Miles Morales: USM #6

[Plawsky]

spoilers:

-Norman wakes up after being shot by JJJ and kills him. -Peter reveals to Miles that he woke up after DoSM in Atlanta, and planned to leave town after getting his web-shooters back. -He and MJ had dug up his grave, finding it empty, seeming to confirm that he's the real deal. -May and Gwen show up at MJ's and have a tear-filled reunion with Peter. -Naturally, Norman shows up and a fight breaks out. -Miles tells Peter to protect his family and he single handedly takes down Norman with his classic invis+venom blast combo. -Norman says "you'll never know who your father really is" to Miles as he's being arrested. To be continued!

end of spoilers

Man, what a roller coaster! Admittedly, I've been a bit of a hater towards this book, but I stand by my reasons. The decompression has been killing me, and I've felt a lack of character development. I'm also still not too keen on how Miles has been portrayed, especially when compared to Peter. However, most of that changes with this issue.

The writing here is back to classic Bendis. Issues like this remind me that these characters are his and his alone. Everyone is spot on here, and the dialogue never gets annoying like it usually does for me. Peter's actions, considering the circumstances, make sense. MJ should probably be smarter, but I'm ok with that minor issue. May and Gwen's reaction could have been played much bigger, given more page space (considering the crap that gets over a page in earlier issues), but it was still perfect. Hopefully it's not really his last appearance, but Bendis once again shows that Ultimate Jonah is the best Jonah.

But then things start to fall apart. I love the dialogue in the first 2/3 of this issue, and even though I don't like the idea of Peter returning (and I'm still not convinced), I can buy this explanation for now. I'm not a fan of JJJ dying either, but it made sense in the story. That said, the fight scene is absolutely atrocious.

For once, it's not the dialogue - it's probably Miles's best fight dialogue so far; it's certainly not the art either - holy crap, Marquez! But Miles makes quick work of NORMAN OSBORN! He doesn't just win, it's a flawless victory. Norman doesn't land a single hit, all because of the now-standard go to of "sneak up with invisibility then use my DEM Venom Blast™" tactic that is used in almost every Miles fight.

Ok, Bendis - we get it. Miles is the better Spider-man. Everything about him is better than Peter. Thanks for confirming it again. The guy who killed Peter after getting hit by a truck is just a punching bag for Miles.

MOVING ON FROM THE RANT...

The art couldn't be better. Marquez kills it, as always. The great parts of the issue are made even better by Marquez's great character work, and the weak parts of the issue are almost washed away thanks to some seriously amazing fight scene art. The 2-page flashback spread was a thing of beauty - both in art and in nostalgia. As pissed as I am about the Venom Blast thing, Marquez almost makes me not care. And of course, Justin Ponsor is doing the work of a god on colors.

Ending on a good note about the writing: this is the best pacing an issue has had in months. For the most part, no dialogue seemed unnecessary, and things moved along quickly. I really thought the issue was going to end with Norman showing up on the front lawn, but the book was much better for having the fight scene conclude here. There's still a lot that Bendis has to tie-up, but I think this issue worked really well for the overarching story.

Ratings:
Writing: 7/10 (10/10 until the fight scene)
Story: 8/10
Art: 10/10
Overall: 8/10

Final Verdict:

A few minor qualms (and one major) aside, this is probably the best issue of the volume so far.

[Rok]

I have this nagging feeling that we won't get clear-cut arcs until issue 15 or so. Bendis has introduced 4 plot points (PP, the twins, Osborn and Kate) only one of them is anywhere close to being done.

I think we'll see a sort of rolling plot, constantly introducing a new plot point, just as one is resolved.

[Webhead]

Hey, so is there a spoiler function in posts?

In a way I liked this but at the same time I didn't. The body count increasing was largely unnecessary and mean, especially with a character who got interesting development. The way the Peter arc is solved... well, it's in line with what Osborn argues but at the same time, how does it disprove a fake-out? It really doesn't because we're seeing Peter's POV and we don't know if he's lying or being manipulated, and I'm thinking we haven't seen the last of this.

