Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man Death of Spider-Man Prelude
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by David LaFuente, Sara Picheli, Joёlle Jones, Jamie McKelvie, Skottie Young and Chris Samnee
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
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Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man Death of Spider-Man
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley, Andy Lanning and Andrew Hennessey
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Every story has an end. Well... ok - unless it's a story in a comic book featuring a worldwide famous superhero type icon. In those cases: those stories never have an end and just go on and on and on and on and on - and death (when it comes) is just a pit-stop, just a diversion - until the eventual (and always) triumphant rebirth and return (if Jesus can do it - then why not Superman? Batman? Captain American? et al?). Such lessening ("deadening" even - ha) of the normally final and irrevocable nature of The Death of a Major Character is why I can understand the jaded reception that greeted the news that Brian Michael Bendis was going to kill off Spider-Man [1] with the feeling being that Point 1. It was something that was probably going to reversed in a little bit anyway and Point 2. It wasn't even the 'real' Spider-Man anyway - but his Ultimate Universe counterpart [2]. Now - the Ultimate Marvel line is something that I've previously mentioned here - so for those of you that haven't heard of it just read the wikipedia entry [3]. But the main point is that because it's separate from 'mainstream' Marvel continuity (the one that's been going since the sixties) and the point of it is supposingly to provide a fresh alternative to all that - it's really pretty plausible to believe that this might be a story where the dead are actually going to stay dead (oh my goodness). Or to put it another way - Point 2 is the reason why Point 1 doesn't apply. And - you know what? - that's a good thing.
So - hopefully having established that I'm pro-Superhero death - especially in this once-in-a-lifetime case where it threatens to be permanent: what's the story like? Well... before we get to that I should let you know that it's not a case where it's all self-contained - but rather comes at the tail-end of a good decade's worth of storytelling - and so if you want to start at the start (I would very much recommend it) you should begin with 22 Volume long Ultimate Spider-Man series [4]. Or (if you fancy taking a bit of a short-cut) then there's Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man [5] which come after Ultimate Spider-Man and immediately before the two books here - and in fact some places list these books as being Volume 3 and Volume 4 of Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man - but I guess that this is starting to get pretty confusing - so maybe I won't mention that [6].
Phew.
Now we're ready to move on to the books themselves: now - to be fair - and as you can probably tell from the weight of all the stuff above - my expectations were pretty high for The Death of Spider-Man. And (oh dear) they weren't quite meet by the story inside. The one word that I keep coming back to in my head is "arbitrary." In that things didn't feel like they happened all that naturally - and they didn't feel either epic enough either. Instead lots of the things that happened and lots of the characters actions seemed to take place because they needed to be in a certain place at a certain time. And lots of it (especially the start) seemed like an hollow retread of some of the epic highs from earlier in the saga (particularly the (what as for me) one of the stand-out stories of Ultimate Spider-Man - Vol. 9: Ultimate Six).
Yeah. Maybe I was expecting a little bit too much - but hell if you're going to kill a superhero - I kinda want massive operatics - and a slow enveloping tragedy. Not blunders and accidents and avoidable mistakes. You know: Something more Michael Bay and less - well - Woody Allen (no offense Woody).
If you want to see what all the fuss was about I should say that they're worth reading - and lots of the incidental stuff in the "prelude" - which generally acts as if it was Vol 3 and hints at lots of interesting futures - is full of good comic action and design. But the main event? Didn't hit the sweet spot that I hoped it would.
Dang.
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[1] Check the comments posted here ("How long until the inevitable resurrection then? Place bets NOW!")
[2] Although all this talk of 'real' Spider-Man stories brings to mind Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow's preamble: "This is an Imaginary Story… Aren’t they all?" (see: here for more).
[3] "The universe has been designated as Earth-1610 within the Marvel Multiverse, which comprises an infinite number of alternate universes."
[4] See: here (or you know just: click below)
[5] See: here (or you know just: click below)
[6] Also - in terms of tie-ins - to get the whole story of what happens how - you'll need to read Ultimate Comics: Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man either before or after (which is completely your choice). See: here (or you know - well - just: click below)
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Links: 4th Letter Article: The Problem with Death of Spider-Man, Comic Book Resources Review of Ultimate Spider-Man #160, Multiversity Comics Review of Ultimate Spider-Man #160, Comic Book Resources Article, Now Read This! Review of Death of Spider-Man Prelude / Review of Death of Spider-Man.
Preceded by: Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man (2010 - 2011).
Followed by: Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man (2012).
Further reading: Ultimate Comics: Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics: Doomsday, Spider-Man: Down Among The Dead Men / Venomous / The Last Stand.
Profiles: Brian Michael Bendis.
All comments welcome.
