Ultimate Spider-Man #129 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Stuart Immonen
Inker: Wade von Grawbadger
Colorist: Justin Ponsor

Story – Ultimatum Tie-In

Review
With how bad Loeb’s Ultimatum is, and issue #2 was just horrible, I was worried that it would carry over to Ultimate Spider-Man. Thankfully it seems Ultimate Spider-Man is safe from the horror that is Ultimatum.

The opening scene of this issue was just awesome. I think we can all relate to Johnny in this scene were we are on a date with a woman that is nice to look at but just a boring date. I just love how Johnny just calls up Peter to get him out his date by having it be a fake emergency call to get out of a date. We have all used this excuse at least once in our lives.

Bendis did a great job in that scene and showed that the Ultimate version of Peter Parker and Johnny Storm are much closer friends than their 616-counterparts. Also when a writer is able to have both a Superfriends and Star Wars reference in an issue, and makes it work, is a win in my book.

I was glad to see Spider-Girl back in USM, who is much more interesting than her 616-counterpart. I love the interaction between her and Johnny and I can’t wait to see Johnny’s reaction when Peter tells him that she is his clone. I am expecting a manga character type reaction from Johnny, and Peter’s friends since non of them know either.

I am also interested were Bendis takes Aunt May being arrested plot that happened at the end of the issue. It is completely realistic that a school that is constantly being at ground zero for some of the fights between Spider-Man and his villains to be forced to shutdown. It is going to be interesting to see how Aunt May will get out of this situation and how Peter will react to all of this news.

Immonen art did a nice job in this issue. Nothing special but his artwork got the job done. Though his art works much better when Bendis is writing action scenes and not the talking heads dialogue, which is the strength of both Bendis and this title.

Overall this tie-in issue is one of the best event tie-in issues I have read from an ongoing book from the big two. Typically when an ongoing book has to have its story tie-in to a the big event going on in that universe it turns out to be a bad read. But Ultimate Spider-Man #129 is one of the best issues from Bendis/Immonen team on USM and for now it seems USM is safe from the disaster known as Ultimatum.

Issue Rating
Story: 9.4/10 – Bendis continues to work his magic on Ultimate Spider-Man and this is just more proof why Bendis should just stick to writing solo books instead of team books.
Art: 7.3/10 – Immonen got the job done to provide some steady artwork.
Overall: 8.7/10 – Again Ultimate Spider-Men continues to be a strong read and it is thankfully not being affected by the horrible work Loeb is doing on Ultimatum.