Ultimate Fallout #6 & X-Men: Schism #3

First up for this week, the final issue of the Ultimate Fallout mini-series, which is reshaping the Ultimate Marvel Universe(take THAT, DC!) and the middle issue of the X-Men: Schism event. The first issue of Schism was quite good, the second was a step down(in my opinion at least), here's hoping business picks back up again with this issue.

Ultimate Fallout #6(of 6):

Summary: Three stories here, the first is written by Brian Bendis and stars Aunt May and Gwen Stacy, the second is by Nick Spencer and stars Shadowcat(BOO!), Iceman(YAY!) and the Human Torch(YAY!), while the last story is by Jonathan Hickman and stars Nick Fury. We get started with Gwen(who has radically changed her look since she didn't want people to know who she was anymore) and Aunt May realizing that they were practically hostages in their own home thanks to the media being camped outside May's home. Gwen talks about getting away from the reporters and May mentions that Tony Stark offered to relocate May and Gwen anywhere on the planet. Gwen practically begs May to take Tony up on his offer, and after some prodding May calls Tony, who gives his private villa on the French Riviera to May and Gwen(Gwen wanted to move to France for some reason). With that, Tony sends his private helicopter and picks the two women up as they leave Queens and all of the bad memories behind. Next up, Shadowcat takes Iceman and Human Torch to the one place she's pretty sure will be safe for them, the abandoned Morlock tunnels. Finally, Nick Fury reveals that Steve Rogers had quit being Captain America, probably due to Cap's guilt over Spider-Man's death. From that headache, Fury heads to Mary Jane's house and finds her finishing up her article on how the world killed Spider-Man. Fury reads the article and seems legitimately hurt by MJ's words. Fury explains to MJ that he had known Peter Parker since he had been a baby(Peter's parents were working on a project for SHIELD), and that he should have done more to keep Peter safe and make sure he grew up into the man he COULD have become. Hearing the pain in Fury's voice, MJ promises not to send her article out to the media, and this issue ends with a tearful Fury(?!) telling MJ that she had every right to blame him for Peter's death, since it was all his fault.

Thoughts: Okay, first things first, I thoroughly enjoyed ALL three stories here. Seriously, storywise, I have no complaints... But(you had to know that was coming), the way this issue ended gave us no real finality... It ended with a page of Nick Fury crying a single tear over Peter's death. That's how this mini-series ended. I'm not all that clear on how that's going to lead us into the new Ultimate Spidey book. Speaking of which, the new Ultimate Spider-Man didn't even appear in this issue at all! He showed up ONE time this entire mini-series(issue #4 I believe)! That was it!! Hickman did a good job setting up his Ultimates series in this mini, Spencer did a pretty good job as well, although it did kind of annoy me that Jimmy from Ultimate X didn't show up once, but the lack of Ultimate Spider-Man hurt this mini just a tad for me. I'll be picking up all three of the Ultimate Marvel ongoings(as well as the Ultimate Hawkeye mini) thanks to this mini-series, but I can't help but feel Bendis could have given us just a bit more of his new Ultimate Spidey character... Oh well, I guess that's his way to get us to pick up the new Ultimate Spidey ongoing, and for this comic fan? It worked.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Wait, Johnny Storm has black hair now!?


X-Men: Schism #3(of 5):

Summary: We kick this party off with the new baby Hellfire Club jamming Emma Frost's telepathy before entering the just-opened Museum of Mutant History(or some similar sounding building). The pint-sized Hellfire Club eventually manages to take down the X-Men inside the museum(that would be Emma, Iceman, Magneto, Colossus and Namor, yes that's right, a bunch of punk-ass little kids defeated at least TWO omega-level mutants...) as well as a few of the younger X-Men who were with them, with the exception of Generation Hope member Idie, who managed to hide from the big bad little girl in pigtails. Realizing something bad was about to happen, Lord Summers pulls on his jetpack(huh?!) and flies away from Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia), with his destination being the museum. Meanwhile, Wolverine, who was out drinking not that far away from the museum, having heard about the disturbance on the TV, begins to race over to the museum as well. The baby Hellfire Club members decide to bring the defeated X-Men members outside the museum before leaving a suitcase and their adult minions behind. By this time, the Stepford Cuckoos have managed to link Lord Summers, Wolvie and Idie together telepathically, with Idie reporting back to Lord Summers and Wolvie what she was seeing. Upon hearing that there was a bomb inside, Lord Summers tells Idie to do whatever she felt she had to do to get the Hellfire Club's hostages outside and away from the bomb. Wolverine STRONGLY disagrees with Lord Summers strategy, and yells at him to have Idie get out of the museum, not confront the Hellfire Club goons. Idie emerges from her hiding place and attacks the Hellfire Club's goons, while the pint-sized Hellfire Club leaders retreat, having done what they set out to do. By the time Wolvie and Lord Summers arrive on the scene, Idie is walking out of the museum on shaky legs, telling the two that she had saved the day before collapsing. From there, the museum explodes, killing all of the Hellfire Club goons Idie had blasted before leaving the building. Wolvie gets pissed at Lord Summers and tells him that he never should have allowed her to be in the position to kill Hellfire Club members, while Lord Summers bitches Wolvie out for being in a bar instead of being at the museum. Before the argument can get interesting, the two realize that the bomb left by the tiny Hellfire Club members was more than first thought, as it begins to pull metal into it, creating an enormous Sentinel.

