And then Bendis gets around to introducing an Ultimate villain who I guess hasn’t had an Ultimate version yet. Even though I assumed he had one long ago. In Ultimate Six maybe? But before he gets to that reveal–which is the hard cliffhanger–Bendis gets cute. He has these storybook retellings of the issue’s main characters,…

Good issue. Finally. The last few have been trying. Bendis still has his pacing problems, but at least the comic’s amusing. The scene where Black Cat meets Peter Parker had me laughing out loud, even if Bagley and Hanna’s art for it is weak. The resolution to the big gang fight works well too, though…

Wow, the pacing’s actually worse with this issue. Frighteningly, it’s not even Bendis worst pacing on Ultimate Spider-Man. The issue opens with a fight scene. There are maybe ten recognizable characters and then Hammerhead’s thugs. Bagley can’t make the fight scenes look interesting; it’s just an incompressible jumble of activity. There are occasional pauses for…

Still with the pacing problems. Bendis does get around to a good conversation between Peter and Mary Jane, but there’s also a lot of rubbish with Moon Knight–Ultimate Moon Knight apparently has four multiple personalities who hang out at a swing set and banter with each other–and some with the Ultimate Kung Fu duo. Oh,…

I forgot Ultimate Black Cat was supposed to be dead. She’s not. She’s back and she saves Peter. They make out a bit and he runs home. There’s also the fight scene at the beginning, which is rushed so Bendis can keep Hammerhead around for a while. Let’s see, Hammerhead, Black Cat–oh, Jean DeWolfe gets…

Ultimate Jean DeWolfe is awesome and her rooftop conversation with Peter’s great–Bendis seems to realize he needs a mentor of some kind, but never keeps anyone consistently–but the issue’s sort of a waste. Besides DeWolfe confirming the Kingpin’s read of the world is basically right and Peter should take on bad guys regardless of who…

Bendis is trying really hard this issue; I wonder if he realized how loose he’d been getting on Ultimate Spider-Man and decided to refocus his energies. The issue opens with Peter fighting Moon Knight, which has an ominous Elektra side story and some great banter from Peter. Then there’s some Bugle stuff, then Peter goes…

Everything goes fine in this issue until the end reveal. Ultimate Moon Knight has just about the worst costume design ever and it’s hard to make it through his one page without giggling. He looks like Marvin the Martian. Otherwise, Bendis skips back to the beginning of his previous Mary Jane issue and follows Peter…

And, like he knows he needs to do something special, Bendis tries to get his groove back with a Mary Jane-centered issue. She’s dealing with Peter dumping her and meets some great older guy who Liz hooks her up with. It’s a talking heads book at various different locations, mostly the mall and then the…

There’s Nick Fury. He wasn’t watching the local news and apparently Ultimate SHIELD doesn’t care when its agents monitoring threats go missing. It’s another all-action issue, with some expected developments towards the end. Bendis does a bad job with everyone except Peter. Fury’s decisions are kind of dumb. He’s just here to deliver an ominous…

The Ultimate Spider-Man all action issue. Let’s see, do we have Peter’s internal dialogue going full steam? Yep. Is Mary Jane unexpectedly in danger? Yep. Is the threat lame? Yep. First, Bendis does do a great job with the internal dialogue. Peter’s conflict over fighting Hobgoblin Harry is great. All the stuff he says? Great.…

Not quite a great seventy-fifth issue. It’s not bad, but Bendis is now ripping off Fight Club. He doesn’t get good mileage out of it either. There are a couple big things this issue and not Harry always having been goblin-ready. First is Peter and May having a blow out about him going out in…

If one believes Mary Jane’s explanations this issue–and Peter’s memory–then Bendis was laying the groundwork for the Mary Jane and Harry thing from the start. The revelation doesn’t just hurt Peter, it hurts the reader. The reader, who knows the Osborns are bad news, who know Mary Jane is the secretly beautiful smart girl wowed…

Eh. Bendis delves into Harry’s return, setting him up to be a teenage supervillain. He’s rich, he’s got secrets–he now remembers all the bad stuff, thanks to a hypnotically placed phrase–and he’s probably got the Green Goblin formula. It’s a waste of an issue though, as Bendis is showing his hand early. He’s delaying dealing…

Big time revelation this issue… Mary Jane was dating Harry Osborn (secretly) when the series started. Not sure how well this retcon fits in or if Bendis had it planned all the time. But it definitely changes one’s perspective on Mary Jane. After all the issues of Peter telling her his secrets… she never told…

And here’s the rewarding turn of events. It’s entirely depressing–maybe even beyond depressing–as Peter confronts his greatest fear… he’s going to get everyone killed. Bendis doesn’t even try to end the comic on an okay note. Peter’s consumed with despondence; it’s palpable and Mary showing up to complete the bookend from the last issue just…

Bendis must have been going light on the Gwen mentions to save up for this issue. Here we find out Peter’s studies have been even worse since her death–he’s cutting class to web-sling the grief away. This particularly day he runs into the Ultimates–which is a little odd, especially since Bendis tells most of it…

I just got it… Bendis is mixing Ultimate Marvel Team-Up with “Spider-Man No More” to show Peter why he can’t give up being Spider-Man. With yet another issue with no mention of Gwen. Bendis talks around it too much. Mary can tell Gandhi jokes but she can’t talk about Gwen. If it’s an intentional move…

Johnny Storm goes to Midtown High. Bendis is apparently on the guest star bandwagon right now. At least Gwen gets a mention, with Mary telling Peter to snap out of the funk but he really can’t because all of Ultimate is in one. Bendis is coasting along here, not really establishing anything–he previously mentioned May…

Not unpredictably, Bendis uses the silliness to bring up a series topic. It’s on the last page and only for a moment, but it’s serious and the lunacy of brain swapping makes it possible. There’s a lot of funny stuff this issue–until Peter (as Logan) calls the X-Men, I hadn’t even thought of it being…

When a comic opens with an illustrated version of the writer apologizing for the content… well, it’s not supposed to be a good sign, right? Bendis is going out of his way to ask the reader not to take the story seriously. The story is Logan (you know, Wolverine) and Peter swapping minds. Peter wakes…