CBR: The Ultimate Spider-Decade, Part 1

[CBR News]

In honor of "Ultimate Spider-Man's" tenth anniversary, CBR kicks off a multipart look back at the series. Today, Brian Michael Bendis speaks on the book's origin, memorable story arcs and artist Mark Bagley.


Full article here.

[Kick-Ass]

The greatest comic produced in the last 10 years. That and my biography "Kick-Ass."

[Maestro]

People didn't like Geldoff?? I thought he was one of the best new characters of the last 20 years. He's right up there with Squirrel Girl.

[Tensu135]

The bit at the end there, with him talking about people like Bagley not receiving the acclaim they deserve, I totally agree with that. The man is one of the hardest working people in comics and his stuff is always good. Awesome that Bendis threw that in there.

[froinlaven]

Is it too early to call Ult. Spidey a classic??

[MarvelMaster616]

Is it too early to call Ult. Spidey a classic??

No, I don't think it's too early at all. Classics are defined by how awesome they are and how prolific they are. Ultimate Spider-Man helped establish the standard for the Ultimate universe. I say that's more than prolific to justify calling it a classic. Plus, it's been 10 years and it's been the most consistently awesome title. I say it has earned that label. Nuff said!

[Aziz Abbasi]

The greatest comic produced in the last 10 years. That and my biography "Kick-Ass."

I thought you include Astonishing X-Men to your list

[gunz]

"To this day, I can't tell you how much I love this man and how much I admire him. I've said privately in meetings and publicly on the internet that it's my opinion that people like Mark Bagley should be given reward after reward and award after award because they are exciting draftsmen, insanely professional and are nice to their fans everywhere they go. But instead, because of the nature of humanity, we reward people who are late with their books, we pay attention to people who misbehave and talk shit. I wish the world worked backwards so the person who was kicking ass quietly and with class was lauded for his amazing professionalism day in and day out. I'm sorry if I'm overstating this, but I believe wholeheartedly that's how it should be, and it's not."

A-F'N-MEN!!!!

I may not like everything bendis puts out, but ill be damned if ultimate spider-man isn't one ofthe greatest books of all time. Seriously, even a bad issue is still better than half of the stuff out there

[President Kang]

Ultimate Spider-Man has consistently the best damn Spider-book on the stands. For a solid decade. It brought be back to comics. Even if some of Bendis' other work doesn't exactly blow my skirt up every time, I go back to this book and it's always great.

400 issues, Bendis. With 300-400 being the return of Bagley. That'll make me happy.

[Kick-Ass]

I thought you include Astonishing X-Men to your list

Yes I would.

[striderhirryu2]

This was a good piece. Do all the hardcovers include behind the scenes bonuses?

[gill2k]

Now if only Marvel would release an Omnibus of this (in 2 or three volumes) to commemorate it's 10th anniversary, I'd be very happy!

[Ex_]

Phenomenal interview. Can't wait for part two.

[lorathz]

"To this day, I can't tell you how much I love this man and how much I admire him. I've said privately in meetings and publicly on the internet that it's my opinion that people like Mark Bagley should be given reward after reward and award after award because they are exciting draftsmen, insanely professional and are nice to their fans everywhere they go. But instead, because of the nature of humanity, we reward people who are late with their books, we pay attention to people who misbehave and talk shit. I wish the world worked backwards so the person who was kicking ass quietly and with class was lauded for his amazing professionalism day in and day out. I'm sorry if I'm overstating this, but I believe wholeheartedly that's how it should be, and it's not."

Others have already commented on this, but I just wanted to say: QFT.

[ZeoVGM]

"When Uncle Ben died in our book, people were like, 'Augh! You should have just killed Aunt May! We've already seen Uncle Ben die!' They thought it was supposed to be like a 'What If?' story or an alternate universe. We kind of had to retrain people so they knew that's not what this is," Bendis continued. "This isn't one of the dimensions in the Multiverse, despite the fact that there is a video game out there saying it is. I think this is another interpretation of the character, like how the movies or any of the TV shows are."

Well er... it is. Hence the Marvel Zombies being able to crossover into 616. (Though I get what he's saying, I just have to nitpick here.)

"This story was the only time Bill and I didn't really see eye to eye. He was gracious enough to allow me to do it my way, and in the back of the hardcover you can see Bill's proposal which was that Spider-Man had accidentally created Venom out of the web fluid and Venom actually comes out of his web-shooters. I convinced him that doing that would kind of ruin the web shooters, because how could you shoot webs if you thought that Venom was going to pop out at any minute? Bill deferred, and I was happy.

... That is AWFUL.