Ultimate Spider-Man 153

Like the first issue of Avengers vs New Ultimates (review coming soon), this has a Death of Spider-Man banner; at least this comic has Spider-Man in it, and I suppose this story actually is the lead-in towards that death. Certainly the threat level is vast enough, since it involves some artefact with wishing powers, with no implied limits on it – maybe that level of danger will in due course drag in the big teams.

But there is no tone of doom in this issue: some of it is the Kingpin acquiring the artefact, then the Black Cat with it after stealing it, then with Mysterio as he tries to buy it from her. This is all handled with considerable restraint, the conversation between the Black Cat and Mysterio being strikingly calm, despite high stakes. The interspersed rest of the issue is the outcome of the Ultimates deciding that the 16 year old Spidey must get real training, so we get him with Iron Man.

There’s no actual training, just them talking, and it’s some of the most entertaining dialogue I’ve read in ages, genuinely funny and full of personality, and given that I read most of Bendis’s comic books and already thought he was an exceptional writer of dialogues like these, the quality of this is doubly striking.

It’s helped by the art, too – whichever of the squadron of artists it is on this part (I think different people do different sections), they are something like a more cartoony John Romita Jr, getting the body language spot on to give Iron Man some weight and dignity while Spidey bounces around and gets shocked a lot. The other sequences are pretty good too – one panel is blown in the Kingpin sequence (someone objecting to invisible guns), but the key moment therein is strong; the Black Cat looks clean and glossy and sharp, and Mysterio genuinely strange.

I kind of need things like this these days: before I started this site, I read a small number of Marvel/DC titles, all by writers I was a big fan of. Since starting this, I am trying lots of other things in order to review them, and they are nearly all terrible, so reading something written with verve, imagination, sharp dialogue and wit, drawn with skill and even touches of inspiration, restores my faith in at least some mainstream comics. Now if only the Big Two could just clone, say, Bendis, Millar, Morrison and Brubaker a few times each, and likewise for their best artists, they might justify putting out so many titles.