The Ultimate Spider-Man Book Review

A collection of short stories about Spidey!

NOTE: This is not a review of Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man comics, but of the prose short story collection The Ultimate Spider-Man.

A Decidedly Difficult Decade

The 1990s proved a precipitous era for superhero comics. Superman died and came back, only to run out of steam afterward. The Todd McFarlane/Rob Liefeld machine was full of steam, but that wasn’t a good thing. And our ol’, friendly neighborhood Spidey? Oh, boy.

Much of the Spider-Man-centered facepalming stemmed from the now-infamous Clone Saga, which is exactly what it sounds like: Peter Parker deals with a clone of his, named Ben Reilly. There were also a bunch of death fake outs, some actual deaths (rare for comics), resurrections (anything but rare for comics) — enough to make you grateful that Neil Gaiman’s spectacular depiction of Death was at DC rather than Marvel. And I can’t neglect to mention Carnage, who, though considered by many a “classic” Spidey rogue, doesn’t come close to fellow symbiote baddie Venom under close scrutiny. It all evolved into one big mess that stretched on and on and on, weaving a web the likes of which Spidey would loathe to call his own. This is more than just one person’s opinion; take two…