Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #12 (Final Issue) Review
The final issue of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man is out now. As the series comes to a close, I’ll give you my review of both the issue and how I thought the series was. So let’s get into what happened in Issue #12 of Miles Morales’ story.
The comic opens with the teacher noticing that three students, Miles, Katie, and Ganke, are missing and asks Judge if he had seen them. A sensible person would have sent the dorm guy to go check their room, but instead Judge is the one who has to do that and finds out the place has been trashed. Seriously, how did no one notice him being kidnapped if they made that much of a mess?
Meanwhile, Miles has been captured and hung up in a suspension cube by Doctor Doom. You see, he has a thing against Miles because he invaded Doom’s castle in a crossover with the All-New X-Men. Doom makes it clear he’s going to mine him for every biological secret he’s got and then make a bunch of super-Hydra agents. Miles explodes with a new power, gets free, and begins to curb-stomp everyone off-screen.
Judge, the ever-curious person, goes to Miles’ house to see that was also trashed and runs into Cloak and Dagger, who scare him until he explains that he was his friend and thinks something has happened to him. They decide to gather their remaining friends and Maria Hill to try and find Miles, receiving a notice about an explosion in a warehouse district. By the time they arrive, Miles and Jessica have mopped up everything.
Miles finds everyone safe and sound, breaks up with Katie by letting Dagger stab her (just knocked her out), and the comic ends with their planet about to smash into the 616-universe.
Okay, review time…
You can tell they rushed this with the whole Hydra subplot. Doom’s beef with Miles comes out of left-field if you didn’t read the All-New X-Men issues, we suddenly get him having either a new power or a souped-up Venom Blast unlike what he unleashed on Osborn, and the world is getting ready to end. You can tell they just wanted to get things into place so they can close the Ultimate Universe with Secret Wars after Ultimate End.
It was rushed, so I can’t give it more than a 3 out of 5.
As for the series as a whole, it wasn’t bad. In fact, it was the one series I never got completely jaded or frustrated with. I flat-out dropped All-New Ultimates and Uncanny X-Men because they were flawed through and through and I just couldn’t take it anymore. But asides from bringing Peter back from the dead and Jefferson’s flashback, this was a good series overall.
It gets a 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #11 Review
Okay, after Miles basically got his ass caught for stupidly revealing his identity, he’s now captured by HYDRA. What happens next, you ask? Read my review of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #11!
The comic opens with the fake spider guys robbing another SHIELD place, only this time Jessica Drew is waiting for them. Much like every other time we see her trying to do something alone in this series, she gets her ass-kicked and de-masked. Would it have killed her to have taken Cloak, Dagger, or Bombshell? Then again, Miles didn’t even put up a fight so….
Speaking of him, Miles’ father is calling for him, but doesn’t have his phone. Ganke does, and it turns out he and Miles are both horrible at keeping his secret identity a secret. Their roommate for the last year knew all this time, because he’s not an idiot and these guys are loud. Roxxon was right, he did a horrible job of protecting his secret identity.
Miles wakes up to find Katie there waiting for him, and she explains she had nothing to do with this. But she did tell her sister and when your whole family is HYDRA, it naturally leads to this. He breaks out of the ropes holding him down, but Katie’s father has captured his family and friends so he’ll settle down rather than punching through him like he’s made of plywood.
He chews Miles out stating that his actions have cost them a number of agents despite losing his mother because of his actions, but he’s alive because Katie asked that he be given a chance and he’s a valuable piece of genetic engineering. Miles tries to flee, only to get shot because for some reason he forgot he has camouflage powers and Spider-Sense and Agility, only for Doom to show up with Jessica Drew in tow.
Okay, review time….
To be fair, Doom had made it clear he was going to get Miles back in the All New X-Men series, so I really wasn’t surprised. Even if the cover hadn’t given him away. I’d consider it proper continuity, but the Ultimate Universe is doomed next issue anyway so it doesn’t matter.
Still, 4 out of 5.
Ultimate Spider-Man: Miles Morales #10 Review
Things seem to be going good for Miles so far, but will they last? Of course not! Read my review of Ultimate Spider-Man: Miles Morales #10 and find out…. Wait, did I do this intro before?
Anyway, the comic opens up with Maria Hill storming the warehouse where the Spider-Man copy-cats were, only to find it cleaned beyond belief. This naturally annoys her, but at least she takes it better than her Uncanny counterpart. On the other side of things, Miles’ father is at his school to get him going back there while he’s witnessing a fight between Sabertooth and Electro.
Miles is perfectly content to just fight the winner, but naturally fights end in a crapload of property damage and when a school bus is in the way he has to intervene. He’s got a point though; it’s always a school bus. Anyway, Cloak and Dagger show up to help out and he asks them for relationship advice. Like me, they asked why he would tell her his secret identity, but ultimately come to the conclusion that he needs to talk with her about it.
He then visits Ganke, who I wish I could un-see what he was doing. He tells him that Katie hasn’t been around so Miles goes to visit her place. Katie’s father welcomes him in, gives him a glass of water, and casually asks when he got his spider-powers. Miles should have known something was wrong the moment any father welcomed his daughter’s boyfriend with open arms, but he does state that she didn’t tell them about his secret as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
Honestly, I guess Spider-sense don’t warn about poisons and drugs now or he ignored it because this dude got the drop on him. I bet it was Katie’s sister who told on him. Damn it, this is going to make the relationship awkward.
Still, 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #9 Review
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #9 review and recap! Read on to see my thoughts on the issue!
