Ultimate Spider-Man (12 Issues)

Rating:
Summary: Marvel re-starts Spider-Man for the 20th century
Review: I got back into Spider-Man after a length absence that started around the time that Aunt May died because I am teaching a class on Popular Culture and I wanted to do something with comic books. So my students have to read "The Essential Spider-Man, Volume 1," and develop the defining elements of a Spider-Man comic book and then apply a model to a current issue. I had been using issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Peter Parker: Spider-Man," but it has been driving my students crazy because today it seems like ever issue is part of a three or four or six part story line, they have no clue who this Mary Jane is, and sometimes Spider-Man never even appears. Of course, this is because the economics of comics have changed things, so that buying a single issue is not enough, you have to buy six (or four or three). This semester we are using "The Ultimate Spider-Man," and I think the cherubs will be slightly happier with the chance.

The idea behind "The Ultimate Spider-Man," and the rest of the Ultimate line, is to go back to the beginning and start off, albeit with some changes. One of them actually ends up being the multi-story arc, and while this seems to be yet another example of a marketing ploy since each story line gets collected into a trade paperback, it actually works in terms of the story telling to mitigate a couple of "problems" with a successful comic book that we saw with the original run of Spider-Man. The first is that originally you needed to come up with a different villain each month for your superhero, which for Spider-Man meant you would get some misfires like the Terrible Tinkerer and the Enforcers. However, if you devote a half-dozen issues to the Green Goblin, the Kingpin, Dr. Octopus, or Venom, then you are dealing with the cream of the crop. The second problem solved is that you avoid overusing your prime super villains (how many times can you have Norman Osborn forget he knows who Spider-Man really is?). More is less, especially when it is really more (the longer story lines make for more stories than you would have with a villain popping up for one issue fights).

Beyond the basic format there are several interesting alterations in the Spider-Man story. The first to consider is that Peter Parker starts out younger, being 15 when the mutated spider bites him, and his hair is longer too. Even more important is the way things have become more compact. This time around Mary Jane Watson is right there from the start and Gwen Stacy is not far behind, as is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Storytellers Bill Jemas and Brian Michael Bendis certainly have made things more compact: Peter gets bit on a tour of a science lab at Osborn Industries and Mary Jane knows his secret identity early on in the fun. They also come up with some changes that make more sense: Peter Parker's father was the genius who created the webbing formula, not his teenage son, and Aunt May's concern for Peter goes to a whole new level.

"The Ultimate Spider-Man" is more than an alternative version of the tale for those who liked the glory days before our hero was a married man. Whether you have been reading Spider-Man starting from the very beginning with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko or picked up the web-head's adventures more recently, the monthly stories by Bendis and penciler Mark Bagley really work on both levels. Of course, given the resonance of key moments from the original run in this series, old-timers have the advantage over the newbies since we really get both levels.

With the aforementioned trade paperbacks (currently up to Volume 7 at this writing), you can get up to speed with the monthly installments of "Ultimate Spider-Man," although you could just stick to the trade paperbacks (there are basically two a year) and not have to worry about bagging and boarding all of the comics. I have read most of Marvel's Ultimate titles, and I certainly like this one the best, mainly because Spider-Man is one of the most identifiable superheroes of all time. How many people are going to identify with Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Matt Murdock, Johnny Storm, Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne more than Peter Parker? Scott Summer maybe, but Peter Parker is still the biggie. Which explains why every time I try to think of doing some other comic besides "Spider-Man," nothing comes close. Plus I like how many students are surprised that they liked reading these stories.

Rating:
Summary: Marvel re-starts Spider-Man for the 20th century
Review: I got back into Spider-Man after a length absence that started around the time that Aunt May died because I am teaching a class on Popular Culture and I wanted to do something with comic books. So my students have to read "The Essential Spider-Man, Volume 1," and develop the defining elements of a Spider-Man comic book and then apply a model to a current issue. I had been using issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Peter Parker: Spider-Man," but it has been driving my students crazy because today it seems like ever issue is part of a three or four or six part story line, they have no clue who this Mary Jane is, and sometimes Spider-Man never even appears. Of course, this is because the economics of comics have changed things, so that buying a single issue is not enough, you have to buy six (or four or three). This semester we are using "The Ultimate Spider-Man," and I think the cherubs will be slightly happier with the chance.

The idea behind "The Ultimate Spider-Man," and the rest of the Ultimate line, is to go back to the beginning and start off, albeit with some changes. One of them actually ends up being the multi-story arc, and while this seems to be yet another example of a marketing ploy since each story line gets collected into a trade paperback, it actually works in terms of the story telling to mitigate a couple of "problems" with a successful comic book that we saw with the original run of Spider-Man. The first is that originally you needed to come up with a different villain each month for your superhero, which for Spider-Man meant you would get some misfires like the Terrible Tinkerer and the Enforcers. However, if you devote a half-dozen issues to the Green Goblin, the Kingpin, Dr. Octopus, or Venom, then you are dealing with the cream of the crop. The second problem solved is that you avoid overusing your prime super villains (how many times can you have Norman Osborn forget he knows who Spider-Man really is?). More is less, especially when it is really more (the longer story lines make for more stories than you would have with a villain popping up for one issue fights).

Beyond the basic format there are several interesting alterations in the Spider-Man story. The first to consider is that Peter Parker starts out younger, being 15 when the mutated spider bites him, and his hair is longer too. Even more important is the way things have become more compact. This time around Mary Jane Watson is right there from the start and Gwen Stacy is not far behind, as is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Storytellers Bill Jemas and Brian Michael Bendis certainly have made things more compact: Peter gets bit on a tour of a science lab at Osborn Industries and Mary Jane knows his secret identity early on in the fun. They also come up with some changes that make more sense: Peter Parker's father was the genius who created the webbing formula, not his teenage son, and Aunt May's concern for Peter goes to a whole new level.

"The Ultimate Spider-Man" is more than an alternative version of the tale for those who liked the glory days before our hero was a married man. Whether you have been reading Spider-Man starting from the very beginning with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko or picked up the web-head's adventures more recently, the monthly stories by Bendis and penciler Mark Bagley really work on both levels. Of course, given the resonance of key moments from the original run in this series, old-timers have the advantage over the newbies since we really get both levels.

With the aforementioned trade paperbacks (currently up to Volume 7 at this writing), you can get up to speed with the monthly installments of "Ultimate Spider-Man," although you could just stick to the trade paperbacks (there are basically two a year) and not have to worry about bagging and boarding all of the comics. I have read most of Marvel's Ultimate titles, and I certainly like this one the best, mainly because Spider-Man is one of the most identifiable superheroes of all time. How many people are going to identify with Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Matt Murdock, Johnny Storm, Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne more than Peter Parker? Scott Summer maybe, but Peter Parker is still the biggie. Which explains why every time I try to think of doing some other comic besides "Spider-Man," nothing comes close. Plus I like how many students are surprised that they liked reading these stories.