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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 1: Power and Responsibility
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2001
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 2: Learning Curve
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley and Art Thibert
2001
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 3: Double Trouble
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2001
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 4: Legacy
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2002
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 5: Public Scrutiny
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2003
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 6: Venom
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2003
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 7: Irresponsible
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2003
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 8: Cats & Kings
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2004
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 9: Ultimate Six
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley and Trevor Hairsine
2004
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 10: Hollywood
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2004
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 11: Carnage
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2004
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 12: Superstars
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2005
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 13: Hobgoblin
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2005
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 14: Warriors
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Andy Kubert
2006
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 15: Silver Sable
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2006
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 16: Deadpool
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2006
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 17: Clone Saga
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2007
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 18: Ultimate Knights
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
2007
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 19: Death of a Goblin
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley and Stuart Immonen
2008
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 20: And His Amazing Friends
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Stuart Immonen
2008
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 21: War Of The Symbiotes
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Stuart Immonen
2009
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Ultimate Spider-Man
Vol 22: Ultimatum
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Stuart Immonen
2009
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Ultimate Spider-Man opened my eyes to the fact that Spider-Man is - (damn the rest of them) - the perfect superhero. Observe: He's got the super and the powers (sure) - but at the same time he's got the humanity and relatability and the always-staked-against-him odds that make him a true honest-to-god (whisper it now) hero. When Batman and Superman (the only other real contenders to the perfect superhero crown) go up against the bad guys - you know that they have nothing to fear: Batman's got all his gadgets and bottomless billionaire resources - while Superman can only be hurt by alien green glowing rock. Spider-Man on the other hand - apart from his spider-strength. crazy spin webbing and wall walking [1] - apart from that: is flesh and blood and human. He can be hurt. He can bleed. He can die.
Up until now I didn't think he was all that - but like I said: this comic has opened my eyes and my brain and my heart: and now I'm a full blown believer in the House of Spidey. And Ultimate Spider-Man is the reason why (amen brother Bendis!). How to explain the effect it's had on me? My best shot at an answer: you see the J J Abrams Star Trek film? Apart from the last 20 minutes when you realised they'd forgotten to write any kind of an ending: it was bright and fun and euphoric ("euphoric" is a good word - if I was going to choose one word to sum this all up it would be "euphoric"). What I found interested was that if it'd been made in the 1990s - it would have been full of unsufferable knowingness and annoying little post-modern winks - (not that there's anything wrong with that but...). But instead of that they made a film that went beyond that kind of clever-clever cynicism and - especially in the first half before it all fell apart: it was something that embraced the conventions of what went before but then reworked them in a way that made all the ideas they first started with seem like innovations. A teenage superhero going through all the trails and tribulations of school-life and living at home whilst also fighting the good fight? Awesome. Why has no one thought of this before?
Going further: with The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen and all of it's many, many imitators: the superhero comic has gone through every single manner of deconstruction possible - ever piece has been pulled apart, examined from every other angle and turned every other which other way (you want a list? fine: The Authority, Astro City, Wanted, Top 10, Irredeemable, No Hero, Animal Man, Black Summer, Marvels, Doom Patrol, Powers, DC: The New Frontier, Nemesis, Tom Strong - and those are just the good ones that spring into my head: there's lots, lots more). Ultimate Spider-Man for me is the first comic to take all the pieces lying around and put them all back together and for the first time in a long time tell an unapologetically up-lifting and exuberantly told superhero story with no frills, no nonsense and no messing around: and it doesn't feel like a re-boot or an updating: it feels like it's telling the story for the very first time (am I starting to repeat myself?).
Ok. I'm going to stop and start again: Ultimate Spider-Man was first published in 2000 - the first in the Marvel's Ultimate line of books. For those of you that don't know: All the Ultimate books are fresh starts - freeing the all the famous Marvel characters from their tangled decades-long continuities and letting them start again from square one with brand new takes and perspectives. So - if you've never read a Spider-Man book before - this is the perfect place to start. And if you have read a Spider-Man book before - then it's re-inventions of the Spider-Man myth (here the spiders are genetically altered instead of radioactive) will tickle your undersides like a wobbly feather.
