Hereâs how it happened: The gang at the Bullpen said letâs give our fans the greatest 12¢ worth we can! Letâs get a really different villain ⌠A bunch of colorful henchmen for him ⌠And letâs even add a great guest star!! So, we did!! Ultimate Spider-Man #3 is written by Jonathan Hickman, drawn by Marco Checchetto, colored by Matthew Wilson and lettered by Cory Petit.
Sean Dillon: Well, Scott, this certainly took a turn.
Scott Redmond: It most certainly did. Right in that Ultimate Spider-Man patented unexpected-with-a-dash-of-expected style.
Sean: I have to say, this feels like a step up from the previous issue. At the same time, I donât think approaching this series from an issue-by-issue perspective is working in its favor. Itâs good stuff, but the decompressed nature of it all makes talking about what happens here feel difficult.
Scott: One hundred percent agree. Fittingly, a perfect example of this centers on Peterâs family and the rest of the supporting cast.
But I donât even know Mary Jane Watson!
Sean: That isnât to say there arenât good moments here. Peterâs brief time with May is a lot of fun, complete with Ben Reilly ribbing. But itâs just that: brief. We spend about four pages with the Parker family, which the series billed itself as being the central focus of, before moving on to the conspiracy plot that dominates the rest of the issue.
Scott: Iâm all for the month-skipping feature that Hickman baked in here, as a concept. It makes sense with how he set up the return of Tony Stark and the Ultimates, a real-time countdown to that series. It has those typical pros and cons. Pros being that Hickman can skip over some of the nitty gritty moments that might bog down Peterâs hero training, Ben/Jonahâs search for their new purpose, and even the Fisk or conspiracy beats.
The con of it all is that so much on the page rings hollow, especially the family aspect as you mentioned. There isnât room to actually develop any of them outside of Peter. Leaving us with hollow shells that are recognizable from the outside (apart from Richard) with shades of personalities weâre familiar with from main Marvel. There arenât even any hints of the marketed struggle that would come from Peter trying to do the hero thing with a family. Apparently heâs gone three months running around with MJ none the wiser.
Sean: Yeah, this doesnât feel like that much time has passed. You would think the conversation about the costume would happen shortly after May found out about Peter instead of an entire month later. Like, I can see there being a jump in time between issues #1 and 2. But this feels like a week or two later instead of a month.
I think a large part of this not completely working is the length of each issue. Where the first issue was a 40-page dive into the life of Peter Parker sans Spider-Man, we have more traditional 20-something-page lengths for the following issues. As a result, we canât have moments that linger on specific elements of the text. We canât have the smaller moments between Peter and MJ thatâll make the big turn we all know is coming sing louder. We can have an entire beat with Ben and Jonah talking about the state of their paper because it ties into the larger plot of the story. One wonders if weâll have more MJ moments in next issueâs double date.
Scott: Fingers really crossed for that. Thinking about it a bit, this is kind of a Hickman thing, especially with Marvel stuff. Love his concepts and plots and how he structures things. But there definitely is a thing where he feels some characters more than others, and the rest are kind of just there in a sense. They have a role in the story and something big that is to come, but the payoff doesnât always hit emotionally as much as it should because the character beats were skipped. When a character speaks to him, the writing can be top notch and hits hard. Clearly he wanted to say something in regard to the hero struggle and a family, so hopefully it gets enough boost to actually resonate when that comes.
Sean: Which, again, might sing louder in a trade paperback rather than in single issues.
This is the payoff, you grinning gargoyle!
Sean: But do you know what does work in single issues? Fight scenes. And the vast majority of the issue is dedicated to a Green Goblin/Bullseye fight thatâs a lot of fun.
Scott: If the Shocker beats last issue were an appetizer, this was certainly the much richer first main course of the overall meal. For me it hit a lot of the right beats for what a fight like this would be like, with Goblin and Bullseye colliding with a still-learning Spider-Man caught in the middle. Funny enough, Bullseye is very much in the same vein as what I mentioned about characters above, but this works. I donât need anything meatier with Bullseye other than he’s an amoral assassin who just wants to revel in the chaos and lord over those heâs tasked with offing.
