Final two pages of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #154

[cyberghostface]

So this issue says goodbye to regular artist David LaFluente. While he started off rough, he improved as his tenure went on. This also marks the last issue before the "Death of Spider-Man" arc begins...

The final scene is a quiet one between Spidey and Mary Jane.



 

Comments

[mrstatham]

I'll be honest in that I personally think it's a complete load of shit that Bagley is coming back on board for the Death of Spider-Man story. Bendis had two great artists in Lafuente and Pichelli, and seemed really excited about having the two on alternating arcs for the book's forseeable future. So it seems like Bagley coming back on board is an editorial thing and something design to regain interest in the book.

As it is, I hate Bagley's pencils. He started out amazing on Ultimate Spider-Man, but as the stories went on and they got up to eighteen issues a year, he just got sloppy. Lafuente and Pichelli had given the book a new identity in it's relaunched state, but as with going back to the old numbering, I guess everything old is fucking new again.

[stubbleupdate]

II assume that Bagley is coming back to try to bring back fans who have dropped the book in the last few years.

Which is a shame as LaFuente started off really well and got better and better.

[mrstatham]

You're probably right, really. But Bagley already got bored of USM once, so how long before he gets bored again?

And as I said, he just doesn't have enough style for me. Bendis' scripts have really had the humour, fun and energy brought out in them by Lafuente, and I was eager to see exactly what Pichelli brought to the plate, given her work on Runaways and Pixie Strikes Back was really quite cool.

[skalja]

As much as I agree with you that Bagley is not nearly as good a fit for this title as any of Immonen, Pichelli and especially Lafuente, it seems more than a tad ungenerous to characterize his decision to leave the title after pencilling one hundred eleven straight issues at a rate of eighteen a year (which is half again the output of your average monthly penciller, and so prolific that UCSM needed to get two artists to match his speed) as "boredom."

[cyberghostface]

Exactly. Bendis and Bagley broke the record for the most longest consecutive run in Marvel history. He did his time and then some.

[damianwayne]

Who was responsible for spherical headed Spidey? the one when the title first relaunched, where his head looked like an M&M? Whoever that was, he sucks. If Bagley on means that guy off, I'm all for it.

[cyberghostface]

That was LaFuente, but as you can see from the current set of scans, he got better.

[liliaeth]

and they even made a joke about it in the comic itself a few issues later, where the girls all worked together to give Peter a haircut :-)

[mrstatham]

I'm not attempting to characterise the decision, just remembering what I read. I plainly remember reading in an interview with Bendis in which he suggested after Bagley's equally prolific run on Spider-Man in the nineties, he was concerned that Bagley was getting a little bored with the character by the time he left.

[skalja]

Or, to rephrase a bit, maybe he did get bored, but I'd say after a probably-unequalled (and if not unequalled, close enough) stint pencilling that much of a title in that amount of time, he more than earned his boredom.

[cyberghostface]

I thought both Lafuente and Pichelli were great artists but I always liked Bagley the best out of all of them.

[mrstatham]

I think I would be able to agree if Bagley had kept his pencils at the same standard they were around about the time he did the Venom story. But I just thought they seemed to degrade a little, then a lot, around the time they were doing that Spider-Man 2 tie-in 'Hollywood' story.

[ian_karkull]

I never understood what people like about Bagley anyway. He's a perfectly serviceable craftsman, but his art is pretty bland and tends towards the ugly side, IMHO.
Lafuente's work has much more energy and character.

[aaron_bourque]

He started out amazing on Ultimate Spider-Man, but as the stories went on and they got up to eighteen issues a year, he just got sloppy.

Dammit, he draws too fast! I hate that!

[mrstatham]

There's a difference between shooting above your mark in terms of production time and quality of pencils. I don't think the change in inkers helped at all, which I'm sure happened at some point, but Bagley's work, to me, suffered when he started the 'more than 12 issues a year' practice. That's all I'm saying.

USM was never one of those books that suffered from delays though, I'll give it that.

[icon_uk]

Okay, so given he's seen the likes of the end of the event which basically made mincemeat out of the Fantastic Four and most mutants, what made THIS one so bad?

