Due to a clerical error on the part of my comic book store, I missed out on the last 4 issues of the post-Ultimatum relaunch of Ultimate Spider-man.  I read the first issue upon it’s released and it raised some interesting questions but I wasn’t completely impressed.  It was competent, Brian Michael Bendis is always good to read.  David LaFuente was certainly a switch in style and no Stewart Immonen, but the art was serviceable, albeit aimed at a younger audience.

At the close of the Ultimatum story arc, Peter is presumed dead in the flood and a tear-jerking obituary for Spider-Man is written by J. Jonah Jameson.  It seriously almost made me cry.  The advertising leading up to Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 2 was filled with, “Who’s Spider-Man” and “What happened…?” kind of innuendo and I was dying to know what happened.  Was Peter dead?  I’ve been invested emotionally in Ultimate Peter Parker since it’s launch more than a decade ago and Ultimatum, if nothing else, raised the stakes for this particular book and character.

The first issue of Volume 2 opens with Peter working at a fast food restaurant as though nothing has happened.  Six months have passed since Ultimatum and things seem to have gotten back to normal.  Jessica, his clone, who played such a pivotal part in the end of Volume 1 is nowhere to be seen and I thought she would be filling in until we found out what it was exactly that happened to Peter.

Time passed and I’d sort of forgotten about the book.  Like I said, due to an unfortunate clerical error, the title stopped showing up in my hold and it wasn’t until I asked for it back and tracked down all the back issues that I realized that I was 4 issues behind.

I just finished reading them and I have to say, “Wow.”

I really like the direction Bendis (and Mark Millar in Ultimate Avengers) are taking the Ultimate Universe.  Sure, I’m upset that there’s a lot of characters who are dead, missing or whatever that I would like to see back in this universe, but it’s not the end of the world.  This arc is remaking the world in a way that would have been unthinkable during the books launch and it makes sense that Bendis has made a lot of the choices that he has.  Take Peter’s fast food job, for example.  He has to work fast food because the Daily Bugle has folded.  Where in Volume 1 we would be privy to newspaper headlines catching us up to speed, we’re treated to websites.  The school newspaper that Mary Jane is working for is now just a website and instead of getting the story, the editor is obsessed with “getting the video for the webcast”.  Watching Peter Parker of all people struggle with the changing media landscape is incredibly interesting to watch.  And it’s not forced down your gullet, Bendis is incredibly subtle about it and I like it.

As for a villain, this arc sees Mysterio who, during recent events, killed Wilson Fisk (better known to you ugly mugs as “The Kingpin”) and now wants to take over the world for himself.  Of course the only thing standing in his way is everyone’s favorite neighborhood wall-crawler.  They’re still getting the character on his feet, so there isn’t much depth to him other than the fact that he’s angry and willing to kill, so we’ll see turns out.

The thing I liked the most in this new Ultimate Universe is the way mutants are being treated and that a lot of young super-heroes that were based in New York (which is most of the Marvel U., Ultimate or otherwise) have lost their families, places to stay, etc.  at the end of the first issue, Johnny Storm, in shock from losing his father and the events of Ultimatum, shows up on the Parker’s doorstep looking for a place to stay.  The house is already crowded with Aunt May, Peter and Gwen Stacy (who is his girlfriend at the moment), but they bring him in with open arms.  Things get more complicated when Kitty Pryde brings over another stray.  Already on the verge of getting expelled from school for being a mutant, Kitty Pryde’s mother simply can’t take in another stray mutant and Bobby Drake (Iceman) has no school (since Xavier’s school is as dead as Xavier himself) and his parents are mutant-phobes who have kicked him out of the house.  These young mutants have nowhere to go.  And Kitty brings them to Aunt May’s.  Aunt May has started sort of a half-assed boarding house for wayward mutants and this could prove to be terribly interesting.

The story here is as good as it’s ever been during his tenure on this book and LaFuente is a fine artist, a bit too Eastern-influenced for my tastes, but good.  My point is though, that as I read through these issues, all of the questions I had lingering from Ultimatum were answered with a simple, “Who cares?”  I’m getting Spider-Man stories that I like and are interesting, taking me into some territory I’ve never seen out of Spider-Man before and it’s entertaining the hell out of me.  If they go back and answer some of those questions I had, great, if not, I’m along for the ride.

Issue Six hits stands on January 6th and now that Mysterio has a sample of Peter Parker’s blood to screw with, I’m going to be there with bells on.

You can order all the Ultimate Spider-Man you can shake a fist at on Amazon here.