Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 22: Ultimatum
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Stuart Immonen and David Lafuente
Best Ultimatum Book Ever!!!
Ranking: 4 stars
To tell you the truth, I absolutely hate the Ultimatum series because so many characters are killed off all at once, including major characters like Wolverine, Professor Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, and many others! But this book was pretty all right for a change. It has much less graphic violence, and only one hero dies. I'm not going to say who, but he doesn't really like Spidey, and he says that he's too young to be in the superhero business. Also Brian Michael Bendis always does great work on Ultimate Spidey! He would never let the book fall down into pointless and senseless violence like Jeph Loeb did (Loeb's one of the greatest writers ever, and ULTIMATUM was probably the only rotten egg in the batch of his works. BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, HUSH, and SPIDER-MAN: BLUE were beyond sensational) with the rest of the Ultimate Universe, because he is one of the smartest comic book writers I've ever known. He always keeps reminding us that Spider-Man is still a teenager in this continuity, especially in this volume, because once the Ultimatum wave hits Manhattan he has no idea what to do! No one at his age would, in an end of the world situation would! But Bendis also shows how far a man's courage can go! Instead of running, all Spider-Man can think of is saving as many lives as he can, even if the odds of succeeding are slim!
Other high points in this volume are Jameson admitting that he was wrong about Spidey being a menace, Aunt May getting arrested because the police know that she and Peter are connected to Spider-Man, the return of Spider-Woman, Spidey's team up with the Hulk, and the artwork of Stuart Immonen, who draws a very dramatic picture of Magneto sitting on his throne with Thor's hammer! So Cool! This volume also has Annual #3 of Ultimate Spider-Man, which shows whether or not; Peter and MJ are ready to take their relationship to the next level.
Even if you hate the Ultimatum series in general, this volume is still worth checking out because it's not even close to the horrible stuff that happened in the other books, and it helps prepare us for the relaunch Ultimate Comics Spider-Man! There is much more to come after the end of Ultimate Spider-Man!