It was good to see Miles taking it upon himself to beat Norm, with no doubt in his mind. Really shining as honoring the Spider-Man legacy.

[Dicey]

OK, so this was sweet. Highlight to read spoilers in white text:

It seems pretty clear that this is actually UPP, which strikes me as vindicating for Bendis -- given the hints already dropped, it would have been pretty wack and disappointing if it hadn't been him (and not just for Aunt May).

I was disappointed by no apparent depiction of Kitty in Peter's life recap; I'm definitely of the opinion that theirs is the most substantial romantic relationship in the entire Ultimate Universe. I hope Bendis agrees; MJ as the perfunctory "one true love" might have made sense in the golden age / 616, but that's not how most people think about relationships these days, and the original UU love triangle played out in a way that seemed to recognize this. (Yes, PP went back to MJ, but there was still so much depth in his relationship with Kitty that there was plenty of space for that dynamic to continue to grow). The UU is a tragic place and the most deeply redeeming and beautiful part of it has been the Peter / Kitty / MJ situation, where love is about the only thing anyone has to hang onto, and it has repeatedly taken a backseat to drama. (Though, at the same time, since Bendis has recently, finally, taken steps forward to flesh out Jessica's transgender experience and identified her as primarily attracted to women -- particularly, it seems, Kitty -- maybe that's worth holding space for in the UU narrative).

JJ: that was wack and cheap, I agree.

OK so non-spoiler-wise -- my major issue right now with these UU titles is they don't seem to be in continuity with each other at all! Why don't the Ultimates appear in MMUSM? Why doesn't MMUSM's story intersect with the Ultimates? You'd think that at the very least Miles would occasionally be like "Off to hang out with the young ultimates", or "Hey, just got back from some crazy shit with the young ultimates" -- something! And where is Kitty? She should be in MMUSM right about now, seems like.

Anyway: Hi, I'm new. I've been a very, very casual comics fan most of my life, but the MCU reminded me that most Marvel books are top-notch fables about how to handle and negotiate power, which is kind of my jam. I read the entire UU continuity earlier this year, as a way to dive in, and now I'm pretty hooked. In other words, I am maybe object proof that the UU is still serving its intended purpose; I care much more about the UU than I ever will be able to about 616 because it is so much more relevant to the world I live in. So, if you're reading this, Bendis: please don't kill the UU. What it needs is repopulation. There are plenty of characters that can be re-introduced, there is room for new characterization, and for the love of God, if bringing the UU back from the raw hell it seems to have become isn't an inspiring challenge for writers, please get some new blood in who can take up the mantle!

[taylor51]

Either way, I do hope that this is the real Peter now. I was against him coming back for the longest time, due to it completely making his death meaningless, but if he goes on to being Scarlet Spider then his death was merely the catalyst that changed his story (something the UU is well known for; throwing us story elements that you wouldn't see anywhere in 616).

Basically my thoughts on the matter. Because of the way comics work, we probably weren't ever gonna see Peter progress past high school during his initial run as Spider-Man. DoSM was so brilliant in large part because it gave Peter's story a finite ending, versus say Spider-Girl's non ending (ie her adventures are continuing, they're just not being written right now).

Creating this kinda breaking point, and setting a tone for this new series that time can move forward, might allow Bendis to tell stories with a progressively more adult Peter Parker (growing up, marrying MJ, fulfilling some kinda responsibility at SHIELD, etc), which I think would be kinda cool. That's really the only ground Bendis hasn't explored with the character at this point imo, and since Bendis has been pretty forthcoming about having no interest in writing Amazing Spider-Man, I'd love to see his take on an adult Peter in the UU. Have the initial cast move on to resemble their adult counterparts in the 616 (while obviously keeping twists and maintaining alternate characterization where necessary), go from there.

So long as Peter's return doesn't step on Miles, which from the looks of this issue seems to be a pretty clear goal of what not to do, I can get behind this.

