Ultimate Spider Man Vol 20 Ultimate Spider Man and His Amazing Friends v 20
Ultimate Spider Man Vol 20 Ultimate Spider Man and His Amazing Friends v 20
“Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends!” Things are changing in the young life of Peter Parker: Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four is now his buddy - and the hot-headed super hero has taken a liking to Peter’s classmate, Liz Allen! But something is horribly wrong with Liz - something that will soon affect the life of every student at Midtown High - including Peter’s ex-girlfriend, Kitty Pryde! Collects Ultimate Spider-Man #118-123.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Is this series ever going to slow down?
Every time I read an Ultimate Spider-Man collection, I think the series must have hit it’s peak. But the stories so constantly entertaining — intense without being bleak, emotional without being sappy.
This is the first full collection with new artist Stuart Immonen after years of Mark Bagley as sole artist. Mr. Bagly defined the look and feel of the series, but Mr. Immonen steps in with his own excellent take on Spider-Man’s world. It was sad to see Mr. Bagley go, but I’m looking forward to more from Mr. Bagley.
One of the best aspect of USM is seeing Peter Parker’s personal life. This volume furthers the relationship with Mary Jane (just a bit) and gives us more of ex-girlfriend (and X-Man) Kitty Pride. The writing is so good that the conversations in the high school hall are just as exciting as the battle with the Goblin.
This is a great read and I’m looking forward to the next one.
3 Stars Hard to Transition
I mean the artwork. When you read over 100 issues by the same artist, it’s gonna be hard to transition to a new artist. Granted, any artist can draw pretty good superheroes - features are less defined since most of them are under masks and costumes and have certain really distinguishable features - but this is not the case with illustrations of real humans and that is where the new artist falls short. They are, of course, in another style since every artist wants to be unique and have his or her own style. The new style really takes some getting used to if at all possible. Many details in the human drawings are missing which was what made USM such a hit. The minute details and expressions that are so unique to this book and so critical to the writing of this book are gone and it’s really not the same anymore. The new artist, Immonen draws pretty good adults and action sequences, but really falls short on the teenagers which Bagley really had a knack for. Unfortunately, most of the success of USM are the stories about the teenagers and their everyday life which really connect to kids and their lives in terms of dialogue and events which you really cannot find in a lot of comics and the original Spider-Man series. I was not really a fan of the orignal artist, Bagley, in the beginning, but he really won me over in the end with his skills in drawing kids with real emotion. The new artist is more suited for non-stop heavy dozes of action sequences which you can really find in almost every comic.
4 Stars Ult Spidey 20
Although the artist has switched, the transition was seamless and the storyline is great as ever.
2 Stars Weakest of the run so far
This might be the volume that let me let ultimate spiderman sunset in my collection. I’m still not happy to see Bagley leave but the current artist is just too choppy and blocky to replace the smooth style of Bagley. Story wise this was very much a couple filler issues just there to kill some time before Venom returns.
3 Stars Still getting used to Immonen’s Spidey
I thought that this one was pretty good. I’m still getting used to Immonen’s drawings vs. Bagley’s. They’re ok for the most part, but I don’t think MJ looks as cute.
The story-line feels like filler plots in-between major comic story arcs. But that’s ok. Liz becoming Firestar was pretty cool; and this volume explains a lot of her past “mutant-phobia”. I look forward to seeing where that goes.
Filed under: Comic Book Reviews