Greetings Crawlspacers! Glad to be back here for another review of everyone’s favorite Spider-Man book that are hitting the selves recently. The first issue of this series is already on it’s FIFTH printing! Numbers and sales to a book that has a married Spider-Man with kids don’t lie, but don’t tell C. B. Cebulski that. * HA HA HA! Oh and this book is being released the same week as ASM, who will win that sales race? Will it be the fast and quick with rushed agenda driven storylines and forced characterizations that hardly make sense OR the slow and steady once a month book that consists of well thought-out storylines and character development that makes perfect sense? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see, I placed my bets on the turtle.
That reminds me! There will not be a race between Hornacek or myself to see who can get whose review out the fastest. I keep on telling my good pal Dark Mark that. He’s always so “RUSH RUSH RUSH, CHOP CHOP!” He needs to slow down and type out a well thought out review for our audience. He’s just so damn eager to please all of you in the quickest way possible aaaaand that’s why the site broke down last week. Classic Mark! He just doesn’t listen, but you can’t help but love him.
Anyways, in last issue we saw Peter getting a handle on his powers and Shocker easily handling Spider-Man, TWICE. Ben and Jonah decided to publish things that won’t be in favor of the Maker’s Minions, and little May finding out her father is that scary man she sees in the paper. Let’s MARCH right in and see what happens this issue.
(Writer) Jonathan Hickman
(Artist) Marco Checchetto
(Colorist) Matthew Wilson
(Letterer) VC’s Cory Petit
(Editor) Wil Moss
(EIC) C.B. Cebulski
Date Released 3/27/2024
Issue Number #3
Price Tag: $5.99
STORY: It’s March! Richard doesn’t think so, but Mary Jane knows her son needs new shoes. They both think that Peter and May are acting strange before they leave, but Peter redirects their suspicions on them and assures his wife that nothing abnormal is going to happen while they are gone. Once the coast is clear, immediately they do the complete opposite designing Peter’s suit to make is less scary and take it for a swing around the block high above the ground. Peter visits Ben and Jonah at their new office. They are investigating Green Goblin so Peter decides to do it as well as Spider-Man. Stakeout gets too boring for Spidey until he catches Goblin fighting Bullseye. It’s this first Ultimate Spidey team up as Goblin lays in the ground work for Spidey to deliver the KO to Bullseye. Goblin uses Bluetooth to connect to Spidey’s Stark costume and reveals Peter’s face. Goblin reveals that he’s Harry Osborn and the two think they need to talk more over a cup of coffee.
THINGS I LIKED:
- The Daddy/Daughter time. Peter takes his responsibility (a key word that DEFINES Spider-Man) as a parent to assure his daughter that the thing she was afraid of is something she no longer needs to fear. I enjoyed the bonding moment between these two, it’s her input that makes the costume look “Cool”. Even Peter defends it when Harry questions the design. “My daughter made this costume, it IS cool.” was playing in Peter’s brain at the moment. Personally, I would be hesitant to take my daughter out for a test swing high above the rooftops of New York, but Peter did make sure she was in disguised and webbed to his back., plus it’s a comic book. You may have to stray from reality a bit. I love how Mary Jane stated to May to “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”. Technically, she didn’t…I’m just saying…
Sure, it’s 616 MJ compared to 6160 May, but you get the point I’m making. - Peter acting more like PETER. The Peter that I know and grew up reading. The charming humor that works for both himself and his Spider-Man Persona. The Stakeout panel was hysterical! When he makes mistakes it’s not pity guilty party aftermath like it is ASM. Here, it’s more grounded. Even when he falls down, he gets back up. The support he gives to Uncle Ben and Jonah, always willing to help.
Hickman clearly knows how to have a little fun with Spider-Man. From the costume design scene to the stakeout scene. It’s all there wrapped up in a friendly neighborhood bow. I could be me, but he’s clearly having fun with the Spidey continuity over the years and bringing nods into this universe. Speaking of fun…they Ben Reilly fans..
