Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #8 Discussion/Spoilers & Review by wyokid

[wyokid]

Can somebody say "gang war"?

[sage6paths]

Can somebody say "gang war"?

If Mysterio is still alive. Then Mysterio vs the Scorpion?

[Trevor M.]

Bendis has confirmed that Mysterio will come back.

Maybe challenging Scorpion for control of the underworld?

[wyokid]

See? I had the same hypothesis too. I was expecting Tinkerer to be Mysterio's programmer or something, but we will never know. At least it's not as bad as how Bendis discarded the storyline of Venom, Bolivar Trask and R.H.I.N.O. from the video game. That was pure genius, yet he took it out and wrote one of the lamest stories ever: War of the Symbiotes.

Bendis wrote the game...

[Wolverine12]

This issue started out great, I felt a real pang of nostalgia seeing Gwen and May again and it reminded me how much I missed reading about them regularly. After their scene it felt all kinda down hill for me though. I agree with the others that say it felt like too "short" of a read. I also feel as if we didn't move forward at all. We understood Aaron knew Miles secret last issue, why give us 3 pages of him lording this over Miles head only for nothing to happen, and then follow it up with 2 more pages of Miles simply contemplating what this means while Ganke stares at him like a creeper? Super dull. Miles in the costume was fun as seems to be a regular trend, and seeing the crazy police station again was also a nice touch. Scorpion vs Miles is something that I am absolutely excited to see, but watching him kill a bunch of nobody thugs playing cards seemed a poor use of his talents, especially after we got to see him fight Prowler. I do like that Pichelli is back, but this issue wasn't her best for sure, I also noticed the lack of backgrounds but still she did a solid job. At the end of the book though I literally said "meh" out loud so I feel that is how I should vote lol.

Story: 6/10
Writing: 6/10
Art: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

[MrV]

Bendis wrote the game...

I never said he didn't. And I knew that already. That's what makes it frustrating. He wrote the game and then adapted it, but the adaptation was crap.

[Wolverine12]

Also anybody else notice that "God" sent someone to do something again. It's a common theme in all three books now.

[wyokid]

Also anybody else notice that "God" sent someone to do something again. It's a common theme in all three books now.

I did, but I figured it was just generic Spanish Catholic stuff.

[sage6paths]

I did, but I figured it was just generic Spanish Catholic stuff.

Thats what I thought too. In the other issues God has been involved in big world events. why would he care (whoever it is (jean gray, Xorn, Magneto, Xaiver)) some guy being a crime lord?

[Trevor M.]

Okay, so we learn that some of Peter's oldest foes will be coming back (Venom!), his parents' names, Norman probably did something crazy before he died (Probably dealing with Spider-Men), and that some new ultimatized villains would be appearing.

[Plawsky]

While this issue wasn't the best of the new series by any means, it still continues a change in the right direction. The only real flaw was the pacing, which was extremely decompressed. However, I still vote "great" because it feels like Ultimate Spider-man again, just like the last issue did. The scene in the police station with "fat Nova" put a huge smile on my face. I think Bendis is finally realizing that, despite being a new character, this book still needs to be Ultimate Spider-man.

And, of course, the art was stellar. Sara Pichelli brings such a great vibe to this title. Her detail and character designs are fantastic. Sure, she messed up on Gwen's hair, but so what? Gwen looked terrible with her hair like that. The full page spread of Scorpion was also fantastic.

Gwen and May were awesome in this issue, and it's great to have them back, even if only a little bit at a time. I love how much is going on in the book, at least from a subplot standpoint. I feel that Bendis's USM stories are generally more straightforward, linear plots, but this is completely different. There's three distinct subplots going on here, and I like each one of them. If Bendis could just compress his storytelling a little bit, there would be a huge improvement. It's a little frustrating when the book only takes five minutes to read. But at least they were five entertaining minutes.

While USM remains vastly inferior to Ultimates and slightly behind Ultimate X-Men, I'm really digging its current direction. I really look forward to where this takes us, especially as Spider-Men is approaching.

[Balfro]

I loved this issue! The Scorpion is simply awesome. I can't wait to see some dialogue between Quaid and Miles. It was also very refreshing to catch up with Gwen and May. I wonder why Gwen changed her hair back... Oh well, I love her better as a blond anyway

[wyokid]

She only changed her hair so no one would notice her in New York, now that sh'e not in NY she doesn't need her hair dyed

[Russ840]

Where was it shown Miles is suppose to be stronger than Peter

It was not. I was writing in reply to the guy who posted before me. My bad because I did not make a quote.

[Sinx]

[SPOIL]
Pichelli needs to leave. Starting the book I knew I was in for a bad time if only do to the annoying continuity of Gwen's sunglasses. There were a ton of panels without backgrounds (which really makes me want to go back through and look at Pichelli's other issues to see if they're like that). The worst was the page that reused Miles' head four times in a row. Overall her art just seemed to lack any life to it.

You're crazy! I don't see how you noticed a few panels without backgrounds here, but didn't complain at the complete lack of any setting in the panels of Batwing. Pichelli reused those heads of Miles four times in a row for an effect, which I think she achieved. You can see something similar to that technique used in film all the time. I think she's doing a great job on the book and only wish she could keep up without having to have a fill-in artist.