Spider Men

Brian Michael Bendis

Sara Pichelli

As much as I love Marvel comics, they do a gang of stuff that I avoid. They also publish a bunch of titles that somehow get lost in the shuffle that are actually great. I remember getting one tweet about Spider Men. It was just a picture of a poster with the mainstream Peter Parker and the Ultimate Spider Man who we know as Miles Morales. It was promoted quickly before the new movie was released this summer. Sure enough, I picked up issue one sometime during June.

We all know that Brian Michael Bendis rocks. His run on the Avengers (and most of the different groups) has been stellar. Sara Pichelli is probably one of the best pencillers in the game (yes, I said it). Her covers are the stuff of legend. Together, their work on the new Ultimate Spider Man is top choice and I hope they stick around with it for at least a few years.

I would be lying if I didn't say I was pretty geeked about Spider Men. Here is a confession: I was never really a big fan of Spider Man. He just didn't speak to me despite being a nerd while living in the projects. I am sure many of you want me to turn in my geek card somewhere. My thing with Spider Man is that he is like Gilligan's Island, his luck is always bad no matter what. I find that to be stupid. I digress.

I do love Miles Morales for several reasons. I love the world Bendis created for him because it does speak to me. I wondered how Bendis was going to mix the two worlds together. Remember in Morales' world, everyone knows that Peter Parker was Spider Man and that he is dead. What I love about the Ultimate Universe is that only the Norse gods come back, everyone else who dies stays dead.

So while Peter Parker beats Mysterio up for the umpteenth time, Parker stumbles upon an trans-dimensional portal that sends him into the Ultimate Universe. Originally, he thinks he is okay until he stumbles upon the Triskelion. Issue #2 has Parker and Morales battling it out. It's an awesome match as Parker unmasks Morales.

Morales brings Parker to Nick Fury. Parker escapes upon learning that the Peter Parker of this dimension is dead and everyone knows who he is. Parker encounters Aunt May and Gwen Stacy. It's an eerie meeting but Bendis pulls it off well. Fury brings in the Ultimates to capture the technology Mysterio has. I have to be honest, I was pretty scared about the entire set up. Bendis pulled it off. The artwork is superb. I wish it was longer than 5 issues. Everything happened pretty quickly. More props to Marvel for providing a free download for each issue. So those that purchase the single issue can have two formats to read it in. While I am not big on dimensional crossovers, Marvel was able to pull this off.