ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #123

Review by: Neb

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Size: pages
Price: 2.99

When I was 13 years old, the concept and execution of Venom in the Spider-Man world was beyond amazing.  Now, as an older adult, I just don’t find anything rewarding about him, and I don’t really know if I can tell you why.  As he’s slowly disappeared from the pages of the regular book (although teaser art leads me to believe that he will soon be returning), he’s only appeared in one story arc in the Ultimate book, which I felt was cleverly executed and a fairly decent story.  But, like all things in comics, he returns in this issue, and I gotta be honest when I say that it rubbed me the wrong way.

I think there’s two glaring flaws with this issue.  The first is that it takes up 80% of it’s pages filling in the reader as to what was happening with the previous storyline.  Usually, this might be ok except that Marvel uses the “Previously In…” page at the beginning of each issue.  Why does Eddie Brock need to tell me that a parasite his father and Peter’s father created is attached to him?  It’s on the very first page!  There also is the fact that this some how ties into the video game that Benids wrote, which I never played, but where or how does it tie-in?  Eddie didn’t share anything Earth shattering to really add a level of significance to the story.

My second problem with the issue comes from the battle between Venom and Spider-Man in the issue.  Throughout the fight, Venom refers to him as Parker and he talks to Venom addressing him as Eddie.  How in world is one’s secret identity supposed to be kept?  How does one explain that right as the monster lands, with everyone staring agape at him as he screams “Parker!!”, that he’s not talking about Peter Parker?  It just seems weird to me and it is a conceit I’m not willing to accept.  It took me out of the fight completely, and at the very end of the issue, I’m not convinced of the relevance that this story is going to share.  I’m left rolling my eyes thinking, “Oh god, another Venom story.”

As in previous issues, Immomen’s art is really good, and I very much enjoyed his frentic pencils during the fight.  His layouts were well done and shyed away from the standard panel construction.  Overall, it was just a continuation of his solid work.

My hope is that this storyline provides something for me to grasp onto.  If not, I cross my fingers and hope that it’s not too long of a story.

Story: 2 - Average
Art: 4 - Very Good

Comments

  1. This issue was not retelling the Venom arc, it’s retelling the story of the Ultimate Spider-man video game, which Bendis wrote to fit into the series

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