But wait. Because I don't want to over-sell it and I don't want your expectations too high. This isn't a book that attempts to wow right from the off. Indeed - a few years back someone told me that I should try it - and so I picked up Volume 1: but just reading on it's own doesn't really do it. The first time is that the artwork is really really cartoony: which can make it a little bit hard to take seriously (at least until Stuart Immonen takes over anyhow). Also because a lot of the pleasures of the series is in the way it builds upon successive incidents and does lots and lots of lovely little intertwining to both create a universe that feels consistent and real and feeds and supplies all the emotive moments of high drama that will leave you shaken and bruised - not to mention the action set-pieces where all the simmering build-up gets given some sweet kick-ass release. So yeah: if you're going to try it - you're really going to need to give it a few volumes or so before it properly kicks in. And even then: I should warn you - it does tend to ebb and flow like a TV show: sometimes it's really amazing - but then there's also a few slumps in it too (hey - rough with the smooth: plus the fact that it's a monthly book that lasted the best part of a decade means you've gotta allow it a few times): there's a particularly bad patch when it everything gets a bit rote from like Vol 14 from it seems like all they're doing is re-introducing old Marvel characters in updated forms - but then Vol 17 brings it all back on track and makes everything ok again.
Specifics good things that this comic does: turns The Green Goblin into a credible threat which I didn't think was possible (hell - even Willem Dafoe gave it his best shot but still couldn't get past the fact that it was kinda - silly). Uses lots of nifty little story-dynamic kinda things that you probably won't even notice as they're happening (best example: Issue #13 is set entirely in Peter Parker's bedroom - but you probably won't realise because of all the drama it contains). Recasts all the Spider-Man tropes to make them hit harder on the gut level - so instead of Venom being an evil space parasite (yay for evil space parasites!) it's re-done in a nicer way to dig deeper into the heart of Peter Parker and provoke reactions more than just punchy-punchy. Plus Volume 9 (which might just be my favourite of them all - mainly thanks to Trevor Hairsine's artwork which does 'epic' very well [2]) manages to take on Mark Millar's Ultimates and out-play them in the fields of tense, action filled extravaganzas. Finds all the sweet spots between outlandish action and more day-to-day concerns (love all the fuss that one costume can cause): and grounds that in school soap-opera shenanigans. And - oh yeah - do I even need to say? The fact that it's written by Brian Michael Bendis means that all the dialogue all the time is always amazing.
And etc etc etc. There's so much more I could say - so much more I want to say but will leave it here. Suffice to say: There's few things as pleasurable as intelligently constructed big dumb superhero fun. If you're looking for your next comic fix: this is the place.
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[1] This comic has convinced me that walking on walls is coolest thing ever. It just looks so great. Connects to the hero to environment (as opposed to another panel of someone floating in the middle of the frame) and (most important?) feels so tantalisingly just out of reach. I mean: we'd all like to fly but we know it's impossible - but hell - if gravity just twitched a little to the side (or whatever) - I swear it'd be possible to do. Or that just me?
[2] And if you really wanted to - (don't know if the rest of the volumes are up to this?) - but you can just read it by itself and still have a really fun time: "they say the next war will be fought genetically" and all of that. In fact - I'd even go so far to say that's it's one of the best Ultimate books out there: really nice slow build: and a climax that manages to avoid being totally obvious (and I don't mind admitting that I even got just a tint little bit tearful towards the end - so that's good too).
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Further reading:
Powers,
Ultimate Fantastic Four,
Ultimate X-Men,
The Ultimates,
Spider-Man: Down Among The Dead Men / Venomous / The Last Stand,
Superman: All Star Superman,
Kick-Ass,
Superman: Secret Identity.
Profiles:
Brian Michael Bendis.
All comments welcome.
Ultimate Galactus Trilogy
