Ultimate Comics Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More

[cyberghostface]

So here we are with the conclusion of Miles' first title. After this there was the three-issue Cataclysm tie-in and then 'Miles Morales Spider-Man' before leading into 'Secret War' in which Miles moved to 616 (or whatever Marvel wants us to call it.)  This is a good drop-off point as any but if people want me to continue I will.

#23 picks up a year after the events of last issue in which Miles declared that he would be Spider-Man "no more".



That's Kate as in Kate Bishop.







Gwen Stacy is the waiter at the restaurant.



There's an explosion outside the restaurant.



#24...

We flash back to when Tandy and Tyrone were dating. This wasn't Tandy's first appearance in USM, she had previously appeared as somewhat of an anti-mutant bigot a few years back.


The two are in a car accident and are in a coma.









#25...



We flashback again to Cloak and Dagger. Sterns, the old guy, can apparently transform himself into a Hulk-like monster.







In the present...







#26...



This is Bombshell's mother for those who don't remember.





In the present...








#27...



Insert sarcastic comment about the venom blast here.

#28...

The Roxxon Brain Trust arrives.

Comments

[starwolf_oakley]

Does Gwen think she's in a Batman story?

"You're not okay, And honestly, you never will be. Not really. So you'd better be ready to be miserable for the rest of your life, and take that misery out on, well, everyone. Not just the bad guys, but other good guys. And then act like a superior, elitist dick if they dare call you on it."

Huh, I'm ranting on how Batman is unbearable to other superheroes. Oh, well.

[burkeonthesly]

I think Sterns in this must be the Ult version of 616 Hulk villain the Leader.

Also, I'm liking that last panel, the way Miles' build around the chest and shoulders has moved from the shapes and proportions of a child to those of an adult, a visual cue that he's grown up. They did the same thing with Aang in the Avatar finale.

[espanolbot]

Wait, I thought that Ultimate Sinister was a huge buff dude who hallucinated Apocalyse telling him to do things? He pushed Xavier down a flight of stairs once.

[filthysize]

That's the same guy. He still has his tattoos under that suit. He just slimmed down and shaved his beard because Bendis wanted to take him in a different direction.

[mrstatham]

But.. Didn't he actually get turned *into* Apocalypse during Kirkman's run? Or was that.. I forget, was that avoided because of the Phoenix or whatever?

[scorntx]

He became a host for Apocalypse. Then Jean went Phoenix and burnt Apocalypse out of him.

Spencer's run on Ultimate Comics X-Men showed he was back to working for Apocalypse, with help from Layla Miller.
(And then Spencer left UC X-Men and the next writer along dumped that storyline entirely.)

[mrstatham]

Huh. Right. I just remember there being some lazy time-reset thing with the Phoenix, and.. Yeah. Not a huge fan of Kirkman's run, especially after Vaughan's was a high point for me. Thanks, though!

[mrstatham]

As much as I'm still not sold on Miles - I still don't feel the kid's made a big enough impact and think this has only worsened in transplanting him into Not!616, I think Bendis really shines with stuff like this. He's really solid with characters like Bombshell, who was a one-note joke a la Shocker (she has a foul mouth and blows things up), who then started being used as a legitimate character and had a great arc that weaved into the main story pretty well. It's just a shame he couldn't do this on his Avengers books.

[scorntx]

I think the fact Bendis keeps using the phrase "men of science" is almost, but not quite, as irritating as the way he keeps calling them "Legos".
It's LEGO. Or Lego. Not Legos. Say it right, ya bum!

Seriously, why does he keep having them say "men of science"? Does he break out in hives if he writes "scientist"?
(Sorry, but that particular Bendism is so annoying for some reason.)

It's hard to reconcile this depiction of Roxxon with the fat schlub back in "Silver Sable". When'd he become evil and / or reasonably competent?

Also, still disappointed that after the implications throughout all this it turned out Aaron Davis was just... some street brawler, rather than a super-criminal.

Also also the Kate Bishop "romance" was just... oy...
We're supposed to care about this character, even though before this the only thing she'd been doing was looking at stuff in the background, now she's here and all we're told is that she and Miles are super-super-together without ANY buildup (yeah, timeskip. Don't care. Not good excuse.)
And then she turns out to be Eeeeevilll anyhow.

Also also also the exchange between K, M and Ganke about LEGO is Bendis is tremendously irritating too.
Possibly more irritating than "men of science".

[cyberghostface]

We're supposed to care about this character, even though before this the only thing she'd been doing was looking at stuff in the background

I never got the impression that we were supposed to 'care' about her. She appeared in a few scenes before the reveal but Bendis never shilled her like BND did with Carlie Cooper and going on about how perfect she was for Pete.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Pretty sure most people call them "legos," even if it is LEGO. Just one of those things, almost like a generic version of the term.

[q99]

I feel the timeskip was a minor mistake, as it interrupted/slowed down plot progression for awhile.

Minor because, if it'd gone on, it'd be just one bit, and as-is, it was a much smaller hiccup than a number of other events.

[beyondthefringe]

Oh look! Another slew of characters who have nothing in common with either their 616 inspirations or with previous ultimate depictions, and who aren't as interesting as their original source material. Color me surprised. (Layla Miller, Sterns, Essex, and Arnim Zola, as well as Taskmaster.)

Meanwhile, Bombshell, an original character, is much more interesting.

The UU was always bad at creating characters-in-name-only.

[mastermahan]

It's odd seeing her plugged into a generic mad scientist role, seeing how Bendis created the original Layla Miller. But then, he only used her as a walking plot device.