SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008. Welcome to my comic book review blog - thanks for tuning in. Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you!

Today’s Issue:
Ultimate Spider-Man #122 - published in May 2008 by Marvel - written by Brian Michael Bendis (Mighty Avengers, Secret Invasion) with art by Stuart Immonen (Action Comics, Nextwave). This was the last issue published before the start of the current arc. It has a stand alone story, and I wanted to review it because it was really good!

Premise:
In the Ultimate Universe, the Shocker is a complete loser (hey - it’s kinda like the regular Marvel Universe! <— Shocker burn!) Anyway, there’s a recurring joke where Spider-Man takes him down but he keeps getting released because Spidey never makes an official arrest. Shocker’s just a small-time thief who provides minor comic relief for the series. But in this issue, Shocker actually captures Spider-Man, unmasks him, and starts torturing him for all the grief Spidey’s caused. MJ has to come to the rescue. It’s good times.

Awesome Parts:
I like that this is a stand alone story. It actually makes a good jumping on point for the series. The “Previously in Ultimate Spider-Man” page recaps everything you would need to know to follow the story. We see some great stuff pushing Peter to the edge of that line between hero and villain. And there are great relationship moments between both Kitty and MJ who have to work together to get Peter out. Bendis also did a great job of turning a joke character into a legitimate threat to Spider-Man and making it feel realistic. He also makes talking heads work. He does this all the time in Ultimate Spider-Man - talking heads that are so engaging you don’t even notice. Kudos, my friend.

Un-Awesome Parts:
Bendis plays with time A LOT in Ultimate Spider-Man. It’s always “two hours earlier” this, “two months earlier” that, and “an hour and a half before that scene that was two weeks before the two months from now scene.” Okay - it’s not quite that bad. And sometimes it actually works. But not in this issue. We see in the very beginning that Shocker has Peter held prisoner. I think that completely ruins the previous fight (which we see later) because we KNOW Shocker is going to win. Of course, if you read the premise of the book, or looked at the cover, you would know he was going to win - so maybe it wasn’t such a horrible reveal.

My Recommendation:
Pick up this book if you’re a fan of Spider-Man and looking for a jump-on point for Ultimate Spider-Man. This is a good issue for that. [I actually recommend starting from the beginning, but understand you might not be able to afford all those trades. Though - and don’t tell anyone I told you this - all of the Ultimate Spider-Man trades and a whole lot of other comic books are available at the Sacramento Public Library. Maybe your library has some, too!] I also recommend this to people who aren’t necessarily Spidey fans but are interested in the human components of torture and other philosophical issues. There are some good questions raised in this issue about how much someone can take before they snap, and crossing that line between good and evil. There are other questions raised about how we know what “the right thing” to do is. People interested in those types of questions should pick up this issue as a nice stand alone story with some philosophical implications.

That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you next time. And don’t forget to let me know if there’s a comic book you’d like me to review for you!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com

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