[cyberghostface]

An entire city in Soho was destroyed thanks to Mysterio and (unwittingly) the Black Cat fooling around with an ancient artifact. Spider-Man almost set it off as well.

[aaron_bourque]

An entire city in Soho was destroyed

...

SoHo is just a section of New York.

[cyberghostface]

Meant city block. I was reading off the recap page to refresh my memory.

[greenmask]

Bagley's good, I won't argue with that, but he gives all his faces a certain amount of.. earnestness? That really doesn't agree with me. Ultimate Spider-Man with these other two artists on it has really seemed like a different book to me. Reading it has felt less strenuous, because the characters just don't look so, I don't know, "mature"? Not old, I can believe they're teenagers, but sort of put-upon about how disappointing it is that the world isn't perfect, but that they will struggle through because they've got to be the bigger person.

It's hard to explain.

[valtyr]

I really liked this issue; I adore the interaction between Peter and Tony. And the art is very cute.

[eamelion]

Is LaFluente really leaving? I haven't heard that. I just assumed that Bagley was jumping in for Death of Spider-Man, and then the regular team of artists would start up again after (because I don't believe for a second that the book is ending).

[skalja]

Yeah, that's what I was hoping too.

[cyberghostface]

Not 100% positive but LaFluente does write 'goodbye' in the last panel.

[skalja]

Lafuente and Immonen have been my favorite artists on USM by a long shot, and that's saying a lot considering I was convinced no one could replace Bagley. Pichelli's pretty great too, but I have to admit I'm more than a little put off by her completely ridiculous Black Cat design. I mean, even the most "practical" superperson costumes ... aren't, really, but a low-cut catsuit with points on the neckline, stiletto heels, and a tail that's constantly tangling around her? For a cat burglar? Really?

[baihu]

I gotta be honest here. As someone who doesn't follow the series, artwork here looks like typical fancomic standard on Deviant Art. Actually the lower end of such fancomics to be honest.

I honestly don't think stock gradients should ever be used in professional work, except for deliberately showing off something as being well...stocky? Like in certain Sandman scenes with Delirium, those make sense.

Also it's just really...really kinda bad looking to be honest.

[dalf]

http://www.davidlafuente.com/p/comic_02.html

Lafuente is really good when working with B&W, I don't know what's with the colorist...

[recognitions]

At first I was like, "Oh yeah, I hate it when I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but there's a scary noise down the hall."

[espanolbot]

Huh, so Peter changed his mind about the whole "I'll sleep with you when I'm older, because as I'm not dying in the near future there's no need to rush things" thing then?

Not that I'm complaining, I thought that Ultimate Peter and MJ were a nice couple, and seemed to gel more than the regular universe Peter and MJ, who I admit I haven't read that much of.

Maybe it's because the pair have been friends since they were kids and actually have the same circle of friends that makes more sense than "Peter: the world's most unlucky man after to that guy who survived both nuclear bombings at the end of World War Two, who happens to be married to a famous model and movie star".

Going for the everyman angle doesn't work when "supermodel wife" is added to the scheme of things. Not that I'm saying that MJ shouldn't be successful, or that Peter should be the twenty-something loser that he seems to be in the comics, I just think that Ult. MJ and Peter are a better match than the regular pair.

[cyberghostface]

I don't necessarily think the implication is that they're having sex, though.

[skalja]

I think the distinction you're trying to draw between Ult Peter/MJ and main universe Peter/MJ would be more convincing if everything you said about Ult Peter and MJ didn't also apply to main universe Peter and MJ. They met in their mid/late teens, became part of the same circle of friends (the others being Harry, Gwen, and Flash Thompson), dated on and off all the while becoming closer as friends, and eventually married. MJ's career did take off before the marriage, but she'd been part of the supporting cast for literally decades before that.

As far as MJ's career goes, I do have some objections to MJ as a supermodel, but that has more to do with the way the concept's been used historically along with the logistical issues of secret identity maintenance. Personally, I think it's a bit off that a man is considered less relatable because his wife is successful, but apparently I'm in the minority on that one given how consistently MJ is portrayed as more famous whenever editorial/the writers want to put Peter and MJ on the outs. The rest of the time, she's an actress/model who's recognizable to people in show business but still has problems finding regular work.