"I mean it. Out."
Ultimate Comics has been hyping this "Death of Spider-Man" event for at least the past 4 months. In the apparent prelude to the arc we again find Spider-Man doing regular Spider-Man things. There is literally no hint of impending doom except for the Spider-Man mask at the bottom of the last page. I'm all for hyping events but this has nothing to do with anything. With that in mind, however the issue is very strong as we see a key event in the life of Spider-Man and the return of a player we haven't seen in quite some time.
The writing is consistently strong. Again I praise Bendis because he writes a phenomenal Ultimate Spider-Man. The fact being he has written every single issue of this series and as a result he knows the characters better than anyone. I will say this issue seemed to rely a bit too much on the writing, but when it's good writing it's hard to fault it. As noted there are key events in the life of Peter showcased in this book and Bendis highlights them pretty well. We see the return of one of my favorite characters in the ultimate universe. There are some witty moments in the inner monologues, and an interaction that seems to be long overdue. Also the ending of the issue puts everything right in the universe, now if only the 616 would get it right (hint hint)
The art is so so. There are moments where it fits very nice with the story and there are moments where it comes across awkward. I guess to use the technical term, the lines are a bit too hard. The script carries this book. As noted last time, with Bagley coming back for the arc I'm really excited so by default almost I'm inclined to almost hate everything but the artwork that made Ultimate Spider-Man pop so well.
This series is still one of my favorites to read and regardless of if the "Death of Spider-Man" turns out to be the actual death of Peter Parker or if it's more along the lines of Death of Oracle, Bendis is the one who should be writing. I highly doubt Marvel would kill off it's best seller in the Ultimate Universe, but they killed 3/4 of the universe in Ultimatum, so who knows. All I know is that regardless of this prelude being a big tease, the actual arc is going to kick our butts. I can't wait to see where this goes. Pick this up as soon as you can.
4/5