Ultimate Spider-Man 34 (March 2003)

Bendis does really well again this issue. Eddie and Peter’s friendship develops naturally, Gwen makes a fine, believable third. But then everything falls apart towards the end. Not bad enough to drag the issue down, but the narrative simply does not work.

Peter’s watching his dad’s tapes and gets so upset about the Venom Project getting sabotaged, he runs off to try the serum on himself. It’s a mess. Bendis doesn’t handle the anger right (or maybe it’s just altogether unbelievable). It’s such a strange turn of events I thought I’d missed something.

The finale, the Venom suit taking Peter over while Gwen and Eddie dance at a concert, is nice. Bagley’s got some excellent visual pacing this issue. It makes up for his weak illustrating of Eddie.

There’s some nice Mary Jane stuff too, but not enough of it.

Bendis writes a good issue, his one weak scene aside.

Ultimate Spider-Man 33 (February 2003)

Brian Michael Bendis sure does like his coincidences, doesn’t he? If Mary Jane hadn’t broken Peter’s heart, he never would have found the boxes with the Venom Project stuff.

Here’s what’s funny–Bendis makes it work. He gets emotionally honesty out of every scene in this issue, whether it’s Aunt May and Gwen hanging out or Peter and May watching the family videos or the introduction of Eddie Brock.

Bendis introduces a character full of baggage from the reader (Ultimate or not) and immediately establishes the character in a conversation.

There’s no Spider-Man this issue–definitely no Venom–yet the pacing, with Peter narrating his trip to campus, is great. Maybe because it’s entirely unexpected, everything Bendis is doing. He’s not streamlining, he’s recreating and he does it with enthusiasm.

Sadly, he does misuse the word “everyday,” which is slightly embarrassing (more for his editor), but whatever.

It’s good.

Revolution on the Planet of the Apes 2 (January 2006)

The problem with Revolution reveals itself in the backup from Templeton and Gabriel Morrissette–it’s supposed to be cheeky. It’s hard to describe the comic as anything else. Sure, it’s a direct sequel to Conquest but who cares? It’s also a direct prequel to Battle so the series is of little consequence.

To fill in for the pointlessness, Templeton and O’Brien are cheeky. It’s all a “wink wink” joke for the reader, who presumably likes Planet of the Apes… but not enough to want a real comic book series of it.

Almost all of O’Brien’s logic is bad too. The setting of Conquest gets retrofitted for the modern day, which means a lot of Internet references. Had the comic stuck to the actual setting it’s continuing, Revolution might have worked better.

As far as the art goes… Sam isn’t improving. Between him and the plotting, Revolution reads like a fanzine.

Deathstroke 2 (December 2011)

I’ll get to the horrors of Deathstroke in a minute, but first I wanted to cover one of the issue’s revelations about the new DC Universe. Its cable news network is apparently called DCNN. You know, DC News Network.

This “Easter egg” is the kind of lame detail from a bad superhero startup press in the nineties. Shared universe and all that nonsense.

Okay, on to the issue. I’m not being uncomplimentary enough and it’s boring me.

The cover to this issue makes it look like Deathstoke might fight a Transformer.

He doesn’t. He fights a boring guy in a suit for a page. A page is enough, since it at least doesn’t go on long enough for Higgins to write dialogue.

The comic gets stupider this issue. Higgins can’t plot well either. The issue takes place over about ten minutes. All for three bucks.

Deathstroke‘s terrible; let’s move on.

CREDITS

The Carpocalypse; writer, Kyle Higgins; penciller, Joe Bennett; inker, Art Thibert; colorist, Jason Wright; letterer, Travis Lanham; editors, Rickey Purdin and Rachel Gluckstern; publisher, DC Comics.

Deathstroke 1 (November 2011)

DC Comics, as a major publisher, “proudly presents” Deathstroke? Really?

First off, the writing. Let me get through it. Kyle Higgins isn’t as bad as some of the writers DC has on the New 52. Oh, sure, he’s really lame and can’t write dialogue, but at least he tries. He does try to sound conversational and not declarative. He even succeeds. He writes bad conversational dialogue. He’s leagues better than the guys who can’t write like anything but Frank Miller knockoffs.

But he can’t plot either, maybe because the concept would require some understanding of the human condition to succeed.

And the art? Joe Bennett is a diet Ed McGuinness; he doesn’t sell the forced style. Plus, his references are all Marvel—both J. Jonah Jameson and the Vulture cameo in the book.

