He's not really... dead, isn't he?
This is it. Spidey is making his stand. His final stand against... well, everyone. And with a title like this, are you surprised he's dead?
The Good:
- Pretty much the only thing I really like about this issue is the fact that the actual death is not overblown and doesn't take up half the issue. There's nothing worse than listening to people whine about what they regret and everything in life while they're bleeding out and have received a headshot. Humans don't work that way. So yeah, Spidey dying fairly quickly once he's gotten around to his last breath, that was good.
- This death seems like he's actually dead. Like, dead for real. I approve of this. Sure, he's Peter Parker and we've grown to like him for 161 issues, but his death wasn't a bad one. He's a character I hate to see go, but I can't say I think his death was in vain. In fact, I thought it was a good one.
The Bad:
- The entire event was overblown. How long has Spidey been dying now? Ten issues? Come on, nobody dies that slowly. And besides, if you call an event "Death of..." followed by a name, at least have the common decency to not kill the character ten issues later. The event has been ridiculously drawn out and we all knew what was going to happen. I mean, it's called "Death of Spider-Man", so kill him off right away. Don't leave readers hanging for the better part of a year. That's just not very polite.
- The obvious choice of his successor. Everyone with two working braincells has figured out who the next Spidey will be. Bendis said in an interview that the Death of Spidey inspires the new Spidey to do good. Promo art has shown a male character to be the new Spidey. Furthermore, Bendis has said that the colour of the suit will have significance. The suit is black. Now think of all the male support cast this book has had. There are precious few that aren't superpowered or really close to Peter. One sticks out: Eddie Brock. He's worn a black suit (the symbiote), he's really close to Peter and he's on his way to redemption... kind of. Well, he could use redemption and comics never shied away from a good redemption plot.
The Verdict:
Buy it. Sure, why not? I mean, it's not like it's a bad comic book. In fact, it's pretty good if you've read Ultimate Spidey at least up until Ultimatum hit. The death of Spidey at least somewhat emotionally affects you as a longtime reader. If you haven't been with the book that long, you'll think it's a throwaway death, but Peter actually felt like a person and less like a superpowered staple character. But you might need to buy the last ten or so issues to fully grasp this final arc.
PS: It's not really the "last" last arc. There's more Ultimate Spidey coming.
