It's a strange, sad truth for a Marvel Comics reader, but I don't like the X-Men. Uncanny, New, Ultimate or otherwise, I just cannot work up the interest to read about those characters any more.

Except, oddly, when Brian Michael Bendis is writing them for Ultimate Spider-Man. Then, somehow, the X-team is fresh, new and 10 times more fun than usual. And that takes some doing.

In Deadpool, Spider-Man is on a date with Kitty Pryde, one of the more likable X-ers under any circumstance. But when she returns home from her evening all dazed with kissin', she finds her team captured by unknown assailants. In a foiled attempt to escape, she sends her robot plane (I know, wouldn't most dating teens kill for one of those?) after Peter, who comes back to the X-mansion just in time to get captured, too. Oops.

They all wake up on Krakoa Island, part of a small nation where mutants are hunted and killed (live, on TV!) for sport. Spider-Man was an unexpected bonus, but they figure, what the hell, he has powers so he must be one, too. Arrayed against them are the mysterious Deadpool and a troop of cyborg soldiers called the Reavers. Let me tell you, our viewing audience is in for one heck of a brouhaha! It's action, action, action, and before you know it, most of the Deadpool collection is behind you. But there are still pages to fill, so Bendis rolls out Blade and Morbius.

OK, so I don't like Blade and Morbius, either. Frankly, I just don't think Marvel does good vampires. But you know what? When Bendis writes them for Ult.Spidey, they're kinda cool after all. Huh. Besides, reporter Ben Urich gets bitten, and that's just fun stuff.

The book wraps up with a stand-alone story (originally Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #2) featuring Daredevil, Moon Knight and the Punisher. You see this coming, right? I've never liked the flippin' Punisher no-how. Daredevil and Moon Knight, who both are pretty good in the mainstream Marvel Universe, never clicked for me in the Ultimate line. But there Bendis goes again, with the writing....

It's surely gotta mean something that this guy can take characters I don't like and write a story I truly enjoy. You should try it and see.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
27 October 2007