"Ultimate Spider-Man: Learning Curve"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate Spider-Man: Learning Curve” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            Osborn Industries was founded by businessman and scientist Norman Osborn. His most recent breakthrough was an enhancement formula he called Oz. He was testing it on several animals, including a spider. The spider managed to escape captivity due to careless handling. Peter Parker was a nerdy high schooler living in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. He was often picked on by bullies such as Flash Thompson and Kong. He was orphaned and lived with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. He had a crush on his high school friend Mary Jane Watson, and the feeling was mutual, but neither said nor did anything to act on it. Peter’s best friend at Midtown High School was Harry Osborn, son of Norman Osborn. Harry was popular and an athlete but was unable to prevent his teammates from bullying Peter. Harry was ignored by his father and often looked down upon by Norman. One day, Peter’s high school class went on a field trip to Osborn Industries for a tour. During that tour, Peter was bitten by the escaped Oz 00 arachnid and passed out. Norman and Osborn Industries covered Peter’s hospital bill hoping to prevent a lawsuit and Norman decided he wanted to keep an eye on Peter. The next day at school, Peter was about to be kicked from behind by Kong, but before Kong could connect, Peter sensed it, caught Kong’s foot, and flipped him. Peter then passed out and was taken to the hospital. Norman had one of his employees swipe Peter’s blood work with normal blood so he could see the effect Oz was having on Peter and saw that the drug was killing Peter. Norman than had that employee attempt to kill Peter by running him down with his car, but Peter was able to sense the car and jump over it before the car hit him. Norman then had the kill hit on Peter aborted in the hopes of studying him further. Peter did research in his basement lab and saw that his blood did not appear normal and also found on the internet that some spiders can detect movement before it happens. He got in a fight with Aunt May and Uncle Ben for skipping school and studying in his lab all day. That night, Peter discovered he could stick to walls like a spider. While in school, Peter accidentally broke his desk and discovered that he had suddenly grown muscles. While in gym class, Peter saw Flash harassing Mary Jane and threw a basketball at him. Flash challenged him to a fight after school. Peter attempted to block a punch from Flash and accidentally broke Flash’s hand. Norman learned of Peter’s prowess and asked Harry to invite Peter to his lab for a personal tour. Flash’s family sued Uncle Ben and Aunt May for Flash’s hospital bill. Peter ran off that night to test his powers and discovered he was strong enough to lift a car. While at Osborn Industries, one of the scientists, Doctor Otto Octavius, took a sample of Peter’s blood against Peter’s will. Norman observed that the Oz had stabilized and was giving Peter the enhanced abilities of a spider. Norman decided he wanted to mix the Oz formula with a sample of his blood and infuse it into himself to give Norman enhanced abilities. Peter and his schoolmates went to a wrestling event where challengers were invited to wrestle with Crusher Hogan. If they won, they would receive $500. Peter dressed up in sweats and a mask and took Crusher down. He won the money and was asked to return to the wrestling ring under the name Spider-Man. He then gave the money to Uncle Ben and Aunt May in an envelope signed from teachers from his school saying they were donating the money to Uncle Ben and Aunt May to cover Flash’s hospital bill. Peter developed athletic skills and was invited by his high school’s basketball coach to replace Flash on the team, and Peter accepted, leading the team to victory. Peter refused to share his identity with the wrestling coordinator and was given a new full body costume to mask his identity and look professional, causing him to neglect Mary Jane in the process. He continued to give the money to Uncle Ben and Aunt May under the teachers cover story. Norman Osborn performed the procedure of injecting to Oz into himself, and during the process, his laboratory blew up, killing and injuring several of the scientists. Among those injured in the lab were Otto Octavius and Harry. Peter continued his wrestling career as Spider-Man until he was accused of stealing the petty cash and was forced to quit the gig. While on his way home that night, he ran into a burglar who was robbing a store but allowed the burglar to escape with the money he stole, figuring this wasn’t his problem. He came home to Uncle Ben and Aunt May upset with a progress report they received from his school, showing his grades were in decline. Peter fled from home and ran to the first person he could think of hiding with: his teammate Kong. Kong agreed because his parents were out of town. While Kong was throwing a party, Uncle Ben was able to discover Peter’s hiding place and came to collect him. Peter ran from Uncle Ben. A monster burned down the Osborn Mansion, killing Harry’s mother in the process. Peter returned home to find a burglar had broken into his home and shot and killed Uncle Ben. Peter ran off as Spider-Man to find the man responsible for murdering his uncle. He found the man hiding in a warehouse surrounded by cops. Peter defeated him and discovered that Uncle Ben’s killer was the same burglar he allowed to run past him the night his wrestling career ended. He gave the burglar to the cops and learned that with great power then must come great responsibility and vowed to use his powers as Spider-Man to help others in need and never let his Uncle Ben down again.