Thoughts: I hate to say it, by this ridiculous mini Hellfire Club junk is destroying what could/should be a great X-story for me. It's like I said last issue, if it was only ONE evil child running the Hellfire Club, I'd have no problem, because the X-Men really haven't dealt with all that many evil, genius, prepubescent enemies before. But four children, defeating the X-Men while making fart jokes does not a good story make. There's only so far I can overlook stupid storylines, and once we get FOUR evil, genius, prepubescent children trying to destroy the X-Men, my eyes begin to roll around in my head. It's too bad, because like I said, if the lead villains were adults, or even if only one of the evil children were there, I'd be lapping this story up. But as it is right now, I just can't enjoy a story where a bunch of 11 year olds are beating up Magneto while calling him a “withered old fart”... Come on, Jason Aaron I KNOW you're better than that.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Yeah, nothing says serious villain like a little girl with pigtails saying, "I farted".......

New Mutants #29 & Ultimate Fallout #5

With Fear Itself #5 out of the way, it's time to take a look at my other co-Pick of the Week, New Mutants #29, along with the ultra-controversial Ultimate Fallout series, which is reshaping Marvel's Ultimate Universe. Fingers crossed, both of these issues will score a 9 or higher...

New Mutants #29(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: Ahhh... I see it's the New Mutants turn to get sucked into the Fear Itself event... We get started with Hela being attacked and defeated in Hel by a bunch of weird creatures. Ultimately Hela turns into a murder of crows... Okay then. From there we head to Moonstar, who is flying to the remnants of Las Vegas to see if she could ask for Hela's aid against the Serpent and his Worthy. Unfortunately for Moonstar, the murder of Hela crows smash into Moonstar's plane and tear it apart. Back on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia), some of Moonstar's teammates are worried about her whereabouts. Except for Nate Grey, who feels that the New Mutants should be in San Fransisco with the rest of the X-Men dealing with the Serpent possessed Juggernaut. Preach it, Nate!! Ultimately Cypher figures that Moonstar was heading to Vegas to help stop the Juggernaut, so that's where the team should go. In order to get there, they head down to Crazy Mutie Island's prison, where Magik is being held. As the resident teleporter, the New Mutants want Magik to take them to Moonstar, but she tells them a) that she was going to stay in prison until she regained the trust of the X-Men and b) that she knew where Moonstar was headed(to Hel) and that she'd tell Cypher how to find a spell that would take the team to Hel. As for Moonstar, she wakes up in Hel, where she finds Hela's crown and sword. Back to the New Mutants, Cypher manages to recite the spell, but botches it and instead of teleporting to Hel, the team teleports to Hell, where Mephisto is waiting for them.

Thoughts: Again, this was a Fear Itself tie-in in the loosest sense possible. I don't think the stuff with Hela had anything to do with the main Fear storyline, and we only had a one page glimpse of one of the Worthy(Juggernaut). Besides that, I have to say, this team sucks... Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to bring Cypher and Warlock back to life?! Warlock is a joke that ceased being funny like 20 years ago and Cypher is, no matter how some writers try to tell us otherwise, useless. And Sunspot? Grow up all ready... The horny teenager act isn't funny anymore... I like Moonstar, I was happy to see Magma in this issue, as she's been woefully underutilized, and of course Nate is a plus, but man, most of this team is just bad... And before the twelve Warlock fans complain, remember, that's just my opinion. If you like Warlock, good for you, although I have NO idea why you would... As for the story, it was good and made sense(Moonstar gets lost, her teammates decide to look for her), so no complaints there. The art was okay, although I have to admit, the way Nate was depicted kind of bugged me as he was kind of drawn like the Incredible Hulk, which was pretty weird...

