OH WE TALKIN' TEAMS?: Ultimates #4 by Ewing, Rocafort & Brown

The incredible cross-pollination of Marvel's post-Battleworld team books shouldn't work as well as it does. Two different teams feature two different Star-Spangled Avengers (Sam Wilson is flying in All-New All-Different Avengers while Steve Rogers is slumming it with Uncanny Avengers). For a quick hit of relevance and sales, Marvel even had Hyperion snap Namor's neck over in the pages of Squadron Supreme. All of these teams are fighting violent threats. They are all built using major characters from hit movies (except for the Squadron). After the death of the Sub-mariner, they have all failed dramatically. There's a distinct feeling that these books are, for the most part, coloring inside the lines.

One reason for this is that many of these teams exist for the purpose of existing. Books with that arrow-shaped "A" on the cover, like some kind of super-powered scarlet letter, are bound to sell a bit more than the average issue of Ant-Man. Now that these teams are meeting up and fighting, it makes me all the more grateful that Al Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort were allowed to take the Ultimates to space.

In Marvel's newest comic titled The Ultimates, published now after the title has been stripped of all 1610-baggage, a team of Marvel's MENSA nominees have seemingly banded together to take on problems and threats too large for other forces...but truthfully, what Ewing and Rocafort have done with this book is annotate parts of the Marvel canon that, to this point, have gone mostly untouched. A great alternate name for this book would be Challengers of the Unquestioned.

The book collects genius-level characters like Adam Brashear, Black Panther, Miss America, Captain Marvel, and Spectrum to not only think outside the box, but to ignore that one even exists in the first place. The first 2 issues focused on the team "solving" the Galactus problem, not by banishing/fighting/killing/stunning him, but by altering his nature itself. Now, Galactus is the World-Seeder of the Marvel universe. In issue #3, the Ultimates agreed to leave the fabric of the universe entirely, in order to seek out whatever is powering the cosmos themselves.

With a scope that huge, it's a relief that issue #4 has been a bit of a breather, but even more dramatically tense than past installments. In it, Brashear goes up against the Anti-Man, a villain with a connection to Brashear so personal that this issue feels as big as the team appealing to the hanger within Galactus. It ends on a cliffhanger that refocuses Ewing's eyes on the universal prize, but it never betrays the intense focus on character introduced in this issue.

Ewing and Rocafort usually focus on small groups within the team, which is good because Rocafort's strong, clear pencil work gives you great facial detail while also illustrating the beauty of the universe at large. Miss America and Spectrum haven't quite gotten their time in the spotlight yet, but I trust Ewing to balance his stories throughout the run of this book. One of the more amazing things that Ultimates gives us is a quietly diverse and interesting team, without Marvel bending over backwards to celebrate its own diversity.
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If you can only read one team book right now, make sure you're picking up The Ultimates and savor every page. I know that my pull has been reduced to just this one, and not just because it's the best on the shelf, but because it's challenging what I thought Marvel team-up books could be about in the first place.

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MORALES BACK: Character Essences & Spider-Man #1 by Bendis, Pichelli & Ponsor

Cover by Sara Pichelli

I was 12 and all-in on the first X-Men movie and Ganke-level hyped for the upcoming Spider-Man movie when most of the internet was blowing up about a then-rising writer named Brian Michael Bendis and his major Marvel project, Ultimate Spider-Man. It didn't take long for my DragonBall-Z post-&-play RPG site to recommend the first 2 arcs, including then-modern and fresh takes on the Green Goblin, Electro, and Wilson Fisk. I saved up a couple weeks' allowance for both trades and fell in.

I came to Bendis and his writing in the same summer that Wizard instructed me to read some books titled Daredevil: Born Again, Watchmen, and The Dark Knight Returns. Say what you will about how the Ultimates leveled Manhattan or how Ultimate Jean Grey was a little too thirsty for Ultimate Logan, but I would place the totality of Bendis's run on Ultimate Spider-Man on the level of those works. For one, his Claremont-level commitment to seeing a vision for a book through is almost unheard of in our current climate, wherein a writer could be plucked from a book in a prime run for any number of extratextual reasons (film promotions, economics, politics). Bendis (and frequent collaborator Mark Bagley) took a character wildly popular but weighed down by continuity and freed him, once again, to swing the skyline of Manhattan.  11 years after they saved Peter Parker, they killed, buried, and replaced him with a newer, younger character named Miles Morales.

