CBI Archive
Ultimate Spider-Man #97 Review
- by Brian Cronin
- in Comic Reviews
Saturday, July 12th, 2003 at 3:25 AM EST
Updated: Saturday, July 12th, 2003 at 3:25 AM EST
I’ve written often that I think a poor writing idea is to build a story around a “twist,” as you are placing way too much of your story upon that twist being good, and if it isn’t, then you’re basically screwed.
There is a “big twist” in this issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, and it’s one that anyone could see from ten miles away, with one eye closed.
Luckily, though, Brian Michael Bendis does not allow said twist to become the highlight of the issue, and as a result of this, the issue still manages to be a good one.
The addition of John Dell to the comic book has been a big plus, as Dell really makes Mark Bagley’s art look nice. However, Dell splits time in this issue with Jon Sibal, whose style I do not think goes well with Bagley’s at all (then again, I openly admit that, since he is splitting time, it very well may have been a, “Hey, Jon, could you help us out here? Ink these pages in an hour”).
This issue, as with all good issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, manages to find a nice balance between characterization and action. In addition, it was nice to see Peter and Mary Jane have normal conversations again. Bendis does a really job with the dialogue between Peter and Mary Jane in this issue. However, he does an equally good job with the dialogue between Peter and Kitty Pryde. I especially like how well he managed to convey Kitty’s suspicions about WHY Peter wanted to become involved with her and why he DIDN’T want to be involved with Mary Jane. You can almost see the gears turning. It is handled quite well. You sympathize with both Peter AND Kitty.
The fight scene is handled well, as Spider-Man fights the Scorpion at the mall, and we can really see how much damage superhero fights do (it almost made me think of Civil War…hehe).
The twist-that-isn’t-really-a-twist-especially-if-you-read-the-name-of-the-arc is fine, and the end of the comic has a real out of nowhere cliffhanger that was interesting.
I think this was a good comic with nice dialogue, good art (except the rushed stuff), fine action and interesting character interactions.
I would recommend it without reservations (even WITH the silly “big twist”).
5 Comments
Jordan D. White
July 13, 2006 at 6:33 am
Yeah… I agree mostly, but with a slightly different flavor. I thought all the character scenes wer good this issue, but the crystal clarity of the twist from second one made me impatient with the fight scene. I was like… ok, get on with it, we all know where this is going.
Although, that is funny… being impatient with an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man? The book reads in about a minute.
B Cole
July 13, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Coloring look funny on this to anyone else? Actually, more the printing. I could see the dot patterns.
Simon
July 14, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I breezed past the title on the cover,and was busy deciding if the Ultimate Scorpion looked good or not when the twist came in,so decent fight decent twist OK issue.It’s much more fun to read reviews to find new good comics,I avoid comics advance news like the plague.Now if they’d only stop blabbing in the intro to TV episodes what happens they might be more fun too.
PS:In the end I only decided ‘oh it’s a mecha suit’ for the Scorpion’s get up.
Martin
July 16, 2006 at 8:32 am
I didn’t read the name of the story arc. I COMPLETELY MISSED THE TWIST! Bagley’s art is so awful that I stared at the guy fo a minute trying to figure out if it was supposed to Peter or someone else. I couldn’t figure it out, so I read on.
Brian Cronin
July 16, 2006 at 9:06 am
Haha…that’s classic, Martin.