- I don’t want to get too much into the Jonah and Uncle Ben buddy cop that Hickman writes so well. It’s still there in this issue and a lot of fun to read. They have an office, it’s run down dump of an office, but an office non the less. They are really focused on investigating the Green Goblin and why he’s attacking Fisk. I do want to shed some light on Checchetto’s artwork! Three issues in and he has done a great job in his illustrations! I really like how he does his facial illustrations on the characters, but his splash pages are pretty rock solid!
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
- STARK TECH DOES PETER IN!!! Now, you see. If Peter designed his own suit out of cloth, we wouldn’t have THIS problem!!!
Now we have Harry Osborn knowing that Peter is Spider-Man. I’m not sure where Hickman is going with this, I don’t know if this building to a friendship or they’ll be fighting against each other. It does create drama and judging my the solic’s for future issues, it’ll be very interesting to read. Back to my point though, no Stark, no problem. So now a stranger and Peter’s daughter know his secret. Once MJ finds out about this, I’m suuuuure she’ll be thrilled. C’mon Peter, your better than your 616 counterpart right now, don’t throw it away.
- Webbing: Still haven’t found out if it’s organic,
stark tech, or Parker made webshooters. - Bullseye: Shocker and Fisk, I get. Not sure I like Bullseye, a DareDevil rouge, mixing it up with Spider-Man or Green Goblin. I know Fisk is a DareDevil villain mostly, but he’s also a Spidey villain. Also has Bullseye ever thrown cards? Is that usually Gambit’s signature move? Comment below and let me know.
GRADE:
Gonna give this one a solid A. Ultimate Spider-Man continues to provide winning results. Hickman writes ever scene slowly crafted and entertaining. This series has reignited my love of Spider-Man with great art in a modern and elevated take on the character and his supporting characters. This is the Spider-Man that we should have been reading 20 years ago. The marriage works. The family dynamic work. The storytelling and artwork are AMAZING! This is the MOST popular Spidey comic out there because the template that Hickman has been providing so far. He is giving us what we actually want in a Spider-Man comic and I have been seeing nothing but positive results. Do yourself a favor, buy it.
* C. B. Cebulski has said TWICE in comic con panels “See? We like the marriage, don’t tell Spider-Man fans that! Ha Ha Ha” It’s nice to shoot his insult back at him.
Issue Four will be next month! Check out these awesome JSC recreation covers for that issue!!!
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@Evan Berry:
I’d even go so far as to say that HC was trying to do that, or at least the first step towards doing that. But the HC filmmakers forgot that Spidey was part of the MCU now, meaning he could appear in Avengers films where other writers/directors would be in control of how he developed. Which is why it was disappointing (at least for me) that the little bit of growth he got at the end of HC seemed to be thrown out the window as soon as he appeared in Infinity War. It was all “Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!” and “I get to be an Avenger!” and “Here’s your fancy Iron Man type suit.”
April 1, 2024 at 7:30 pm
@Hornacek — I agree completely. You know, I remember being so disappointed at the end of Homecoming, because I was expecting that, when Tony left the suit for Peter to reclaim after he “proved himself,” Peter would refuse it with the attitude “Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t need your suit. I’ve learned that I can be my own man.” But nope, he just took it back. I guess they were going for something similar when Peter later turned down the Iron Spider suit (at first), but it’s not the same.
@Hornacek — I agree completely. You know, I remember being so disappointed at the end of Homecoming, because I was expecting that, when Tony left the suit for Peter to reclaim after he “proved himself,” Peter would refuse it with the attitude “Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t need your suit. I’ve learned that I can be my own man.” But nope, he just took it back. I guess they were going for something similar when Peter later turned down the Iron Spider suit (at first), but it’s not the same.
The pacing is slow. Modern comics have slow pacing. Which I hate. But I love the dialogue and characterization of this one. Comparing to other Hickman works this one seems slower pace than his usual stuff though. His FF and X-Men were dense. his USM reads like a well written regular decompressed comic.
I also like he’s trying to do something new with the mythos, not just re-hashing old stories with a modern twist. But I’m not sure I’m too crazy about this world ruled by a secret class. A bit conspiratorial for me.