Following where we left off, Miles mentions he never heard any of this, which means that Fury kept his word by keeping silent. That might explain why he was less than eager to make him the next Spider-Man at first. Though when Miles brings up Norman mentioning it, Jefferson mentions that it’s good he bit the bullet before continuing his story.
Kingpin, before he was the kingpin, tells Jefferson that his brother can keep doing what he does as long as he pays up and doesn’t disrespect him. He then tells Jefferson he works for him. Not just for money, but so that his family remained untouched.
Immediately after that, things got real as he began to move on conquering territory. Kingpin made it so that the greedy and seedy underworld dwellers working for him got richer than they could without, and all they had to do was mention who they worked for to get what they wanted. It goes to show that, even in the past, the Kingpin did not screw around.
It was getting to be too much for Jefferson, and he wanted out. But Fury pointed out they didn’t have enough evidence to do something to him yet and if he leaves, the Kingpin will kill him. He was trapped in his role whether he liked it or not.
Anyway, the next meeting with Kingpin has Jefferson going to a seedy warehouse with Toad, the mutant, giving one of his men Mutant Growth Hormone. If you’ve never read X-Men, then to summarize it, using it gives you temporary mutant powers. When one of his men takes it, he gets beefed up, and they talk business.
Jefferson, still having some morals, calls Toad out for selling out one of his own kind to make the growth serum. Fighting ensues, and then SHIELD busts in. Afterwards, there are arrests and a mutant trafficking operation is shut down, and Jefferson gets the chance to join up with SHIELD officially.
He tells Fury to shove it because he didn’t want to have anything to do with his world, his brother’s world, or Kingpin’s world, and just wanted to be better. A week later he met Rio at a physical therapist office and fell in love. Then he had Miles and as the years passed by he kept worrying if he would make the same mistakes as him, and then the ugliness.
He apologizes for what he said, for lashing out in anger. He’s not over his wife’s death, not over his brother’s death, and not over passing up the chance to become an agent of SHIELD and do some good in the world. Miles says he’s never been mad at his Dad for it, and they should have like a year of no drama to get their lives in order as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
The issue is solid and hopefully wraps up the bit about Jefferson; we see that not everyone is cut out for the life of a SHIELD agent. More so when he has to do this sort of thing. It gives you an understanding of the way things are, but Miles clearly forgives easier than I do. It’s what makes him worthy to be Spider-Man.
4 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #8 Review
Here’s my review of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #8! Read on as we dive into the past of Jefferson and his secret history with SHIELD!
The story picks up with Jefferson in what I can only assume to be the seventies rather than the eighties with those hairstyles. Aaron came to collect money with his brother in tow, Jefferson clearly not comfortable with the situation. It proves to be the right thing when Jefferson ends up getting into a fight because they try to gang up on him. He does surprisingly well against them, but when the police came he ended up going to jail.
Nick Fury turns up to bail him out and then lets him loose. He explains that because he did a damn good job of kicking ass, Turk’s men were going to come recruit him for a job as a professional hood rat. If he doesn’t take it then they’d kill him, but Fury wants him inside as a recruit.
It goes down like Fury said, but Fury tells him from then on the long-plan. They don’t care about Turk, he’s small time after all. He wants Jefferson to make him big-time enough to gain Wilson Fisk’s attention and buy him out so that he works for him. With a mole in place he wants him to act like a gangster until he gets something to nail the Kingpin so that SHIELD can get his ass. The comic ends after that with Miles and Jefferson about to go into the second part, of when his mother came into play.
Okay, review time….
Well, I’ll start right out and say that I didn’t like the flashback art. I get why they did it, but it hurts the eyes just to look at it. Still, it could be worse.
Now, on the subject of the past, we see that Aaron was thug even back then. Only he dragged his brother into it and nearly led to him getting his ass beaten. Where Jefferson learned to scrap like that I have no clue, but at least we see now why he’s ashamed of what he’s done to this point.
I give it a 4 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #10 Review (Spiderverse)
Amazing Spider-Man #10 Review (Spiderverse)
Okay, we continue from where we last left off, with Miles Morales being attacked by the crazy lady until Otto shows up with backup and tells them to Spider-Up or die. They follow him, with Miles under the assumption that Otto is Peter since he was wearing the same outfit as the last time he saw him during that colossal failure Cataclysm, but Verna destroys his mother’s grave stone, making it personal for Miles. Him and Mayday have much to discuss.
Meanwhile, at the Safe Zone, British Spider-Man tells him that he’s basically the only one who fought an Inheritor and won. He’s Harry Potter. Silk, on the other hand, is fishing around to see if any of the others give her the warm and tingly feeling like her Peter does, only getting a reaction from Kaine. Anyway, they’ve found where Otto’s group are and jump to them with Silk tagging along after being warned to stay behind. That won’t end well.
They meet up with Peter, Kaine, and Spider-Woman recognizing Otto, while Miguel recognizes that they’re in his timeline. Otto tells them they’ve ruined everything by showing up because the cloaking device he had built couldn’t hide them with both Kaine and Silk there because they give off huge signals. He’s right as Daemos arrives right then looking to go on a feeding frenzy.
They jump him and make him work for it, but Cyborg Spider-Man gets killed. Silk blames herself once they finally take him down, to which Old Man Spider agrees. Otto sees the loss as acceptable since because Kaine did a huge amount of damage and with a stasis charge in his arms he managed to stop the body disintegrating and they can perform science on it. Old Man Spider tells them that he knows what’s going on, but naturally he gets his neck snapped by Daemos as he arrives with his siblings.
