Monday, December 7, 2009

Ultimate Spider-Man #5

It's been interesting to watch writer Brian Bendis take this comic in a new direction.

Since most of the Ultimate comics have folded, he's taking advantage and reeling in characters from the defunct Fantastic Four and the X-Men comics (along with a mysterious addition or two), and is building his own version of (dare I say it?) Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

It may sound goofy, but it's actually very entertaining as Aunt May moves from being the frail matriarch to becoming more of a House Mom, providing a welcome place for several characters who are suddenly homeless.

It gives the book more of a team dynamic, where you have lots of interesting characters bouncing off each other. It's a different feel for Ultimate Spider-Man, but so far it's working.

In the main storyline, Spider-Man is caught in a deadly trap by the Ultimate version of Mysterio, and if I read the signs right, next issue will give us the Ultimate version of one of my all-time favorite Lee / Ditko Spider-Man stories.

The art by David Lafuente continues to be a real delight, and he honestly seems to get better with each issue.

So far, the new direction is working - and considering how good the comic was before, and how bad Ultimatum was for the Ultimate line, it's an impressive achievement.

Grade: A-

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