Ultimate Spiderman #104 discussion (Spoilers)

Victor Von Doom

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Ugh.


I could give you more....but why bother. Either way it sucks.


But because Doom's such a great guy.....here's a synopsis----


We open at the Baxter Building with MJ lying on an exam table passed out. There's a lot of standard Bendis dialogue going back and forth between Reed, Dr.Storm, Ben and Johnny. And in all the panels it consumes can be boiled down to:

Johnny: Reed can you help her?
Reed: I think...
Storm: I haven't finished going over Osborne's notes on the OZ.
Ben: OMGWTFKTHNXBBQ?

MJ then wakes up and sees Ben. She freaks out and turns into MJGoblin again and starts tearing up the place.


Meanwhile on the roof, Sue confronts Richard Parker. She tells him that he's a clone and he is in disbelief. He goes on and on about he remembers his life and has all these memories. Sue counters that with the calm voice reasoning but it's still a fact. He's a clone. And Sue still looks like Gwen. Great job there Bags. :roll:


Back at OsCorp---Fury and Gyrich (the FBI guy who hired Ock to clone Peter) have a little "ranking shouting match". Gyrich demands answers and Fury is all "I'm Nick Fury---**** you little man."

In the other room we have Ock fighting Peter and Jessica. This battle goes on for several pages and nothing is really said. Not even some funny quips. During the fight, Jessica tries to web one of Ock's arms and yank him towards her. But the arms aren't attached to Ock----they're just there...kinda hovering around the spot where his arms used to be attached. He mentions that he didn't need the arms.....but he liked having them....he liked being called Doctor Octopus.

Back at Baxter Building, MJ is still on the rampage and the F4 can't really stop her. The Scorpion clone is knocked outta his statis field and wakes up. MJGoblin sees him and reverts back to her normal naked self and then passes out. Scorpion Peter sees this and faints. All is under control again and Reed puts Scorpion back in containment. And continues to help MJ.

Back at the Ock Fight---there is still a lot of jumbled mess. Seriously. This is like the worst stuff I've seen from Bags in a while. A lot of the panels are just garbled sketches with color. The fight continues with virtaully no dialogue (save a few grunts and yells) until Peter and Jessica lunge at Ock and hit him with double page splash of them smacking him in the jaw. And Ock is down.

After the fight, Peter and Jessica stand there talking. Peter says he's gonna turn himself into Fury. Jessica tells him to just run. Peter says he made a promise and he's gonna turn himself in. Jessica is all "**** that....I'm not gonna sit here and argue with myself." Get it? because she's a clone of Peter so basically------screw it. You get the joke. Peter steps into the next room and hands over Ock. They ask where Jessica is and he says she ran off.

At this point Peter is ready to turn himself in---but Johnny appears and throws a ring of fire around him and Peter to keep everyone else back. Johnny tells Pete that he needs to come with him and they fly off to the Baxter Building.

Back ontop of the Bax Bldg--Richard has aged......a lot. I guess his clone cells are breaking down and causing him to age at an accelerated rate or whatever sci-fi explanation you wanna throw in there. Richard asks Sue if she'll be Peter's friend. He says that Pete's all alone and he'll need people. He'll need friends. So he asks if she and the rest of the F4 will be Peter's friends. She agrees. And then Richard slumps over and dies.

Inside the Bax Bldg....Pete and Johnny have arrived. MJ is up and seeming a lot better. MJ sees Peter and asks what the hell is happening. Peter sums up the entire event in about one sentence. Johnny tells her to hug Peter. She does and Peter apologizes. She asks why and he says "I love you MJ".

Then Peter asks if she's gonna be ok. Reed and Dr.Storm say the found the OZ in her and basically administered a counter to it. In essence---an antidote.

Peter: Just like that? She's ok?
Dr.Storm: Well not "just like that". I'v been working on it for a few months now.

WTF? Dr.Storm just happened to be working on an antidote for the OZ formula? Come on Bendis. Seriously. Come on. :roll:

Then Reed gets his little snobbish remark in by saying that "Norman might've had mis moments here and there as a scientist but---he ain't me."


