{"id":22714,"date":"2024-09-09T00:12:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T04:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=22714"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:42:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:42:27","slug":"usm-002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/09\/09\/usm-002\/","title":{"rendered":"USM 002"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are back with more Spider-Man of the Ultimate variety. Well, sort of. As yet, there is no Ultimate Spider-Man. Will that change this issue? We begin with Peter Parker in class, sitting through an economics lesson, but feeling weird, and then suddenly having a spasm that makes him smash his desk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That last panel is really awkward. Like Bags carries off the notion that Peter noticed his muscle under his sleeve, which is cool, but that last panel is weird. I feel like it\u2019s evidence of his initial resistance to the book. Later, in gym class, Peter sees Flash making an unwanted advance on MJ, and it happens to be his turn at this weird \u201cthrow a basket\u201d class\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I reproduce this page largely because I remember really liking the \u201cWhat\u2019s five plus four?\u201d joke. And still do! We jump ahead to the fight, already in progress. Sort of. Flash is swinging at Peter with all he\u2019s got, but Peter is using his newfound Spider Sense to easily dodge, repeatedly saying he doesn\u2019t want to fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uh-oh. Later, Kong is relating these events to Harry at his house, in his own inimitable style, when Norman overhears. Overhears how Peter broke his desk and Flash\u2019s hand. Norman then tells Harry he\u2019d like him to bring Peter by the lab tomorrow, to try to make it up to him for the accident. Harry is so thrilled by his dad showing even sort of an interest in him that he doesn\u2019t question it. Bendis & Bags play this so well in just one page, the undercurrents of that relationship. Meanwhile, Uncle Ben is ending a phone call wherein he\u2019s learned Flash\u2019s family is going to sue them if they don\u2019t pay his $2500 hospital bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ben and May discuss how it\u2019s not Peter\u2019s fault, and Ben says they lashed out at him when they were really mad at the Thompsons before they discuss how they can\u2019t afford the bill, or much else. Peter hears all this from upstairs and takes it hard. Later, he wakes from a nightmare and decides to go out. Leaping out his window, he makes his way to a junkyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next morning, Peter apologizes and makes up with his folks, and they notice he\u2019s not wearing his glasses anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hey, look who it is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Man, that is not ethical! But it does get them a new blood sample, and it reveals that the reaction in Peter\u2019s blood has reversed, that he\u2019s now healthier than before. Norman\u2019s \u201cOZ\u201d is a success. Octavius wants to learn more, but Norman dismisses him, then tells his lil goon guy that he wants to repeat the accident in a more controlled environment. On himself. I wonder how that will turn out! And that\u2019s the end of this issue. And that is the magic of these first issues. It\u2019s a superhero comic without the superhero in it, but it\u2019s so compelling you don\u2019t mind. You know Spider-Man\u2019s coming. But the route we\u2019re taking to get there is new and really engaging. I haven\u2019t seen this material in some while, at this point. I was curious how it would play for me today. Has the whole comics industry adopting this kind of storytelling rendered this less special? But, no, this stuff is as good today as it was in 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are back with more Spider-Man of the Ultimate variety. Well, sort of. As yet, there is no Ultimate Spider-Man. Will that change this issue? We begin with Peter Parker in class,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864,1],"tags":[498,35,1924,1922,25,12,22,1925,339,21,39,2,994,1923,587],"class_list":["post-22714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2000s","category-uncategorized","tag-art-thibert","tag-aunt-may","tag-bill-jemas","tag-brian-michael-bendis","tag-doctor-octopus","tag-flash-thompson","tag-harry-osborn","tag-kong","tag-mark-bagley","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-norman-osborn","tag-spider-man","tag-steve-bucellato","tag-ultimate-spider-man","tag-uncle-ben"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22715,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22714\/revisions\/22715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}