{"id":30933,"date":"2026-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=30933"},"modified":"2024-04-21T17:47:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T21:47:07","slug":"usm-annual-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2026\/01\/17\/usm-annual-1\/","title":{"rendered":"USM Annual 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pause the main story for this annual that came out way before it, believe it or not, because this is roughly where it goes. Well, the secret\u2019s out right on the cover, which is why they kept it a secret in advertising. Spider-Man\u2019s getting a new gal, and it\u2019s Kitty Pryde. This was something you couldn\u2019t do in the main comics due to the age gap, so it\u2019s another way the Ultimate U can distinguish itself. While its original purpose was to provide an easy entry into the Marvel canon, the feeling by now is largely that the mainline books are just fine on that, so as time goes on, doing things you couldn\u2019t do in the main comics really becomes a focus for this line. Bendis is gonna hit the ground running on this in USM and elsewhere. But, anyway, this issue. This is the first USM comic drawn by someone other than Bags. Not a regular issue, but it still counts. And it\u2019s handled by Mark Brooks, who we saw doing flashback stuff in those dreadful ASMs with the fake Molten Man. To be honest, was not a fan in this period. I found Brooks\u2019 faces blocky and rectangular. But a few years hence, he\u2019ll reinvent himself with a semi-realistic, lushly painted style and become a highly sought after cover artist, so at least I can say he gets a whole lot better. A similar arc to Steve Epting, actually, whose jagged, blocky people were a turn off in 90s Avengers comics that didn\u2019t hint at the cool, photoreal style he would redefine Captain America with a decade later. Brooks will handle 2 annuals for this title. I guess they thought his style was pretty simpatico with Bags. It\u2019s not totally off the mark, tho it owes more to the faux manga thing from the late 90s than to any of Bags\u2019 influences. Curiously, Jamie Mendoza is the inker, while Scott Hanna is credited with \u201cadditional finishes.\u201d Will we be able to tell where? And Dave Stewart colors. We open on Kitty Pryde doing silly medieval fantasy stuff in the X-Men\u2019s Danger Room with Nightcrawler and Colossus, internally complaining that she\u2019s not in the mood before she bounces. Then we go find Spider-Man saying he\u2019s not in the mood for what he\u2019s doing, either, except he\u2019s fighting Rhino. This is Rhino appearing for the THIRD time if we operate under Bendis\u2019 assertion that the PS2 game is canon, but really, probably the 2nd time. And it\u2019s not going well. And Rhino inexplicably has such a dark face I don\u2019t think he\u2019s even meant to be black, he\u2019s just, like, very dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like, he defeated Rhino more or less the same way as in the PS2 game, but he’s seemingly doing it for the first time. Back up in Westchester, a sullen Kitty Pryde is thinking she\u2019s the loser of her school, the only one who doesn\u2019t fit in while bemoaning the end of her relationship with Iceman, as back in Queens, Peter Parker is thinking he\u2019s the loser of the school, the only one who doesn\u2019t fit, while bemoaning the end of his relationship with Mary Jane. Laying it on a bit thick! Back at the mansion, Jean Grey comes to see her moping friend, and reads her mind that she wants to see \u201chim.\u201d Jean says Kitty doesn\u2019t even know him, Kitty says she loves him. She just wants to talk to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Panel one is a screenshot of Bendis\u2019 message boards, the same one I posted on. And that\u2019s Tom Beland, of Web of Romance, disparaging Spider-Man. Presumably they just made this forum us regular folks couldn\u2019t see, posted on it and screenshotted it for this. Why not? Anyway, look how weird and blocky Peter especially looks. I actually love it when artists who did stuff I Didn\u2019t like become people I do like. I love positive growth, and who knows, maybe even I could one day be doing good stuff if people like Mark Brooks could transform so completely. There\u2019s a lot of artists whose stuff I didn\u2019t like who changed so much I became a fan. Brooks, the aforementioned Steve Epting, Dan Panosian, Joe Bennett (Until he revealed himself to be a scumbag), more I\u2019m sure I\u2019m forgetting. Even Mike Weiringo, really. His early-to-mid 90s stuff did not do it for me, but I was a huge fan by his untimely passing. Travis Charest started his career doing a blatant, embarrassing Jim Lee impression, except he drew everyone with a comically round head, and he went on to be one of the most impressive artists in comics. All-time