Sean: We really havenât talked about the art much in our discussions of the series thus far, but Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson are killing it here. I especially love the use of speed lines to emphasize each action beat, always moving in the same direction as the projectile, be it Bullseyeâs playing cards or Spider-Manâs webs. The choreography is especially impactful, always keeping continuity with where everyone is such that youâre never confused as you watch these two super-powered individuals duke it out.
Scott: Checchetto very much resides in that space where his work just oozes superhero energy but is so well structured and gorgeous at the same time. I can look at that and very much believe these characters might exist in a world like ours and move through it. The whole payoff for the trap beat paid off so much because of the choice to allow us to momentarily actually forget about Spider-Man. A lot of books would potentially have used a panel to show him struggling to get out. Honestly, I actually thought it might have been something else that was the trap just for that reason.
Sean: Heck, given the nature of what Spidey was trapped under, you could have easily made an homage to âIf This Be My DestinyâŚâ But I love the way Checchetto foreshadows the nature of the trap by virtue of having the wreckage surround both the Green Goblin and Bullseye, both within its web.
He looks like any other frosh to me!
Scott: Our battle here is bookended by character-related moments, this time giving a new spin on one of the non-MJ related relationships that has equal weight in the world of Peter Parker, that being the one between him and one Harry Osborn. I did enjoy the little banter between them and the way the identity reveals came about thanks to the tech involved. I do wonder if the time skip to come will take from us a chance to actually see a relationship develop, but a non-âwe grew up together/were BFFs foreverâ dynamic could be intriguing.
Sean: In many regards, Harry seems to be slightly more put together than Peter. Itâs worth noting that Harry started doing his terrorist activities months before Peter began his vigilantism, but he knows the score in a way Peter simply doesnât. That says, itâs not as if Peter isnât a fast learner or Harry isnât amicable to working with Peter in the future. One gets the sense that this heated drama between men will result in some really interesting things. It might even be the real reason Hickman wanted Ultimate Spider-Man in the first place.
Scott: I could see that. Hickman does like his close relationship heated man drama. To your point, a Harry Osborn that is far more put together and has plans and reasons for his actions that arenât just Goblin formula or Spider-Man related is nice to see. We of course donât know the full history of Norman Osborn in this universe, other than that heâs now believed dead. So we donât know if things were better between them or their interactions, but Harry being a guy trying to tear down the Kingpin and the conspiracy heâs linked to works. It avoids a lot of the traps that other adaptations tend to fall into with the character, even if some fall into the trap with style.
One More Day
- Despite the book overall being a bit weak in terms of macro level characterization, the micro level interactions between Peter and the various other characters remain delightful. Though, again, this seems to be limited to Peter, Ben and Jonah, and not, say, MJ or May. One hopes this will be improved next issue, especially with whoâs coming over for dinner.
- While reading this was a fun time, actually writing about this issue to issue feels like a chore. Not a lot is happening here, and you really wish there was more to the characters in what is structured to be a character piece. Itâs too thin to actually engage with.
- In relation to that, while some bits are flowing, some dialogue beats very much feel stilted in that âwe have to say a thing, even though no one actually talks like thisâ way. Which returns to the point of a loss of the macro level characterization.
- That costume cycle sequence just works. A bit of ribbing at previous costumes, but also commentary on Spider-Man as a whole even without the actual 616-related context. Lucky Peter didnât have to sew them all in this universe.
- Speaking of costumes, the ending bit was extremely charming and has some implications Iâm sure future issues will explore in more depth. Of particular note, I quite like the return of cross hatching background in Peter and Harryâs initial conversation. To say nothing about how Checchetto has Peter and Harryâs body language tell you everything you need to know about them.
- It might just be me, but the way Harryâs Goblin mask comes off feels very Kamen Rider.
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Scott Redmond
Scott Redmond is a freelance writer and educator fueled by coffee, sarcasm, his love for comic books and more "geeky" things than you can shake a lightsaber at. Probably seen around social media and remembered as "Oh yeah, that guy." An avid gamer, reader, photographer, amateur cook and solid human being.