Score: 8 out of 10.Look out everybody, it's the Incredible Nate!!!


Ultimate Fallout #5(of 6?):

Summary: Two stories here, one featuring Nick Fury written by Jonathan Hickman, with the other about Quicksilver written by Nick Spencer. We'll start with the faster story, the one about Fury. Fury arrives at the Triskelion and gets a briefing on a few of the situations affecting global security. From there, he heads off and meets with a representative from the US president who informs Fury that the president was cutting SHIELD's funding by 30%. Fury is taken aback by that steep a cut, and tells the rep that people would die because of this, but the rep tells Fury he's just the messenger. With that, the rep leaves and Fury realizes that SHIELD was stretched way too thin. The Quicksilver story deals with Quicksilver telling a businessman that he wanted to gather and train a bunch of mutants. With the widespread hatred of mutants in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the businessman wants nothing to do with that, but Quicksilver basically tells the businessman that if given the capital to begin hunting down the mutants that were still at large, he'd basically sell them to the businessman at which point the businessman could use the mutant's powers to further his own company's interests. Ultimately the businessman agrees to this deal and Quicksilver sleeps with the businessman's assistant. While in the middle of the deed, Quicksilver's sister, the Scarlet Witch, appears to him and speaks cryptically about Quicksilver doing the right thing, and that he had to head to Egypt before vanishing. The assistant is kind of puzzled by Quicksilver's bizarre actions, at which point he throws her out to contemplate his next move.

Thoughts: The first part of the Quicksilver storyline was good. The Nick Fury part of this comic was very good. The second part of the Quicksilver story? With his sister appearing to him while he boinked that woman? Way too creepy for my tastes... Plus it hurt the story for me. I mean, if this comic would have ended without the creepy bedroom scene, I'd have probably scored this comic a full point higher. Okay, we get it, Ultimate Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have openly had an incestuous relationship. It isn't danced around or hinted at, it's pretty much accepted fact. With that said, I don't really want to read about it! Wanda could have appeared to Quicksilver at any other time, not on top of him while he was screwing some woman! I mean for god's sake, leave SOME things to the imagination!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Nick Fury's reaction in that last panel is awesome!

Ultimate Fallout #4(of 6?)

I figured I'd do a quick review of Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 before I posted a few more reviews later on tonight since this was the big reveal of who the new Ultimate Spider-Man is. I'm sure this issue will get people talking... Well, let's get to it!

Ultimate Fallout #4(of 6?):

Summary: We get started with lame-o Spidey villain the Kangaroo trying to shake down some chump for money. Before he can damage the guy too badly somebody in an Ultimate Spider-Man costume arrives to attack the Kangaroo. Kangaroo and many of the bystanders are kind of disgusted that somebody was masquerading as the dead hero, but fake Ultimate Spidey manages to defeat the Kangaroo using a spider-sense, agility and super-strength, all hallmarks of Ultimate Spidey. After that, he hops onto a building and realizes that wearing the Spider-Man costume could possibly be misconstrued as a sign of disrespect. With that, fake Ultimate Spidey pulls off his mask revealing... somebody I don't know... The second story deals with Reed Richards, who has apparently gone insane in the Ultimate Universe. Ultimate Reed manages to return from the Negative Zone and starts up an evil version of the Future Foundation. Finally, Valerie Cooper is trying to warn the government that some reporters had discovered that the US had been responsible for the creation of mutants.

