Ultimate Spider-Man # 111 Review
This Review was submitted by Spider-ben:
Ultimate Spider-Man #111
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Mark Bagley and Stuart Immonen
Covers: Bagley, Immonen, and Richard Isanove
I am filled with a weird feeling of dread and regret upon reading this issue. Most of you know that I hate, hate, hate the artwork of Stuart Immonen. I knew for months that he was to take over my beloved book, and this is the issue where it officially happens. I guess the best way to put my feelings on the book is like this. I’m sure everyone remembers their first love.
There is nothing quite like one’s first boyfriend/girlfriend, and it always holds a magical place in your heart. But with good things, most first relationships come to an end. My first girlfriend was the best thing to ever happen to me, but she decided to leave without really any good explanation. Now while I hold this issue of Ultimate Spidey in my hands I’m reminded of the pain and heartache of losing a loved one. I feel like something really important and special in my life is no longer there. Sure, I’m comparing a comic book with the feelings of loss and depression I experienced upon losing my first girlfriend, but both situations left me in a state of shock and dread. For the past 6 years I have turned to Ultimate Spidey for an escape from the pressures of real life. Bendis and Bagley both made this book more than just a comic book. This book was like a loved one. This book always made me smile and feel great about myself as Spidey and his supporting cast where updated for the 21st century. Now after a wonderful and terrific 6 years I’m finding a wonderful part of my life being yanked away. I understand Mark Bagley wants to work on other projects, but just having him leave after all this time is a terrible sting. What’s worse, instead of getting one of the 50 plus artists working for Marvel that I like, they chose the one artist that I despise. Think about this for a moment gang, I buy around 50 marvel comics each month and have no complaints about the artists on the books I buy. But the one artist I despise they put on my all time favorite and most loved comic. This feels like that before mentioned first love not only leaving with no explanation, but still wanting to be friends.
The good news though? Immonen only drew 6 pages of this book. This was truly Bagley’s farewell. He still nailed the issue. What happened in this issue? It was basically Peter and May having the talk. (No, not that talk. The being Spider-Man talk.) Bagley drew his heart out and the scenes between Peter and May were beautiful. The last few pages were gorgeous, with May hugging Peter and giving him her blessings to be Spider-Man. The last page is a full drawn splash page of Peter swinging over the city in costume, with the knowledge that his Aunt loves and supports him in his career of being a super hero. Immonen only drew the action pages where Spidey fights Ultimate Spot. Luckily, these pages were short and sweet and only burned my eyes a little bit. Still, I hate the dark outlines on Immonen’s characters. I think his faces look like dog shit. When Peter and Jonah and the Daily Bugle cast were introduced in the story, most of them had squinty eyes and pouty looking faces. Thank God he can at least draw Spidey’s mask without making it look like vomit. Anyways, Bagley saved the issue but in doing so also broke my heart. However, I salute him for his dedication to my favorite hero and await his work over on Mighty Avengers.
I don’t need to include my thoughts and comments here because I have already done so. If you a Stuart Immonen fan, that’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But there are very few things I hate in life, and there is really only one artist whose work I hate in comics. However, like I said before Bagley still made this issue shine and it was a terrific farewell. Also, if Bendis was leaving with this issue I would totally drop the book. The only reason I will continue to buy is for Bendis. I’m keeping my fingers crossed Immonen is only on for a year and then leaves. So all in all, this issue gets a B from me.
Ben ,man, I'll make you a deal, if your promise to be more open to Immonen's style I'll try to be more open to John Byrne's style.
You don't like John Byrne? Okay, I admit I have a bit of a problem seeing him on comtemporary comics as well. Every time I see him I think classic comics like Jack Kirby or Stan Lee (sorry I don't know much about the artists' styles except for a few, I've been reading for years, but never much into the artists/writers until I got into Exiles when they changed teams and killed off my favorite character, mimic) but it is more difficult to see his style of art in something like the current art of x-men. I loved his run on FF back in the day though. Just my $0.02
I can understand Imonen sort of spider-ben, but someone doesn't like John Byrne? That is just unacceptable. Obviously you have not seen any of his work on uncanny X-men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, or Man of Steel.
I liked some of his earlier stuff alright but, hate his current style. The prime reason I quit reading Gail Simone's The Atom, was because of the way it was drawn, same goes for the Blood of the Demon series that came out awhile ago.
I have had many people tell me his current style isn't as great only because of the inker but, that always seems like a lame argument, I mean maybe I could go with it if he just did one comic and only had one inker but, he's been on Blood of the Demon and The Atom and I thought the art for both was horrible. When I stop reading a Gail Simone title because of the art being soo bad, that should say something.
So yeah, early Byrne I am fine with, current Byrne, uh NO.
This was a Good Issue, I didn't mind Immonen's Art but I hate to see Bagely go.
I loved old style Byrne art. I think the first thing I saw from him was Doomsday +1 from Charlton comics way back in the mid 70's or so. His X-men stuff is legendary. But that said, I'm not liking his current work much, either. I stuck it out through his uninspired Doom Patrol series before it was quickly canceled, but I officially gave up on him with the Atom. Did anyone catch that first issue where the rat attacking the new Atom had fangs instead of buck teeth? Just sloppy work.
Oh yeah, and I enjoy Immonen's work. First was exposed to him when he worked on the independent book Hero Alliance. It seemed every artist who worked on that series late in it's run would be there for an issue or two, then end up illustrating DC's Legion of Superheroes (Immonen, Dust Abell, Jason Pearson).
He just doesn't seem like a very hateable artist to me. His style isn't particularly experimental or anything. He strikes me as a less organic Adam Hughes in some ways. And I think he can hit a deadline (as far as I know), which is a good thing.
Ben's revees alwasy get a tons of comments, thats awesome.
I don't have a problem with Immonen anymore but, Turk, if you haven't seen his Ult. X-Men run check that out, it looks terrible, very sloppy. I didn't mind his Ult. FF run and his NextWave stuff was great.
I think by inker, they mean he is inking his own stuff. And if you think about it, it's not really a lame arguement at all, but the only reason why his art is so sketchy now. Sorry about jumping you earlier, but I hate people that bust on artist that are just amazing, but because they draw one or two things that are bad they are branded for life.
Imonen has changed his style over the years. I first caught his work in an issue of Adventures and thought he was pretty damn good and then I saw his art in Legion and Final Night. His style is more anime influenced now, but come on spider-ben who else can draw as fast as Bagley and be nearly as good?
Wow, 9 comments already! Thank you all for reading my reviews, even if this one was just me crying over Bagley leaving. Still, I wanted to express the emotions I felt in reading this issue.
Once again, to all the Stuart Immoenen lovers I mean no disrespect to you guys. Everyone can pick their fave creators and I respect that. However, as stated numerous times before I just can't stand Immoenen's art. This issue looked the same as his old artwork from Ultimate FF and X-Men to me. I saw no improvement whatsoever.
Once again, thank you all for reading and puting up with my rants. But I still stand with my opinion of hating Immonen's art. Just does nothing for me at all.
at first spider-ben's absolute hatred of immonen was annoying, but then i realized that this may be the only case where spider-ben isn't blindly following all things spider-man, and thus, i love his hatred of immonen. good for you spider-ben! it seems you're growing as a human being and learning to think outside the spider-box!
at first spider-ben's absolute hatred of immonen was annoying, but then i realized that this may be the only case where spider-ben isn't blindly following all things spider-man, and thus, i love his hatred of immonen. good for you spider-ben! it seems you're growing as a human being and learning to think outside the spider-box!