Title : Clone Sage (Part 8)
Writer : Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler : Mark Bagley
Inkers : Drew Hennessy (with Matt Ryan)
Colorist : Andy Troy (Colorist)
Letterer : Chris Eliopoulos
Editor : Ralph Macchio
Publisher : Marvel Comics
Well, this story, which has lasted eight parts (thus far) has been a lot of things, but it certainly can’t be accused of being decompressed.
Apart from the introduction of the various villains one of the notable features of the 100+ issue series of Ultimate Spider-Man has been the relatively few changes which have been made to the fundamental status quo. The set up of Peter, Aunt May and Mary Jane was fairly fundamental, with the on-again, off-again romance of Peter and MJ been the real changeable aspect of the seres, along with the introduction (and subsequent demise) of Gwen Stacy.
However, in this story-arc alone, we’ve had :
– The introduction and subsequent revelation about Peter’s ‘father’
– The introduction and subsequent revelation regarding Gwen Stacy / Carnage.
– The unmasking to Aunt May of Peter’s status as Spider-Man
– The appearance of Peter’s female clone.
– The re-configuration of Doctor Octopus.
This is not a complete list, but the dynamic of this very successful series has been fundamentally changed by this story. All the talk about comic book fans wanting the ‘illusion of change’ rather than change itself is about to be put to the test.
The Aunt May situation, for example, is enormous in scope (although inevitable from a story-telling point of view, given Peter’s carelessness with his secret ID).
I haven’t dwelled in length on this single issue, because this issue is the very definition of a terrible ‘jumping-on’ point. The ‘Previously’ page attempts to make sense of the many twists and turns which have taken place over the previous seven issues, but really only shows us how many exclamation marks can be crammed into half-a-page of prose.
However, the first issue of the next arc may well be a suitable jumping-on point, given what appears to be the new status quo.
In terms of this individual issue, the loose ends are, to a degree, being tied up. Peter’s ‘father’ reaches an inevitable conclusion, and Peter and ‘Jessica’ team in their fight with Doctor Octopus.
Those who despair of a lack of action can enjoy a lengthy and visceral fight scene between the ‘Parkers’ and Doc Ock, and yet another concluding twist. The conclusion didn’t really work for me, because it involves a supposed possibility of the one change that we really know won’t occur in this series.
For a change, I’m not really sold on the art in this issue. The backgrounds in the fight scene seem a little muddled, as if the characters were fighting in a junk-yard or garage, with non-descript light-brown backgrounds not helping to ‘set the scene’ for the conflict taking place.
Given Bagley’s tremendous output, he can certainly take a Mulligan on this issue.
The conclusion will certainly be interesting reading.
