The Ultimates: Homeland Security

[Mog Elffoe]

I wonder. The Amazon reviews say the opposite; that if you know all the backstory, the books are more interesting. I'm not a Spidey scholar, by any means, but I more or less know the story of the major villains and such. I'm finding Ultimate Spiderman (and the other Ultimate lines) absolutely fantastic. Got rid of a lot of the camp of the originals too, which is always a good thing.

I totally agree with you. I've been reading Spider-Man since the Roger Stern/John Romita, Jr run back in the early 80s (cannot wait for the Essential Spider-Man to catchup to those...!) and I've read nearly everything before those. I really, really dig what Bendis does with those old characters and villains, particularly Gwen Stacy. I was dreading the 'Ultimate Venom,' but I thought what Bendis did with that character was nothing short of incredible. I stopped getting the regular Marvel continuity Spider-Man in the early nineties when there was that 15-16 issue crossover featuring Venom and Carnage because I thoroughly disliked both of those villains, and now I find myself eagerly anticipating Bendis' version of Carnage. I think that says a lot, right there.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

They're really on top of those trade paperbacks, which is a better format to read (and collect) the comics, IMO.

I understand that Marvel's current pacing seems to be meant for TPBs. Certainly the comics are much thinner than I remember from the early-mid '90s.

Brad

 

[Welverin]

I wonder. The Amazon reviews say the opposite; that if you know all the backstory, the books are more interesting.

I don't see it myself, but then I can't see how it would hurt either.

They're really on top of those trade paperbacks

Marvel has been significantly more serious about their tpb backlist since Quesada took over, of course the've gone a bit over board what with releasing some trades within weeks of the flast issue being included (e.g. one or two). He's also responsible for attracting the talent that has improved the quality of their books.