Thoughts: Okay, so the new Ultimate Spider-Man is a minority. Let's get that out in the open right away, because that's all anybody is going to be talking about. Do I care? Not really. Do I think it's going to be successful for Marvel? No. No I don't. It's a proven fact that people don't like it when you change the identity of a big name comic book character(Batman with Azrael and Spider-Man with Ben Reilly come to mind), so I'd have to say this idea is doomed to fail, and that's too bad. I think Marvel would have been better served to give the new Ultimate Spider-Man a different name(Ultimate Scarlet Spider would have worked for me), but taking a beloved character like Peter Parker, and changing him out is a big mistake. It's always a good thing to try to get minority characters more mainstream attention, but you CAN'T change Spider-Man into a minority kid. Not unless you want it to fail. It's only going to serve to piss some people off and alienate fans, not bring in new ones. Sure, I'll be picking up the new Ultimate Spidey series, but I wonder how many other fans won't be now... So while this was a nice idea in theory, it was done terribly, and with the wrong character. Spidey is too iconic to change that radically. Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Peter Parker, these are the big three in comics. Fooling around with them is going to bring in some major backlash. Like I said, it's a nice idea, but it was done with the wrong character. So there's my piece on the situation. I'm sure people will have plenty of opinions on the matter, but remember, that's just my opinion, don't crucify me for it... Besides that, the Reed story bugged me since it looks like Jonathan Hickman is simply borrowing his Future Foundation junk from the mainstream Marvel U and bringing it into the Ultimate Universe, except with an evil Reed leading the way. Since I'm not a fan of the mainstream Future Foundation, I can't imagine I'd want to read about an Ultimate version...

Score: 7 out of 10.Fan reaction to this should be interesting...

New Mutants #28 & Ultimate Fallout #3

Okay, this week's comics have been brought, put in the order I want to read them, and are all set to go! First off this week is a look at my top pick, New Mutants #28, as well as the mini-series that's reshaping the Ultimate Universe, Ultimate Fallout #3. I'm going to try to get two more reviews up tonight after these, but I'm definitely not going to make any promises... Anyway, on to what I'm hoping will be two awesome comics!

New Mutants #28:

Summary: This issue kicks off with Moonstar inviting an old therapist friend of hers over to take a look at the mess that was her team. The therapist, Gus Grim, is led around by Moonstar, with their first stop being a look at Nate Grey in the Danger Room. Nate is cranky over the fact that Sugar Man's recent experiments had stripped him of most of his powers, leaving him with a minuscule amount of telekinesis. Nate demands that the Danger Room puts him into a battle scenario, but with his powers diminished, the Room had been programed to ignore Nate's requests. Our Lord and Savior Hope is also watching Nate in the Danger Room, pissed off that Nate was there and not old man Cable. Moonstar asks Gus for advice on Nate, and he recommends letting Nate battle some robots, since if he was to hurt himself he'd probably come to terms with his newfound limitations. From there Gus visits Cannonball, who's in a pissy mood over the whole lame Age of X crossover. After some talking Gus gets to the bottom of what was really bothering Cannonball, the fact that he was afraid to lead his friends and teammates into battle. Next on the hit list is Karma, who was working with Face, who comically has NO face... How clever....... *ahem* Anyway, Gus basically calls Karma selfish since she had made Face reliant on her. From there he heads to Magik's cell, and proceeds to vomit up some demons from Limbo... Man do I hate it when I do that... The demons tell Magik that they had hitched a ride in Gus and had gone to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) to free Magik. Magik explains to the confused demons that she didn't want to be freed, since staying imprisoned was the only way she'd ever regain the trust of her friends. With that she calls for Danger, who sends the demons back to Limbo. After that, Gus meets with Moonstar and she asks if he'd agree to meet with her team on a weekly basis. Gus explains that he went after the New Mutants he spoke to in a harsh manner(when he wasn't busy throwing up demons), and didn't think they'd want to hear from him again. Moonstar disagrees, telling Gus that some tough talk was just what the team needed to get their heads back on straight, so Gus agrees to return every week. This issue ends with Nate fighting(and losing) to some robots in the Danger Room. Before one of the robots could take his head off, Our Lord and Savior Hope arrives on the scene and extends the olive branch to Nate, offering to train him to protect himself now that his powers had left him, as Cable had trained her.

Thoughts: First the positive. Nate was still hanging around, which makes me think that he's going to be a regular in this title, which is great because that means Nate will be SOMEWHERE, which is better than nothing. Yes, it pissed me off to no end that Our Lord and Savior Hope had to come into the Danger Room and save Nate, but I'll deal with those little indignities in order to see my favorite comic character back in action again. Overall, I liked this comic. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning managed to make Magik(somewhat) likable, which is a minor miracle since I always saw her as a bit of a bitch. The therapist was kind of tough on Karma and Cannonball, but it made for a good read. As long as Nate is in this series I see myself enjoying it, since I know in my heart that Abnett and Lanning's work with Nate can never be as bad as the crap that used to go on in the X-Man series... The next few issues look to be Fear Itself x-overs, so we'll see how that works out.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.You know, Nate has always had a thing for redheads who may be related to him... Just sayin'...


