Reading Journal Entry: Three Ultimate Spiderman Graphic Novels

Is it cheating to review graphic novels? On the one hand, they go down very quickly. On the other hand, to exclude them from my review process would be to deny their integrity as a valid art form. Plus, it's convenient. Convenience wins.

Marvle has a line of Ultimate comics that feature the regular Marvel characters and 'reimagine' them. In some cases they are put into a more adult situation - for example, in the Ultimates Universe, when the Hulk goes berserk, large numbers of people die.

The Ultimate Spiderman comic, which kicked off the new line, seems aimed at younger readers altogether; not just younger readers than the other Ultimate lines, but younger readers than the 'regular' Spiderman comic. In this universe, Peter Parker is still in high school instead of being a grown up married man. Lots more soap opera potential (as Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada recently commented.

I frankly don't see the point of this comic - it's just a retreading of earlier storylines, without the additional edginess that the other Ultimate books take advantage of. It might be interesting to those who are unfamiliar with the character except from the recent movies. But I'll pass from here on out.


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