Broken Frontier

Peter and Kitty find some together time beating on a new (Ultimate) foe. Meanwhile, back at the Xavier Institute, something is very amiss.

A loudmouth wannabe calling himself the Ringer comes to town and gets caught in the act of stealing by Spider-Man. As the issue opens, the Ringer gets a bead on Spidey, and those constricting rings he shoots are sucking the life out of the old wall-crawler. Luckily, Spider-Man’s new main squeeze (pardon the pun) is there to help him out of his dangerous predicament. Kitty Pryde, better known as Shadowcat of the X-Men, has donned a new costume in order to regularly team-up with Peter. There is a great bit of logic behind the new costume, and the young couple’s team-up provides some smiles and excitement for the first third of the book. When Kitty has to leave to go back to the X-Mansion, it appears as though the story might stall, but this is just the beginning to what looks to be an interesting introduction of one of Marvel’s favorite anti-heroes.

There are parts of the long run of Bendis and Bagley’s that don’t feel as fresh or fun as others. For the past fifteen or so issues, though, the book has been riding on a high note. Much of that must be attributed to the idea man: Brian Bendis. Although this story could have just as easily been told in the pages of Ultimate X-Men, one gets the sense that Bendis should be the guy writing the main parts of the early romance between Kitty and Peter. Over the past 91 issues (and in the pages of books like New Avengers), Bendis has also established the defining voice for Spider-Man. Many others have tried but none can match the wit and delivery that he has brought to the character. The early mix-up with the Ringer in this issue is a fine example of that.

With these past 91 issues and a bunch of Amazing issues under his belt, Mark Bagley has also defined what Spider-Man looks like today. Pretty much any time you see an image of the character commercially, there is a good chance that Bagley provided it. Probably the most impressive part of that is that, if anything, "Bags" is only getting better at his craft. Very few artists can render a page as quickly, dynamically and consistently inspiring. John Dell and Justin Ponsor have jumped in to fill the inking and coloring spots, respectively, without missing a beat, which is as important as anything when the penciler and writer have been delivering the goods on a single book for as long as these two have.

Ultimate Spider-Man remains one of the best books on the stands today (it’s my personal favorite). Bendis and Bagley continue to develop these characters and give them interesting new challenges month in and month out. Though we don’t get to see much of the story’s title character much, next issue promises to deliver the goods. I mean, Ultimate Deadpool…written by Bendis?! I don’t see the downside to that one.