2005-2007

USM 86-110, Annual 1 & 2. A nice hefty set of USMs closing out Bagley’s tenure on the book. The one where every character was a Bagley swipe kinda haunts me, for looking so much better than the other 72 pictures I’ve done, but I tried my best here. Well, Peter Parker starts dating Kitty Pryde, who even makes a new costume to match him while crimefighting. Then Silver Sable begins hunting Spider-Man, accidentally kidnapping Flash Thompson, and Ultimate Vulture makes his debut. Peter’s new relationship immediately gets him dragged into Deadpool and the Ravagers kidnapping the X-Men to hunt them for sport on TV, but the good guys come out ok. There’s a quick 2-parter introducing Ultimate Morbius, who saves Ben Urich from becoming a vampire while trying to prove his story about vampires is real, then an annual where DD, Punisher and Moon Knight get involved in the Kangaroo trying to take some of Kingpin’s territory, ending with Punisher shooting Jeanne De Wolffe for being Kingpin’s agent. And then there’s Ultimate Clone Saga, maybe the single most insane superhero comic story ever made? Peter encounters many clones of himself, one of which is the Scorpion, one of which is a girl, is forced to reveal his secret to Aunt May and the Fantastic Four, meets a clone of Gwen Stacy that can turn into Carnage, is tricked into thinking his father is alive and eventually learns it’s all Doctor Octopus’ fault, as he and his female clone Jessica Drew scrap it out with Ock. Along the way, Mary Jane is briefly turned into a goblin by a deranged Peter clone, Aunt May disowns Peter and has a heart attack, Nick Fury tells Peter he’s destined to be one of the greats, and Peter and MJ get back together. Which makes Kitty Pryde coming to enroll in their school an issue later pretty awkward. Aunt May forgives Peter for his secrets, and then Daredevil starts gathering superheroes to take down the Kingpin in a plot that quickly spirals out of control, but leads to them taking down the Kingpin. A wild series of events to cap Bendis & Bagley’s record-breaking run of 110 (and a half) issues of a Marvel comic by a single creative team. This one is a pretty straight homage to my Maximum Carnage one, which was fun for me. Several characters are in the same spot, even. The Spider-Man cobbled together from various Bagley drawings is the only swipe.