Maybe Deathstroke’s all supposed to be a joke.

Even if it is… it’s a bad one.

CREDITS

Back to Basics; writer, Kyle Higgins; penciller, Joe Bennett; inker, Art Thibert; colorist, Jason Wright; letterer, Travis Lanham; editors, Rickey Purdin and Rachel Gluckstern; publisher, DC Comics.

Black Widow: Pale Little Spider (2002) #2

Rucka continues with less of a procedural, though that element is still present, and more of a… well, not character study but something close.

Pale Little Spider is, for the majority of this issue, all about Yelena and her psychological problems. She’s not crazy or anything, but she’s disturbed and she discovers things about herself and her world view while in the S&M club.

I’m not sure where Rucka came up with the issue’s twist, but it’s a good one. He’s bringing thriller movie set pieces to a familiar comics territory. One of the best moments is when it’s clear the Russian police don’t really believe in “The Black Widow.” She’s so scary, she’s just a legend. Then Rucka shows the damaged person behind the assassin.

And great Kordey art too.

The Call of Duty backup is pretty awful. But at least Marvel’s lionizing firefighters and not soldiers, right?

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #32

I think I’m going to start giving these issues “Friends” episodes titles (they fit, though they do get a little long). This one could be called “The One Where Gwen Moves in With the Parkers, Then Peter Tries to Talk Logically to Mary Jane and She Dumps Him.”

She doesn’t just dump him over Gwen, but also because his Spidey lifestyle is giving her nightmares. It’s a “well, duh” moment and I can’t believe it didn’t occur to Bendis sooner. We’re thirty-two issues into the comic. This revelation belonged around issue twelve.

There’s also Peter beating up his impostor (not visibly Hispanic and not Ultimate Mysterio either) and Bendis losing control of the dialogue. He’s got to do regular declarative comic book dialogue and he bombs completely. The rest of the comic, the talking, it works. That scene gets painful though.

While it’s dramatically effective, the issue’s very problematic.

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #31

Big issue. Well, not really.

Well… sort of.

It’s one of those times Bendis lets the pacing get away from him and he ends up spending too little time on something important because he’s got to have the payoff scene.

Captain Stacy dies this issue, the Wasp guest stars and… wait, no. Those two events cover it. I mean, there’s Peter, Mary and Gwen walking and talking and there’s some more talking later. Oh, and Ben Urich investigates a little (it’s the Spider-Man impostor… who speaks Spanish).

Bendis has this character talk about assuming Spider-Man was white being a racist assumption. Umm, if the good Spider-Man is white and the bad one is….

Nevermind.

Bendis had been turning in a lot of good issues and this one isn’t bad so much as too fast for its own good. He races to the cliffhanger, dragging the reader along.

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #30

How many references can Bendis fit into one comic? And well. I’m not suggesting they aren’t good references.

Let’s see… “Batman: Year One,” Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Bullit.

Lots of Bagley big eyes on Mary this issue. They look like they’re going to take over her head.

Bendis resolves last issue’s hard cliffhanger, but does nothing with the impostor storyline. instead, he sticks to that cliffhanger resolution. Peter’s on the run so he calls Mary to take a cab in and save him. They go to the hospital, then they escape when the cops arrive. It’s all very cinematic and it’s kind of exactly the reason to read Ultimate Spider-Man. It’s fast, Bendis gets in some honest human moments and it’s fun.

It leaves the reader wanting for what comes next. It’s so well-done, I didn’t even notice Gwen is missing (even though she’s bunking at Peter’s).

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #29

I’m usually pretty reserved in any Bagley praise—Bagley hands are one of the more frightening things in comics—but he does give Jonah a great expression here. There’s no dialogue and he and Bendis take most of a page to do it and they make this great moment where the reader can tell what Jonah’s thinking from his expression.

The issue’s incredibly frustrating, but in a good way. Gwen moves in (or comes over for a sleepover while her dad’s away) and Mary gets pissed off. Peter’s confused; plus he’s got a Spider-Man impersonator committing crimes. I can’t remember if it’s Ultimate Mysterio.

So after all the buildup—the fight with Mary Jane, the oddness of having Gwen around—then Peter heads off to fight the impostor.

And gets shot by the cops.

And Bendis ends the issue. It’s exceptionally frustrating, but if it weren’t, it wouldn’t work.