Ultimate Spider-Man #42

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics

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

Ultimate Spider-Man #52

I got this two summers ago at NJ Gamer Con.

Title: Ultimate Spider-Man
Issue: 52
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: March  2004
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert
Colorist: J.D. Smith
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Nick Lowe, Mackenzie Cadenhead, C.B. Cebulski, Ralph Macchio

This story features a realtively young/inexperienced Peter Parker who has just gotten to know the Black Cat. He agrees to meet her for a rooftop rendezvous, admitting it's against his better judgement, but they are quickly interrupted by the Kingpin's newest assassin, Elektra (also young and inexperienced in this version).

The title of the story is "Catfight", and the resulting match with attempted interference and narration by Peter Parker, is about as male-gaze-y as the title suggests that it is going to be. The whole thing feels like there isn't much at stake, and indeed, little of consequence is accomplished story-wise when it's all done. There are a lot of panels of fighting, but none of them are all that interesting, and in the end, Peter, is left in the same self-esteem crisis that he started the issue in.

There is a bit of plot advancement and character development in the cutaway scenes to Kingpin, but still nothing of great consequence.

This felt like a WWE house-show match where nobody is working to their full potential, and everything has to remain unchanged because it's not being televised.

Rating: 3.5/10

Avengers Assemble #1

Title: Avengers Assemble #1
Date: 2012
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Mark Bagley
Inker: Danny Miki
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Alex Alonso, John Denning, Lauren Sankovitch, Tom Brevoort

This is the (cute!) Newbury Comics cover variant. The team looks like pretty much the lineup from the upcoming movies (and Hawkeye spends most of his scene contemplating his own mortality! Uh, oh!). For the six or seven of you out there who haven't seen the trailer, that would be Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye.

We open with the formation of a rather lazily designed villain team based on the signs of the zodiac. Conveniently, they are also named the Zodiac. Apparently they all have star-sign-related powers, and they are after some unknown maguffin which will give them even more powers.

Aquarius steals the thingy from the Army in a battle that Hulk gets involved in. The thingy then ends up in Latveria, where Clint and Natasha are doing some covert... um... taking out of sentries, I guess. It's never really explained what they're doing there, but they end up hijacking the truck carrying the thingy ("The Ark has been put on a truck." "WHAT truck?"). This brings in Zodiac member Taurus, and the Avengers retaliate with Iron Man and Thor. Brawl. To be continued.

The rest of the book is the same preview pages for Avengers vs. X-Men that appeared in the X-Men Vs. Avengers Program Guide.

I liked the fact that the Zodiac were depicted as inexperienced with their powers. That was fun. But the entire Zodiac concept is just such lazy writing that it raises the goofiness factor of this book to the point that it detracts from the story.

Rating: 4.5/10