            J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the metropolitan newspaper the Daily Bugle, wanted more coverage on Spider-Man. Peter managed to perfect a project his scientist father had been working on before he died, a molecular adhesive. Spider-Man now had webs. Peter quit the basketball team, a decision Mary Jane supported, saying basketball wasn’t him. Harry returned to school. Peter felt an odd sensation right before several explosions rocked his high school. While the school was evacuated, Harry was afraid that someone was coming for him, and Peter ran off to sneak out of his high school to switch into his Spider-Man costume, fearing if Spider-Man was seen in school, other students would figure out that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same. The attacker of the school was the same monster who burned down the Osborn Mansion. Spider-Man fought the monster in the school, and the fight went off the school grounds, where the monster uttered the name “Parker.” The monster threw Spider-Man, who then used his newly invented web shooters to save his life. Spider-Man returned and fought the monster on top of a bridge, until the police arrived and started shooting at both the monster and Spider-Man. After the fight, and Peter returned to school and pretended to have been trapped under a chalkboard during the entire fight. Harry revealed the identity of the monster and was taken away by the police, who believed him to be insane.

            Spider-Man stopped a burglar called the Shocker. Peter learned the Daily Bugle was paying for pictures of Spider-Man and tried to cash in by posing for selfies as Spider-Man. Peter brought the pictures in, but did not get the money he wanted. He did, however, get a job at the Daily Bugle working on their website after he prevented their website from crashing. Peter learned that his Uncle Ben’s murderer used to run with a group of gangsters called the Enforcers who worked for Wilson Fisk, also known as the Kingpin. While known as a crime boss, no one was ever able to bring down the Kingpin. Spider-Man took on the Enforcers, where he learned from their underboss Mr. Big that Fisk was throwing a gala at Fisk Tower that Friday night and goaded Spider-Man into crashing the party. Spider-Man was branded in the Daily Bugle as a mob menace, despite the presence of the Enforcers. Mary Jane asked Peter out on a date to see a movie, and Peter agreed for that Saturday. Spider-Man broke into Fisk’s office at Fisk Tower that Friday night and observed a camera in his office. He was able to associate the tingling he felt to be a warning sign of impending danger right before the Kingpin confronted him. Spider-Man fought Kingpin’s electric-powered bodyguard called Electro and lost spectacularly and was knocked out. Kingpin unmasked Spider-Man, then threw him out of the window. Spider-Man came to in time to save his life. Peter returned home to Aunt May, who questioned if Peter even liked her due to his constant absence from the house. Peter cancelled his date with Mary Jane, which made her very angry. Kingpin learned Mr. Big had informed Spider-Man of Kingpin’s gala and put Spider-Man’s mask on Mr. Big before destroying the underboss. Because of the Spider-Man mask, Spider-Man was considered a suspect in Mr. Big’s death. Peter had to think of a way to return to Fisk Tower, take down the Kingpin, defeat the Enforcers and Electro, and make things right with Mary Jane.

