Ultimate Marvel Team-Up

[fajrdrako]

What an amazing book.

For one thing, it doesn't seem to exist in this form any more. When I do a search on amazon.com, for example, I come up with the trade paperback version of the same thing in several volumes. But this isn't a trade paperback. It's a large hardcover, beautifully made, fine-art quality. It looks and feels as if it cost a lot - I got it courtesy of the Ottawa Public Library, bless their bookwormy hearts. I found a few online references to this - out of print.

It's a reprint of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up#s 1 to 16, and Ultimate Spider-Man Special #1. All written by Brian Michael Bendis, with various different artists - generally the ones considered the best in the business. Not the most popular by any means, but the creative and artistic ones that get mentioned by critics - people like Bill Sienkiewicz, Ten McKeever, Matt Wagner and Terry Moore. (Suprise. Well, I was surprised.)

A few days back I was reading Ultimate Spider-Man, and was thinking that Brian Michael Bendis, though always an above-average writer, didn't write Spider-Man as well as he writes other characters: the angst didn't have the right tone, the humour didn't have the right spark. I take it back. In Team-Up, his writing of Spidey - and of Peter Parker - is as good as it gets. The stories themselves are of variable quality. The relationship between Spider-Man and the guest star varies in impact a great deal - from the barely-glimpsed (Man-Thing) to the formation of a friendship (Wolverine).

The best stories... :

Issue #1 (None of them have titles). Drawn by Matt Wagner, of Mage and Grendel fame. Character-rich art. The story: Spider-Man witnesses a fight between Wolverine and Sabretooth, and starts worrying that he might be a mutant. He talks to Wolverine about it.

Simple concept, on the face of it. Simple story. But the implications are deep and Bendis implies much more than he says. He does it with sensitivity and wit and the epilogue was cute and funny and touching.

Issue #6 to 8 Drawn (amazingly) by Bill Sienkiewicz, Daredevil comes up against the Punisher. Bendis writes Matt Murdock brilliantly, and here we get his first meeting (in the Ultimate universe) between Spider-Man and Daredevil. Daredevil is not impressed.

There's some wondeful dialogue. Daredevil finds himself with the Punisher's gun to his head: "Beating him isn't the answer. All I can do now - is what I do. I'm a lawyer when I'm not Daredevil. I'm a lawyer - so I guess I'll just talk him to death." You can see it here.

I also really liked "Peter Parker's Day Off", drawn by Chynna Clugston-Major, an artist I never heard of, who does a sort of American manga-style. It was the story I liked here, not the art. Peter Parker and his teen-age friends go to spend the day at a mall. They run into the X-Men; Wolverine knows Peter Parker from their encounter in issue #1 and isn't above teasing him. But Liz boldly asks the X-Men questions about what it's like to be Mutants, and they give honest ansers. It's a talking-heads story, but (I thought) an exceptionally good one. A sample panel showing Wolverine here.

The art I liked least was Ted McKeever's, on the Dr. Strange story. I didn't like the story either; Clea turned against magic? He son a sort of second-rate mystical master? Wong playing obsequious servant? Well, I've never liked Ted McKeever's art anyway; whatever energy it has gets dissipated in dissonance. And is ugly to boot. I didn't much like the Iron Man story, either: it was weirdly static, though it had some good background bits.

Nick Fury turned up in several stories, oddly sinister and unattractive. This wasn't *my* sexy Nick Fury, who almost made my list of ten fictional characters from yesterday.

The Shang-Chi story was nicely written, and I liked the brushwork, but the art on the characters stripped them of personality and Shang-Chi (another favourite hero) was so distant as to be absent from his own story. Now, Shang-Chi isn't a voluble type, but in Master of Kung Fu we at least saw things from his point of view. Here - there was nothing left but a vague impression.

Comments

[jfc013.livejournal.com]

Didja ever read my Spidey/Wolvie stories? :)

(Now if BMB's animated Spider-Man would just come back to MTV!)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Didja ever read my Spidey/Wolvie stories?

No! I didn't even know you wrote them. Where are they? Now I can hardly wait.

What is BMB? Is that the current Spider-Man animated series? I haven't seen it, but I hear it's good.

[jfc013.livejournal.com]

No! I didn't even know you wrote them. Where are they? Now I can hardly wait.

Go to my page (http://jfc.freeshell.org/stories.html) and click on "Other Universes". They're called "Brethren" and "Family Reunion".

What is BMB? Is that the current Spider-Man animated series? I haven't seen it, but I hear it's good.

Brian Michael Bendis? Yep. The animation is really striking, looking sorta like a computer game, and the writing isn't bad at all! They're on hiatus right now, but I've seen the first season on DVD at Best Buy!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Go to my page and click on "Other Universes". They're called "Brethren" and "Family Reunion".

Thanks. Now I don't want to go to work. I want to stay home and read your stories. (Whimper.)

I'll look for the Spider-Man DVD. Thanks for the tip.

(Having nice thoughts about Peter Parker and Logan now.)

[imaginarytiff.livejournal.com]

Ooh! That's a great find. I've read the series only up to a point (when my brother stopped getting the individual issues) which I believe was around #7, but I remember being quite fond of the Iron Man two-parter oddly enough. (I'm not a big Iron Man fan in general, but I loved Bendis' take on it.) The Wolverine encounters are really great, too, I agree.

I've always loved Ultimate Spider-man, but admittedly it's the first Spidey title I've ever read. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like Bendis' take on anything. The Iron Man two-parter left me with mixed feelings - I felt as if the story was a sort of fascinating prologue that didn't quite get to the real story. I'd love to see more of the friendship that seemed to be developing between Spidey and Iron Man. (Or should I say, Peter and Tony?)

Ultimate Spider-Man is a good place to start with the character. I started... I almost blush to say it, it makes me feel antique... with Spider-Man #4, when he fought Sandman. (Not Gaiman's Sandman, Stan Lee's Sandman). Old classic Lee/Ditko stuff. I never liked Ditko's art but the characterization and the banter won my heart forever.

The Ultimate Team-Up series is gone now, more's the pity. (And I can't afford to buy another title, so it's just as well!) I think I'm going to have to start following Ultimate Spider-Man though. (What was this about not being able to afford it? Who needs to eat, anyway?)