Title: Ultimate Spider-Man
Issue: 42
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: August 2003
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert
Colorist: Transparency Digital
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Nick Lowe, C.B. Cebulski, Ralph Macchio
A student at Peter Parker's high school has developed the ability to make cars (and presumably other things) explode. Wearing half of a homemade costume because his normal spider-suit isn't available, Peter swings into action to put a stop to the mayhem.
This is one of those stories where it's hard for me to explain why I like it. The character of Geldoff is one of the most annoying characters I've seen in a comic (I think I'd need a couple issues of him to know for sure if he's on the level of, say, Damian Wayne, but the potential is there). And almost the entire issue is Geldoff being annoying.
But yet, the dialogue between him and Peter Parker is actually a really interesting examination of the whole "with great power comes great responsibility" concept. Geldoff questions just about everything about Peter's life as Spider-Man, and for all that he just plain fails to get it, it's all too easy to see in Geldoff the boy that Peter Parker was on the way to being before the death of his uncle.
The ending splash-page introduced a whole new set of complications, and I thought that artistically it was trying a bit too hard, but in general I liked the artwork on this, especially the facial expressions and body language between Geldoff and Peter.
There were some nice little details as well, like Geldoff's refusal to accept the possibility that he could be a mutant because of his religious biases. A lot in this issue was played for laughs, but there were some very serious undercurrents to it all.
Rating: 8/10
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