Ultimate Comics Spider-Man vol. 5
So the last volume of this title featured a fairly disappointing use of Venom that didn’t measure up in any means to the character’s previous Ultimate incarnation, let alone his original Marvel Universe version. It did end with the dramatic death of Miles Morales’ mother and his vow to give up being Spider-Man. On one hand, it’s not an unreasonable response from the character based on these events. On the other, we all know how these kinds of vows work out for superheroes and it sets Bendis up with an uphill struggle to make arriving at the story’s foregone conclusion worth our time. He does alright here, though it’s unlikely that readers will be surprised by anything on display in this volume.
As the splash page at the beginning of the issues collected here tells us, it has been one year since the death of Miles’ mother and he has been resolute in his decision to give up being Spider-Man. Even with the protests of his best friend Ganke, all our protagonist wants to do is be a normal schoolkid and spend time with his potential girlfriend, Katie Bishop, and his dad as well. In fact, after Miles and his dad go out for Chinese one night, he not only runs into Gwen Stacy at the restaurant, the place is blown up in a battle between a couple of superpowered teenagers.
Though we’ve seen Bombshell in the pages of “Ultimate Spider-Man” before, the other combatants in this brawl are making the Ultimate debut: Cloak and Dagger. Re-imagined as two student council presidents who were very much in love with each other, were involved in a car accident on their way to prom that sent them into comas, and then stolen away by the brain trust of the Roxxon Corporation for scientific experimentation that gave them powers relating to dark matter. As Ultimate takes on familiar characters go, I’ve seen better and worse. What’s important for the story is that they provide the connection to and evidence of Roxxon’s evilness (there’s no other word for it, this corporation really has no redeeming features) that drives the other part of the volumes narrative, particularly in the second half.
Before he can take on the business, Miles has to get over himself first. The volume’s first half is a long string of scenes of characters from Ganke, to Spider-Woman, to Gwen Stacy all telling our protagonist that after a year off to mourn his mother, it’s time to get his head back in the game. This does play to Bendis’ strengths as he’s able to make Miles’ reluctance and the other characters’ frustration with his actions feel like it’s coming from a genuine place. The writer also gives us a good monologue from Spider-Woman as she tells Miles about her origins and why there needs to be a Spider-Man. So even if Miles’ getting back into costume is a foregone conclusion here, there’s at least some heart and thought put into it and it happens before the midway point of the story.
That leaves the rest of the volume free for genuine Spider-Man action… which actually feels somewhat lacklustre here. We get Bombshell’s origin, lots of back-and-forth between Roxxon’s president and his scientific brain trust, the introduction of Ultimate Taskmaster, and a final throw-down at Roxxon headquarters. To be honest, a lot of this stuff feels like padding as most of the characters involved aren’t all that interesting. Bombshell’s a one-dimensional former criminal now maybe turned good, Cloak and Dagger don’t have much to them beyond their love for each other and grudge against Roxxon, Taskmaster’s only interesting attribute is how his Ultimate version now has the same powers as a former head of the Hellfire Club, and don’t get me started on how Roxxon’s scientific brain trust is basically just a bunch of familiar names grafted onto convenient skill and power sets. What I’m trying to say here is that a lot goes on in the volume’s second half involving characters that I don’t have a whole heck of a lot of interest in here and they don’t emerge any more interesting in the wake of it.
Though Spider-Woman has her moments — and a “moment” as she so effectively puts it — it’s Miles’ struggle that drives this second half. From seeing him overcome his rustiness as he gets back to taking on the bad guys, to the personal showdown he has with the Roxxon president, he still remains a likeable protagonist whose inexperience and efforts to compensate for it come off as more endearing than annoying. I’ll also admit to being engaged and appalled in equal measure by the utter contempt shown to Miles and his companions by Roxxon’s president as he considers himself above their interference due to his dealings with S.H.I.E.L.D. That just makes how Miles hangs him out to dry at the end all the more satisfying.
That whole “hanging him out to dry” sequence is also an artistic highlight of the book as it’s three pages of parallel vertical panels with a repeating visual motif as the Roxxon president rants to Miles about what he’s done. Artist David Marquez does generally strong work here as his clean style is always appealing to observe on the page. There are exceptions here, though, as while it’s nice to see him experiment with layouts on the double-page spreads, the panel progression on them is confusing to follow at times. We also get some obvious continuity errors as night suddenly falls between issues #26 and #27, while Miles’ dad goes from a beard and no glasses at the volume’s beginning to glasses and no beard at its end. One wonders what the book’s editor was doing before these issues went to press.
Even if the story being told in this volume is very familiar and features a lot of characters who aren’t as interesting as its protagonist, I still enjoyed reading about Miles himself. He remains a compelling character even if the action going around him isn’t all that. While this would normally be the point of the review where I say that I’m hoping for better things in the future now that we’ve got this “Spider-Man No More” business behind us, that’s not quite the case. Next up is the character’s involvement in the “Cataclysm” event which represents the latest world-ending catastrophe to face the Ultimate Universe. Then it’s “Ultimate Spider-Man #200” and the latest relaunch of this title. It’s all meant to give this series more momentum, but… well, we’ll see.