Comics / Comic Reviews / Marvel Comics

Ultimate Spider-Man #114

By Zak Edwards
October 2, 2007 - 14:28

While not heavy on the plot, this issue of Ultimate Spider-Man was highly entertaining.  Mostly consisting of a fight, it seems Bendis is stretching out the arc even more after last issue’s recap of things readers already know.  The art is getting better too with Stuart Immonen really stepping up and excelling at the daunting task of replacing Mark Bagley.  Whether or not you like this issue depends on what you want out of Ultimate Spider-Man.  If you’re a big action fan and like the humorous fights Bendis provides, you’ll love the issue.  If you’re a fan of Peter Parker and his life out of the costume, as I am, you may be disappointed.

The opening of this issue and the first half were great, keeping up with the recent increase in quality of this title.  Peter Parker has always been the strong point of this series, and Peter Parker wandering around New York with a fake baby strapped around his chest makes it even better!  The two initial scenes work off of the strong and highly believable relationships between Peter and the two leading ladies in his life: Mary-Jane and Aunt May.  The combination of very strong characters and equally strong character interactions has made for very believable relationships, and this series has benefitted so much because of these.  Readers get a treat this issue as well!  About twenty issues after he was introduced, we finally meet May’s new man: Dr. Miles Warren.  The meeting is very brief so Bendis has room for the big fight depicted on the cover, something that is disappointing.  The relationships between these three characters will probably be fleshed out in later issues, but for now, Spider-Man has some work to do.  The fight is classic Ultimate Spider-Man fighting with great taunting dialog and Peter coming up with humorous ways of dealing with the villain.  Remember the fight with Omega Red back during the Vulture arc?  Think of a longer version of that.  It’s very entertaining, but still feels like the two initial scenes could have gotten a couple more pages instead of more fighting.

Art is amazing to put it lightly.  Immonen is proving time and time again that he more than capable of taking over for long time penciller Mark Bagley.  His action sequences are filled with dramatic fighting.  Panelling is dynamic and still very flowing.  Action, speech bubbles and sound effects are all well integrated with one never interfering with the other, but rather enhancing the whole experience.  The shift in how the characters look is handled well, with all characters more recognizable now.  Bendis’ writing served to establish relationships characters have to each other before introducing the character in every instance.  This made guessing who each character is nonexistent.  For example, Mary-Jane getting picked up by her mother is discussed beforehand and therefore she isn’t getting picked up by a character who may or may not be her mother.  Immonen’s art is awesome.  He can stay as long as he wants, it’s fine by me.

7.5/10    Amazing art and great fight sequence, if not lacking in plot again.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12