            Okay, so we now have the synopsis out of the way, let’s get on to my own personal contribution to this review. Let me just start by saying this is my first Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection review, I’ve done Epic Collections and Modern Era Epic Collections, this is a brand-new line and the first of its kind. I don’t know how many more there will be or how often Marvel will be doing them, but this is where we start. Next, I will say that this book really takes me back. The original Ultimate Marvel Universe was a whole new universe that set Peter Parker back to fifteen years old and becoming Spider-Man for the first time, with a whole new history. This was around the time I was first getting into Marvel Comics, so this was one of my introductory Spider-Man series, since it threw away thirty-seven years of history and made everything fresh and new from the beginning again. And Brian Michael Bendis’ original run on “Ultimate Spider-Man” has actually been one of my all-time favorite comic book series. From the beginning, I have been a huge fan of his work. I thought his reimagining of Spider-Man for the 21^st century was absolutely brilliant. I was a bullied teenager myself at the time, so I found myself easily relating to Peter Parker. All these years later, having bloomed into a huge Marvel fan, I’ve always loved how Bendis retold Spider-Man’s origin story, but still stayed true to the work of the GOAT Stan Lee. I loved how he did a full build-up of Peter’s origin. When Stan wrote it, he did it all in one issue. Bendis stretched it out over the span of five issues. What I respect the most is the fact that the readers really get to know Uncle Ben better and relate to him more since he isn’t killed until issue #4, making his death all the more tragic. But the readers get to see Peter testing the limits of his powers and not just intuitively figuring them out like in Stan’s work. He didn’t discover his super strength until issue #2. He didn’t have his webbing right away, it was his father’s invention that he had to figure out how to make in issue #6, and he didn’t instinctively know how to use it at first either, he had to learn it under the stressful condition of fighting a monster in issue #7. He also didn’t fully figure out his “Spider-Sense” until issue #10. I also liked that Spider-Man didn’t win his first fight with Electro. Yes it’s sad to see our hero beaten, but Peter was cocky and unprepared and Electro was above his power level, so realistically losing this battle made a lot of sense and made me really enjoy the rematch, wondering how he was going to win this time when he was beaten once before. I think I enjoyed his showdown with the Kingpin a lot more when I was younger due to the content of Spider-Man’s quips, but even now it is still enjoyable. Issue #13, which I’m not going to discuss to avoid spoilers, is actually one of my all-time favorite single issues of a comic book ever printed, I think it’s hysterical. Aunt May and Mary Jane are great in it is all I’m going to say. But I think one of my absolute favorite parts of the start of “Ultimate Spider-Man” was Mark Bagley’s artwork. I have loved his artwork ever since I first saw it. He is my all-time favorite comic book artist. I just think he’s amazing. His art looks comic booky while still being stylish art. His tiny details are just fantastic. He does facial features like eyes spectacularly. He had always wowed me. I thought his character designs were stellar, they all looked great, I just loved the way he made every character in the series look, especially his villains. The man knows how to draw villains. I have literally read these issues over the course of the past twenty-four years since its original publication at least a hundred times, and that is not an exaggeration, and every time I read it, I still love it just as much. This book, in my opinion, is what a reimagined Spider-Man comic book should be and is my favorite retelling of Spider-Man that has been produced thus far. All-in-all, this book is simply absolutely amazing.

            Next up on our agenda of a Tim Cubbin review, if you don’t know, is accessibility. Now, I know some of you have been here before and know what I mean, but I know there are plenty of newbs here too that have to be informed as to what the word means when I use it, so I simply must do it again, despite having done so about thirty times at this point. Anyway, accessibility, simply put, just means how easy it would be for someone who has somehow miraculously never heard of Spider-Man before to see this book in a bookstore, be intrigued by it and decide to buy it, and be able to fully understand every detail of what they just read. So, I will tell you that this happens to be one of the most accessible books I have ever reviewed on this blog in my entire five years of doing this. As I said before, this is a new universe where everything is given a fresh start, so all of Marvel’s extensive history has been ignored and none of what Marvel has ever published before has happened. This was literally the way the Ultimate Universe started, so this is a perfect starting point for new readers. I feel like if you wanted to start reading Marvel Comics for any reason, whether just being intrigued by the name “Ultimate Spider-Man” or being a fan of Spider-Man from any other media and wanting to branch off into reading comics, this book is the perfect starting point for you. I honestly don’t think I could think of a better place you can start reading comics at, actually.

