Thursday, October 8, 2009

Ultimate Spider-Man #3

After the mess that was the Ultimatum event, you have to give credit to writer Michael Bendis for taking a lemon of a story and making something that is tasty and new.

Here in Ultimate Spider-Man our hero finds most of his life has changed. Peter's girlfriend Mary Jane Watson broke up with him, and now he's dating Gwen Stacy.

He lost his part-time job at the Daily Bugle (which went out of business), and now he struggles with a job at a fast-food joint.

Instead of being hated and feared, Spidey is New York's most popular hero.

And now, one of his friends - another hero - is moving in on his home turf!

Add to that the new menace of Mysterio, who's more deadly than ever before, and you have a story that hooks you from the start.

All this shows that Bendis has an excellent grasp on what makes Spidey work - a series of personal and "professional" challenges, a lot of humor, loads of action and plenty of plot twists.

He's also lucky to have David Lafuente providing the art - it lands just this side of being too lighthearted in places, but it's loaded with energy and life, and the action sequences are outstanding.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it as long as it's true - the Amazing Spider-Man comic could learn a lot from the Ultimate version.

Grade: A-

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