Otto is more than a little pissed at losing his kill, but Ben, Kaine, and Jessica realize they can clone themselves to come back as many times as they want and set out to deal with that, Meanwhile Old Man Spider, who is Ezekiel of a different dimension where Morlun killed Peter, reveals that The Scion, The Bride, and The Other are the only spiders that matter and must be protected. My personal thought is Kaine, Miles, and Silk are the three most important totems.
Silk uses this opportunity to take Peter’s teleport device and lure the twins away, with Spider-Woman and Noir following and to be continued in Spider-Woman #1. I’m not covering that, but I’ve read it and to sum it up, Silk’s hero tendencies get Noir taken out of the fight and Spider-Woman’s jaded nature drives her to run away on her own out of guilt again. Miguel and a few others take the corpse to analyze it, with Daemos chasing after them.
With a moment’s reprieve Peter, Otto, and the other survivors return to the Safe Zone and Otto’s decided he’s taking charge with his claws out as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Now, this 5 out of 5 right off the bat since everything was great, but reasonably speaking if Otto somehow manages to take out the Peter with the power of a god, asspull.
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #7 Review
Okay, we’re entering the climax of the whole Norman Osborn and Peter Parker subplot. Read my review and recap of Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #7!
It starts with Osborn telling Miles he can tell him the secrets of his father if he listens to him, but Maria Hill tells him not to listen. Osborn then goes from a rant about how he and they are immortal, he would kill everyone to avenge what’s been done to him, someone is pulling their strings, and then state’s he’s their father again before transforming. So we can see that he grows progressively insane the longer he’s without shock treatment.
Peter and Miles jump into the fray once again with Maria Hill providing support fire to drive him off. Miles, unwilling to let him run and pull this crap again since he knows all of their secret identities, gives chase and brings him down to the ground, impressing all parties involved except Norman, who gets back up only to get put down again by both of them.
Maria Hill tells all of them to leave while she handles the police. Once they’re out of sight she puts three rounds into Osborn’s head, which JJJ did only to get killed for it afterwards. She takes it a step further and sets him on fire just to make sure he stays in hell this time and apparently that worked.
At the warehouse where Miles met with them before and received his web-shooters from Aunt May Peter gives them back to him and gives him his blessing before telling the others he’s going soul-searching to discover what he’s there for and who bought him back. In truth he’s leaving with MJ and going someplace far away. As the comic ends we see that Katie’s parents are Hydra and Miles’ father has returned to talk to him as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
Good art, good story, but there are some times when I feel that they mixed up the panels and it got confusing. Also Fridge Horror kicks in here when you realize that Peter running off by himself will likely get him killed by Morlun’s family once Spider-Verse reaches here, unless it takes place before this but short of mass memory wipes that seems unlikely.
I give it a 4 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #9 (Spider-Verse)
Okay, a lot is going on in Amazing Spider-Man #9 and these are my thoughts on probably the biggest issue yet in the Spider-Verse event.
The comic opens with Peter Parker being called in for work by JJJ, which is the first clue it’s not our Peter. The second is that Morlun gets his hands on him and starts feasting on him while the third is that they live on the moon. We then cut to Morlun’s siblings and the gluttonous one deciding to see what he’s hoarding on the 616-universe.
After that Peter gets woken up by Silk who tells him the solution to their problem when it comes to wanting to make spider-babies is for him to leave since the great web is closing in on him or something cryptic like that. This is further compounded when Mayday, Spider-UK, Anya, Miguel, Jessica Drew (616), and Spider-Ham, show up and tell him the short version that Morlun’s brother it coming. Peter immediately says to get in the damn portal before he shows up.
Kaine is not so lucky as the glutton found him and attacked the New Warriors (they’ll probably make it). He tries to skewer him with his Other powers, but that just makes the glutton want him more until Gwen Stacy, Ben Rilley, and Bruce Banner show up with the Old Man Spider. They get Kaine out but Bruce gets his spine snapped and they have to leave him behind.
All the spiders meet up on Earth-13, a safe zone because the Spider-Man there still has the power of a god and the only reason he hasn’t gone after the Inheritors is because his power is tied to his dimension. Anyway, long story short they need Peter there because he’s supposedly the chosen one. The comic ends in the Ultimate Universe as Jessica Drew (1610) and Miles Morales come under fire by the glutton’s sister.
We then get an epilogue where the head of the Inheritors holds a feast on a number of Spiders, quells his children’s squabbling, and then reveals he knows all connected to the great web after enslaving the Master Weaver before they munch on the collected Spider-Men.
Okay, okay review time.
A lot going on, most of it I like. There are some glaring issues, like the text being wrong and you have to wonder why they would just call out their secret identities in public. But I do like the characterizations of a good number of the spiders and the story is moving.
I give it full marks, 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #6 Review
The big secret behind Peter Parker’s return is revealed in Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #6! Read my recap and review of the cop-out of his epic death and more proof that the Ultimate Universe is coming to an end! But despite that I did like it!
The comic begins with JJJ having a moment of guilt over shooting Osborn before calling Ben Urich about it. Let’s face it, sometimes you have to put the monsters down and he could argue self-defense. Unfortunately for him, Osborn is apparently immortal now ad believes he’s responsible from creating new gods like Spider-Man. Then he kills JJJ.
Meanwhile Miles finally wants answers if Peter is real or not. MJ tries covering for him, but he wants answers from the man himself. Peter believes that he came back from the dead because he remembered his life and death, waking up in an abandoned lab in Atlanta and then making his way back to Queens, where he ran across MJ. They dug up his coffin and found it was empty, realizing that someone would have stolen his corpse for being a wonder of science.