            Okay, I have been going on for quite a while at this point, so now we’re just going to move on to the single most important part of a Tim Cubbin review. My previous readers already know what I’m going to say, but I’ll say it again anyway for all you newbs here. The single most important part of a Tim Cubbin review is the score. I give everything that I read and review a numeric score. My system is rather simple. The score is done on a scale of exact numbers ranging from one through ten. If I give the book a score of a one, that means that it was so horrible that every copy should be pulled off the shelf and incinerated rather than have people spend their money on such an awful piece of trash. Ten, on the other hand, means that this book was literally sheer perfection and that it should have to be reprinted very frequently because every copy should have been purchased off the shelf and have found a home in a reader’s collection. Now, my previous readers know that I’m not in the business of handing out tens to books unless they are absolutely perfect, and that is something that I very, very rarely feel a book deserves to be called. And yet, surprisingly, ones aren’t all that common either, I usually find something to like in a Marvel Comic Book. But now we have this book that I’ve literally read over one hundred times and love, with an amazing story and exceptional art. And we have a big question here: does this book deserve to be scored at a ten by Tim Cubbin? Usually, I make a whole big dramatic thing that I drag out and leave you in suspense with before I give my score, and this time it is not going to be any different. So, we’re going to take everything about this book, the story, and the art, and throw it into my figurative blender. Next, we’re going to turn it on and blend it up really good. Then we’re going to pour our mixture out into a cup to see our score and… oh, look! It’s a ten! Yes, I feel that this book actually deserves to receive a ten. I do think that Bendis and Bagley achieved perfection with this book. It’s extremely rare for me to say this, but in this case, I do feel it is perfect. In my opinion, it’s exactly what a Spider-Man comic reimagined for the 21^st century should be.

            Next on the docket is if this book gets the personal Tim Cubbin recommendation and then regardless of this or not who I think would enjoy this book the most. I think it obviously goes without saying that this book gets my personal recommendation, so I really don’t need to go into all that, but yes, I would definitely give this book the old Tim Cubbin recommendation. As far as to whom I’d recommend this book to, I would literally say everyone, but I think I need to be a little more specific than that, so I’ll just be a little more elaborative on the subject. If you’re a fan of Spider-Man in any capacity, be it from the movies or cartoons or video games, whatever you know him from, but are not a comic book reader, I recommend this book to you. If you are a reader of Marvel Comics from the original Ultimate Universe but have not actually read the first “Ultimate Spider-Man” issues #1-13, I totally say you should read this book. If you are a fan of Marvel Comics from any other reality but have never read this, I give you this recommendation. Finally, if you’re reading this review and just want to read this book now based solely on my words, I think you should get your hands on a copy of this book as soon as you possibly can. After all, I didn’t tell you how everything ended, so you might want to read it yourself to find out how Spider-Man pulls through all the difficulties he faces against the monster, Kingpin, the Enforcers, and Electro since I didn’t give spoilers. Otherwise, how else will you know the ending?

            Anyway, we’re getting to the point where I’m going to start wrapping things up. There are a few things that I’d like to say first before I log off, though. First off, if you read this book, I’d love to hear from you your own opinion on this book. After all, everything on this blog is just my personal opinion. As human beings, we’re all entitled to our own opinions on everything, and I’d love to know if you’ve read it how you felt about this book. Do you agree that this was fantastic, or do you feel like I’m completely mental for liking this book? I want to know. Leave a comment or a tweet or something to let me know. And at the point of my drafting this post, no one has ever done this yet. Next, I will say that this blog has over 150 posts at the point of my drafting this particular post, so there is plenty more content for you to read. While what I mostly do are book reviews, I have also written some short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty more Tim Cubbin content to read and like. I also post very frequently, so keep checking timcubbin.blogspot.com regularly, there’s always plenty more posts coming. I collect every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection and buy them as soon as I possibly can, then, if possible, I write a review for this blog, so there’s always plenty of reviews you can look forward to every month. You can probably expect my next post to come in about a month from the publication of this post. Okay, now I feel like I’ve said all that really needs to be said at this point. I’ll leave you to go on doing whatever you feel like doing on Facebook or X of Instagram, whatever site you found this post on, unless you feel like exploring more of this blog, and if you decide to do that, you are literally THE BEST! I work very hard on this blog, and I don’t even get paid. I just do it because I have a degree in English with a concentration in journalism and feel like I should use the skills I developed in class in something, so I do it in this blog. I need to move on with my life, too, I have things to do as well. I shall be back soon, and I hope that when I am, you will join me. Feel free to share this site with all your friends, I always love having new readers. It really fulfills this hobby. And so, I say adieu, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!