Venom gets the Ultimate treatment.
General Information
Title: Ultimae Spider-Man Vol. 6
Author: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrator(s): Mark Bagley
Original Publication Date: 2003 reprint of material published earlier this year, as issues 33-39 of Ultimate Spider-Man.
ISBN: 0-7851-1094-1
Cover Price: $15.99US, $25.75 Can
Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.ca
Premise
Venom gets the Ultimate treatment. This time, he’s the side effect of one of Richard Parker’s experiments.
High Point
Peter’s first few minutes in the suit.
Low Point
The anti-climatic final battle.
The Scores
Bendis continues to do great work, taking Ultimate Spidey places the character has never been. The new Venom is a lot more personal, and has a greater psychological impact than the original ever had for me. I give the originality 5 out of 6.
The artwork is the same sort of quality we had in the first four volumes. I give it 5 out of 6.
The story is Spider-Man at his best; he’s trying very hard to be a hero, but his personal life is falling apart around him. It’s not quite as bleak as it was at the end of volume five, but it’s still a rough life. Only the ending seems like a let-down. I give it 5 out of 6.
The characterization is very well done. We see aspects of Mary Jane, Eddie Brock, and Gwen Stacy that are new, and get a bit better feel for Peter and Nick Fury. I give it 5 out of 6.
The emotional response this produced was very positive. It was a great ride to take with Peter while things were going well, which just made the turn for the worse that much worse when it came. I give it 5 out of 6.
The flow was only impeded by very long conversations at the start and end. I give it 4 out of 6.
Overall, it’s a step up from the previous volume, and one more entry in a great series. I give it 5 out of 6.
In total, Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 6: Venom receives 34 out of 42.
Venom-ness
I really enjoyed this section, the end was a bit of a let down but I waiting, nae, longing for his return. I think this plot line has a lot more length in it. I am becoming a real fan of the Ultimate line of comics even if it is a bit “younger” in its outlook.
One thing I hope they don’t do, however, with the ultimate line is Carnage he was a lame idea, or maybe just poorly done in the series’ before. It could be that they do it well as the redesign of most of the bad guys has been very fresh.
A side question for you wonderful people, does anyone know if the lizard has shown up yet (except for a flashback)?
Re: Venom-ness
Bendis was asked if there would be an Ultimate Carnage. His answer:
“Not on my watch.” Ultimate Lizard first appeared in Ultimate Marvel
Team-Up #10, along with Ultimate Man-Thing.
Re: Venom-ness
A mighty HUZZAH! And a Thank you! To the Comic Shop Robin!
Re: Venom-ness
How can you people NOT like Carnage!? I mean think about this. Just about every other villan is some guy whos been persecuted (sp?) by society and retalliated with violence. But Carnage was just a regular guy who happend to enjoy killing people. Now he stumbles upon a nifty new suit, bang, you’ve got the most insane/dangerous killer on earth in the marvel universe. I think kletus (or is it cleatus) Cassedy provided a much needed, fully hateable person to the spidey world. I mean Goblin was nuts, it’s not his fault, Brock was craped on by everybody and hated parker to begin with then the suit warped him, can’t blame a guy there, Vulture had his reasons, The lizard is doc conners, how can you REALLY hate doc conners for crying out loud! Rino was too dumb to really hate. The king pin wasn’t evil really, he didnt kill for shits and giggles. He’s not the type that got enjoyment out of squeezing the life out of you, he was all about the bucks. Carnage was the Villan you loved to hate. I may be alone on this but I think the worlds just not as interesting without our sociopath friend.
*I apolagize for spelling, i’ve had very few hours of sleep but wanted to post on this before nobody gave a damn*
Re: Venom-ness
I can your point and in many ways I agree, Carnage is that psycho you sometimes need, but I don’t think Carnage works the way he has been done before. I mean if they were to come up with an interesting version or Carnage I suppose I would be more open to him it just seemed like a lame add on to the Venom story arc’s. They I felt he was introduced stank to much of “Oh no Venom is turning out to be not that evil after all oh we need another plot hook quick!” (admittedly a lot of Marvel can be like that sometimes).
I think the problems with Carnage overwhelm his good points for instead of Carnage you could just have something much nastier and more evil. Such as a normal human, no symbiant, mutant powers or anything just a human who enjoyed killing in sick and twisted ways and was completely insane, admittedly that’s more of a Batman bad guy but hey it could work.
But isn’t this a problem with a lot of things in any form of story (be they book, comic, film or TV)? We can always see ways that things could be done better or the problems but never the cures. Sometimes the best option is count or loses and drop and idea rather throwing in random plots just to justify one thing in the big plot.
Re: Venom-ness
All I saw in Carnage was a creation designed to keep a villainous symbiote around while Venom was starting to play nicer. His creation was one the factors that led to my not reading comics (apart from graphic novels and some trades)…the continuously ballooning prices and volume of books didn’t help either.
Re: Venom-ness
Danger, Will Robinson. I’m replying to myself.
PS – I wasn’t a big Venom fan either but at least his creation felt organic to the symbiote story.
PPS – I think another reason Carnage was created was to give the illusion of variety when they were doing the biweekly ASM thing. I always figured they started doing ASM biweekly because Mark Bagley told Marvel that he could easily draw two issues per month and they decided to take him up on it – surprisingly, the art did indeed continue looking good but I think the writing suffered.
Re: Venom-ness
I hope an ltimate Carnage never shows p becase he scks. Venom is cool and carnage is just a poor mans venom. I also want to see an ultimate Scorpion.