Just so you guys know, I don't read all of Dread's reviews. I just pick one and read that, and take issue with it. It always works! This time I picked New Avengers because I know he supplies lots of extraneous info and I wanted to know if #27 took place after CW and whether or not it spoiled anything, because I want to read my roommate's copy. Dread didn't answer me satisfactorily though, so a little help, someone?
Presumably it takes place after CW because Spider-Man is "back in Black" and Iron Fist is no longer pretending to be Daredevil, although if there is some sort of memo being passed around that Spidey is supposed to be "in mourning" for whatever reason after CW #7, he didn't show it in NA #27. He was wisecrackin' as usual, trading barbs with Wolverine. Not that I minded. Wisecracks are his thing.
Thanks for explaining your strategy to reading my reviews. Your replies each week make more sense now.
dread, you really, really need to view this as the end of an era.
ultimate spider-man is over.
you need to drop the book. it's done. you completed the arc. stop buying it.
You're absolutely right. There's that part of me that still goes, "Give Ultimate Knights a chance, you liked WARRIORS and USM ANNUAL #2 that had prior installments of that theme, especially since Bendis FINALLY stopped writing Ultimate Kingpin as a brainless, stupid lunk in WARRIORS", but logically speaking, after nine parts of Clone Saga and some of the flaws starting to outweigh the cons, I really have little logical excuse to staying on. Sure, maybe Bendis is "due" for a "hit", but inevitably he'll screw up or underwhelm and the hate comes back.
Maybe I go off on the deep end, but Spider-Man deep down is my favorite Marvel hero. He was what got me interested in comics, back when I was a wee lad of 4-5 and SPIDER-FRIENDS came on after SMURFS. The first comics I read were ASM and WEB. And it was the first clone saga that ruined it for me and I never came back to the title for long since. They kept doing one drastic thing after the others and 616 Spider-Man seemed removed from what I enjoyed about him. Fortunately I had reprints.
USM recaptured and refreshed that classic Spidey for me. Some people feel the mass disappointment over "Ultimate Clone Saga" comes from overrating the book in the beginning, but no, I'll give Bendis his due here. The beginning of USM was good. Yeah, nothing was perfect and all, but the arcs always were good enough that the pro's outweighed the con's and I enjoyed them. Even arcs that were lambasted, like VENOM and IRRESPONSIBLE, I enjoyed for one reason or another. There were some stumbles in a few arcs and repetitive mistakes and flukes, but I really didn't start getting bogged down by it until CARNAGE. And no, it wasn't the fact that Gwen died at all; hell, any Spider-fan worth salt was counting the issues until Bendis got predictable and axed her, no matter how cool she was. It was the fact that she died to such a pathetic waste of a villian, a villian who would have been NOTHING without her death attached. Old school fans felt the original death in the 70's was merely something thrown in to make Gobby look tough, but I always felt that was unfair; CARNAGE, on the other hand, was unjustifiable as anything BUT making a soulless monster have a rep. After that the arcs were really hit and miss for me, but this was the last straw.
You are right, again, I should just stop. If anything, if I hear good things, I can go back to trades. They're cheaper in the long run.
and by the way dread, since echo's appearence in new avengers, she's failed at her missions twice.
guess bendis does write non-perfect women.
I've amended my statement a few times to say Bendis only writes perfect superheroines, as in not "women" in general but costumed women with codenames, in USM. I can't think of one major spandexed heroine in USM who isn't superior to Spider-Man in battle, hasn't saved his rear, beaten him, etc. Not one. Regardless of power level, from Spider-Woman to Sable to Elektra, and everyone in-between, they're all his better, and it gets boring.
In 616, he's more flexible. But Echo will still become 100 times more proficient than Taskmaster, just you watch. Although to be fair, it's not Bendis' fault per say if Huston, Fab Nic, etc. decide to write Taskie as a putz. And I would love it if Bendis proved me wrong and had Taskmaster show up and really made a great fight with him. That would be cool.
Even if I still don't see why Dr. Strange wouldn't just pwn him. Or the ninjas really.
No more ninjas!
This is the stuff that turns people away from the X franchise and doesn't make it new reader friendly. The art wasn't bad and I guess the story is up to X title convoluted-ness but it seems wholly unnecessary to me. IMO, it would be something better off forgotten and never referenced again in any other comic.
