Rating:  -
With the "Ultimate" universe, Marvel gave license to some of today's top comic writers to create modern versions of many of the classic Marvel superheroes. With the Ultimate Spider-man series, writer Brian Michael Bendis was tasked with re-telling the story of one of the most popular and be-loved fictional characters ever created. Talk about a daunting assignment.
The Ultimate Spider-man Volume 1 hardcover actually includes the first two trade paper backs, Volume 1: Power and Responsibility and Volume 2: Learning Curve. If you're thinking in terms of individual comics, that's issues #1-13 of the series.
As for the content of this book, I will try and speak to the quality of it without giving away any spoilers (though if you read Amazon reviews, you probably already know everything about this book). Ultimate Spider-man is set in a post-911 New York City. Otherwise, it follows the same basic events of high school nerd Peter Parker's transformation into the super-hero known as Spider-man as the original series.
There is a greater emphasis on Peter Parker as a high school kid in this story than in the original, and quite frankly it adds a great deal more depth to this tale. It's also refreshing to see more focus on the impact of Parker's dual identity on those he cares about.
While the story is clearly written for all ages, and has a heavy focus on the angst of its teenage characters, mature readers have much to enjoy as well. This isn't your standard golden or silver age good vs. evil comic book. There are many shades of grey in the Ultimate universe, and Spider-man is no exception.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this first installment in the Ultimate Spider-man series as a great introduction to a new, yet familiar story. The art is top-notch, the story telling is compelling, and it continues to get better in the next few chapters.
Rating:  -
Personally, I was sick of grown-up Peter. Married to MJ, screwing his whole life up.
Let's rewrite the whole history and see what happens, hm?
Bendis and Bagley have created a gem in Ultimate Spider-Man. This volume starts things off with a bang. The series remains true to some of the key elements that made Spidey such a hit in the beginning, but adds some much needed "oomph" to the story and appeals to a much wider audience.
If your a librarian, get this book for your middle and/or high school now. It's a wonderful way to get kids to read, and comic-fan parents, this is a great way to get your 11-and-up year-olds into comics.
The only problem is, beware of Bendis. As volumes get further along, there is more sexual innuendo involved and Bendis tends to cop out on some key plot points (probably whenever he had too many titles to write that month). It's a great ride, but be aware that some volumes simply won't measure up.
Rating: -
Ultimate Spider-Man is still one of the best comic books being published today . This volume is where it all started.
Marvel's decision to "re-boot" the Spider-Man story and re-tell his origin in the present day could have been a total disaster. Fortunately, the guys they hired to do it are creative and funny, and the result is a comic book that really captures the spirit of classic Spider-Man (much more so than the current unmasked, undead, iron-suit-wearing, bone-spur-wielding Spider-Man in the "regular Marvel Universe"!) while still being fun and up-to-date, and a brilliantly entertaining work in its own right.
If you've ever been a fan of Spider-Man, or of any super-hero comics from before the days of "grim & gritty" everything, you owe it to yourself to check out Ultimate Spider-Man. Pick up a used copy of one of the paperback collections if this is too expensive, or just pick up the current issue at your local comic book store. I predict that if you do, you'll soon be returning to the internet to pick up all the collected editions in short notice, just as I did.
This book loses one star for Marvel's continuing insistence on using a glued binding (like a paperback) in their hardcover books. Artist Mark Bagley frequently lays out his pages "horizontally", so that the panels on two consecutive pages are read from left-to-right across both pages, instead of one page before the other.
With this book's tight, glued binding, you always lose some of the artwork into the gutter where the pages come together. It's also sometimes hard to tell when you're on one of those "widescreen" 2-page spreads, because the pages don't open wide enough for the shape of the panel layout to be obvious.
It is a continual source of astonishment to me that the comics industry, whose artwork is indispensable to the finished product, continually treats its artwork so shabbily in its collected editions.
That said though, these books are still among the most entertaining comics being published today and are well worth a read for any fan.
Rating: -
An earlier review says that this (and the rest of the Ultimate series) is a copout from Marvel that alienates readers who have been fans for years. The other series are still going, and Ultimate may not be for those older fans, but the Ultimate series is a necessary change for Marvel. These comics have been around for forty years----and once you get that far, it gets to be necessary to go back to the roots of things, to take the same ideas and give them new twists, to tell familiar stories but rework them in a different way. (And sometimes, a BETTER way.) It isn't blasphemous----please, how many different versions of any comic "canon" are there? We're a different culture, a different society, and it doesn't matter how old or young you are----these comics are very well-written, and updated for the 21st century rather than the 1960s to reach new readers, not just "younger" readers.
This new version presents Spider-man as younger and more awkward, with writing that encapsulates our current need to see a Spider-man who is a person as well as a superhero. There is more depth in the Ultimate series right off the bat, because there are forty years of previous canons to back it up, and characters we're already familiar with, even if they're in a different setting.
The Ultimate series is great for anyone just getting into Spider-man, or any comics in general, or even for those older, die-hard fans... who are willing to open their minds and see that just because something's different, and updated, doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, it's quite good.
Rating:  -
I bought the hardcover because of all the hype. It's sat on my shelf for a long time while I read things of higher priority. I'm coming off of Warren Ellis's Planetary series (first volume, which is excellent. Not much can compare to that fine work, but this is an entertaining read nonetheless.
I must admit that I have only read half of the work. However, I can that the art is solid but not spectacular. The dialouge is believable and at times cute. Bendis works well with tweaking existing characters without making them irrelevant in the Marvel Universe. It's not worth the price for the hardcover, but Spider-man fans out there may have a different opinion.
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