I hope you enjoyed the first review as well as Amazing Spider-Man review. I promise they won’t all be Spider-Man. Well, as the title says, this comic book review will be about the “death” of Spider-Man. Well not the death of Spider-Man but of Peter Parker. The Rejuvenation of the Marvel’s “Earth-616” universe, is that of the entire brand of “Ultimate comics”, and has had a big part in shaping many of the Marvel brand of movies (& some of the ones produced under Fox & Sony), with a more modern “genetic” hidden point of origin. In the normal Earth 616 everything basically came from some kind of radiation. So, 1, 2, skip to my lou & we have Ultimate Spider-Man still in highschool, living with Aunt May & just trying to do good by his aunt, Nyc-Manhattan, and honor his Uncle’s words of great power & great responsibility. By chapters end, you’ll see that this too, like I said in Spidey Blue, is about girl.
Chapter 1: Cut to a dinner of MJ & Peter enjoying each others company like it was nothing. Pete gets a phone call from a number that he doesn’t recognize, only to find out that it’s Captain Friggin America to take him on a one on one training, spider-man still being a teen, goes full steam ahead, without ever making a plan of attack (lol). Just as Cap is about to give him some good advice, S.H.I.E.L.D calls upon Cap to take care of a situation. At the S.H.I.E.L.D. hq, Norman Osborn » Green Goblin, Max Dillion » Electro, Otto octavious » Dr. Octopus, Sergei Kravinoff Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, Vulture have all just escaped–Peter thought Osborn was dead.
Chapter 2: Osborn & his entourage just break and enter some NYC apartment, they then try assess the situation that they are in. After turning on the tv, we see that it’s crazy right now for shield. As they are having some fight with Nick Fury & his newly formed Ultimates (In the Ult. Universe, he left shield one way or another, for a one reason or another). Dr Octopus is now having a change of heart, & maybe the only one in the gang to have some common sense, tells Osborn to stop his revenge crusade. We see just how pissed off Norman is & at that, as well as how determined he is to finish off Peter once and for all. After Peter makes a stop at his house to warn Aunt May, Gwen and whomever else is at home, May & Gwen take the car & leave. On his way back to trying to help the situation at the Queensborough Bridge, he spots The Punisher. He sees Captain America, and he puts two & two together. Peter/Spier-Man has been shot saving Captain Friggin America.
Chapter 3: The Self Banter narration has been a consistent thing since the first issue and this issue is no different. After the shocking end to the last issue/chapter we see five panels of black, and Peter struggling to regain consciousness to at least to get himself to the hospital. As he struggles to find himself the strength, energy and will to do so, he sees the sinister 5 (it would have been six had Norman not killed one of them). Realizing that great responsibility is being asked of him this one last time, he swings off. Cut to Johnny Storm and Bobby Drake (who live with Peter due to the events of Ultimatum) who arrive to the Parker residence to find a note from Gwen to leave the house and call when they’re safe. Moments later, the Sinister five show up asking for Peter. Unbeknownst to them, Storm and Drake are the Human Torch, and Iceman (respectively). A fight ensues, and the two tried their best, but in comes the man everyone is looking for, Peter– in a very grand way.
chapter 4: Peter tries to stall, Electro calls him on it, he’s right, they notice he’s been injured. Spidey physically tells him to shut up. An onslaught falls upon Peter, an on-looking neighbour calls Aunt May, hearing how bad it’s getting, she returns to try and aid him. As Pete is about to get the “final blow” from Sandman, Electro zaps him, he wants him, so again just as he is about to do it, Aunt May in the nick of time puts three bullets into Electro, who then short circuits and knocks out most of the remaining evil doers, EXCEPT FOR NORMAN OSBORN
Chapter 5: Mary Jane, who for most of this arc has been M.I.A., is desperately trying to call her boyfriend with no success. She sees lightning flares and tries to dart outside, but is stopped by her mom who insists she will see him at school tomorrow. Pete tries to get Gwen and Aunt May out of harms way, and says to Gwen: “Gwen listen to me, I don’t care what Aunt May says– I don’t care what Aunt May does… You get her as far away from here as you possibly can. I don’t care if you have to hit her on the head with a hammer and carry her over your shoulder!! you get her out of here!!!” that moment is where Peter becomes the most courageous hero. but I’ll get into that in a moment. peter tries to take on Norman who beats him and as he now tries to give Peter the final blow, ENTERS MJ WITH A VERY BIG TRUCK! (gotta love the women in Peters life) After Peter kissed Mary Jane, he literally threw her out of harms way and lifted the truck and smashed it onto Osborn. The truck exploded in front of Peter’s face, further wounding him.
Mary Jane, Johnny, Gwen, and Aunt May all gathered around a mortally wounded Peter, who told May that while he couldn’t save Uncle Ben, he was able to save her.
Peter then finally closed his eyes and died. Mary Jane cradled his lifeless body while Johnny, Gwen, and May all cried uncontrollably. Norman Osborn died with a smirk, knowing he had succeeded in killing Spider-Man.
This is the best death story I’ve read since the Death Of Superman (maybe I’ll review that soon). This story,if you’ve ever read a Spider-Man story, shows exactly why he so special as a hero. This version of Spidey is often times better than the 616 version, mostly because he has been a teenager since 2000, and because maybe only a year has passed in this continuity. Case and point, this arc took place in maybe 6 hours, not even a day. Bendis has written this character for so long, and originally started out with Bagley so the meshing of the words to visual art is at its best here.
The art work here is incredible. Bagley really out did himself this entire arc than he’s done for most of his time on this ultimate character. I’m not a big fan of his work, but everything he did here was outstanding. I believe this was the most appropriate send off for the character. If you’ve seen The Amazing Spider-Man, then you know there’s a moment there where he’s defending being Spider-Man and how he knows this is his responsibility, blah blah blah, the picture that’s up there is kinda the same thing, this is why he’s doing it. He has MASSIVE guilt over not being smart enough to save Uncle Ben from being shot by a mugger he could have stopped. As I said, this version is the closest to the recent movie.
- Overall rating of the comic: 9.5 out of 10,
- Art: 8.7 out of 10,
- layout*: 10 out of 10,
- True to character dialogue: 10 out of 10,
- Story: 9.5 out of 10,
- Continuity? well this was the end end chapter to 10+ years of work, so join backwards, its riddled with continuity.
*layout for anyone wondering is just how each frame is set up, from singles to full/double page spreads to word placement bubbles to the art.
(I recently just found this, its a little random, but here, hope you enjoy!)
Thank you for reading feedback is always helpful.
THAT’S IT! Cheers: “To Peace” and May the Force be with you!
– Xavier – @CoolyoNgeLEW
While
eLEWsive Thoughts 
