I love this series. Spider-Man, my favorite character in the Marvel Universe (and the only one from Marvel I have read with unfailing loyalty in all my comics-lovin' years) has been reinvented for the 21st century by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley. In this volume, the third collection of Ultimate Spider-Man books, Peter Parker begins building a rogues' gallery of recurring villains.

Otto Octavius, injured during an experiment earlier in the series, awakens to find his mechanical arms fused to his body and telepathically obeying his commands. Kraven the Hunter, a ratings-hungry TV adventurer, vows to hunt and beat Spider-Man in the jungles of New York. To make matters worse, Kong, a classmate of Peter's, believes he's solved the mystery of Spider-Man's secret identity.

And Gwen Stacy makes her first appearance at Peter's school.

You remember Gwen, right? In the mainstream Marvel timeline, she was -- until her death at the Green Goblin's hands -- the love of young Peter's life. Even though he later moved on to build a relationship with and marry Mary Jane Watson, one suspects that, at some level, he was settling for second best.

The Ultimate storyline has Peter and Mary Jane already dating in high school, before Gwen's first appearance. How her arrival in their lives will shake things up remains to be seen. But trust Bendis to write it interestingly and believably.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man has bad guys to beat, and no doubt he'll do it with style and an arsenal of quips and groaners. Let's go read it and see.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
18 February 2006