Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Review

My Spidey Sense is tingling! There are some mild spoilers ahead!

September has been a busy month for comic fans. Whether a DC or Marvel fan, both have had big releases this month, and I’ve been busy reading them just as you’ve been, I’m sure. Between all the New 52 DC releases, Ultimate Spider-Man #1 came out earlier this month, and I would be remiss if I didn’t review it or at least mention it in some way here.

In case you didn’t know, earlier this year the Marvel Ultimate universe lost its Peter Parker. I wasn’t a fan of this particular series, but I fell into some of the hype brought on by “The Death of Spider-Man” as Marvel deemed it and I had to pick up the last few issues to see how it all played out. Even with little to no attachment to this version of Parker and his superhero alter-ego, I was still affected by his death. The writing in that issue is top notch; Peter Parker is given a heroes death, a truly somber moment resulting from a bitter and violent rivalry with Green Goblin, the same we’ve been reading about for decades.

I’ve always loved Spider-Man. I can say with confidence that he is my favorite superhero of all time. When I was a kid, my favorite books were Peter Parker: Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man. I especially loved Peter Parker: Spider-Man because of the focus on character, propelling Peter’s constant self-reflection, which always complicated him as a character, dimensionalizing him beyond a simple comic-book superhero. I cared about Peter Parker, and through those years of reading that comic, I too grew up, just as he did. I faced the same down-to-earth problems that he faced. While I didn’t have super powers, I related to Spider-Man’s identity crisis, girl troubles, and especially money problems. He had to balance his Spider-Man life with his personal life, and that story is unique to Peter Parker. When I heard that Marvel was replacing Peter with a brand new character, I wondered how they could do such a thing. Peter Parker is a unique personality with history and attitudes that cannot be repackaged and re-skinned. Parker makes Spider-Man, not the other way around. So, how could anyone else be Spider-man? Ultimate Spider-Man #1 sets out to answer this, but the new kid on the block has some big Spidey boots to fill.

Ultimate Spider-Man #1 picks up where the Death of Spider-Man story left off, but without Peter Parker. Enter Miles Morales, a young African-American and Latino kid from New York who is put in the same position as Parker was when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. Morales, too, is bitten, ostensibly given super powers that he didn’t ask for. The origin story told here is new, yet very familiar. The powers he discovers, of which are very few in this first book, are mostly the same with the addition of turning invisible. Yes, I said invisible. I’m not really sure how this is going to work, but that’s how I understood the turn in the book. The ancillary characters in the book are well written, almost self-consciously so, trying to avoid stereotyping, giving emphasis to a diverse reality.

The character of Mile Morales was and is a controversial move for Marvel. They took flak for being politically correct, revisionist, forcibly diversifying their canon. There is some argument for that, but I’m not sure why you need to argue this in the first place. Whatever the reason for the change, there’s really no reason they shouldn’t tell this story. For the first time, the Spider-Man story gets told from a brand new perspective, and that’s what I’m most excited about. I loved Peter Parker, sure, but I was also pretty comfortable with him, and he STILL exists outside the Ultimate universe. I’ve never really understood the Ultimate universe, but this sheds more light on why it does and should exist. Because of this alternative space, we get to see a familiar story play out with a brand new perspective applied, through Morales’ eyes, who, I expect, has plenty of interesting thoughts and feelings that we are all going to get to explore right alongside with him. The potential for sobering, realistic social commentary, plain and dynamic both, is high here, and that is exciting for anyone looking for something more from their reading than just “Ker-Pow” action sequences.

This issue isn’t full of in-depth reflection that helps us become attached to Miles quickly, because there is so much origin ground to cover, but there are glimpses of that exposition and personality that I’m excited about. On the technical side, the art is gorgeous; the panels filled with detail from the city scenes to the lab and apartment scenes, all are filled with small details that reveal character and setting. In the end, don’t let controversy repel you from checking out Ultimate Spider-Man #1. There is so much potential here that you’d be doing yourself a real disservice by letting that get in the way of what could be a phenomenal series that tells stories that have never been told in this way before. This is a new Spider-Man for a new generation, and I’m okay with that.

Score: 4.5 – “Super Fantastic”

Written by Chris Harder

Tags: Spider-Man, Comic Book Reviews