Seeing how MJ broke down at seeing him again after years he decided he couldn’t show his face to the others since they had closure and Miles was out there. He only wanted the web-shooters since they were the only connection he had to his dad, who made the original formula. But Aunt May and Gwen state otherwise as they appear, stating that they could figure out he would be there because where else would he go?
Unfortunately Osborn thinks the same way and shows up for Round Two, stating they are his Spider-Men as Miles goes in alone. Osborn demands his respect as he gave birth to his powers, but Miles zaps him until he submits. As the comic ends, Osborn tells him that without him around he’ll never know where his powers came from and who his father really is.
Okay, review time.
Begrudgingly, I have to admit Peter has a good reason for not telling the others he was back. I mean, they had closure and were being left alone now that he was gone. Him being alive again would put targets on his family and friends back since everyone knows who he was. It’s fucked up in how much sense it makes.
But with Peter Parker and Osborn coming back, it’s safe to say that Marvel is crapping on their own rules when it comes to ‘Dead means Dead’ and are circling the drain in the grand scheme of things. Since Peter’s death was a turning point of epicness and meaningfulness, having both him and Osborn come back sets a bad precedence, especially if he ain’t a clone, and with the other Ultimate Titles being canceled it doesn’t bode well for them.
That being said, 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #5 Review
Okay, if you’re confused about why there are two Spider-Men and Green Goblin is back, you’re not alone. But, in my review of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #5 we cover the aftermath of the fiasco last issue.
Our comic begins with Peter, if that is him, and Miles being held up by the police. They have orders not to use their guns because it’s a residential area, but as soon as the two make a break for it Miles gets shot. Again, Spider-Sense should negate that risk but he has the excuse of having a weaker version that Peter. Still, it’s nothing lethal and, with Maria Hill’s help, both manage to get away.
Anyway, the two fake Spider-Men are brothers who look nothing like the originals, so they aren’t clones. One wants to capitalize on this to go cross another item off their list, but the other wants to play it safe. Whoever they’re working for doesn’t take disappointment well, so the reluctant one has to go along either way and they get dolled up for another robbery.
Maria Hill, in the meantime, helps Miles out because Peter Parker helped her out when she was a beat cop and then she got the collar for when he put down Kangaroo, so he pretty much made her career and she wants to help them both. At the same time, Green Goblin pays JJJ a visit in his penthouse apartment while the faux Spider-Men go rob an evidence room that holds super powered goodies.
Green Goblin, now Osborn again, paid JJJ a visit so he can go on record and give him an interview. It turns out that Miles’ Venom Blast managed to fry the crazy out of him for a time, making him more lucid and capable of remembering he killed his son. He believes that SHIELD, Roxxon, and Hydra are responsible and he needs to take power because those in power took everything from him. When he confirms he’s not done fighting, JJJ tries to put him out of his misery with a bullet, but considering how the last few times someone has done that hasn’t worked out that’s probably just a waste.
As the comic ends, Miles goes back to Queens while wearing a shirt over his uniform, which should bring up alarm bells either way, and goes to see MJ. He asks if Peter is there and she tries to send him away, but Peter then tells her to let him in so they can talk.
Okay, review time.
Well, this is sort a wind-down after that big battle the last time. While I would have loved to see how Katie Bishop, Jessica Drew, Aunt May, and Gwen Stacy took the news, we did learn why Maria Hill is so supportive of Miles. But seriously, I mean really, the one guy who shoots happens to land the shot on someone with Spider-Sense?
Unless Miles being injured later on makes it so that Peter has to die again to save him, it’s a waste. Anyway, 4 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #4
Holy Hell, this issue was something special since even I don’t know what’s going on. But, I’ll do my best to review Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #4.
The comic picks up with Katie making it back to her home, where her older sister Misha is, crying. When her sister asks what’s wrong, she tells her Miles is Spider-Man. Now, this is the exact type of thing you don’t want happening and the reason I called Miles an idiot for blabbing about it.
But what’s more concerning is the fact that her sister tells her to break up with him for both of their sakes, because if their parents find out they’ll kill them both. What type of parents do they have? Uh, anyway, the sister states the best case scenario is that he gets killed by a super-villain, which is all kinds of messed-up, but considering everything else she’s said it fits.
It’s just her luck then that Osborn decides to make his kill-count 2 for 2 on Spider-Men. Miles learns the hard way that fire burns, but he has more tricks at his disposal than Peter and can go invisible long enough to bean him with something heavy. Still, he’s out of his weight-class and the police pretty much gets toasted as the news reports Miles almost imminent demise.
It’s then that Peter Parker shows up in the Spider-Man suit, where he got it I don’t know, and everyone stares in stunned silence as Osborn, like me, wonders how the hell is he alive. I’m still going with the shape-shifter theory, but a clone might be on the table now.
The surviving police open fire, and promptly get fried for it, but it buys enough time for Peter to web his face and Miles to give him the poke of doom. Venom Blast + Fire Demon = Big Boom. Osborn flies off and the police decide they’re going to try and take in the two Spider-Men. Aunt May thinks she’s going insane, while Gwen reasons it’s someone else, but Aunt May says she knows it’s him as the comic ends.
Okay, Review Time…
First, I’m still on the fence if this is the real Peter or not. I want his casket exhumed, I want a lie detector test, I want a DNA test, and a psychic reading to boot before I believe it. Second, I’m not sure it’s a good thing he’s still alive. I mean, his death was the pinnacle of the Ultimate Universe.
