SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Tuesday, November 25th, 2008. Welcome to my daily 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 – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Today’s Issue:
Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3. Published by Marvel in October, 2008. Written by Brian Michael Bendis (Powers, Secret Invasion) with art by David Lafuente (Patsy Walker: Hellcat, X-Men: Divided We Stand). Cover Price $3.99. This comic book is part of the “March On Ultimatum” crossover event.

Premise:
This is a pretty standard Spider-Man story. Peter and MJ are having relationship problems (this time revolving around sex). Meanwhile, Spidey’s got to deal with a new mysterious villain.

Awesome Parts:
This is a very well written Spider-Man story. Everything you could want from a Spider-Man story is here. And the Ultimization of this new villain (I’m not saying who - it’s a surprise) is handled incredibly well. He’s a villain that doesn’t always translate well - but he was downright menacing here. Well done Bendis.

Un-Awesome Parts:
It was awkward watching MJ and Peter consider having sex with each other. I mean - they’re 15 years old. Which I suppose means Bendis captured those characters perfectly! Bendis played with time, again. Normally he does it really well. And I do like the way the story was broken up, interweaving the two tales with each other. But I felt we lost a bit too much of the story in the temporal transitions. Finally, this story has less than nothing to do with Ultimatum. Apparently the “March On Ultimatum” “crossover” just means the issues taking place right before Ultimatum. That’s just false advertising. I would say I don’t like the idea of a Spidey tale that doesn’t fit easily into continuity - I mean, when in the regular series are we supposed to believe this is taking place? But there are 2 explanations for that: first, I just don’t like the concepts of Annuals in general, and that’s not Bendis’ fault; second, Bendis said he really wanted to find a way to work with David Lafuente, and this provided that opportunity without derailing regular Ultimate Spider-Man artist Stuart Immonen.

My Recommendation:
I recommend Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3 to any 15 year olds considering having sex so that they can see what an awkward topic of conversation it is. Seriously though, anyone who wants a good Spidey tale should pick this up. Nobody who is interested in Ultimatum should pick this up though - it has NOTHING to do with that crossover.

That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold

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