It’s good to be back with USM. It’s been a long, dark night in the main continuity, I really need this. Even tho I’m eager to see how the stuff I skipped works… I’m glad to be here. Ok, now we can strap in for the final leg of Mark Bagley’s tenure on this title. It had to happen sooner or later, and I would say his eventual stopping point definitely counts as “later,” one of the longest runs in Marvel history. And he goes out on top, and his successor is worthy, it’s all good. But for now, it’s still Bendis, Bagley, Scott Hanna, now joined by Justin Ponsor on colors. And look. This arc’s called “Silver Sable.” Will this line up with the PS2 game? My recollection is it does not. We begin with a flashback to one month ago, and the introduction of Ultimate Damage Control, who are, at least in this issue, also the Wrecking Crew. Not that they’re villains, at least I don’t think, but it’s clearly those 4 guys, with those code names on their jumpsuits, working cleanup for DC. And they’ve come to see a guy named after a guy from the Bendis Board about a Roxxon tanker that exploded. And then…
Omega Red was an invention of Jim Lee’s when he had the keys to X-Men in the leary 90s, a Russian mutant who had something to do with Wolverine’s mysterious past and came back for revenge. Standard Wolverine, but something you can’t do anymore now that Logan (“James”) got his memories back.
So this was a month ago. I always think it’s weird when B jams a new Spider-Man adventure into the past. It just seems like we have a pretty thorough overview of Ultimate Spider-Man’s life. Regular Spider-Man’s been starring in at least two comics since the 70s, plus guest appearances and now teams, we understand that we aren’t following his every minute, but this Peter, you feel like you know what he’s up to. Guess not! Also he knows the Loveboat theme song. When he was introduced in 2000, Peter was 7 years younger than me, and I have never seen an episode of Loveboat.
Bendis couldn’t possibly have known I would one day be reading this as the first issue back after 134 issues of ever-decreasing enjoyment in the main books, but man, did he do a perfect “James Bond cold open” to bring me back in. Well, as the guy names after a Bendis Boarder keeps talking to Damage Control, Silver Sable (Concealed in shadow) is listening in with one of those movie spy listening things. And she’s confirming to Mr. Roxxon (Concealed in shadow) that Spider-Man was involved. Mr. Roxxon? Surely you can’t think that could be someone’s name? Ah, well. Mr. Roxxon is truly baffled as to why Spider-Man has now defending something of his twice in a month, and wants him brought in. He thinks Spider-Man knows who’s attacking Roxxon, though of course, it’s a coincidence. The last one was Killer Shrike in USM 72, we shall recall. Barely a cameo! Two weeks ago, Spider-Man was spotted by one of the many agents Sable has staking out Manhattan, and Sable’s goons proceeded to follow him in a helicopter until he dropped into an alleyway and disappeared. One week ago, they spotted him going to Midtown High.
So they take him somewheres, and they’re looking over his license and whatnot, amazed he’s only 16, and they don’t have his costume, and then they wake him up.
“Hi, it’s me, Silver Sable. Remember? That time I drugged you somehow despite your Spider Sense and kidnapped you and saw your face, like, a lot, and would therefore know you aren’t you, and then Venom kidnapped me for no obvious reason on that bridge, when all he wanted was to kill you, and you had to come after me? No?” It’s bonkers that Bendis is still asserting that game is in-continuity! The back of this issue is part one of a serial running through the Ultimate books introducing Ultimate Vision. It’s by Mark Millar (Booooo) and John Romita, Jr. (Yaaaaaay), but it doesn’t have Spider-Man in it, and I also only have parts of it since it was serialized through the whole line, so we’re not gonna look at it. No detours this time, no sir. This is a USM block. A glorious, glorious USM block.