It's good to see that the title of this comic has reverted to Ultimate Spider-Man, instead of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, which (for some reason) I found irritating.Whatever the title, this continues to be the best Spider-Man comic on the stands. Or at least I think it is. It has been for about 10 years now, but I recently stopped reading Amazing Spider-Man, and I skipped all the other Annuals and Spider-Man Family books, so maybe I'm missing something.
But this is Spidey in his purest form: in high school, dealing with all the difficulties that you'd expect from that setting - school, classmates, romance, homework, holding down a job and being a wise-cracking superhero - in other words, all the stuff that made the character so much fun when he first appeared.
My only quibble is that Bendis seems to be dumbing Peter Parker down, as he complains about his GPA being low - Parker was always the smartest kid in the school (he invented his web shooters, for crying out loud), so that seems like a hollow complaint.
But otherwise the characterization is spot on, and we're slowly learning about what happened to our cast since the Ultimatum events - for example, why did Peter and Mary Jane break up, and how long has he been dating Gwen Stacy? What heroes are still alive? Who's the new menace threatening to take over New York?
I really like David Lafuente's art, although he has a few quirks that may take getting used to - for example, Spider-Man's head is awfully round, and Gwen looks very Manga-ish - but those are minor complaints. His art is loaded with energy and enthusiasm, and is a great match for the youthful exuberance of the comic.
I'm so glad this comic continues, because it's great to see new adventures of a Spider-Man who reads like the original - fast, funny, sometimes outmatched but never defeated. Good stuff.
Grade: A-
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