Then Reed tells Peter that since the OZ formula is how Peter got his powers---it'll take some time to isolate how the spider affected him---but basically, Reed can create a cure for Peter.

We then get a one page splash of Peter's shocked face as Reed tells him that he doesn't have to be Spiderman anymore.






Why do I continue to buy this book? It's ****ty storytelling. That's all it is. I've dropped a lot of crappy books of late and aside from Supergirl---I have a respectable pull list. Well no more. I'm serious. I'm dropping this book. As of right now. I will no longer give this book my money. I'll continue to get the trades of the UC Store to complete my UU collection....and I'll maybe read a current at the book store to stay current on the book and join in discussions......but I'm done with this ****.

Call me when the book is good again.




1/5
 
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So basically. . .the only reason for this story was to ruin Ock and give us Spider-Woman. Oh, and maybe visit a storyline down the road where Pete has to decide to be Spider-Man or not.

Yay. :roll:
 
Yep, Bendis ruined Ock. I said I'd wait and see before passing judgement, and I have.

I'm done with this book.
 
I'm becoming generally unsatisfied with just about all of the Ultimate Imprint, so I'm not going to jump on the Bendis bashing bandwagon. But Let's face it, something like this was bound to happen eventually: Marvel wanted to bring in new readers who could identify with old, standard superheroes by modernizing the concepts. Then the writers came in swinging with what many considered to be some of the best writing in superhero comics, even causing some long time fans (yours truly included) to say to themselves "616? Who needs it?". And here we are in the midst of the decline.

The Ultimates was almost too good to continue at even the slow speed it was (and judgeing by the new "let's take everyone's appearance back to the mid-nineties" look, any shred of the thin, but necissary Millar cynicism will all be lost). Ultimate X-Men is one of the best, straight-up X-Books there are right now, but even though I like the current storyline: time travel? Cable as Wolverine? The Professor in love with Jean? These are pretty innovative ideas, sure, but they smell a bit like gimmickery, and I'm not sure if they're going to hold water for very long.

Now, Ultimate Spidey. Bendis is hoarding it, and can't see that he has run out of ideas. Bendis is a good writer, great even. One that managed to do something that Millar seemed to just ignore: keep the feel of a Spiderman comic whilst refurbishing it for a new generation and making it relevant/enjoyable for a range of readers; everyone from young fans to old. But with that said, in a serialized storyline that has no clear ending in sight, you have to know when to pass the torch. It's basically come to that point.

Am I just being cynical? Not cynical enough?

I'm not sure

I'm sort of babeling, and most of you probably find this pretty redundant -it is my first post- so I'll sign off here.
 
I'm becoming generally unsatisfied with just about all of the Ultimate Imprint, so I'm not going to jump on the Bendis bashing bandwagon. But Let's face it, something like this was bound to happen eventually: Marvel wanted to bring in new readers who could identify with old, standard superheroes by modernizing the concepts. Then the writers came in swinging with what many considered to be some of the best writing in superhero comics, even causing some long time fans (yours truly included) to say to themselves "616? Who needs it?". And here we are in the midst of the decline.

The Ultimates was almost too good to continue at even the slow speed it was (and judgeing by the new "let's take everyone's appearance back to the mid-nineties" look, any shred of the thin, but necissary Millar cynicism will all be lost). Ultimate X-Men is one of the best, straight-up X-Books there are right now, but even though I like the current storyline: time travel? Cable as Wolverine? The Professor in love with Jean? These are pretty innovative ideas, sure, but they smell a bit like gimmickery, and I'm not sure if they're going to hold water for very long.

Now, Ultimate Spidey. Bendis is hoarding it, and can't see that he has run out of ideas. Bendis is a good writer, great even. One that managed to do something that Millar seemed to just ignore: keep the feel of a Spiderman comic whilst refurbishing it for a new generation and making it relevant/enjoyable for a range of readers; everyone from young fans to old. But with that said, in a serialized storyline that has no clear ending in sight, you have to know when to pass the torch. It's basically come to that point.

