“I’m sorry Susan. For everything”.
Writer: Brian Bendis
Artist: Mark Bagley
Inker: Andrew Hennessy
Colorist: Jason Keith
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artist: Mark Bagley with John Dell and Jesus Aburtov
Assistant Editor: Emily Shaw
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Plot: Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man and Reed Richards, the evil version, travel from their universe to the regular Marvel Universe to find a solution to their Galactus problem. Valeria Richards and the Superior Spider-Man make cameo appearances.
Thoughts: This is not the strongest issue of the series to date. It actually struggles at times to be engaging, though does have a powerful ending, which I’ll come to shortly.
Let’s take a minute to talk about the cover. The cover depicts Galactus standing over a group of defeated X-Men. No X-Men appear in this issue, which is a shame. I really want Miles and Jimmy (Logan’s son) to meet, and think that could be an interesting dynamic.
Anyway I won’t talk about what the issue wasn’t. Tony agrees to send Miles and Reed into the Marvel Universe to look for help. I understand why Bendis chose these two characters, Reed is the groups best chance of infiltrating the Baxter Building, and Miles is not only his point of view character, but he is also one of the more popular Ultimate characters. Unfortunately, part of Tony’s decision was based on the fact that Miles and Reed have no history together, and so could work together without killing each other. This meant the two’s interactions where very dull, they have no reason not to trust each other, and so the mission is by the numbers for the most part. Since Reed behaves himself throughout, and even saves Miles twice, there is little tension in the issue. It’s the least dramatic premises of a superhero team-up I’ve seen.
The majority of the issue takes place in the regular Marvel Universe, so of course they’re are nods to the current status quo. Miles is chased from the Baxter building by security H.E.R.B.I.E’s and while he hides the drones start chasing the Superior Spider-Man by mistake. Miles apologies and leaves, without helping. This must be the frustration the Superior Spider-Man reviewers face regularly, but I found myself wondering why Miles would do something so out of character. I understand his world is in danger, but I can’t believe he would leave “Peter” to his fate. Between them the H.E.R.B.I.E’s wouldn’t pose much treat. Ultimately Miles behaves out of character because Miles and “Peter” would be unable to interact without Miles becoming suspicious. It’s also the sort of thing that if you were to read this in a few years time you’d wonder why Peter was behaving strangely and wearing a different costume. It doesn’t add to the story.
Reed’s part of this issue is actually really interesting. I really liked the first half of Ultimate Fantastic Four, especially the Warren Ellis run, so it was nice to get to see this character again, even this version of him. It seems Bendis is now attempting to rehabilitate the character some what. Reed takes a trip down It’s a Wonderful Life Lane and gets to see how his life could have been if he hadn’t tried to murder people. Seeing the photo of his regular continuity family, and then coming face to face with his would be daughter are haunting experiences for Reed and when he returns to the Ultimates, he apologies to Sue for his mistakes as he’s realised he has thrown away a good life.
Bagley’s art is what we’ve come to expect from him over the years. His take on both Miles’ and Otto’s Spider-Man costumes is perfect. It’s hard to believe he doesn’t have much experience at drawing either. He also has his characters display a range of emotions, particular Reed Richards and Sue Storm. He is able to make me feel for both these characters, and I really believe Reeds has reverted to being good, not just by his actions but by the strength of the art. I was a little confused by one panel that seemed to imply Reed can fly. I’m not up to date with the events of the Ultimates, but as far as I know he isn’t capable of hovering. And while this isn’t really Bagley’s fault I am getting a little tired of splash pages of Galactus just building or standing around.
Grade – C: The miss direction at the beginning didn’t really payoff in a rewarding way, and the interactions between Miles and Reed weren’t very interesting however Reed’s regret did add some substance. The story has moved forward slightly, and the art was for the most part strong, but overall the issue lacked any real momentum.
– Adam
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@10 – To Galactus they are. He is such an advanced life form, he was born in the Big Bang for gosh sakes!
He looks at people crying out “don’t eat our planet” as we would look at ants making ant sounds as we prepare to step on their anthill.
Again, Galactus:planets = whale:fish
People aren’t ants.
Hooray, I was finally able to post my Galactus-as-a-whale analogy!
I think Reed Richards made this comparison in The Trial of Reed Richards. Galactus eats planets to survive, he doesn’t act out of any villainous intent. It’s like a human being stepping on an anthill. Is that person guilty of murder?
Would you call a whale that eats schools of fish a murderer?
Pretty sure that it was established that unpopulated planets did not provide him with as much energy as populated ones (but I can’t be sure about this). If so that’s like us choosing to eat at Arbys instead of a 5-star restaurant.
People aren’t gazelles, though, and lions don’t have moral awareness as he does, so he’s still a cosmic mass murderer.
It was shown in his history that the Surfer led him to unpopulated planets, and Galactus was fine with that.
Just making a writer’s point; it doesn’t change the stories. I wonder what you could do with Galen/Galactus if he ever grew a real conscience.
(let’s see if this one posts)
Galactus was described (in The Trial of Reed Richards?) as similar to a whale swimming in the ocean devouring schools of fish. Is the whale a murderer? No, it’s eating lesser life forms to survive. Galactus does not eat planets out of hate – he does it to survive. He views the inhabitants of those planets like a human would view ants. Would you call someone who steps on an anthill a murderer?
Galactus isn’t more of a parasite than a lion eating a gazelle. It just does what it needs to in order to survive. It’s not like he was doing it for fun like Carnage
Galactus eating the people who made that movie would be fine.
Galactus is parasitic, and he murders billions of people (human and otherwise). So, I don’t go with the “he’s a part of nature” thing. Maybe again i’m with Mark Waid on the “don’t call the bad guy noble” thing.
@2 – Calling Galactus a “space vampire”? I don’t remember seeing Galactus in the movie Lifeforce.
I don’t see how anyone can keep saying that Galactus is a “force of nature.” Galactus is a sentient, reasoning being; in prior stories he talks about oughts and shoulds; and he knows the creatures he kills are also sentient, reasoning beings. That makes Galactus a mass murder; a space vampire.
I realli wish they would have keep Miles stranded in this universe and just end the ultimate line. The interactions between him and and SpOck would have been very interresting. And with him, Miguel, Kaine, Flash, Spider-girl and Peter, we could have had a Spider themed avengers book!