So we’re half way through this mini series and if you’ve read my reviews of the last 2 issues, you’ll know that this has been a mixed bag; I loved issue 1 and almost hated issue 2. This issue seems to fit stylistically between the last 2 though, straddling the gap between emotional story telling at its best and tie-in corporate story telling at its worst. But at least it has a great cover right? It’s hard to write a review of this book as its divided into three distinct chapters, each written and drawn by different teams and focusing on different characters. This seems to follow the last issue which focused on 3 stories as well: Aunt May (good), Thor (not so good) and Rogue (Bad). So rather than lumping all these stories together I’m going to divide this issue into the three different parts and look at each one individually. So lets begin at the start: 1. Tony Stark This first chapter was written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Steve Kurth. Jonathan Hickman…. makes you think this could be one of the better stories so far. Well if you did think that, prepare to be disappointed. This story seems to be setting something up for a future comic and deals with a secret society of sorts contacting Iron Man and offering him the opportunity to join them and influence world politics. I have a few problems with this though; I don’t believe that Tony Stark (or at least Ultimate Tony Stark) would consider this a good choice, why would he join a secret society that was associated with his evil brother who tried to influence world politics, and why does this book seem to only serve to set up further storylines rather than dealing with the ones that already exist. Why tell a story in a book about the death of Spider-Man when it has nothing to do with the death of Spider-Man? And beyond these issues I have with the content of the plot, I still have even more problems with this chapter. Hickman has written this script so that the great majority of it feels like a monologue from a character we’ve never seen before. Tony Stark plays such an unimportant role that he could have been replaced by a cactus on a skateboard being pulled by a character who blathers on and on in clichéd, bad guy attempting to convince you of his perspective, comic book chat. Come on Hickman, you can do better. So the art, does that save the book? No. Although I like Steve Kurth’s style and believe that there is some good work being done in the foreground, the background in terrible. Barely a panel goes by where the surroundings of our characters has any detail or even shading. Everyplace we go feels flat, bland, lifeless and dull. But for the most part the characters look good (I say “most part” because there are a few panels where characters look like they have been clumsily stapled together from piece of ham). 2. Kitty Pride / Bobby Drake (ice man) / Johnny Storm (the human torch) Finally a chapter I can say something good about! You know why I can say something good about this middle part of the story? Because it’s about characters who are important to the Ultimate Spider-Man mythos and is telling the story that this book should be telling: what is going on with Peter Parker’s family and friends and how has his death effected the world. Written by Nick Spencer and drawn by Eric Nguyen, this chapter really has its own, distinct feel. This is perhaps most obviously due to the art which is a crisp, clean, anime style rendering of the Ultimate Universe. Each character looks recognizable from their other appearances and yet each is done in a style we’re not accustomed to. Usually I wouldn’t enjoy this kind of art work, but here it works well and fits well with the narrative. The writing of this issue is also on form. Nick Spencer really seems to have grasped who these characters are. Not only are they believable, they also behave in a way that is consistant with their appearances from previous stories. The issue does fall into the annoying habit of this book of just setting up another plot that may or may not be resolved later, but it feels like this comes naturally out of the evolution of the death of Spider-Man story. Take note, this is how this book should be done; with heart, understanding of the characters and the world they inhabit and with respect to what came before this issue. 3. Karen Grant / Bruce Banner (the hulk) The final chapter of this book will make me sound slightly hypocritical. The story doesn’t deal with anything remotely Spider-Man related and it also does nothing but set up something to be resolved later, and yet, I love it. Jonathan Hickman returns here and shows that he really is capable of writing great things. The story slowly unravels and reveals itself in a great way. We only really understand whats happening completely at the end and that is so satisfying. It’s also helped by the fact that this could be setting up something genuinely interesting rather than the clichéd secret society that we were introduced to in the first story. Nick Fury is trying to turn the hulk into a weapon, and that will never end well. The art here is also my favorite of the book. Carlo Pagulayan really reminds me of the art of Bryan Hitch who drew the original ultimates series. I can’t really explain why, but his rendering of these characters just really fits here. I like it. My only complaint about this chapter is that not having read Ultimate X, I had no idea who Karen Grant was and assumed she was Scarlet Witch until I looked at the contents page. Oh well, that’s my fault. And in conclusion: This book is the second best out of the three issues so far. It has high point and low points. It’s a little of everything and yet still refuses to really resolve anything. It confuses me because I love parts of it and hate others. So how do you score something so inconsistent? Like this: Art 3/5 Story 3/5 Maybe the best part of this issue was this last page though which revealed that next week we will know who new ultimate spidey will be. Check out my theories on this at: http://comichat.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/who-is-the-new-ultimate-spider-man/