Uh-oh! This didn’t happen in the game. Which is kinda weird, right? So much of this has been a remake of the game, and then it diverts into a totally different direction. Who can say what Bendis was up to? We begin with a 2-page version of the end of last issue, now with Peter’s panicking internal monologue, then get into it.
There’s a reason Immonen is on his way to being the gold standard at Marvel. Look at these pages sing! By the time he’s left the company, Marvel will have all-but made him their house style. But none of his endless imitators can do action like he can. Man, I’ll never forget opening a certain comic and being surprised Stuart Immonen drew it, only to go back and check the credits and find he didn’t, it was drawn by RB Silva. That guy in particular bites his style SO hard. But that’s way down the road. And I don’t think that guy’s art will ever be on the blog, anyway. It’s like Nick Bradshaw’s Marvel debut being him tracing Art Adams art. Unsurprisingly, as both of those guys begin to shed their “blatantly copying a famous artist” phases, their art gets much worse. Anyway. A helicopter crashes to the ground on top of a car, and Sable suddenly calls for a full retreat, which confuses her boys at first, but it’s because she saw the next 2-page splash coming.
Hawkeye doesn’t look like Bullseye, oops. Also he’s not aiming in the right direction, double oops. Our hero now finds himself freaking out internally as the symbiote forces his body to fight Earth’s Ultimatest Heroes, including Iron Man, who he’s still a huge fanboy for despite them not really interacting since UMTU 4 & 5 (Hey, I remembered something!). Venom thrashes the whole Ultimates for 3 pages until…
I guess it’s to Nick’s credit that he hesitated a minute.
ZAP! But despite how awesome that looked, all it seemed to do is make the symbiote goo roil around. Peter yells “Help me!” and then everything goes black. And he wakes up in his room, un-gooed and confused. He has no idea how he got there, and is freaking out about it when Aunt May comes in to ask him what he has to say for himself.
So, Spider-Man swung to the Triskelion (Somehow, it’s out in the water), grumping that he only has 1 extra webshooter to go with his patched up spare costume. When he arrives, Iron Man starts asking him questions about his experience, but he wants to know what happened to him, obviously.
My head’s starting to hurt. Spider-Man met Silver Sable in the PS2 game. Except now he clearly didn’t because this is patched together from the story of that. He ALSO met Silver Sable in USM 88. So when does this “one month ago” story take place? Before that? If he met her here, why didn’t he recognize her in USM 88? If he met her in USM 88, why doesn’t he recognize her here? There’s no way out of this mess. And then, Gwen Stacy is to appear next issue. She disappeared after the clone saga, and was seen bustin’ out of jail with Norman Osborn and co. in USM 113 (I’m getting my mojo back). I don’t remember how this goes, but how does that square? Will it? Can it? How can continuity get so snarled when there’s only one guy writing one series?