You can’t top that, especially not by ruining it by bringing him back to life all of a sudden. This is a Hail Mary that can blow up in their faces. But, knowing Marvel, if they think it would save the series and boost sales, he back.
The art was top-notch and the whole damn issue was sweet. Full 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #3 Review
Well, after Miles did what may have been the dumbest thing I could think of at the moment, I can’t wait to pick up where we last left off. So here’s my thoughts and opinions as I review the third issue of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man.
The story starts out at the Daily Bugle where one of them is trying to pitch a story about Spider-Men when JJJ shuts him down, citing he doesn’t want any half-truths and that he wants the whole and real story. He does this while there’s a plaque of his old Spider-Man story claiming him to be a menace, which he lampshades and then states he wants a story about heroes being heroes or something he could use. Right on cue, he gets reports on Norman Osborn being alive.
At the police station some crazy guy dressed as Ms. Marvel is spouting about how the Earths are converging and will soon be one, which was the rumors going around last year about Cataclysm and the Ultimate Line ending, so touché Marvel. Maria Hill gets notice that one of the men the spider guys had beaten died in the ER, making it a murder. She then gets a note about Miles’ parents and sets off to find him.
Back with the idiot, by that I mean Miles this time, he just dropped the bombshell of his secret identity on his girlfriend and she bails out. Ganke gets on his ass about it, but before he can catch up to her Maria Hill just comes up and tells him to get in the car. He straight up runs and switches to invisible mode despite Ganke telling him not to, only to wait until she’s gone to uncloak himself. Then they learn that Osborn is alive and Miles goes to Aunt May’s house because that’s the first place he’ll visit and cause damage.
Speaking of Osborn, the FBI fucked up so they call in former SHIELD director Monica Chang and storm Osborn Industries to catch him. They find the man in his secret lair, dressed in a nice suit and haircut. He basically calls Monica a patsy, citing she’s just not as good as Nick Fury was, and then he sets her face on fire, kills the guards, crashes a helicopter on top of her, and blows the place up. Dick.
Miles finally makes it to Aunt May’s house, learning the hard way that having no web-shooters makes things far more difficult to travel. Thankfully Aunt May and Gwen aren’t around at the time. Not thankfully, Green Goblin shows up and it’s looking like we’re getting a repeat of the Death of Spider-Man as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
Well, I loved this issue. The art was nice for the most part, not as crisp as before but still decent, and we have a redux of the most critical point of the last story while both a “Peter Parker” and Green Goblin are around. Here’s hoping that someone actually shows up to help, otherwise the death of a second Spider-Man by the same villain is going to look really bad.
5 out of 5!
All-New Ultimates #4 Review
Not exactly enthusiastic about this issue, but I’ll review it all the same. This is my review of All-New Ultimates #4.
The comic begins with the detective who was killed by having Styx lay hands on him waking up in the autopsy room and walking off into the streets. He promptly gets run over by a truck driver who had a gun and looked like he was committing a crime, besides the aforementioned hit-and-run, and falls into a sewer. This is the type of thing I would suspect in regular Marvel, but meh.
Meanwhile, the girls of the team decide to have a day out at Coney Island. Kitty’s naturally too famous to be wandering around, but she manages to play it off like she’s just a look-a-like, while Dagger secretly stops a criminal from getting away. The girls then chill out on the beach.
With the guys, Cloak is defending his turf from a few junkies while Miles and Ganke discuss how he got kissed by the villain who kicked his ass a few issues ago. That’s the last we see of them this issue as the girls talk about their love-lives next and Jessica drops the bombshell about being a clone of Peter Parker and that she has an interest in females, specifically redheads and Jewish girls. That ends when Lana gets a call from her boyfriend, who gets shot in the head minutes later. Second boyfriend of hers to bite the dust, I want to mention, as the next two pages cover a gang war going on between the various factions.
Lana goes home to check on him only to find him dead and get a face-full of Devil’s Dust from the Serpent Skulls, who came after them for breaking up the last deal. While under the effects of the powder she’s not in control of her actions and Diamondback plans on having her lead them to the rest of the team. Two of the men threaten to do unsavory things, but Diamondback cuts that shit out right there. She’ll kill, but she won’t tolerate that shit.
The comic ends with Lana crying as she stares helplessly at Poey’s corpse, about to be used as a tool to kill the rest of the New Ultimates.
Okay, review time…
Yeah, this issue is getting a hit from me. Not only was it boring, considering it was a downtime issue in the middle of an arc rather than the end, but we cut to what amounts to a Gang War going on everywhere and these guys are taking a day off!
Anyway, 3 out of 5 at best.
All-New Ultimates #3 Review
Better late than never, here’s my review of All-New Ultimates #3!
Our story begins with Jessica being treated for her poison. It turns out that that mixture was meant to be lethal if her body wasn’t different from another person, so it was a close call in the end. Good thing Jessica knew someone willing to help an ex-SHIELD member. As she and Kitty make their way back, Kitty agrees to go patrolling with her next time.
While this is going on the masked dude from the last time goes out to buy a newspaper to see if he made the headlines putting bullets into gangsters. When the newspaper gets it wrong and assume it’s gang-related he decides that everyone would know his name, one way or another. Ego maniac on top of everything else does not make a good vigilante.
Meanwhile school’s out and Lana goes about asking around for her boyfriend, Poey, who should have been killed in Cataclysm or Lana was dating Sid at the same time she was dating Poey. Leaving the plot hole aside, it turns out he’s a drug dealer and Lana manages to sweet talk him into bringing her along for a re-up while Miles looks on.
