Yesterday we talked about the nadir of the Ultimate-based comics - Ultimatum, which manages to barely nudge out Ultimates 3 for last place. Today, let's move to the other end of the spectrum and talk about the line's class act - Ultimate Spider-Man.
This series has been consistently not only the best Ultimate comic... most months it was the best Marvel comic, period.
By taking Spider-Man back to his roots, Brian Bendis managed to distill the joy and wonder of those early years without trying to outright copy the work that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and John Romita did so well.
Instead, he gave it his own spin, infused the characters with personality, and placed them in highly-charged plots and stories that had emotional impact. Since it began, I've really enjoyed this book.
Another plus is the fact that the book has essentially had two artists working on it for its entire run (there were others on a few special issues here and there). Mark Bagley (who set the super-hero comic stamina record) and Stuart Immonen have turned in wonderful art for the length of the run. I can't say enough good things about both of them.
So that brings us to this, (presumably) the final issue in the run, before a couple of Ultimate Spider-Man: Requiem issues and the launch of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (whatever that is).
This issue is one of those rare comics with no dialogue at all - Bendis lets the power of the story and the events therein tell the tale. It's mostly effective, but his script is always so much fun to read, it's a bit disappointing to end on a silent note.
Of course, no series that runs this long is without the occasional stumble, and the run has been so good, it's hard to complain about this experiment (especially since the story has been forced to deal with the execrable Ultimatum series).
I prefer to remember the series as it was (and hopefully will be again soon): one of the industry's best.
Grade: B+
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