Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Power and Responsibility (Taschenbuch)

"Power and Responsibility" takes its time in developing the origin of Spider-Man. The original story by Lee and Ditko in "Amazing Fantasy" #15 was eleven pages long. Here it takes six issues to get to the same point in the character's history. Of course, since we know where things are going, we can take time to appreciate the journey. At the same time, there is a concerted effort to bring various elements more into the mix. That infamous radioactive spider is the creation of Osborn Industries, the pet project of Norman Osborn and one of his chief scientists, Dr. Otto Octavius. Osborn is extremely interested in why young Peter Parker does not die after the bite and the creation of the Green Goblin becomes a direct consequence of the fateful spider bite. In time I am sure we will see the birth of Doctor Octopus will come from this as well.

The stories here are by Bill Jemas and Brian Michael Bendis (who does the script), with pencils by Mark Bailey and inks by Art Theibert and Dan Panosian. In many ways I am reminded of when John Byrne had the responsibility of restarting Superman; there is a sense to be a bit more realistic. It is not that Peter Parker is an absolute scientific genius; it was his father who did most of the preliminary work on what would become the formula for Spider-Man's web. Once he gains his spider powers, Peter Parker does what just about any persecuted high school nerd would do; he goes out and becomes a super jock. When he starts web slinging he makes a lot of initial mistakes. I even like the way Peter snaps back at Uncle Ben and Aunt May as things start to get to him, both before and after the spider-bite. This jut increases the pathos of the tragedy that unfolds.

I like the fact that "Ultimate Spider-Man" is divorced from the two Spider-Man comic books in the regular Marvel universe. Going back to the original stories by Lee and Ditko (later John Romita, Sr.) in either "The Essential Spider-Man" or "Marvel Masterworks" series are not going to be really helpful to younger readers of the character. It was well worthwhile for those of us who started reading "The Amazing Spider-Man" in the Sixties to go through Betty Bryant and the death of Gwen Stacy to eventually get to the day when Mary Jane confronted Peter with the fact she knew he was Spider-Man, but those are hundreds of issues to go through. Starting over again with full knowledge of where the characters are going to end up is a worthwhile approach, especially given how good of a start we see in this first collection (the next three are already out for those who want to continue the journey). Besides, how can you not be happy that Aunt May is alive again? I might have to check out some of these other Ultimate titles from Marvel as well, because this one is pretty impressive.