: the question of if or when Norman Osborn will go back to being evil.  Were it not for this, I would most likely have completely given up on this series months ago and just waited for a new creative team to come along. 

4/10

The Best Thing Out of Marvel Since Avengers: Endgame: A Review of X-Men 97

 written by Beau De Mayo

There was a time, from around 2016 to 2019, when Marvel Studios could do no wrong. This was Phase 3, in which all of the narrative seeds that had been planted since 2008's Iron Man were finally starting to bear fruit. It all culminated, of course, with Avengers: Endgame. 

Unfortunately, since then, Marvel Studios has arguably lost its way. Sure, there have been a few hits since then, including the monumental success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but by and large, and especially with the introduction of the Disney Plus line of shows, Marvel has seen the quality of its brand diluted severely. The haters have already started dancing on Marvel's grave, while the faithful have mourned a brand they once loved. 

With the recent ten-episode revival series X-Men 97, however, Marvel has given fans reason to celebrate once more. 

A continuation of the popular animated series X-Men that ran from 1992 to 1997, X-Men 97  achieves the extraordinary by not only living up to the mythos established by the original series but by virtually all account surpassing it.

The series picks up where it left off, the mutants assembled by the telepathic philantrophist and teacher Charles Xavier strive to protect a world that hates and fears them. Led by Cyclops and his now pregnant wife Jean Grey, the X-men, whose member roster includes Storm, Bishop, Gambit, Morph, Jubilee, Beast and Wolverine, now have to grapple with Xavier's apparent death, and worse, with the dictates  of his last will and testament, which bequeaths complete control of his estate and School for Gifted Youngsters to none other than their sworn enemy, Magneto. That's not the only problem they're facing of course; anti-mutant sentiment is still quite high, and there are forces waiting in the shadows to exploit that bigotry to bring about the X-men's ultimate extinction, including a foe they have never faced before.

As a matter of disclosure, I never watched more than a few episodes of the original series, and there's a specific reason why: while I genuinely enjoyed things like the writing and voice acting, I found the animation uniformly terrible. Back in the 1990s, the gold standard for animated series based on comic books was Batman: the Animated Series, and while the adventures of Marvel's merry mutants actually managed to hold its own on the writing and voice acting front despite the considerable challenge of telling a team based story rather than that of a solo superhero like Batman, Paul Dini's clean, crisp designs brought to life by a crack team of animators from all around the world was simply too much to match for the X-Men's considerably less talented bunch.

For this series, however, no expense has been spared, and Disney has hired some of the very best hands in the business to bring these characters back to life.

Not only that, but Beau deMayo's writing is, dare I say, the best I've ever seen outside of the comic books, better than anything that has been featured in any of the movies that have featured these characters.   He gets what made Chris Claremont's run, with its mix of social commentary and soap opera, so memorable, and even infuses it with other memorable influences like Grant Morrison's "E for Extinction" storyline. 

This really is just topnotch entertainment, and fortunately, Disney knows they have a good thing going and have renewed it for another season. 

10/10

Growing Pains: A Review of Ultimate Spider-Man #2

 written by Jonathan Hickman

drawn by Marco Checchetto

colored by Matt Wilson

This was a review I actually started months ago, right after I had read the comic, but life just caught up with me in a major way and before I knew it, two months had passed and two more issues had come out, but I will persevere anyway and publish this review.

So in this issue, thirty-five year old Peter Parker, having only just learned that it was his destiny to fight crime with super powers, and having only just acquired said super powers, heads out in an attempt to fulfill this destiny that Tony Stark told him about in the last issue. Things do not go nearly as well as Peter had hoped, and he finds himself on the verge of calling it quits, when he finds support from the most unexpected of places.

While  it's certainly not the most marketable point, I find it deeply fascinating that  a key facet of Hickman and Checchetto's alternate take on the Spider-Man mythos is something that has never been done before, i.e. what if Spider-Man was motivated by something other than guilt?

It's early days so we'll wonder if his conviction will be as strong enough for Peter to stay the course, but Hickman and Checchetto are well and truly making a case for this new iteration of the character. This issue truly had me looking forward to more.  

8.5/10