Ultimate Spider-Man #115

Ultimate Spider-Man #115
Immonen's art on this book is unbelievably fantastic. At first, his work here felt a little jarring to me, as I had been spoiled by Mark Bagley's record setting run on the book. But you know what? In some ways, Immonen's work here may be even better! He captures perfectly the expressions and poses of two kids who feel completely out of their element, even when their element would seem to be superheroics. Immonen's art tells us very simply that, no, their business is being kids, and they've just had the superheroics thrust upon them. And they're trying to deal with it all as best they can. So, even when they're in what we view as their element, they feel constantly overwhelmed by the craziness which is such a large part of their everyday lives. Which is not such a bad metaphor for the entire teenage experience, as a matter of fact. It's just teenage angst (I know, it's the wrong word, but it's as close as I can achieve with my limited vocabulary) to a ridiculously disproportionate degree. Which is what always made Spider-Man such a great character. Which is why it's great that this book exists. Because otherwise, we'd just have nerdy/cool grown-up adult Parker, who, much as I love him, no longer fulfills the central premise of what was created by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and continued by others throughout the years: "you think it's hard for you being a teenager? Look at the fucked up shit this kid has to deal with!"

And all this is just in the art.

This is a great book. It's depressing to read rumours abuzz that the entire Ultimate franchise is on its way to being cancelled. As Glenn Gould once said, "cancelled and can't sell mean entirely different things". Even without an Ultimate line, this book deserves to be continued until Bendis! dies of old age. VERY GOOD.