At a coffee shop two of the minor characters who I didn’t pay much attention to are discussing the Skulls and the fact that Cloak and Dagger have been taking them down around the Westside Church. The only other thing of importance to note is that someone who supposedly got killed apparently walked out of the autopsy room.
Jessica and Kitty are out on patrol in the rain when they encounter the skull dude from before spray painting his name, Scourge, at the site of a kill. Jessica is still woozy, so she’s in no condition to help, leaving Kitty to go after him while she calls for back-up. Unfortunately the call comes in while Miles was spying on the deal with Lana there and grabs their attention. I’d like to point out how it was both stupid of him to have his phone on and question why he wasn’t in his camouflage mode. Did the writers just forget this or what?
Cloak and Dagger arrive to help Kitty chase the guy after he blinded her, but the sneaky bastard gets away. At the same time, Miles pretty much solos the drug bust, although he does get knocked around when some dude gets on his back because he seems to have forgotten his Venom Strike. Lana has to get her boyfriend out before she gets involved and helps him wrap things up before leaving with Poey to maintain her cover.
The comic ends with them all meeting up again and resolving to stick together.
Okay, review time….
So far I can’t really say I like the comic. The art is… stable, so I won’t take points off for that. But at times the characters do things that they should know better on and continuity errors. Poey, for example, should know about her powers since he was the one who wouldn’t let her come over when she was being chased by Cloak and Dagger in Ultimate Spider-Man when Miles got back in the game.
It gets a 3 out of 5.
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #2
Our story begins with Norman Osborn returning to his defunct company, Oscorp, only to find his office robbed of almost everything important except for a picture of a stallion. Why this sole painting was left hanging isn’t clear, but it’s revealed to have hidden a retinal scanner that leads to a secret lab that must’ve been operating with one massive hidden power source given the lights work after over two years. He finds whatever he’s looking for there and gets to working on whatever he has in mind for the next issue.
Meanwhile Miles touches Peter in ways that are almost inappropriate while trying to figure out how he’s alive. Peter keeps asking for the web-shooters and states that he’ll leave once he gets them, but Miles calls his ass out on why he hasn’t told anyone he’s alive. The fact that this guy tries to skirt the issue alone is sending up alarm bells.
Eventually Peter tries to take them and gets a reflexive Venom Blast for his trouble, which if he had his Spider-Sense he would have dodged because it takes about three seconds to work on contact. Then again it worked on 616-Peter…anyway, he shakes it off long enough to knock Miles on his ass and then knocks him out, taking them while he was out cold. When Miles gets up he thinks to himself that it must be a clone, which honestly isn’t that far of a stretch when you consider that Scorpion is still around as far as we know, and runs off to tell Ganke.
The imposter Spider-Men show up at a Stark facility and beat the crap out of the guards while bantering with each other, with one guard calling for back-up. He comes out when the rest are down and tells them he doesn’t get paid enough to get his ass-kicked and just tells them to take what they came for. They tell him to help get something from the boat labeled “Latveria”, which can’t be good.
Miles and Ganke talk about the Peter Parker he just ran into, with Miles dropping the bomb on Ganke that Jessica is a female clone. The boy thinks Peter must have had a great tush. Puberty hit him hard given how he seems to go after every hot older woman he knows. Anyway they discuss the merits of telling May about this or not, since she’s been so good to him and through so much pain that he doesn’t want to trouble her if he’s wrong. It doesn’t help that Jessica’s phone is off.
The discussion derails the moment Miles’ girlfriend shows up. Both of them suck at lying, so she quickly figures something is wrong and asks if he’s breaking up with her. The comic ends as he decides to just come clean.
Okay, review time.
Not much progress other than the fact that “Peter” is being secretive and kind of a dick, shocker. Good art though. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5 for the time being.
All-New Ultimates #2 Review
A bit late, but here’s my review of All-New Ultimates #2.
The story starts with the battle still underway and the New Ultimates are in their first dust-up gone wrong and turned into a mess. It quickly turn into the Serpent Skulls versus everyone else and they’ve got numbers on their side. I see a lot of issues in the fight alone, namely Miles getting hit by an opponent who isn’t faster than him while he has Spider-Sense. He shouldn’t be touched at all in this fight, although he’s still inexperienced, neither should Jessica have gotten jabbed by a needle. They been in goddamn war and came out better than this.
Anyway, the fight ends abruptly when SWAT shows up. Diamondback, who seems to have a thing for younger men in spider outfits kisses Miles goodbye as Cloak pulls the rest of the group out of there and back to their base in Hell’s Kitchen, where Cloak is down for the count because of Styx’s touch while Lana flat-out quits because apparently her powers weren’t working during the fight properly and she nearly got killed. They seemed fine to me, but she knows her body better I guess.
Back with the police in the alley, they’re summing up the situation with the only causalities being Styx and the police he grabbed, while someone wearing a hobo mask kills Stone out of what they claimed was justice. Given his experiments led to this, the guy is probably another victim. The Serpent Skulls themselves also note just how big a mess that brawl was and decide to move things faster and quicker since the police and the super kids are working at different angles, but because some other gang is knocking off their own they‘ve decided to just kill all the other gangs to show them what a kill sweep is.
We then go through a series of panels showing that Jessica was poisoned and tells Kitty, who decided she would join in, to call someone for help as she passes out, Miles is recovering from his own ass-whipping with an ice-pack while Cloak seems to be having trouble with his powers, Dagger is stretching, the guy who killed Stone is killing more people in the name of justice, the cop who got hit by Styx died and Lana’s boyfriend stood her up… again, didn’t her boyfriend get crushed by a car?
The comic ends there.
