Ultimate Fallout #1 – Review

It’s the end before a new beginning. First off I want to thank Brian Bradley for letting me review this as he knows I’m a big Ultimate Universe fan. With this mini shipping out every week it means you’ll be hearing from me… every week for most of the summer. Love it; hate it, which ever, you’re stuck with me until I hand the Ultimate Spider-Man torch back to Brian. Before we embrace the new Ultimate Spider-Man though, we have to grieve for Peter Parker.

Ultimate Fallout #1

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Mark Bagley
Inker: Andy Lanning
Colorists: Justin Ponsor & Laura Martin
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Art: Mark Bagley, Andy Lanning & Justin Ponsor

Story
Gwen reads the cover of the Daily Bugle stating Peter’s death which she tells herself that she’s cursed. J. Jonah Jameson is at the Daily Bugle, trying to write an article on the Death of Spider-Man but only manages to type “I knew the truth about Pete.” Johnny Storm lights up the sky in flames in anger of losing his friend. Kitty, as the Shroud, stops a group of thugs from robbing a warehouse as she begins to cry. At Midtown High, Flash Thompson is the only one in class as the teacher cries at her desk. Flash asks himself if he was the only one who didn’t know that Peter was Spider-Man.

Later, at the Queensborough Bridge where the Avengers/Ultimates brawl took place, S.H.I.E.L.D agents and Damage Control are in the area cleaning up the mess. Mary Jane is secretly filming the scene until she’s spotted by S.H.I.E.L.D agents and gets her video camera taken. As an S.H.I.E.L.D agent holds her to restrain her she shouts for help until Nick Fury appears before her. Fury tells her to go home but MJ shouts at him, blaming him for killing Peter, that she promises to prove it and that she’ll make sure everyone knows. As the two depart Fury looks at the wreckage of the bridge in silence.

The next day Aunt May and Gwen are driven to Peter’s funeral in Tony Stark’s limo. Tony tells Aunt May that he’s already taken care of the payments for the funeral despite May not wanting it to be a big ceremony. As they look to see thousands of people around the church to pay their respects, Tony tells May that the city needs to mourn too. The three of them walk towards the church but pause to see a little girl with her mom who tells Aunt May that Spider-Man saved her from a fire. The little girl hugs Aunt May as she tears before heading inside to sit down. Once Aunt May and Gwen sit down they are met by Steve Rogers who blames himself for Peter’s death.

Thoughts in General
Damn, I really needed this after reviewing Avengers/New Ultimates. Everything I said that was missing in that final issue appears right here and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Of course I’m not surprised, this mini should be emotional but Bendis and Bagley do an amazing job creating the overwhelming environment of this issue.

I’m not going to lie, I felt pretty emotional when reading this. I didn’t break down of course, that’s a little overboard but I could feel how the characters were feeling flowing off the pages and that’s not great writing, but amazing writing on Bendis’ part. The facial depictions drawn by the famous Mark Bagley is spectacular and again I say it, it’s great to see him drawing even though it is the end of a character he and Bendis both started together.

I’m kind of surprised to see that Flash was the only one who showed up to class. Knowing him I thought he would have stayed home or hung out with his group of friends but I can see that Bendis wanted to show at least a panel with Flash’s reaction to Peter’s death. Speaking of that I thought he would be even sadder stricken but this isn’t a bad thing, this is a very, very, very small nitpick.

For those that read my reviews for Avengers/New Ultimates you may have come across that I kept bringing up that MJ told Fury that Peter looked up to him back in the Clone Saga arc. Seeing MJ and Fury confronting one another again was great first of all and secondly I just loved seeing MJ blaming Fury for Peter’s death. When Fury was in charge he gave himself the burden that he had to look after Peter until he was old enough to join the Ultimates; everyone remembers that but yet HE failed him.

I liked seeing Tony Stark stepping up to support Aunt May and Gwen with everything that has happened. He was technically suppose to help teach Peter into becoming a better super hero along with Cap and Thor but with the way things turned out, that never happened. Of course the scenes with the little girl who was saved by Spider-Man hit me for personal reasons and again, great writing and art all around.

From what I’ve heard Steve Rogers will help train the new Ultimate Spider-Man and seeing him in this state helps the reader see the hero catapult himself into making sure something like this doesn’t happen again. By training the new webslinger, maybe Cap will be able to slowly forgive himself over time.

Does this issue get cliché at some parts? Well yeah, but it’s dealing with the aftermath of a death, namely a character that we all love. It doesn’t matter if its “Ultimate” Spider-Man or “Amazing” Spider-Man or any of the other versions of Spider-Man, we all like the character in one way or the other. If we didn’t we wouldn’t be on this site now would we?

Rating
Great, art. Good, character development, story and writing. Poor action– Yeah I’m not pulling a Brian, sorry ;).

Bendis is making this work. I enjoyed Death of Spider-Man (his stuff anyway) and he’s showing how heroic his Spider-Man was. This is the Ultimate Universe, death doesn’t work the same way it does in the regular universe. If he does some how come back it would have to be pretty damn sneaky… but I don’t actually see it happening… at least anytime in the next few years. Bendis and Bagley helped draw me into the issue emotionally. I found nothing wrong with this comic. 5 out of 5 crying fans.

See you all next week!