@Evan Berry:
I really hate that defense of the MCU Spider-Man that “the three movies are the origin of Spider-Man, that’s why he’s so dependent on Stark and his tech in the first movie, and still thinking ‘What would Tony do?’ in the second movie – even though Tony is dead. The MCU *had* to do all of these movies to get Peter to the end of NWH where he finally *is* Spider-Man.” So what they’re saying it that they literally took 3+ movies to do what the Raimi movie did in its first hour.
@Chi-Town — I’m a bit late getting to this review, but it was worth it hear your maniacal laughter in my head directed at C. B. Cebulski.
Can you confirm that the reason Peter can change his suit to accommodate May’s suggestions is that it’s Stark technology and “symbiote-ish” in that regard? I saw some reviews on YouTube stating that Peter must have had a lot of time and a lot of clothes on hand to be able to change so much, but I was under the impression that the suit shifts around him according to his thoughts, though those panels don’t really bear that out. The scene with Harry at the end seems to, though.
@Hornacek — I guess one can argue that the MCU took three movies (technically, four, including Civil War) to tell its Spider-man origin. Maybe this USM origin will likewise end when Peter ditches the Stark tech.
@Geiseric:
My favorite comment about the original USM is that Bendis took 5 issues to do an origin story that Stan and Steve managed to do in 11 pages.
@aqua. Peter hasn’t accomplished anything that’s the entire point. He is slowly learning how to be a hero and will most likely be one by the end of the first arc. He’s only done some low level stuff that honesty would not be interesting to see him do
Also don’t compare this to Bendis USM didn’t even get started until issue 9.
@Aqu@:
I mean, the early Lee/Ditko issues were about a month apart and took place in real time – except for the rare issues that was a cliffhanger ending and the next issue happened immediately after it. Within 3 years of comics Peter had aged from 15 to 18. If this continues for Ultimate this could be Hickman’s way of aging the kids naturally instead of having them be this age forever.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get the cloth suit. Pretty sure a sci-fi tech suit is more in the style of Hickman.” I don’t know, this seems like an organic way of having Peter switch to a cloth suit – so this type of unmasking doesn’t happen again. Sort of how he got the logo on his suit, or got the red & blue suit.
Well, bringing his daughter when swinging isn’t nearly as dangerous and irresponsible as letting his own 10-ish years old daughter join in super-heroing (I’m looking at you, Conway).
@Hornacek
From what I remember from the solicitations, yes, each issue is going to be one month, at least until June when The Ultimates comes out (or something like that).
Which is contributing to the why I don’t like the pacing. It’s too slow, not much happens on page and then, bam, we’re one month later. I could accept a Bendis-level of slowness if they were all tied together in the same time-frame. For example, it’s been at least two months since Peter got bitten: what happened? What did he do or accomplish as Spider-man? Same for Ben and Jonah. We get some info thrown here and there, but we don’t get to see it on page. This is not a book, it’s a comic, a visual medium: show, don’t tell.
I don’t think we’ll ever get the cloth suit. Pretty sure a sci-fi tech suit is more in the style of Hickman.
Looks like I beat you in the race to get our respective reviews, but only by a few seconds.
Regarding Peter taking May out for a webswing, technically it’s dangerous, but Peter has been webswinging for over a month now, so he has got the hang of it. I don’t think he’s going to drop her.
So #2 started in February, and #3 starts in March. Is this going to be the format for this series? Every issue takes place 1 month after the previous issue? Are we going to have the characters in this series actually age in real time? If so then this means each issue needs to be pretty self-contained – hard to do a cliffhanger ending if the next issue is going to start 4 weeks later.
With the Stark suit getting hacked and someone else able to remove it remotely, is this what will make Peter create a cloth suit (or just a mask) to wear under this tech-suit (or replace it altogether)? Some people were worried that the suit got introduced and didn’t look like the normal Spidey suit, but the way we got to that normal suit seemed organic. So if this is how Hickman gets to a cloth suit, I would say that change seems organic as well.