Okay, review time.
I’m not going to lie. This comic isn’t meeting my expectations, but since it’s the first arc I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. But, while Miles is technically still a rookie, Jessica shouldn’t have gotten her ass-kicked like that. Kitty joining the team felt forced.
Issue gets a 3 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Review
Okay, Miles has been around for a bit so it’s time he got a series named after him. So in this continuation of his life upon donning the Spider-Man mask again I’ll be reading and reviewing it to give you my biased opinion of what I think of it. This is the first review of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man and it already contains swearing so beware!
The story begins at a top-secret SHIELD containment facility. Since Cataclysm ended the way it did, SHIELD has been disbanded and that means all their prisoners get transferred to a federal prison. That includes one special bastard who by all rights should be dead:
Norman-fucking-Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, aka the man who killed Peter Parker. Apparently he didn’t die and Fury thought to keep his ass locked up since nothing seems to finish the damn job. The guard, no longer assigned to watch him, knocks his teeth in for killing Peter and tell them to keep an eye on the bastard…it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how that’s going to end.
Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, two guys are discussing whether or not Captain America is dead. Let’s face it, they didn’t find the body so he’ll probably pop up later on. But this meta-discussion gets ended when some spider-man dressed douche-bags decide to make with the robbing of an armored truck. This is not what Miles needs.
Speaking of his needs, he’s making out with Katie Bishop when she’s asking where he was last night. Considering the shot of the All New Ultimates I would say he’s busy, but since he can’t explain that because she’s not in the loop she incorrectly assumes it was because Jefferson had came home. Apparently his Dad decided to simply abandon him…see my end notes about that. Either way the discussion comes to a close when a teacher tells him to get to class and we get an angsty teen shot.
We then skip to Long Island Expressway where Norman turns into the Green Goblin and escapes, shocker, and then back to Miles and Ganke. Miles is once again debating with Ganke on telling Katie his secret identity and Ganke argues against while now crushing on Dagger instead of Gwen. He’s got a thing for older women since puberty kicked in I guess….I can respect that.
Miles reminds him that she’s taken and out of his league and then goes pouty face when Ganke mentions he helped him be Spider-Man. He then decides to call up Mary Jane and gets some advice. She tells him that yeah it’s good to tell the girl because she shouldn’t have to find out after his death makes the front page of the news. But she also warns him that it’s like being married, you tell her then you’re connected for life, so make sure she’s not a villain or decides to go the woman-scorned route if something goes down.
Miles stress-level continues to rise as he learns about the fake spider-men and knows that he’s going to probably be framed for a crime he didn’t commit soon enough. As he enters his home he finds someone ransacking the place looking for something and when they turn around it’s…wait for it…wait for it…wait for it….
It’s Peter Parker!
Okay, review time.
Really, Peter’s back…yeah, I’m not buying it. Last time I checked, Scorpion and Jessica were the only clones still running around so I say it’s him. Actually, did those two Chameleons twins get killed off or not, because that would explain so much…
The debate about telling girlfriend or not doesn’t really interest me because it’s been done before and they have us another shot of Miles being angsty, probably because he resents being Spider-Man again now that it cost him his last family member. His life was so much better before he put it on…
Speaking of which, was the Marvel staff smoking something hard when they thought that up. Jefferson abandoning his son and Miles going angsty? You’re having the African-American father, who was reasonable up until the mask came off, abandon his son? Just to make him a troubled teen rather than the chipper kid he was like ten issues ago? Really?
This…is not the type of controversy they should be trying to stir up. It’d be one thing if Jefferson was shown as abusive before, rather than just one stress-induced incident that they could both sit down and talk about after the end of the world. I mean, he was a semi-bigot with grievances against Spider-Man, but seriously they pulled that out of their asses over the course of ten pages rather than ten issues like Jefferson one day finding his spider-suit and then stewing it over.
I shouldn’t have expected better. I blame myself…no, wait, I blame Marvel. C’mon now, having Jefferson abandon him is just fucking cheap and plays into negative stereotypes on top of Miles going angst over it. The only excuse that I’d accept is that he died and they’re hiding the body. I don’t fucking want broody Miles because his Daddy left him, that daddy issue shit gets old.
You don’t see Cloak bitching about his circumstances…just saying…and for fuck’s sake, stop taking off your mask Miles!
Anyway, I can’t give this a perfect score because of the above and we know that Peter is either a clone or a shape-shifter who appears after SHIELD is closed down. Really, sending super-villains to federal prisons just begs for it. Given that in 616 Mystique breaks in and out of SHIELD for a hobby it’s fairly obvious. In fact I’d like to be proven wrong…
It gets a 3 out of 5. Clean it up, Marvel.
All-New Ultimates #1 Review
All New Ultimates has arrived, the series that takes the teen heroes from the Ultimates line and makes them into a unit of ass-kicking vigilantes. Here’s hoping they aren’t as dysfunctional as their predecessors as I review the first issue.
Our story begins with a group shot as they discuss their units name shortly after the end of the Cataclysm: Survive and, immediately after, we go to Hell’s Kitchen in the morning. This place is a nightmare in the regular continuity, so it should come as no surprise Ganke Lee is promptly mugged by some gangbangers with superpowers until Cloak and Dagger pop up to save him. It seems like they’ve been doing this for a bit since this is the third time this week they’ve had to kick ass and take names according to them. They try to get him to go to a hospital, but he declines so they take him to their home.