Ultimate Fallout #3(of 6?):

Summary: We discover that Tony Stark's dead brother Gregory was a member of a group of self-made million/billionaires who had banded together to do what they thought was right for the world, even if that meant stepping on people to get their way. The group(which is called the Kratos Club) offers Tony his brother's spot, which leaves Tony with a lot to think about. From there we find Kitty Pryde acting like her regular annoying self, storming out of Peter Parker's funeral, complaining about the world in general. She bumps into Iceman in Central Park, who was crying over Peter's death. Kitty takes pity on her old teammate and reveals that she knew of a safe place for mutants, and she'd let him go with her if he promised that he wouldn't use his powers, draw attention to himself, etc. Iceman agrees, as long as they could bring the Human Torch with them... Well that's kind of weird... From there we head to Karen Grant(actually Jean Grey) who was mentally working with Bruce Banner in an effort to get Bruce to control his Hulk side. Karen manages to put Hulk/Bruce in a trance just as Nick Fury enters the room. Fury tells Karen that since he was offering to protect her team, he needed to know for sure that Karen could keep the Hulk under control... Since if she couldn't, Fury would have no reason to keep Karen and her team safe. When faced with a question like that, Karen timidly tells Fury that she could control the Hulk, which ends this issue.

Thoughts: Not great, but not bad. The Tony Stark stuff was interesting, as was the stuff with Fury and Jean, while, as usual, I hated every scene Kitty was in... I just hate her, whether it's in the regular 616 Marvel U, or the 1610 Ultimate U. It's sad but true... If the Ultimate X-Men comic was comprised of the characters from Ultimate X as well as Iceman and Human Torch, I'd be overjoyed. Add Kitty to that equation, and my enjoyment diminishes... A lot... Back to this comic though. It furthered a few things for the new Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men comics, but completely took a step away from the Ultimate Spider-Man stuff, which kind of sucks, since the Ultimate Spider-Man story was what got me into this mini-series to begin with!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10. Huh, I didn't realize that Bobby and Peter were that close.

Invincible Iron Man #506 & Ultimate Fallout #2

Hey there all, two reviews to kick off the start of the comic week. The first comic I'll be looking at is this week's top pick, Iron Man #506. I could have went with another Fear Itself book for comic #2, since I have about 5,000 of them to read this week, but instead I'll go with Ultimate Fallout #2. The first issue got a perfect score out of me, hopefully this'll be a repeat performance...

Invincible Iron Man #506(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: The story here is twofold, and I've got to say, both parts are pretty damn good! But that's for the “Thoughts” section, let's hit the review first! The main story involves Odin taking pity on Tony Stark after he offered his two most important things to Odin(since those gods do like their sacrifices), his dignity(since he was kneeling on the ground begging for Odin's assistance) and his sobriety. Odin reveals himself to Stark, and Tony asks for Odin's aid in helping him build weapons that could put Earth's heroes on par with the Serpent and his Worthy. Odin agrees to allow Tony access to his great forge, but tells him that he only had a few more days before the full might of Asgard came down upon the Earth to wipe out the Serpent, oh, and that he didn't see Stark's side having any shot of winning, godly weapons or not... Ah that Odin, what a great guy! Anyway, the slightly drunk Tony heads into the forge and meets with Odin's chief weapon makers, a mess of foul-mouth dwarves. The dwarves aren't exactly happy that they have to stop what they were doing to help Tony create weapons, but Odin is the boss, so they halt their work to hear Tony out on his ideas. After Tony speaks to the dwarves, most of the dwarves go back to work, although a few are still VERY miffed that they were taking orders from a “pink elf”. After Tony drunkenly knocks down some metal, a dwarf punches him in the nose, at which point Tony reciprocates in kind. Having knocked the dwarf on his ass seems to have given Tony some respect amongst the dwarves, so they invite him into their rest area and offer him a drink, which he gladly accepts... As for the other main story, Pepper Potts decides to don her Rescue suit and head to Paris to see if there was anybody still alive for her to help. Meanwhile, the Hammer girls, who haven't gotten a response from Detroit Steel(because he was turned to stone!), decide to head to Paris to retrieve the Detroit Steel suit, and if possible, the pilot of the suit. To that end, the younger of the Hammers hops in a suit of armor, gathers a team, and off they go. Add the Grey Gargoyle, who's still lurking around the eerily quiet streets of Paris, and next issue should give us a three way throwdown between Rescue, the Hammer girl, and the Serpent possessed Gargoyle.

