Ultimate Spider-Man: And His Amazing Friends #1

Contains issues 118-122.

It's time for another adventure with X-Men. Later, Peter talks to his teacher about getting a good grade on his project after something goes wrong, and finally Shocker does the impossible: defeats Spider-Man.

You could say that this is a remake of the cartoon series Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. It has the three central characters that made the series (Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar), but there's more to it than that. This revolves more around Liz Allen as she gets the surprise of her life when she finds out that she's a mutant. It's karma really. She's been talking down to mutants since the very beginning of this series, and now she becomes the Ultimate version of Firestar. Now that she's a mutant, Magneto has his sights on her. What's even more surprising is Liz actual father. 
 

The other two stories revolve around Peter's school project (from the previous volume), and the sad tale of Herman Schultz aka. Shocker. It was hilarious to see Peter explain to his teacher what happen to the baby for his school project, But the Shocker story showed a different side of him. As seen countless times in this series, Ultimate Shocker is a joke. Beaten by Spider-Man multiple of times, he finally gets the upper hand on Peter, and have him chained up, torturing him. But as Herman shocks him, he reveals how the world cheated him. It's the lowest I've have ever seen Shocker, and sadly that doesn't change at the end.

Characterization is at its strongest in this volume. Bendis does a wonderful job adding teenage drama that's been missing somewhat in the previous stories. It truly feels that Peter is respected upon his closest friends and is the most responsible. He passes his uncle's saying to others based on his actions.
 
 

 

Stuart Immonen shows off his work once again. There are some amazing spreads that show off characters and the environments. Facial expressions are also what makes characters appear natural.

A very minor complaint is how easily this ignores the previous story, Death of a Goblin. Like with the death of Gwen Stacy, I don't expect Peter to mope every single issue feeling guilty about Harry Osborn's death, I just dislike the fact that it feels forgotten.

Overall: This is another fantastic volume of Ultimate Spider-Man. It has everything from the earlier stories and more.