Read our review of Ultimate Spider-Man #2 from Marvel Comics, written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Marco Checchetto.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Ultimate Spider-Man #2 Review:
In the second issue of this blockbuster series, Spider-Man is in costume, but doesn’t know quite how to be a hero – yet. Meanwhile, he’s struggling with his marriage, parental duties, and more. Oh, and he fights The Shocker, a bunch.
Host Alex Zalben kicked things off noting that he was a “little trepidatious” about the first issue, but “we started to get into the emotional meat here,” something he liked a lot better.
“We got a little bit of everything in this issue,” Zalben continued, “with Peter Parker’s relationship with his daughter. A little bit of tension going on potentially with Mary Jane. We got some great stuff with J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker. Interesting things with Green Goblin, Wilson Fisk. A little bit of texture of the world as well. And I like this new Spider-Man. I like the way that he is wrestling with ‘what if my destiny is to be one of the world’s greatest heroes?’ But not in a Harry Potter way, in a way of that was supposed to happen to be 20 years ago. ‘What if I can’t do it now? What if my knees aren’t strong enough?'”
Justin Tyler added, “That’s a core tentpole of this book and this take on Spider-Man. It’s the flip of the original Spider-Man was like, ‘I know I’m not good enough, I need to figure this out.’ And he got by on his willpower and spider powers and sense of humor for so long. This is the flip, he’s like ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough but I’m going to try and fail from the old side of things,’ and that changes that tone — but it still hits that essential core for Spider-Man, and I think it’s great.”
Pete LePage, meanwhile, was very into the art, calling it a “slicker” look, and has a “cool factor” to it. He also loved the repeated comedy with The Shocker, something Tyler agreed with. “You don’t really think of Hickman as someone who’s going to nail some Spider-Man comedy,” Tyler said. “And he does.”
Ultimate Spider-Man #2 Official Synopsis:
THE MOST SURPRISING SPIDER-MAN STORY OF THE 21ST CENTURY CONTINUES! Spider-Man faces his first super villain! J. Jonah Jameson’s quest to uncover who is really pulling the strings of this new Ultimate Universe leads to a shocking revelation! And New York City welcomes its newest hero…the Green Goblin!
