Hype Day - Comic: Ultimate Spider-Man

Well this is the very first hype day, so welcome. Many Happy Returns!

How this will work is every week I will hype something that's got me excited, wether it be a comic-book, video game, movie, song... whatever. So let's get going.

We all know Spider-Man (it is hyphenated, just so you know, it's not SpiderMan). He does a whatever a spider can. But those who never read a single comic book in their lives, and want to start, have a problem. They pick up a Spider-Man book, like Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Knights Spider-Man or even the new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and they feel lost. There are almost 45 years of contineuty to keep track of, and frankly not everyone needs to know who Gabriel Stacy is (and he first appeared roughly a year ago...).
Secondly, Peter Parker first appeared in 1962. Times have changed since, and our little Peter grew up and married a super-model. But would he still be married to said red-head if he would grow up in the year 2000, would he still be the same wall-crawler we all know and love?

The answer, at least the short one is yes. And no. And this is exactly what Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man tries to do. In general Marvel's Ultimate line of comics is taking Marvel's classic characters and reimagining them in today's world. From the beggining. So while the "normal" Spider-Man has battled the Scorpion time and again, Ultimate Spider-Man (you get used to the cheesy name after a while... trust me) doesn't even know that there is such a thing. In fact Scorpion has yet to appear in an Ultimate book (well, aside from a joke which Brian Michael Bendis, the book's writer, threw in a recent issue).
In Ultimate Spider-Man Peter Parker goes back to his roots, he is once again in high school, facing the problems of everyday adolecents. Zits, girls, crazed super-villains, and who will get picked for class president (Tandy Bowen seems to be the leading candidate at the moment...).

The book, as I mentioned, is being written solely by Bendis. The art is by Mark Bagely, who is one of Marvel's go-to guy's for Spider-Man related material. The two have been collobarating on the book since issue #1 and are planning to break the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby record for longest running run on a book (103 issue on Fantastic Four).

Overall the book is excellent and is a great read, even for a casual reader. The first few arcs are excellent and will be truly hard to put down. The first four arcs (Power and Responsibility, Learning Curve, Double Trouble, and Legacy) are an absolute must read. They deal with Spider-Man's first forrays into the world of super-heroism, they tell his origin, naturally, and his first clashes with real super-villains, including Green Goblin (in Power and Responsibility and Legacy) and a combined attack by both Dr. Octupus and Kraven the Hunter (in Double Trouble). Peter learns that sometimes his mind is his most powerful weapons when he is faced with New York's Kingpin of Crime and his lackies Electro and the Enforcers (in Learning Curve). The next arc that is an absolute must read is the Venom arc, which introduces Spidey's deadliest foe.
The next few arcs come and go when it comes to being compelling reading, although none have reached the superiority of the first few arcs. Some were down right horrible (Hollywood, which features the return of Dr. Octupus, which just happened to coincide with the release of the second Spider-Man movie...) while some showed some of the glamour of the first arcs (Hobgoblin and the just-released Ultimate Spider-Man Annual).

As for what the future holds, it is promising. Marvel is currently running an arc entitiled Warriors which like the arcs Learning Curves and Cats & Kings deal with the criminal underworld of New York and features and onslaught of guest appearances (Black Cat, Elektra, Moon Knight, Kingpin, Shang-Chi, Ironfist, Hammerhead, to name a few). After this arc there are plans to publish and arc that ties into the recently released Ultimate Spider-Man video-game. And after that the countdown to issue #100 truly begins. There are many rumors floating around but names like Deadpool and Clone Saga have been cropping up in many places around the 'net.

In conclusion, Ultimate Spider-Man is deffinetly worth picking up. You can buy paperback editions of all the arcs. Or there are hardcovers which usually cover roughly 2 arcs, but contain several extras such as sketches, scripts, or reprints of old comic books.

Until next time,
Adios.