Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 20: Ultimate Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

My main reason for love of this book, is that Bendis finds something amazing to do with all the sidecharacters. This was more of a developmental arc than anything, but that's why its my favorite. If you like comics where authors expand on characters and lay off the fights, then this is the trade for you. Heres why volume 20 makes my favorites list: *Kong turns out to be a really smart guy with a strong moral compass. I always hated him, but now I've sucessfully turned a 180 due to Bendis's ability to revisit this character without making it feel forced. *Liz Allen gets the center stage this time around. Sweet irony is thrust upon her, and her mystery is the strong highlight of this arc. I was really happy with what Bendis did with her. She is an interesting character that desperately needed something to do. *Kitty Pryde and Mary Jane actually formulate some kind of benign friendship. I didn't see it coming, but it really isn't fake here. Under the circumstances, their effort at being cordial is inspiring to those of us who hold strong grudges. Is there a message here? Maybe. So you might be saying, where's Spider-man? I did notice that this trade focuses strongly on other characters and leaves Spidey on the sidelines. You may see it as a ripoff, but I see it as effective. The side characters are just as important to Peter's story as are his villains. While "Spider-man and His Amazing Friends" isn't the most exciting Ultimate Spider-man book, it's one of my favorites due to its unique differences from the other books. I was happy to see Bendis switch it up and make us care about these other characters much more for a change.

Ultimate Spiderman continues to grasps what Spiderman should really be about. A teenager having to deal with his normal life, his powers, and as the saying goes all the responsibility that comes with them. Having a nice call back to the old cartoon series, this book really shows the awesome conntection between the young hot shots of the marvel ultimate world and how they interact with eachother. Funny enough, these three will all be living in the same house hold once ultimatum is over.

The title is a tad tongue in cheek and a play on the old classic comic book title, and the first story has more variations on the fan-favorite "team-up" books. Yet, this book really is a lot of fresh fun and I really enjoyed it. It was kind of cool seeing Peter with actual friends in both worlds (super and "normal"), which the title makes reference to, and it is done in a very original and believable (for a super-hero comic) way. Just as the first Chris Reeves SUPERMAN movie used the tag line, "You will believe that a man can fly!", in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS, you will believe that there could be such people as these, that they could hang out together, like each other and even have these kinds of problems, trying to help each other through them. The new artist is very good, although I do miss the older artist a bit. I think I will get used to the new guy. IN any case, the art is just fine. Bendis' writing is funny, insightful and sounds real, as usual. He really has "an ear" for dialogue. He is kind of the "Elmore Leonard" of comics (developing precisely those kind of chops on the pure crime books he did some years ago). And as per usual in almost every Bendis book I have ever read, he makes me laugh. There is always at least one line (usually a lot more), that has me laugh out loud. Never mind all the others that have me smiling. Who doesn't need more of that these days? An entertaining read and like all of Bendis' stuff, very re-readable!

Although the artist has switched, the transition was seamless and the storyline is great as ever.

As far as my taste in Marvel goes the characters alone in the TPB had me ready to buy it the second that it came out. For anyone who is a fan of the teens of the original MU (Spider-man, Human Torch, Iceman) you should buy this based on their inclusion alone. HOWEVER, the story itself is a little mishmashed. The story begins as a typical day in the life of Peter Parker. We are at school at Midtown High, with Mary Jane, Liz Allen, Kenny,and former X-man Kitty Pryde. Then, out of nowhere, Johnny "Human Torch" Storm, and Bobby "Iceman" Drake just happen to appear for various reasons on the same exact day (and HOW exactly is it that the general population doesn't no Parker is Spider-man?) All in all it is a good trade. The goal of the first arc is to introduce Firestar, which is done interestingly and differently then the main Marvel Universe. The Omega Red story is kind of a throwaway, but the real gem is the Shocker story, giving us insight on the goofball that Spidey beats on on a regular basis. A good buy.