Written reviews. Podcasts. Comic shop discussions. Emails. There are only so many ways I can profess my love for Ultimate Comics Spider-Man before it gets boring, even to me. Yes, it’s one of my top 5…no, top 3…ok, it’s my number 1 favorite book out right now. It’s at the top of the stack every single time it hits the streets.

This here is another issue where we follow Miles through the experience of trying to become Spider-Man. He’s watching footage of the late Peter Parker’s shenanigans and trying to duplicate what he’s seeing on screen, which leads to a very awkward moment with his mother that almost every boy can relate to. I really enjoyed watching him as he bounds around the city, testing himself and his new powers out. It’s exactly what anyone would do if they found themselves in this situation. What can I do? What are my limits? How high CAN I climb? Where did Peter get those incredibly useful webs??

I know that people may be bored by these scenes, but they have honestly been my favorite bits, more so then the noisy, punch-filled battles that have to occur every once in a while for it to be a super hero book. While I’m not really enjoying Bendis’ Avengers titles right now, I feel like his best work has always, and will always be on this title. Also, nice Will Ferrell reference, BMB (“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”)

As for the art, full disclosure: people have been mentioning to me that they don’t like the artist on the book for this arc, and I have to say that yes, Chris Samnee is a vastly different artist then Sara Pichelli, but that in no way implies “bad” to me. I am as enamored with Samnee’s work as Pichelli’s. I will say that I find Chris’ black and white sketchbook work to be leaps and bounds above what I’ve seen in this series, but in those pieces he is concentrating solely on the shadows. Like when you take a black and white photo into Photoshop to increase the contrast 100%. Everything that is light or white appear as the same thing, and only the blackest blacks remain. It’s beautiful work, and while his work here is less flashy, it’s certainly more practical to storytelling. I love his simplicity of line, the expressions that he’s able to convey THROUGH Spidey’s mask, and I appreciate that he draws Miles as a 13 year old even when he’s in costume. Many artists make Spidey into a full-grown man with a filled-out man’s musculature and it always looks strange, like there’s a stunt-person in the suit.

Speaking of art, I would be remiss in forgetting to mention the image that is absolutely MADE to be a poster hanging in the man (and woman)-cave’s of geeks everywhere: the cover. Kaare Andrews has absolutely wrecked shop on this one. Overall, I’ve found Kaare’s Ultimate covers to be lacking in his usual excellence, but this one is such an iconic and beautiful image, it may go down as my cover of the year come December. Jock and Dave Johnson have their work cut out for them this time.

I know that certain people have purposely started picking up this series based on the fact that I cram it down everyone’s throats every time it comes out. If you’re not reading this book, what are you waiting for? Get ON it!