{"id":24197,"date":"2024-12-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-22T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=24197"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:40:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:40:47","slug":"wizard-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/12\/22\/wizard-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizard 1\/2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The \u201cWizard \u00bd\u201d was a gimmick running through the prominent comics magazine of the same name where they\u2019d issues these specials in conjunction with the various publishers as collectibles. They came with a certificate of authenticity, even. Today, even a grossly overpriced CGC 9.6 is on eBay for $65, and a normal one could be yours for $9. Not exactly gonna put your kids through college. I wonder if any of these dumb things actually became valuable. I don\u2019t think I was even aware of this issue when it was released. I read it in a big hardcover collection of the first years of the title and was surprised. I eventually tracked down a single issue, since it bugged me to have a complete set but for that. But part of the sales pitch here is it\u2019s a completely original USM story by the regular creative team, it\u2019s kind of a big deal in 2002. The digital painting treatment on Spidey\u2019s head here is really aggressive. The eyes just kind of blend to mush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s weird to see the Bugle staff discussing a photo of Spider-Man Peter didn\u2019t take, but that\u2019s Ultimate for ya. Ben explains that the lady in the photo was chased out of a store by an overly aggressive employee accusing her of stealing some baby shoes. The employee threw her up against a wall, like a totally cool and rational person, and then a big muscle guy from the store came out and started trying to pull the store twerp off the lady. And that, Ben says, is when things got a little weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heck of a shot by Bags!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So whoever that is (Betty? I didn\u2019t think she did this kind of work in Ultimate) says that Danny Rand gave a statement and was released, and the cop friend said he looked disillusioned about becoming a superhero. JJJ says run it on the front page with the headline \u201cSpider-Man Sneaker Sucker Punch!\u201d Ben objects, and says he\u2019s got another set of witness statements. And Benbegins to read Spider-Man\u2019s side of the story to an increasingly incredulous newsroom. Saying he was 7 stories up when he heard screaming and went down to investigate. He gave Ben a speech not unlike the one in ASM 22 about why he wears a mask and how he tries to help people despite what they say about him, and when he showed up, he could only assume the guy with the glowing hand was the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As unusual as the Spidey up top of this page is, it wound up being reused a lot in ads and things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, did Ben really get a statement from Spider-Man, or was he just trying to change some minds? We may never know. The rest of the book is various peeks into Mark Bagley\u2019s sketchbook, with some handwritten comments, like one saying Ultimate Gwen should be a \u201cyounger, prettier Madonna.\u201d There\u2019s some silly stuff, like his Electro dressed as \u201cElecto-Lad,\u201d as if he was in DC\u2019s Legion of Superheroes, and a very funny Kingpin in a supervillain costume with tights. Some Spider-Men, some Green Goblins, and a look for Kraven. And then there\u2019s this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Comic book artists have a long history of drawing sexualized images of characters who\u2019re supposed to be underage. Far worse than this was being done right around this time, I think, with the incredibly skeevy comics introduction of X-23, among other things. But to lampshade how creepy you\u2019re being\u2026 sheesh! I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen this before. I guess I had little reason to open this once I got it, having read the story in a collection. Sheesh. In the mid-2010s, Bags would take over drawing Fantastic Four, and redesign the all-white suits the team had adopted in the previous run. I met him at a con and mentioned I liked his designs, and he very grumpily said he had to fix Sue because Marko Djurdejvic had drawn tiny underwear onto her pants as part of the seams and details, and it just pointlessly sexualized the suit. Mm hm. Maybe he\u2019d just grown some by then\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cWizard \u00bd\u201d was a gimmick running through the prominent comics magazine of the same name where they\u2019d issues these specials in conjunction with the various publishers as collectibles. They came with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864,1],"tags":[498,35,113,1922,12,16,64,13,26,1925,339,21,2,1956,1923],"class_list":["post-24197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2000s","category-uncategorized","tag-art-thibert","tag-aunt-may","tag-ben-urich","tag-brian-michael-bendis","tag-flash-thompson","tag-gwen-stacy","tag-iron-man","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-joe-robertson","tag-kong","tag-mark-bagley","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-spider-man","tag-transparency-digital","tag-ultimate-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24197","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=24197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24198,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24197\/revisions\/24198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}