Post by mr. excellent on Dec 26, 2013 17:56:59 GMT -5
One of the things I miss the most from Sony's old forums, is having a space to write our reviews or responses to the now old Ultimate Spider-man arcs. Arcenite (I hope I didn't screw up his name) got em started I believe, and he used this 5 web system just like you'd use a 5 star system to rate a movie. Rather than start a new thread every time one of us goes back to read an old story for nostalgia's sake, I figured we might try using one thread here. So to start this off, here's my review of an old favorite.
Ultimate Spider-man: Warriors 4.5 out of 5 webs
Warriors is volume 14 of the Ultimate Spider-man trade paper backs, collecting issues 79 - 85. It has been around 5 years since I last read it, but upon skimming through the first issue I remembered very fast why I loved this TPB so much. Brian Michael Bendis is at his best here, pitting Spider-man against a mixture of super powered foes, good old fashioned kung fu, and mobsters. It's at this point in the mythos that Peter is failing to make sense of his life as a regular person. Peter is skipping school, ignoring Mary Jane, and spending more time in costume than he does his civilian clothes. In this story, the Kingpin's consigliore Walter Dini has been indicted, forcing the Kingpin to lay low while under federal investigation. *Hammerhead makes his Ultimate debut as the challenger who is trying to muscle his way into Kingpin's territory to take over as the new leader of organized crime. Shang-Chi and Danny Rand aka "Iron Fist" fight the battle on the ground as their neighborhoods become overrun with gang crimes and violence, and Spider-man is caught in the middle of everything without a clue as to who he can trust, or what he should do.
This is the TPB that contains such great moments as Black Cat discovering Peter Parker is just a kid, Aunt May threatening to kick Peter out of the house, and the "death" of several significant figures. It's the stories like the one contained in this TPB that allow me to feel so confident when defending the book against ASM purists. I gave it 4.5 webs because not only is the dialogue some of Bendis's smoothest, but it's also some of his funniest. There are times when you read a comic written by Bendis, and you wish he'd just get to the point. Here, the dialogue matters, and when it doesn't contribute directly to plot, it contributes to building the character's personality. I do think that organization and presentation has some importance when judging a comic, and on that front this particular TPB can get a little jumbled at times. Also, this story is just one piece of an ongoing saga, so there are a lot of emotional plot beats that are intentionally left open ended so they can be explored in further story lines. I suppose that's not something one can hold against it, given the medium. All in all, this is one of the better stories from BMS's time with the Spider-man character, and I'd recommend anyone to go back and give it a read when looking for an old goodie to check out again.
*I'm not certain that this was Hammerhead's debut, as he may have been introduced in the other Ultimate books, but it's the first time I remember encountering the character in USM.
Ultimate Spider-man: Warriors 4.5 out of 5 webs
Warriors is volume 14 of the Ultimate Spider-man trade paper backs, collecting issues 79 - 85. It has been around 5 years since I last read it, but upon skimming through the first issue I remembered very fast why I loved this TPB so much. Brian Michael Bendis is at his best here, pitting Spider-man against a mixture of super powered foes, good old fashioned kung fu, and mobsters. It's at this point in the mythos that Peter is failing to make sense of his life as a regular person. Peter is skipping school, ignoring Mary Jane, and spending more time in costume than he does his civilian clothes. In this story, the Kingpin's consigliore Walter Dini has been indicted, forcing the Kingpin to lay low while under federal investigation. *Hammerhead makes his Ultimate debut as the challenger who is trying to muscle his way into Kingpin's territory to take over as the new leader of organized crime. Shang-Chi and Danny Rand aka "Iron Fist" fight the battle on the ground as their neighborhoods become overrun with gang crimes and violence, and Spider-man is caught in the middle of everything without a clue as to who he can trust, or what he should do.
This is the TPB that contains such great moments as Black Cat discovering Peter Parker is just a kid, Aunt May threatening to kick Peter out of the house, and the "death" of several significant figures. It's the stories like the one contained in this TPB that allow me to feel so confident when defending the book against ASM purists. I gave it 4.5 webs because not only is the dialogue some of Bendis's smoothest, but it's also some of his funniest. There are times when you read a comic written by Bendis, and you wish he'd just get to the point. Here, the dialogue matters, and when it doesn't contribute directly to plot, it contributes to building the character's personality. I do think that organization and presentation has some importance when judging a comic, and on that front this particular TPB can get a little jumbled at times. Also, this story is just one piece of an ongoing saga, so there are a lot of emotional plot beats that are intentionally left open ended so they can be explored in further story lines. I suppose that's not something one can hold against it, given the medium. All in all, this is one of the better stories from BMS's time with the Spider-man character, and I'd recommend anyone to go back and give it a read when looking for an old goodie to check out again.
*I'm not certain that this was Hammerhead's debut, as he may have been introduced in the other Ultimate books, but it's the first time I remember encountering the character in USM.