Am I just being cynical? Not cynical enough?

I'm not sure

I'm sort of babeling, and most of you probably find this pretty redundant -it is my first post- so I'll sign off here.

First, welcome!

Second, I pretty much agree with everything you said. The Ultimate imprint is indeed in its decline. USM and what I've seen of Ultimates 3 are complete crap, Ultimate Power is nothing but a money-making crossover, UFF is decent and UXM, while the writing is good, is VERY gimicky. I'm holding out until the Hank McCoy UXM issue before deciding whether to jump off this steadily sinking boat.
 
I may be alone in liking this issue, but I enjoyed it. It did feel anti-climatic, and it was a shame to see Kaine, Tarantula and Doc Parker bite it, but two very positive things happened as a result of this issue:
1) Peter finished his own battle and defeated Ock. ( with Spider-woman as well )
he didn't need the Ultimates or the X-Men to help, he essentially took down an uber Ock with no web-shooters and one equally spider-powered ally. Impressive.
2) Peter was finally honest about his feelings about MJ. I know many people like the Kitty relationship, but it's not Peter. Seeing MJ unconcious and likely unredeemable gave Peter the needed boot in the butt to be honest with himself. You can't forget someone you love like that, and it's dishonest to pretend to.
Peter is going to owe Kitty an apology, for how he's toyed with her heart ( though unintendedly )
Overall...a decent issue.
 
i hate the haters on here "o spiderman hasnt been good in 40 issues" than fine get the hell on with ur life! Stop reading the book!

That argument would work, but unfortunatly, not on a forum designed specifically for the discussion of spider-man. If you dont like it, stop reading the forum; get on with your life.
 
I love it when people post "Don't like, don't read!" If that's true, why are you reading our posts whining about how it sucks? :roll:

I'm not trying to chase you off, ultimatefan, but if we should dump the book instead of reading something we don't like and then complaining about it, then you should leave the forum instead of telling us to shut up.

Edit: I don't know why I got Foster Care and ultimatefan420 confused. I'm having one of those days.

Also, I just realized that quoting Hellsbuttmonkey made it seem like I was talking about his post, and I wasn't. Again... one of those days.
 
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I'd just like to give a congratulations to Keehar for keeping his word, and waiting for the arc to end to pass judgment.
 
I'd just like to give a congratulations to Keehar for keeping his word, and waiting for the arc to end to pass judgment.
I'd like to second that and add an apology for having doubted you Keehar.

Also welcome Foster Care! I agree the Ultimate line is not what it once was.
 
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Spider-woman said he was dead, and Peter told Fury that two clones were dead in there.

Oh, for goodness' sake. What's with all the throw-away characters?! This book needs more time spent on a supporting cast and less on guest-stars and redshirts created just to die.

Plus... the Scorpion scene was clearly thrown in for two reasons: Padding the story and pretending he actually exists for any reason other than shock value.

I hope there's a scene in the clone labs in 105, where people look at folders on clones or talk about them or something. Apparently, despite the fact that page after page can be spent on poorly choreographed fight scenes and boring redundant dialogue, Bendis can't be bothered to NAME HIS CHARACTERS. And why does Kaine's face look like that?
 
I'd just like to give a congratulations to Keehar for keeping his word, and waiting for the arc to end to pass judgment.

Well congrats to him. I didn't need to wait because I knew what was coming. The writer painted himself into a corner and there was no way out of it.

This was the final straw. The Clone Saga was the breaking point.

Right now I feel dirty. Like the kinda dirty you feel when you finally decide to end a bad relationship and once you're free you think back onto all the horrible stuff the other person put you thru. You feel ashamed and dirty for allowing yourself to be put thru it.

I imagine it's what a young girl feels like after she's done her first pr0no. :sick:



You know who I really feel sorry for? All the people on the letters page who claim that this steaming pile of dino-dung is just pure awesomeness! I feel bad for them that they don't know any better. Or maybe they just refuse to face reality. Or maybe they're just 13 and the only other comic they read is Garfield and Power Pack.
 

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