Ultimate Spider-Man #123 Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Stuart Immonen
Inker: Wade von Grawbadger
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

An old woman sits next to Eddie Brock who divulges all that has happened to him: the Venom project, his blaming Spider-Man for the entire thing, and his apparent “death.” In his own words, he describes the symbiote as a “second brain” which takes over in moments of unnatural “hunger,” which, unbeknownst to him, causes Venom to seek out and consume the nearest innocent bystander for its DNA to stabilize its own. That being the case he’s tangled with Silver Sable and her Wolf Pack. Instinctively, he knows the parasite wants Peter’s DNA, since whenever he’s in the vicinity he feels better. Finally, he confronts Peter at the museum as Venom. Peter himself, meanwhile, is experiencing an intense, throbbing headache worse than his spider-sense.  The fight is taken outside, and Venom is attacked by Sable again. The story is interrupted by a new listener (there have been several) who puts two and two together. Eddie “venoms” out and consumes him, then returns to normal and back to his story…

LIKES

• ULTIMATE VENOM — FINALLY!!!
• Eddie’s journey interwoven into previous issues of USM (behind the scenes)
• Hilarity of Eddie’s “Forrest Gump” routine on the bench
• Twist ending

Dislikes

• Too tight panels
• Overuse of narrative
• Same retrospective format from the previous few issues

RATING: 4.5/5 Webs

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

First off I apologize for the LATENESS of this review; so many obstacles got in my way these past few weeks. I assure you that I’ll be prompt in the next issue, which is on stands as of today. Now on to business. Eddie Brock…the prodigal psycho returns.  At first I was laughing at how they brough him in in the beginning of the book. Eddie’s ripping off Tom Hanks’ schtick. It works in some areas but fails in others. And while I was reading I was like “This guy’s confessing to being a rampaging monster and not one person’s running to the nearest beat cop?” At first I figured that if you’ve seen one guy claiming to be a monster in New York you’ve seen them all. What also didn’t make sense was if his condition was that volatile – that the suit needed to replenish itself with a foreign DNA almost on a regular basis – then how could he be sitting for that long a time? Well Bendis’ twist ending answered both questions, which was really hilarious. He’s swallowing people up and doesn’t even realize it. Or maybe he does and just doesn’t care. I like how Bendis has made the suit need Peter for more than just a new ride. And I think in these that he’s made Brock a shadow character – that scene with Spidey and The Rhino was taken out of one of the annuals I think – is directly an homage to the original conception of Eddie as a stalker back in his early appearance. And I like how they gave Venom a better advantage over Spidey since now instead of avoiding his spider-sense it intensifies it to the point where he’s off balance. Now, all of this is familiar to me because it’s taken from the Ultimate Spider-Man vid game that Bendis himself had penned…which I played RELIGIOUSLY until I finished it.

But the problem is the tightness of the art. Stuart’s panels are a little too small; it’s like he’s trying to compress SO MUCH ACTION into one shot that it becomes too busy and ultimately (no pun intended) not an attention grabber. Either he’s trying to make up for the numerous complaints Bags had for overuse of close-ups, or he did this without thinking. I’m not knocking it though.  All in all I can’t wait to read what happens next. Writing’s great, pacing is fine, and Ultimate Venom has finally returned.