Only a few comic book stores across the country had the opportunity to sell a variant cover of “Spider-Men #1” that was drawn by Pichelli and Spider-Man veteran Mark Bagley. (Cover property of Marvel Comics.)
By: Jacob Elyachar
This year marks Spider-Man’s 50th birthday and what better way to celebrate a big milestone than to have an awesome animated series, new movie dropping in July and moving closer to celebrate the 700th issue of Amazing Spider-Man.
In addition to all of the previously mentioned activities, the House of Ideas are doing for the Webbed Wonder, they will be crossing over the regular Marvel Universe (Earth-616) with the Ultimate Marvel Universe (Earth-1610) when both the Peter Parker Spider-Man meets the Miles Morales Spider-Man for the very first time.
Legendary Marvel scribe Brian Michael Bendis, who creates fan-favorite titles including Avengers, New Avengers and both volumes of Ultimate Spider-Man, writes the five-issue limited series. Meanwhile, rising artist Sara Pichelli has the artist duties for the monumental story.
Spider-Men #1 primarily focuses on Peter Parker and his daily life as Spider-Man. However, things get complicated with a fight with Mysterio. Fans can tell that the Master of Illusion is not the familiar Earth-616 character that comic book aficionados love to hate by the line: “I missed out when you died the first time! Not this time.” The Mysterio that Peter Parker is fighting is Ultimate Mysterio, who somehow got to Earth-616.
While confronting Mysterio, America’s favorite Web-Head is transported to the Ultimate Universe. He first breaks up a fight but is surprised when the victim states that he should take of his costume because it belonged to the late Peter Parker. Before Peter retreat to his apartment, he bumps into the new Ultimate Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
This was a great start to a very important event in the Marvel Universe. Bendis has mastered writing Earth-616 Spider-Man’s monologue and had an interesting take on transporting Peter Parker to the Ultimate Universe. The only problem I have with Spider-Man #1 is that the title says “Spider-Men” but Miles Morales did not show up until the end of the issue. It would have been interesting to see Miles in action in issue one because like some other fans, I have not read Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man and I would have liked to see one or two scenes with Miles to understand his point of view.
Final Thoughts and Grade: Despite being too Peter Parker-centric, Spider-Men #1 had a good first issue that will hopefully have an impact on the Spider-Men’s universes for months to come. B
