Saturday, March 25, 2023

Saturday Splash Page #65

 
"In the Spotlight," in Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1, by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mark Brooks (penciler), Jaime Mendoza (inker), Scott Hanna (additional finishes), Dave Stewart (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

First off, don't let the hair color confuse you, that's Kitty Pryde, not Mary Jane. Now that we've settled that, Ultimate Spider-Man had 3 Annuals, but I'd dropped the book six months before the third one came out.

While the Annuals did work as standalone stories, Bendis typically used them to set-up certain elements he'd go on to explore in the ongoing series. The first one was Peter and Kitty's first date, leading to their relationship, which lasted for, maybe 30 issues or so. Kitty's broken up with Iceman over, I think, him having something going with Rogue behind her back. Peter's distanced himself from MJ because he thinks he'll get her killed.

The 2nd Annual was Peter getting caught up in gang war territory stuff again, as Jean DeWolff encourages him to go after the Kangaroo, who is trying to make a play on the Kingpin's territory. Daredevil shows up, being a grumpy asshole. Moon Knight shows up as does the Punisher, who shoots DeWollf, because she was on Fisk's payroll. Or maybe he was sweet on her, as the issue ends with Fisk seemingly sad to learn of her death.

Honestly, I kept the Annuals because I enjoyed keeping all the issues that involved the Ultimate version of the Shocker, who Bendis kept having pop up as a minor nuisance for Spider-Man to easily beat down. He's actually the last guy Peter fights in the first Annual, where Kitty demonstrates that with her powers, Peter doesn't have to worry about her getting hurt. But in the second Annual, yeah, Spidey beats him in about one page while wondering how the guy isn't in jail. Which is when Foggy Nelson explains just leaving people webbed to a flagpole is not a good way to keep them in jail. So Peter takes the Shocker directly to the cops, which is how DeWolff gets the chance to point him at the Kangaroo.

Does that mean Foggy was secretly working with Fisk behind Daredevil's back, or perhaps working with the Punisher to draw out DeWolff so Frank could kill her? No, but I'm surprised Bendis didn't try either of those as a surprise ending at some point.

And with that, we come to the end of both Ultimate March, and the letter "U"!

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