Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #2

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils & Cover by Mark Brooks

 

If there is one project that Joe Quesada has done with the utmost success than it has been his policy on making comics put out by Marvel actually matter. Well…that is the stated policy at least and it has been mostly implemented correctly. The biggest example is the Annuals, both Ultimate and normal, have all actually been stories big enough and important enough to truly fit the bill of an ‘Annual’.

 

If there is one thing that has always had me a bit perplexed, it’s the numbering system for the Annuals. Why number them 1 to infinity when it would be much clearer to all, especially those looking to fit this, now important, story into their collection, by simply distinguishing the Annuals by their year of publication? For some reason, Joe didn’t come ask my opinion on this matter. What’re you gonna do?

 

The creative team of last year returns, with Brooks being the only non-Bagley artist to touch an Ultimate Spider-Man title, ever. Picking up where the story arc ‘Warriors’ left off, Bendis re-introduces us to all of the other street level characters in the Ultimate Universe, namely Daredevil, Moon Knight and the Punisher. And all of them are after the Kangaroo, nicely re-done without his signature fur vest.

 

This is THE best Bendis story I’ve read all year. The plotting is terrific, the characterization is all spot-on, and the story has plenty of significance. The Punisher is truly a loose cannon, Daredevil is still trying to force Peter to stop being a superhero, and the Moon Knight is just crazy, always crazy.

 

The small flashback on how each of the characters got out of limbo and into the plot helps us get to know each one more intimately without bogging down the story in exposition. It also breaks up the fighting in a way that actually enhances the tension. By giving us three pages of fighting, three pages of flashback, and so on, Bendis keeps the fighting from becoming monotonous as there is certainly a lot of it in this story.

 

Bendis has learned to do proper fighting! This is a far better scripted layout than some of his previous attempts at large action scenes—think of Ultimate X-Men’s ‘Blockbuster’ where a missile flew at Wolverine for nine panels.

 

The other focus of the story, and directly connected to the Kangaroo, is Captain Jean de Wolfe. We already know she’s working for the Kingpin, but Peter has to find this out for himself. In the end, the Punisher returns to jail and Peter learns his lesson about blindly trusting figures in positions of authority. You’d think he’d have learned with Nick Fury. I don’t wish to give away anymore than that, so let me finish up by pointing out that Mark Brooks is the first choice I’d pick when thinking of a Bagley replacement.

 

The last thing we get is a hint, just a single conversation about it, of a street level team of heroes. They’ve been fighting each other as much as they’ve gone after the bad guys so it makes sense for them to attempt some kind of coordination, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get a separate series, just another element of the ongoing Ultimate Spider-Man.

 

Rating - 10