Through Miles, readers were able to rediscover the youthful hope and challenges of growing up through fresh, and wonderfully diverse eyes. One cannot help but look at Miles and see the missed potential in a comedic actor like Donald Glover never getting to play Spider-Man, but Miles acted in memory of Peter Parker's wonderful example, but he'd experienced no major loss himself; he was only doing the right thing because it had to be done. Bendis quickly had Miles butt heads with his uncle, who became the Prowler in an arc that inverted the classic Peter & Uncle Ben dynamic, and before they knew it, Marvel had a new, definitive Spider-Man on their hands...just over in the 1610 continuity, which they were planning to jettison anyway...

Pichelli is routinely unafraid to mix styles within pages on Spider-Man #1. Miles's teacher would be so screwed if this was an observation lesson. 

That idea of a definitive Spider-Man was on my mind a lot when I read issue #1 of the new run of Spider-Man, by Bendis (his 16th year on this book) and Sara Pichelli. While Marvel is seemingly busy having Peter Parker off attempting to be Iron Man with a heart of gold (which is confusing, because they also seem to be attempting to turn Stark himself into...Iron Man with a heart of gold), they've found themselves free to work Miles Morales, one of a very small, select group of 1610 characters, into the main world as the premier Spider-Man. I don't think Slott's Amazing Spider-Man run is a travesty for the character (the Uncle Ben Foundation idea is cute) but it has nothing on the essence-capturing work Bendis and Pichelli are doing with Miles and co.

I liken it to the revelation that is Sam Wilson: Captain America, a book so brazenly liberal and raw in its honesty that I'm shocked that Marvel allowed the current arc, which sees Captain America, now a black man (literally dehumanized when he is unwillingly transformed into Cap-Wolf) going up against the true evils of the modern Marvel Universe: corporations and banks that are "too big to fail." In a time when our own political sphere is threatened by the presence of a take-no-prisoners corporate mentality, I don't think the writers of Captain America are being indirect when they have a young, victimized Latino be the hero of the story. Contrast this with the lackluster action and snark over in Totally Awesome Hulk and it's clear that not all relaunches are created equally.

Miles Morales, as a hero in the new canon, leaves almost nothing to be desired. Like the web-slinger of old, he's able to get dates but he catches plenty of heat when he misses them. He stands up to his teachers and simply walks out of class (teacher's note: students do this, and I know many of them aren't Spider-Man) if he needs to go fight Shocker. He worries about his future, if he's doing the right thing moment to moment. Even after a couple of years, Miles feels out of place in his elite charter school. Miles feels like Spider-Man.

His supporting cast, always a major highlight of Spidey books in their prime, is also stellar. In the first issue, Ganke (absolutely the Landry Clarke of this book, which is part of why I love it so) takes up plenty of real estate, encouraging his friend to be Spider-Man while also holding down school and the occasional date. Bombshell is also mentioned in this issue, showing that there might be more Ultimate characters waiting in the wings to reveal themselves (more than Miles and The Maker, at the least). The dynamic between Mr. and the newly-resurrected (in the single-most cathartic moment in Secret Wars) is ridiculously interesting now that Mr. Morales knows about his son's heroics, while Mrs. is still in the dark (for now; one of the best parts of Bendis's run has been his liberalism with secret identities).

YA BOI GANKE

I won't spoil the threat that nearly levels the Avengers toward the end of the book, nor the amazing art Pichellil produced to depict it. One of her many stellar abilities involves changing styles between pages, creating dynamic visuals like the ones included above. For Miles Morales (and sometimes Ganke), life is always moving quickly.

On a critical note, I do wonder just how much more story Bendis can get from Miles encountering Peter Parker...yet again...at the end of the book. When everything else is so good, however, I'm willing to let the mystery unfold.

And so at the outset of the new ongoing Miles Morales book, simply titled Spider-Man, we have a teenage hero struggling with grades, girls, and a secret identity while fighting crime. He feels uncomfortable socially and academically, even though he's got the brains to back up his brawn. Unlike some of those other stories you've heard, Miles isn't motivated by survivor's guilt or deep pain; he's simply following a great example of doing the right thing, regardless of the cost. Miles is a a high school student; he's a young man of color; most importantly, he is Spider-Man. Give him a spin.

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