Thoughts: What can I say? This was a very good comic, that validated my faith in it. I mean it wasn't perfect or anything, but it tied into the Fear Itself events perfectly, which makes sense since Matt Fraction is writing both. Whereas most of the Fear Itself tie-ins are unnecessary to the main story, or unnecessary period, reading Iron Man greatly enhances the main FI mini, since events in Iron Man tend to bleed over into Fear Itself. I enjoyed both stories, although I am a bit annoyed that Tony threw away his years of sobriety just like that... I get that Fraction is trying to show that the whole Fear Itself thing is SO big that Tony is willing to do anything to end it, but we already knew it was big, what with Washington DC being destroyed and Paris being turned to stone and all... Tossing out Tony's years of sobriety just seem kind of unnecessary... At least that's how I see it.

Score: 9 out of 10.Well, when in Rome...


Ultimate Fallout #2(of 6?):

Summary: This issue begins where the last one left off, with Steve Rogers apologizing to Aunt May for his imagined role in the death of her nephew, Peter Parker(Spider-Man to you noobs you there). May reads Cap the riot act before slapping him in the face and yelling at all of the heroes present before running outside, where she collapses to her knees. J. Jonah Jameson(of all people) walks over and offers May a hand, helping her up and recommending she returns to the Cathedral, which she does. From there we head to Thor, who's in the Cathedral, thinking about how awesome Asgard was, and envisioning all of the recently deceased heroes hanging out in Valhalla. Meanwhile, Rogue is sadly wandering around the country, figuring that with all of the recent deaths, God would soon be taking everybody else as well. This issue ends with Many Jane writing an article detailing how “the world” killed Peter.

Thoughts: Eh. I liked the last issue and the singular focus it had on Peter's death more than this one. I mean I get that this mini-series is setting up the new Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men series's, but did we really need a bunch of pages featuring Thor thinking about Asgard? We know he's Asgardian, what did his thoughts really add to this story, or the new Ultimates series? Add the fact that we had Rogue(who along with Shadowcat are probably my most hated X-Men) in this one, and yeah, this issue definitely fell short of the high bar set by the last issue.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Aw, get up ya drama queen!

Ultimate Fallout #1 & Amazing Spider-Man #665

And we're back to Marvel, with two books that should set stuff up for the future. First up is Ultimate Fallout, which begins Marvel's reboot of the Ultimate books... God, you've got to love Marvel... DC announces that they were rebooting their entire company, and Marvel decides to completely shake up their Ultimate titles... Now, I don't know if Marvel deliberately planned to have the Ultimate reboot occur the MONTH before the DC reboot, but it's pretty awesome if they did. The other book is Amazing Spider-Man, which is almost always a great read, so this should be a good post... Well, at least the comics I'm reading should be good... The reviews themselves will probably suck, but what can ya do?

Ultimate Fallout #1(of 6?):

Summary: This issue begins by giving us little snippets as to how various characters are reacting to the death of Peter Parker, you know, that Spider-Man guy. We see Gwen Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, Johnny Storm, Kitty Pryde, Flash Thompson, Mary Jane Watson and Nick Fury. Needless to say, they're all pretty broken up about it. Jameson is at a complete loss for words, Kitty is taking out her frustrations on criminals, and MJ blames Fury and SHIELD and wants to see them pay for Peter's death. The day of the funeral, Tony Stark picks up Gwen and Aunt May and promises them that he'd take care of them in any way he possibly could, from arranging the funeral to any kind of monetary arrangements May could possibly need. After a somber drive, they arrive at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in the heart of NYC for Peter's funeral, where thousands of New Yorkers have gathered to pay their respects. Not having wanted a big thing, just a private ceremony for her nephew, May is a bit taken aback by the massive crowd, and isn't sure if she even wants to exit the limo. Tony explains that if she wasn't comfortable with the huge gathering, he'd take her away and schedule something smaller before explaining that all of New York was grieving for their fallen hero, and that they needed a way to express their collective sorrow as well. With that, May decides to exit the car where she's greeted by thousands of solemn faces. One small girl in the crowd asks May if she was Spidey's mother, with May explaining that she was actually his Aunt. The girl tells May that Spidey saved her from a fire when she was younger and offers May a hug, which a teary May accepts before heading inside. After sitting down, May is approached by a crestfallen Steve Rogers, who takes May's hand and is struck temporarily speechless before blurting out that it was his fault that Peter was dead.

