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The
M.C. Escher of superhero comics.
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Jason
Schachat's Occasional Breakdown
10/31/06, page 3
page
1 page
2 You
can tell that a lot of thought was put into Superman/Batman
Annual #1. After all, how do you one-up the
book that exists mainly to one-up everything else out there?
Well, first you
could re-imagine the first time Superman and Batman met.
But that would be a little dull. Make it the first time
Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent met? Still not– Oh! Have
it be the first time Batman and Superman learned each other
was Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. And they get double-booked
on a cruise-liner, so they have to share a room. That’s
going places.
But then you
need a villain... Deathstroke? And Deathstroke has been
hired to assassinate Bruce Wayne... because... hell, it’s
falling apart already...
Wait, Joe Kelly
and Ed Mc Guinness are telling the story. Why not bring
in that alternate Deathstroke who’s the ripoff of
Deadpool who was a ripoff of Slade to begin with? Yeah,
that’s it. Rifts in the universe are opening up everywhere
and they dump Dea-- Ooh! And alternate Supermen and Batmen
are showing up, too. Yeah, and in their world they were
hired to kill Bruce Wayne, but the alternate Deathstroke
is there to protect them while their Deathstroke is still
trying to beat them to the assassination–
Genius!
Yes,
the tactics employed here were just before “Kitchen
Sink” on the Big List of Plot Devices, but the result
is well worth the price of admission ($3.99 for nearly 40
pages of story). It reads much more like a manic issue of
Deadpool than the grandiose tradition of Superman/Batman,
so more serious-minded fans might take umbrage.
But let’s
be honest people: this is the series that had Lex Luthor
don his Kryptonite Armor while in the Oval Office. If you’re
afraid of getting a little goofy now and then, you’re
reading the wrong book. This is an issue that regular and
casual readers alike can enjoy. And a must for any Deadpool
fan.
Though
the 100th issue may have rewritten the series in the most
mind-boggling way a fan could tolerate, Ultimate
Spider-Man #101 is the climactic throwdown
we’ve been waiting for. Now that Peter knows there
are clones of him running amok, his long-dead father is
actually alive, Aunt May has had a heart attack or stroke
and Gwen Stacy is now Carnage, it’s time to blow off
some steam.
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If
only you knew her like I do...
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Cue Nick Fury
and an army of Spider Slayers he had the Tinkerer whip up.
Reneging on his
old plan, Fury tells Peter everything’s over. The
whole experiment has gone awry. Spidey is kaput.
Cue a rather
pissed-off Fantastic Four come to aid Peter.
This
is an issue you just cannot put down. Writer Brian Michael
Bendis knows the can of worms you open when you reveal that
someone’s secretly been cloning your hero. He’s
also smart enough to give Nick Fury the same foresight.
Is Gwen
really Gwen? Is Peter’s father real? What about Peter?
What about the mutilated version of Peter doing weird experiments
on MJ? Is that a new Goblin we see on the last page?
True
to form, Bendis presents us with one powerful mindf**k.
The limitless possibilities the readers’ brain conjures
up are a testament to what a master manipulator he is. Much
like the last time we saw Carnage, the Ultimate Spider-Man
creative team have given us a story that will resonate for
years to come. One that everyone who ever called themself
an Ultimate Spider-Man fan needs to have.
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