Like their counterparts they reside in an abandoned church and are soon joined by Miles, the new Spider-man, since Ganke is his BFF (their caption, not mine). It turns out Ganke came to get some Legos, which leads me to think that his obsession is unhealthy, but Miles claims not to judge so why should I? Anyway, they leave as we skip to the Lower East Side, where some cops have busted into a Poor Man’s Roxxon-lab only to find a half-melted corpse as the two suspects have run away.
Back in the Church Lana has arrived after talking to her parole officer and immediately bags on Cloak and Dagger’s home and they exchange phone numbers using SHIELD tech since the organization has been scrapped for failing to stop Galactus. Then they get down to business. Since Roxxon was no longer under SHIELD’s protection, for the reasons listed above, a local gang seized one of their labs and has been giving out what amounts to untested Mutant Growth Hormone. Naturally this ends with a high rate of fatalities and they want to resolve this. So they go the vigilante route, although I think Lana’s parole officer might have something to say about that.
In Chelsea Kitty Pryde is staying in Jessica’s place. She’s having second thoughts about everything. First she was hated as the leader of the mutants, now everyone loves her for punching out Galactus while hopped up on Giant Man Serum until Thor tossed his ass into the Negative Zone. She doesn’t want to be in the spotlight and doesn’t want to go back to Utopia for some reason, so she crashes with Jessica who asks her for a haircut.
Lana makes it to her government housing just as the two suspects from the lab, Stone and Styx, try to break into an old Roxxon outpost. The Serpent Skulls are already there and Lana hears the resulting squabble and gets her new team involved…and gets their butts kicked by Styx and Stone until the cops show up and decide to try and arrest them all. So it’s back to people getting ready to shoot at Miles already.
Things go pear shape as Styx melts the skin off one of the cops trying to get Miles and the other cop shoots him dead. Then the Serpent Skulls pop out of the lab intent on beating the hell out of everyone without a tattoo. The comic ends with the leader of the game, Diamondback, telling them to get started.
Okay, review time.
I’ve got to say this isn’t exactly a strong start for their new series. Leaving aside the artwork being inferior to the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and the characters looking awkward at time, some of their dialogue seems out of character and there seems to be some continuity errors.
For example, Poey was the nickname of Lana’s boyfriend, Sid. He was crushed to death in Cataclysm by a random car to spur her into the hero scene. Now, while I’m all for retconning that meaningless death, I need some sign prior to this that he made it.
Then Jessica’s combat abilities seem to have been downplayed. Let’s be frank, she has training and Spider-Sense (and it’s not the weak version Miles has). She shouldn’t get hit by someone without super powers or extreme circumstances like war.
All in all, I can’t give this more than a 3 out of 5 and hope they do better next issue.
Ultimate Spider-Man #200 Review
It’s been a long time coming, but Ultimate Spider-Man #200 is here, making way for Miles’ own series alongside the All-New Ultimates. I’ll probably review them both when the time comes, but until then you’ll get this one.
It begins with Ganke and Miles making their way to Aunt May’s home by Bus, which Ganke complains about since if they took the webbing they could have been their sooner. Miles points out that’s not what it’s for and it’s expensive to make, before asking why Ganke bought a gift possibly made of Legos. He reveals that it’s for Gwen Stacy, who he’s crushing on hard. We can’t blame him for it since she’s hot and older than him. But Miles tells him not to get his hopes up as they arrive.
Mary Jane arrives after them, but her boyfriend ducks out because he figures it would be all kinds of awkward. She tells him not to get hit by a car as he leaves and he nearly does get run over by Lana and Jessica who were also on the way. We then cut to Bobby, Johnny Storm, and Liz Allen, having a moment before we gaze upon the gathering inside May’s home.
To everyone’s surprise, Gwen likes whatever Ganke got her and gives him a kiss that leaves him probably the happiest geek in the world. Way to go for chubby lego geeks everywhere! We then get a visit from Tony Stark’s Girl Friday, Pepper Potts. He couldn’t make it so he sent over a gourmet meal that will last for days judging by the amount.
Kitty Pryde arrives after that and gets warm greetings all around. She gives Miles a hug as thanks for helping her during Cataclysm and received a medal from the President for her actions during that event. Kong shows up, who apparently ran away with her sometime before and it didn’t work out considering how close she is with Wolverine Jr. Jameson is there as well, but decides to go back to the city since there’s nothing he can do there after Peter’s loss.
Once they’d all eaten, they start discussing their dreams about what it would be like if Peter grew up (note that they’ve met an adult version of him from Earth-616). MJ saw him as the leader of the Ultimates in the future, possibly the greatest hero of all time, while May saw him combining being a hero with advance tech to make the Spider Corps, and Gwen saw him as a reporter…which is pretty much what his 616 counterpart was before going the scientist route. Miles wishes that he had gone to see Peter when he first gained his powers and imagines being a team, as a side-kick or partner. Kitty saw them being married and forming a team with the X-Men, while Bobby just ripped off the cartoon loosely based off the series.
In the end they all feel like doing something good in Peter’s name and goes to the Mission to give to those in need and there is a lot of people after Galactus showed up and ate New Jersey. When they get done the group parts, with Ganke getting another kiss (go Ganke!), Kitty being escorted by Kong, Jessica taking Lana home, Liz, Bobby, and Johnny taking flight, and it ends with Gwen and MJ hugging while a mysterious person watches from the shadows.
Okay, review time.
This…this is a damn good issue, a tribute to Peter Parker even after his death. The art, the story, all of it was perfect. For once I have no complaints and can’t wait for the first issue in Miles’ new series.
It’s not a 5 out of 5, it’s a damn 10 out of 5, 200% and a must buy.
Twilit Dreams Circle 