[Balfro]

spoilers:

Great issue, though the arc seems to be still going. Which is actually pretty great because Bendis seems to finally understand the flaw in dragging a story out for 5 issues just to rush the 6th to finish the story. I think this may be the end of the arc (and where the tpb will cut off) but the overall story is still going. It seems pretty solid that this is the real Peter Parker, though there are just enough questions about his explanation that leave room for a bit of doubt. He has all the memories, and from what I can tell none of them are distorted (which would be a clue to false memories), but as we've seen with Jessica memories can easily be implanted. The fact that he woke up in an abandoned lab suggests that he's a clone, but the missing body suggests he's real. Unless his body was stolen and experimented on and a clone was created from the research. A theory I had a while ago was that Otto may still be alive and he continued his work and cloned Peter out of his newfound respect for him (right before he, himself, was "killed" by Osborn). It could also very well be that Otto stole Peter's body and, using his vast knowledge of OZ, used science to help the revival process along. Norman has pure OZ in his system so resurrection is probably natural but Peter's blood contains OZ that used spider venom as a Catalyst. Maybe Peter isn't as immortal as Norman and needs some sort of procedure to re-kick-start his body. THis might also be a reason why Jessica was all of a sudden written as changing her identity to Black Widow, since she was for all intents-and-purposes Ultimate Scarlet Spider already (just going by Spider-Woman in name). Either way, even if he isn't Peter, we have Peter back. With a little mystery to keep a constant interesting side-story to boot. And it is looking more and more like Peter is giving Miles his blessing to continue on as Spider-Man. So Peter may still become Scarlet Spider. In which case, is there any chance AT ALL that he could be part of the "Spider-Verse: Scarlet Spiders" mini-series? I know as of right now it seems implausible, but I did think it was kind of strange that Ben Reilly is in that book wearing his Spider-Man costume, despite the book being called "Scarlet Spiders" AND Scarlet Spider is his most memorable role. Since Kaine is wearing his new SS costume, maybe Ultimate Peter's costume will closely resemble Ben's SS costume from 616. Yeah I doubt it... but it's nice to dream :P

end of spoilers

[Spider-Tron]

omg that fight felt so f'ng cheap

[xpyred]

[deleted.]

[UltimateStuntz]

This Book was great finally got some answers!!

[Smoov-E]

That was a great issue

[trypp]

Meh. All in all, a pretty decent issue. However, I was hoping for more definitive answers than what we got. It's nice to see how Miles has really grown as Spider-Man. I do think it was a bit of a stretch that he was able to go one on with Norman Osborn by himself. And lets not forget his leg had been grazed by a bullet just a few hours ago.

[Cloudman]

This issue was pretty good, better than I had been expected. At least we now have a few answers about Pete.

One thing that seriously bothered me about this was that the solicit didn't even vaguely resemble the final product.

Miles' life has been turned upside down in every conceivable level! New villains are coming out of the woodwork. Miles makes a life-changing decision!

What life-changing decision was that? And which new villains? I know solicits aren't supposed to be taken as gospel, but this just seemed like a straight up lie.

[leo619]

Meh, it's an alright issue. But already Peter Parker hogged up most of the time in a book that's supposed to be dedicated to miles morales, and that was exactly my fear when he decided to go down this road. Bendis hasn't put in enough time to fully establish his character, his roots, and etc with all the crossovers and madness that has happened in this book. Now you bring peter back and he already takes up half if not more of the book that's label miles morales. I use to have complete faith in Bendis in regards to this series, but now it's definitely starting to waver.

[Magii]

One thing that seriously bothered me about this was that the solicit didn't even vaguely resemble the final product.



What life-changing decision was that? And which new villains? I know solicits aren't supposed to be taken as gospel, but this just seemed like a straight up lie.

Dat Bendis pacing.

overall it was good. Not excellent, just good. Bendis doesn't write a very good Osborne anymore.

[Sardorim]

So not only do we lose Jameson to a very boring, already done with on further place to go character like Hulk Goblin, but we are given the still most vague and asinine answer to whether this is the real Peter? As someone else mentioned, this is indeed f'n cheap.

With Jameson dead it means they can't rely on him in ANU.