Ultimate Spider-Man: Volume 1: Power and Responsibility (2001)

Author: Brian Michael Bendis | Illustrator: Mark Bagley | Page Count: 200

Marvel were in financial difficulty back in the late 90's.  The ULTIMATE line was a make or break concept that saw them reboot some of their most popular franchises for a potential new audience.  It was a complete wiping clean of the slate, resetting characters back to day one.  They didn't abandon the existing books; the new ones ran concurrently with a separate continuity that kept the core values but left behind all the baggage.
In the case of Spider-Man they made him 15 again; he’s an adolescent in an adult world, on the verge of learning real responsibility for his actions.  It was the most daring, freshest thing to happen to the character in many, many years.  And luckily for Marvel it was instrumental in saving their ass financially.
More titles followed, including Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and an Avengers style team-up called The Ultimates.

Above is some brief information about why this title launched. You can ignore it if you’re not interested.

There’s no flaffing around in Brian Michael Bendis’ Spider-Man.  It introduces the teenage Peter Parker, his friends and family, sets up the relationships he has with them and gives a glimpse of the world in which they all exist.  Then BANG!  The spider bite, the transformation, and the crux of the story takes hold.

Comics are often filled with narrative boxes that document what a character is feeling; it gives a reader an insight into the head-space of the Hero but an overreliance on them can be a crutch.  Bendis makes use of them, it's difficult not to, but he keeps them at a minimum in the early stages.  What he does instead is revert to a ‘show don’t tell’ attitude that gives the story a real vibrancy and immediacy; it filled me with a desire to get to the next page as hurriedly as possible, which is the opposite of what I normally do because I like to take in all aspects of the work (construction, style, art etc).

Artist Mark Bagley understood this approach and fills his panels with everything necessary to communicate the unspoken parts.  In just a few pages writer and artist show Peter’s isolation, Mary Jane’s compassion, Harry Osborn’s arrogance, Uncle Ben’s paternal longing and Aunt May’s stern but sensitive role-play.

I know Bendis has his haters but I would argue that when he didn't dilute himself across multiple titles he was damn good at what he did.

If you want a Spider-Man origin story that closely resembles the Sam Raimi film version, and you want a great comic that starts strong and keeps on giving, then Ultimate Spidey is highly recommended.

The book collects together Ultimate Spider-Man issues 1 – 7.

4 after school activities out of 5

Spider-Man: Blue (2004)

Author: Jeph Loeb | Illustrator: Tim Sale | Page Count: 144

“…maybe by chance, or maybe God has a sense of humour

and we’re all part of the joke.”

Blue is the story of how Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy fell in love, and how his life seems to him a pendulum that swings from good to bad repeatedly.  He tries to rationalise it by seeing the bad as being a necessary precursor to the good.

It's split into two distinct time periods that work in tandem.
The first is a confessional memoir narrated by Peter in what I’m going to call the present.  It mostly takes the form of text boxes (captions) that sit inside the frame, and act like a v/o in a film.  They’re spoken by a Peter that’s endured hardship; a Peter that’s developed a deeper understanding of his purpose, and the dangers inherent in it.
The second time period is a visual retelling of past events.  The art and speech bubbles that make up the majority of the frame depict what happened or was said in the past.  They show a Peter early in his career as Spider-Man; he’s less mature, less aware of how tragedy shapes and scars an individual. The past and the present exist in the same frame and together they tell the full story.

Even though the pictures fill the majority of the page, it’s the captions that carry most of the weight, and the reason this story works so well.  If they were absent, it wouldn't need to be retold.  Jeph Loeb tinkers with the original very slightly but there's no major retcon happening.  By the end you'll be glad he did what he did, particularly if you can relate emotionally.

Tim Sale’s art is a perfect match for Loeb’s words.  His colour-blindness doesn't seem to be a handicap at all.  His lines are bold and his blacks are striking.  He seems to have a filmmaker’s eye.  If his frames were taken verbatim to a screen they would make some very dynamic eye-candy; I’d wager even better than any of the existing Spider-man films.

The book collects together Spider-Man: Blue issues 1 – 6.  The events that Blue reference can be found in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 issue 43 - 48 and 63.

4 thwips out of 5

The Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt (1987)

Author: J. M. DeMatteis | Illustrator: Mike Zeck | Page Count: 168

“Don’t fear me.  Love me.  For I intend to bless you.  With pain.

And blood.  And Sorrow.  Tonight.”

I didn’t expect this to be very good because Kraven hasn't held much of an allure for me in the past.  It turned out to be one of the finest Spider-Man stories I’ve ever read.  Hell, it’s one of the finest comics I've ever read.  J. M. DeMatteis has crafted a dark tale of personal suffering, full of symbolism and primal longings that puts many other writers to shame.

One of the reasons it works so well is because there’s very little dialogue.  Often writers use dialogue to bridge the gaps between small parts, or to lengthen action scenes.  There is no such trickery here.  Instead, there are inner monologues to tell the story; they really get inside the head of each of the three main players: Spider-Man (obviously) and two very different antagonists.
Reading Kraven's Last Hunt feels like reading a Noir text but not any Noir I’ve ever encountered before.  Neither Spade nor Marlowe could climb walls for a start.

Quite often whole pages go by with no text at all, because it’s not needed.  The imagery, from Illustrator Mike Zeck, is able to deliver everything we need to follow the drama.  His work oozes dynamic movement and pace.  The colouring paints everything with a shadowy, other-worldly brush.  The colours act like a kind of curtain, or a veil, that gets pushed aside just enough to let the person behind it act out their role.  It’s a truly collaborative effort between writer, inker and colorists, and no one part would be as powerful on its own.

With a little help from William Blake and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, DeMatteis presented us with an enduring tale of men fighting for their sanity in a world that seems destined to take it away from them, piece by piece.  It deserves a place on every comic fan's shelf.

The book collects together Web of Spider-Man issues 31 - 32, The Amazing Spider-Man issues 293 - 294, and Spectacular Spider-Man issues 131 - 132

5 symbolic risings from the depths out of 5