Credits this month say “the author would like to give special regard to the work of Stan Lee & Steve Ditko,” for what will be obvious reasons. I have not yet mentioned, but I think it’s worth doing, the text pages in this book. Ultimate titles have a recap page, a much more efficient version of the 1997 concept which will spread ot the whole Marvel line, a practice that continues today, but here, it is made to look like Mac OS 9:
Not an evergreen choice! I mean, at the very least, OS X was riiiiight around the corner. The letter page is also in an OS 9 window. When trying to look cutting edge goes wrong! Man, Mac OS sucked before X. So needlessly obtuse. It’s funny that Steve Jobs left Apple, iterated a much better OS at NeXT, and then basically brought it back with him when he rejoined the company. Hey, this blog isn’t about UX design, we have a very sad event to cover. But, uh, no the one you might think just yet.
Not your daddy’s Green Goblin. This was the only controversial move in the early days of USM, but I’ll save that talk for later. For now, it’s back to the tragedy we expected from last issue, and lemme tell you…
…Bendis & Bags just nail this page. Far from the last time we’ll see the reality, the humanity of characters in this book shining through so well. May’s dialogue and ”acting,” all the little details… it’s so good. And so sad. It leads to a silent 2-page splash of Anna Watson, May & Peter on the couch as Ben’s body is wheeled out of the house. May is still in shock as Anna says she & Peter will be staying with the Watsons tonight. But then a cop’s radio says a guy tried to rob a Popeyes 2 blocks from the Parker home, and has been cornered in an old warehouse, and might be their man, and Peter runs out of the room. A detective tells May to let him go, that kids take these things the hardest. And then Spider-Man is flinging himself into the night. At the warehouse, cops are trying to talk their suspect out, but he mutters to himself that he’ll take them with him, and an off-panel voice says that’s exactly what he was hoping to hear.
Peter gets a whole page to relive not stopping this guy when he had the chance, and to imagine Uncle Ben’s last moments. We briefly cut to Captain Stacy outside trying to decide what to do as, in an unusual twist on this story, Spider-Man gets out the burglar’s wallet and looks at his ID. No mystery man killer for Ultimate Uncle Ben. The cops are about to rush the warehouse when the burglar is thrown through a window, tied up in a rope, and lowered to the ground. Captain Stacy sees something else, tho.
Cut to a montage of Spider-Man, still without webs on his suit or shooting from his wrists, saving a kid from a burning building, stopping a mugging, stopping a robbery, as Peter narrates that he’s learned the bitter lesson, with great power must come great responsibility, and that he will never let Uncle Ben down again. And then…
Perfect. Crushing. There were, of course, corners of fandom who didn’t respond well to this book. Cynical old guys sneering things like “It took them 5 issues to do what the original did in just a few pages?” A complaint that would become pretty common as so-called “decompression” took hold at Marvel and then elsewhere, thanks in large part to the success of this title. As if doing it faster is somehow doing it better. Don’t get me wrong, there’s such a thing as filler, and as padded stories that run too long. We’ve seen both on this blog, and sadly will see more. But there’s really nothing to cut in these 5 issues. No fat to trim. Everything in them helps them be great. A lot of older fans were able to get that, but a lot weren’t. This issue runs letters from old heads who loved the first 3 issues, including a guy who says he’s 43 and another guy who says he’s been buying comics since ‘86. A new era is dawning for comics. Editorial also reveals the mysterious “JC” coloring the series to be Jung Choi, who also paints the covers over Bags’ pencils. Not sure why he doesn’t get his whole name in the credits, but at least they got it in there. Next month, a real look at Ultimate Green Goblin, among other things.