greats\u2026 Bill Seinkewicz started out ripping off Neal Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith started out ripping off Jack Kirby\u2026 Growth is awesome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cute! They both hang up very excited, and Peter googles pictures of the X-Men to check her out some. So, then, tomorrow, Peter gets out of school and there she is. She says she\u2019s been here 4 seconds and hates everyone as we see a nerd getting a wedgie who looks suspiciously like whathisface from the flashbacks Brooks drew in ASM, which is a nice touch. And then, being teenagers, they end up at the mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just so funny to me that this \u201closer\u201d Peter Parker is always hanging out with some pretty girl. From Liz trying to kiss him way back in USM 4<\/a> to dating MJ to hanging out with Gwen to this. It\u2019s not really selling his loser-ness, is all I\u2019m saying. Anyway, I can\u2019t remember\u2026 Either me or someone else on the forum, when Peter outed himself in Civil War, one of us put that 5th panel in our message board signature. \u201cWhat kind of selfish evil scum would I be,\u201d indeed. Still makes me laugh. Peter catches himself and doesn\u2019t want to be complaining about MJ, but Kitty really wants to know, so he explains before asking about her, so she can talk about splitting with Iceman. Except she has it worse because they still live in the same building. Then Flash throws something at them, and Kitty asks if they can go somewhere Flash isn\u2019t. So, Peter takes her up on a roof\u2026 somewhere. The Bugle? Where they can see the Triskelion, and they bond over not liking Nick Fury, and then Kitty just comes out and asks if he literally can\u2019t date anyone, or if a mutant who could take care of herself counts. Then she gets embarrassed and phases through the floor to run away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll say this, Brooks may not be my guy in this time, but he\u2019s among the incredibly rare few comic book artists of his time who drew teen girls that looked like teen girls instead of supermodels, so full marks for that. Kitty is pretty (That\u2019s hard to say), but she\u2019s not sultry and barely dressed and 25-looking, like she would be if Frank Cho drew this. Well, you\u2019ll never guess, but that explosion was the Shocker. He\u2019s doing it again. This runner was very funny and is now maybe getting tired. Especially since it was in the PS2 game, which, if in canon, came out a mere 2 months ago, and it hasn\u2019t been a year since the Freaky Friday\u2019d Spidey & Wolverine did this bit. Well, they do the bit. Except this time, Kitty confronts him, proving he can\u2019t hit her with his zaps, then showing him how her phasing ability breaks electronics like his gauntlets. Then she says whatever you do, don\u2019t look behind you, and Spider-Man chases him into a web. Kitty says, \u201cLadies & Gentlemen, the Amazing Spider-Man!\u201d to the assembled onlookers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For some reason, Peter Parker using Outlook is weird to me. Microsoft Office costs money, I\u2019ve never had it on my personal computer in my life, and he\u2019s a perpetually broke teen. Anyway, how bout that? It\u2019s new, it\u2019s different, it\u2019s like if the original Peter\u2019s relationship with Black Cat wasn\u2019t agonizingly dysfunctional and awful. I was all for it at the time, and still am. A very cool development. But whither Mary Jane? She\u2019s such an important cast member. Much like OMD happening in the main books (Some 2 years after this), the thought of Mary Jane not being part of the book anymore is a bummer. But this is different. They didn\u2019t get divorced, they just ended a high school romance. And she can\u2019t be shuffled off into the sunset because they still go to school together. This is a better situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pause the main story for this annual that came out way before it, believe it or not, because this is roughly where it goes. Well, the secret\u2019s out right on the cover,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864],"tags":[225,35,1922,302,2015,12,2261,78,301,1925,2156,378,1459,417,1456,2,138,1923],"class_list":["post-30933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2000s","tag-annual","tag-aunt-may","tag-brian-michael-bendis","tag-colossus","tag-dave-stewart","tag-flash-thompson","tag-jamie-mendoza","tag-jean-grey","tag-kitty-pryde","tag-kong","tag-mark-brooks","tag-nightcrawler","tag-rhino","tag-scott-hanna","tag-shocker","tag-spider-man","tag-storm","tag-ultimate-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30934,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30933\/revisions\/30934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}