By Brian Bendis (writer), David Lafuente (art), and Justin Posner (colorist)
The Story: Mysterio makes his move against NYC while Peter and MJ air-out their anger against one another. Plus, Johnny Storm establishes his permanence in Peter’s daily life.
What’s Good: Those of you who like the “Bendis banter” will like the lengthy dialogue that Bendis dishes out in this issue, as everyone has yucks it with another member of the cast. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Bendis’ Spider-Man is supremely Seinfeldian. To this end, this issue continues this tone and thrust.
Meanwhile, Mysterio is an awesome character and his agenda is a great place to reboot this franchise. In this issue, we get more insight into him, though exactly what he is still remains a mystery-o (I know…).
Overall, this issue cements that Ultimate Comics Spider-Man will be as rich and layered as USM was, before Loeb, I mean Magneto, killed it.
What’s Not So Good: For a slow read with a lot of dialogue (attributes I tend to look for in a comic), not a whole lot happens in this issue. There is basically zero suspense and if it wasn’t for the solicitation for next issue at the end of the comic, I would think that there was no momentum to this series, save the teenie-bop Peter/MJ/Gwen love triangle. Which brings me to my second point: I hate the Peter/MJ/Gwen love triangle. The heavy focus on this plot-line and the magna styled art, makes me think that this comic is geared for teenage girls. This is all well and good as I guess this demographics is underserved, but at the same time, I am really losing interest in this book. I’m used to seeing Peter suffering through dramatic events and devastating battles where he barely survives in the pages of USM. Now, the biggest things facing him are his after-school job and his girl problems. I don’t know, something just doesn’t work unless Peter and everything he knows is under some type of mortal threat. Most worrisome is that Johnny Storm’s constant presence can only signal more teenage angst for the Webbed- One.
I really like the art when Peter is in costume and the visuals of the villains he faces off against, but the people in general and their faces specifically are really quite one dimensional. Everyone looks like they are closely related and Japanese-toon statues . As Ray said in his last review on this series, the art is really distracting to this series.
Conclusion: This usually fresh and upbeat fun series is starting to feel stagnant and predictable. Not only predictable in the macro sense (Johnny Storm meets Gwen Stacey), but also in the micro where every conversation and interaction is predictible and hovering on the cliche. Basically, I think it is time for USM to grow up. I know Bendis is just rebooting this series and the ball just got rolling, but I’m barely feeling this series. That being said, I am looking forward to the new focus on a new character next month.
Grade: C
-Rob G.
Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: | Brian Bendis, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, comic reviews, David Lafuente, Justin Posner, Marvel Reviews, Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3 - Review, Ultimate Mysterio, Weekly Comic Book Review
