Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Comics, death, spider-man, ultimate, venom

Wednesday Comics Review – Ultimate Spider-Man 153 and Amazing Spider-Man 654

Published Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:00:04 -0600

Last updated Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:31:03 -0600

There's five hundred issues between them, and they star the same character but these feel very different comics.

For one thing, they cost the same, but you can measure the difference in your hand. Ultimate Spider-Man is light, Amazing Spider-Man is not. That's the difference a 22 story page count and a 30 page count can make to a comic. The main stories are the same length but Amazing has that little extra debut of the new Venom.

But let's look at the Ultimate issue first, a prelude as it is to the Death Of Spider-Man (Ultimate version). And, unlike the first issue of the arc already reviewed, it actually has Spider-Man in it. And Iron Man. And Catwoman Black Cat. And Mysterio. And a flashback to Kingpin. And it's not just light in the hand, for a comic leading up to death, it feels light in tone. Okay, yes, there is both mass murder and destruction at the beginning and the end but the majority of the book is Spider-Man being taken out for training by Iron Man, even though Tony isn't exactly motivated to the task and Black Cat negotiating with Mysterio over the Egyptian alien thingymadoodah. Which means we get a lot of good trademark Bendis Banter in the process, but with the underlying feeling that something bad is going to happen.

And the book looks good. It really does. There are a bunch of artists on this, but the standout is Justin Ponsor, the colourist who makes Black Cat's costume look better than Catwoman ever did. The colours reflect and refract off it, like a headlight on a pool of oil. Add to that the ghostly head of Mysterio and an apartment decked out in style by David LaFuente and this is gorgeous work.

But while Ultimate Spider-Man flirts with a "major" death, Amazing Spider-Man just gives you one without the promotional campaign. After Gwen Stacy, after Captain Stacy, after Jean DeWolff, it's time for Dan Slott and Fred Van Lente to add to the book of the dead. The book feels heavier, full of danger and destruction than Ultimate Spider-Man, but the death, you just don't see coming. Maybe I should have done though, structurally this book feels similar to Fantastic Four #587, with a multitude of battles happening simultaneously in various locations, and one ultimately leading to the event.

And it's one that seems will have long term implications for the balance of the Spider-Man cast status quo. Can things ever be the same again?

This is a frenetic, bouncing book, that sometimes feels too cartoony for its own good. There's a major juxtaposition between urgency, danger and the bobble eyes and noses of artist Stefano Caselli in places. While this seems fine as Max Modell uses his own deductive powers on the relationship between Spider-Man and Peter Parker, ir seems out of place when Jonah Jameson's car is heading towards danger. Do have to give props for the half-half Hobgoblin/Phil image reminiscent of that classic Ditko visual trick.

And this really has to be the worst kept secret in comics, right now, the identity of the new Venom character, debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #654. So much of a spoiler that it appeared in USA Today.

And yes, it's Flash Thompson, a double leg amputee from fighting in the Middle East, he's hand picked by the government to wear the Venom symbiote suit, with extra special drugs to keep him in control. Hmm. I wonder how long they will last. Billed in the ads as "A Real American Hero", Venom is set up to mirror Captain America more than he is Spider-Man. And we also get the idea that death is on the cards for Flash as well.