The Uncle Ben Incident: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #22 Review

Editor’s Note: Bitten by a stolen, genetically-altered spoiler that have him incredible, arachnid-like powers… to irritate people.

Finally, we’re getting somewhere.

Between the slow and decompressed start of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man back in late 2011 and the leisurely dealing with Miles’s uncle the douchebag cat burglar and the unfortunate and misguided intervention of the whole United We Stand crossover across the entire Ultimate Comics line, it has felt like there has been something missing from Miles’s story. That thing being a real and clear motivation for his being Spider-Man.

Sure, we got the ephemeral sense that Miles understands that his power arose from his uncle’s bad acts, and that he feels a responsibility and sense of awe toward the legacy and reputation of Peter Parker… plus that, you know, he gets a kick out of being Spider-Man. But there has never been a simple, bright-line-in-the-sand motivation for him to actually be Spider-Man in the way that other superheroes have. You know, Parents Killed In Front Of Him, or On A Mission Of Peace From Themyscira. Or, you know, Let The Man Who Killed His Uncle Go Free.

Well, 19 months in, we finally have a moment that fits the bill. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #22 closes out with a gutpunch of a moment that meets all the emotional criteria for someone to, beyond all reason, pull on a pair of spandex pants and not only go out in public wearing them, but wear them battling criminals and monsters. It is emotional, it is effective… and it is a credit to writer Brian Michael Bendis that the moment is not a simple, “Now I shall become a $ANIMAL!” point of departure for a standard, if well belated, origin story.

Miles Morales’s life has turned to shit. Half the world thinks his father is Spider-Man, including someone rocking the Venom symbiote, who put dear old dad in the hospital. One person who doesn’t think dad is Spider-Man is a cop, who is not only former S.H.I.E.L.D., but who knows that Miles is Spider-Man. And as Miles tries to convince this police office that she is mistaken (in that charming way that adolescents have of saying, “nuh-uh!”), they discover that Venom has tracked dad to the hospital and is running amok. Miles gives up his little ruse, leaping into action to intercept Venom and minimize the damage until the cops and The Ultimates get there. Miles gets there and does battle with Venom – kinda – putting himself in a situation where he needs some intervention to escape and defeat Venom… but it doesn’t work out so well for the person who helps him out.

Okay: unlike many of the slowly-paced issues between the first and, well, now, this one is packed with action. We get a couple of pages of Miles lying to the cop about being Spider-Man in the manner of a child lying about whether or not he brushed his teeth before bed, and a couple of pages of fallout from what happened at the hospital, but otherwise, this issue is wall-to-wall action. So if your complaint with Ultimate Comics Spider-Man has been – as it has been here now and again – that it’s all talk, this one’s for you. We’ve got Venom tearing up a hospital at will (a hospital full of bitching old people, which should make you root for Venom at least a little bit), Spider-Man stomping the living shit of him with a liberal use of acrobatics and his stings (to nice visual result), and plenty of civilians in danger and / or stepping up to fight. So if you want an exciting punch-up, this is your comic book this week.

And then there are the bookend moments, the first being that this random cop seems to have worked out that Miles is Spider-Man. It’s the lesser of the two big motivating moments for Miles – the fact I’ve made fun of it twice in this review should push that point home – but if you think about it, that’s a hell of a thing for a barely-adolescent boy. We see Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane telling Miles that letting too many people know he was Spider-Man is what killed Peter Parker, and then Miles trying like hell to convince a cop that she’s wrong while she all but mocks his efforts to his face… that’s pretty powerful if you stop and remember what life was like for you back when you were 12 years old. When I was a lad, I would damn near shit my pants if I had to bring home a bad report card, and the first time I had to call my mom and tell her I got suspended, I almost went to pieces. If you can remember being that young, that powerless to authority, there’s a lot of emotional depth to that couple of pages.

And then there’s the end, and there’s no way to talk about this without spoilers: Miles’s mother dies right in front of him. Further, she dies as an indirect result of Miles’s efforts to defeat Venom. Further, she dies having put herself in danger in an effort to save him. And even fucking further, she dies in utter amazement of what her son can do, and with an admonishment not to stop being Spider-Man, not to be more careful… but simply to not tell his father about what he can do. That;’s your Uncle Ben moment. In any other superhero comic book, that’s the moment where the hero understands his duty and redoubles his commitment to protect the innocent… but Bendis has already shown us that this is a kid, and therefore he reacts like a kid: he runs from being Spider-Man.

This is good writing; again: think about what it was like to be a kid. Miles has failed to save his mother, has the cops harassing him, and has basically been told, with his mother’s dying words, that there will be hell to pay if Dad finds out what he’s done. Jesus, I’m 42 years old, and to this day I break out in chills when I remember my mother saying, “Just wait until your father gets home,” so imagine that, combined with whatever you did getting your mom killed, and add in that the fucking cops are after you. It is powerful stuff if you can get in the right mindset, and it takes the standard superhero motivating scene and it turns it on its head. It’s good stuff.

Sara Pichelli’s art is generally solid, as it has been during most of her appearances in this title. The art here is detailed without being too busy, using simple lines and good use of shadows to make things look realistic… with the exception of Venom, who is almost Hulk-sized and utterly inhuman here, amping up the stakes of the battle more visually than even the writing does. Her faces are extremely expressive, which is something that you are gonna live and die by in a book with a conclusion like this one’s… and most importantly, there are only two double-pages spreads, and each is clearly telegraphed in the first panel that it should be read left to right across the book’s spine. So in short, all the good stuff I liked from earlier issues is here, without any of the page-spanning crimes against readability we saw in the earliest issues of this book.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man has been a generally good book since its inception, although slower and more hit-or-miss in some stretches. This issue, however, is simply good comics. It’s got action all over the place, a big honking superhero origin moment… and smart enough characterization that anyone who can honestly remember what it was like to be a kid will have to admit is simply dead-on. When I saw the “Spider-Man No More” promos for the upcoming arc, with the “after Steve Ditko” art, I thought it was a gimmick. Bendis has convinced me that it’ll be worth an honst chance. This is a good issue. Even if you’ve thought this comic was slow in the past, give this one a try.