The first ever cross over between 616 and Ultimate Marvel was something truly to be excited for, with the creative team of Brian Michael Bendis, the man who has given us over a decade of great Spider-Man stories and Sara Pichelli, one of the best artists working at Marvel, we get one of the better Spider-Man stories in recent memory.
The plot itself is very simple, Ultimate Mysterio travels to 616 so he can kill Peter Parker, his plan backfires as 616 Peter is sent into the Ultimate universe and there as I stated before, encounters the new Peter Parker Miles Morales as well as the Ultimates, Gwen Stacy and Aunt May.
Now 616 Peter has to find Mysterio and return back to his dimension while trying to come to terms with this very different universe from his own.
The main story is very basic almost to a fault because it feels like just an excuse for 616 and Ultimate to cross over, however the interactions between the characters is what made this book work and redeemed its cliché story.
Bendis knows how to write dialogue and banter between people, he has a distinct voice for every character and seeing say Miles meet the man who inspired him to become Spider-Man was great, the conversation between Gwen and 616 Peter was easily the highlight of the series.
It also allowed the Ultimate Parker family a chance to get some closure, Bendis has, for lack of a better term, tortured and mutilated these characters for the past 10 years, he has made these poor people go through so much pain and suffering, it just made me happy too see something good finally happen to them.
Also this book proves why Bendis should be writing Amazing Spider-Man as well, he is the only writer since the god awful abomination One More Day, who can write main stream Spidey and write him well.
Now despite the positives, this book did have some major issues that hurt my overall enjoyment off it.
The biggest problem with this series is that it is used only as an excuse for 616 and Ultimate to cross over, the story is so blatantly cliché and only makes the problem more apparent, if Spider-Men was actually addressed in Ultimate Spider-Man, I would be more lenient on it.
However, the fact that May and Gwen already know Miles is Spider-Man, this series takes place who knows how long after Ultimate Spider-Man, so the after effect of 616 Peter Parker visiting might not be felt for a long time.
The second big problem I had with this series was the pacing, while that series is a great read once you have all the issues, reading this month to month was painful, this is a problem with Bendis, it takes him so long to get the ball rolling, by the time it does you are just so sick of the wait that you don’t care anymore.
While the art was overall very, very good, I really hate the way Pichelli draws Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane, Gwen looks like a stereotypical Goth chick, while Mary Jane looks like a stereotypical nerd chick, it doesn’t fit with what Mark Bagley drew on his run of Ultimate Spider-Man and I really just didn’t like their designs.
Now this may or may not be an issue depending on your taste, the book is a quick read, I managed to read all of it in about 30 to 40 minutes, while this didn’t bother me personally as I like quick reads, some people may not like this and feel like they didn’t get enough for their money.
Spider-Men is an interesting series, while I did enjoy it and like a lot of things about it, it just felt like it was done for the sake of making a 616/Ultimate cross over and it left me feeling empty, its the big cross over between Marvel universes, see it happen, and then that’s that.
Don’t get me wrong this is easily the best Spider-Man series along with Ultimate out right now, just don’t think you’re getting this big, epic oh my god storyline, it really is about the characters and them interacting.
FINAL VERDICT: B-
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