Thoughts: Wow... That was quite the emotional ride right there... I seriously teared up when that little girl and May embraced outside the Cathedral... Hell, just typing about it is making me kind of misty eyed right now! The combination of Brian Bendis not over-dialogging the scene, coupled with Mark Bagley's PERFECT depiction of that little girl is enough to make even the toughest person feel something... I didn't collect the Death of Spider-Man storyline because, well because I just hadn't been that interested in the Ultimate Spider-Man series since around issue #75 or so. I basically picked this comic up on a whim since it was supposed to lay the groundwork for the three new Ultimate titles that would be starting next month. I mean I really didn't expect much from it, which is why it was like 11th in my comic reading order. I figured the art would be great because I'm a sucker for Mark Bagley's work, and the story would be(hopefully) okay, but this was WAY more than okay. I'll tell you this, this comic makes me REALLY want to get the eventual Death of Spider-Man trade to read exactly how Spidey bit the bullet, as well as has me psyched for the second issue of this mini(which comes out pretty soon I believe). Yeah, this was one of those rare comics where everything came together perfectly, the art, story and dialogue, and actually left me feeling quite emotional afterwards. I bow to Bagley and Bendis on a job VERY well done.

Score: 10 out of 10.Stop trying to make me cry, dammit!! *sniff*


Amazing Spider-Man #665:

Summary: This issue gets underway by telling us that Peter Parker and Betty Brant(that wacky Stan Lee and his alliteration!) always try to keep Friday nights open to watch a movie together... Except lately, what with his new job, position on three super-hero teams, as well as doing the solo super hero thing, Peter's been skipping Friday after Friday. While Betty understands that Peter is busy with his job at Horizon Labs, there's a particular movie she REALLY wants to see, one that's playing at only one theater in a kind of seedy side of town... I bet you can see where THIS is going! Peter ends up breaking the movie date again, this time because of his Horizon Lab work, so Betty's boyfriend, Flash Thompson, offers to take her to see the movie once he returned to town(he was headed to Washington DC for a secret Venom mission). Since the movie would be closed by the time Flash returned, Betty decides to go and see the movie herself. After leaving the theater, she is promptly mugged and beaten into a coma... Yeah well, that'll happen in the Big Apple... I'd know, I lived there!! From there, all of Betty's friends gather at the hospital, including J. Jonah Jameson, who brings in his own team of high-priced doctors. Upon learning what happened, Spidey naturally blames himself for blowing off the movie with Betty and decides to tear the neighborhood Betty was mugged in apart until he found the man responsible. After a lot of hunting and beatings, Spidey gets a name and begins to close the net around his target. After a few more hours, Spidey manages to find the man responsible, but before he is able to pounce, he gets a phone call from a very angry and disappointed Aunt May. May scolds Peter for not being at the hospital with his friends and basically guilts him into leaving his quarry behind and heading over to the hospital. Peter gets to the hospital, and as luck would have it, Betty wakes up while he's keeping watch over her bedside, at which point the two watch a movie together. Oh, and the next day, Spidey catches up to the man responsible for the attack and drops him off with the police. The back up story deals with Aunt May and Jameson's father deciding to move to Boston to get away from all the craziness that was in New York, which made me wonder aloud to myself, if May isn't even going to be a main character in the Spidey books anymore, why the HELL did Marvel bring her back from the dead and wreck Spidey's marriage?!?

Thoughts: I liked this issue a lot, but there were a few things about it that bugged me... First off, wasn't Betty JUST the damsel in distress in the past few issues of Venom?! I mean damn, that woman should really just lock herself up in her apartment and never leave or something! Once this story opened talking about what great friends Peter and Betty were, you KNEW that something bad was going to happen to Betty, and the moment Peter ditched her and wouldn't go to the movies with her, you knew WHAT was going to happen! I mean for me, the entire story was pretty obvious... Now it may sound like I didn't enjoy this issue, and that would be the wrong assumption, because I actually enjoyed this comic a lot, lack of unpredictability be damned! It was a solid story, the dialogue was excellent, and we got to see the softer side of many characters. So yeah, it was good, I just could have used a few more surprises here and there.

Score: 9 out of 10.Hey look, Betty's in trouble! Again...