Rating:  -
I thought that this one was pretty good. I'm still getting used to Immonen's drawings vs. Bagley's. They're ok for the most part, but I don't think MJ looks as cute.
The story-line feels like filler plots in-between major comic story arcs. But that's ok. Liz becoming Firestar was pretty cool; and this volume explains a lot of her past "mutant-phobia". I look forward to seeing where that goes.
Rating: -
I mean the artwork. When you read over 100 issues by the same artist, it's gonna be hard to transition to a new artist. Granted, any artist can draw pretty good superheroes - features are less defined since most of them are under masks and costumes and have certain really distinguishable features - but this is not the case with illustrations of real humans and that is where the new artist falls short. They are, of course, in another style since every artist wants to be unique and have his or her own style. The new style really takes some getting used to if at all possible. Many details in the human drawings are missing which was what made USM such a hit. The minute details and expressions that are so unique to this book and so critical to the writing of this book are gone and it's really not the same anymore. The new artist, Immonen draws pretty good adults and action sequences, but really falls short on the teenagers which Bagley really had a knack for. Unfortunately, most of the success of USM are the stories about the teenagers and their everyday life which really connect to kids and their lives in terms of dialogue and events which you really cannot find in a lot of comics and the original Spider-Man series. I was not really a fan of the orignal artist, Bagley, in the beginning, but he really won me over in the end with his skills in drawing kids with real emotion. The new artist is more suited for non-stop heavy dozes of action sequences which you can really find in almost every comic.
Rating:  -
As far as my taste in Marvel goes the characters alone in the TPB had me ready to buy it the second that it came out. For anyone who is a fan of the teens of the original MU (Spider-man, Human Torch, Iceman) you should buy this based on their inclusion alone. HOWEVER, the story itself is a little mishmashed. The story begins as a typical day in the life of Peter Parker. We are at school at Midtown High, with Mary Jane, Liz Allen, Kenny,and former X-man Kitty Pryde. Then, out of nowhere, Johnny "Human Torch" Storm, and Bobby "Iceman" Drake just happen to appear for various reasons on the same exact day (and HOW exactly is it that the general population doesn't no Parker is Spider-man?) All in all it is a good trade. The goal of the first arc is to introduce Firestar, which is done interestingly and differently then the main Marvel Universe. The Omega Red story is kind of a throwaway, but the real gem is the Shocker story, giving us insight on the goofball that Spidey beats on on a regular basis. A good buy.
Rating:  -
Ultimate Spider-man is a fantastic book series to begin with. Couple that with the fact that Bendis took one of the most notorious stories in comic book history and fixed it... well, you just need to read it. The volume contains what would take two trade paperbacks to hold and it looks good on a shelf. Of course it looks best next to the other eight volumes of the series, but you get what I mean.
Rating: -
The opening of the book is a nice change of pace from the recent clone craziness, but it all comes together for one of the most memorable USM endings ever.
Stuart Immonen's art is fantastic! It seems much more emotive than his work on Nextwave and suits the book to a T. He's even controlled his habit of giving women giant, bouffant, 80's hair [for the most part]. Personally, I like his stuff here better than Bagley's, which, while always being reliable and consistent, tends to sometimes lack energy and excitement.
Ten thumbs up! Buy this if you want a great Spidey read!
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