World Famous Comics: Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 10: Hollywood
Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 10: Hollywood
By: Brian Michael Bendis Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 144 Publication Date: July 01, 2004 Reading Level: Young Adult
Graphic SF Reader This is easily the lamest of these trades so far. In the comic, they are making a Spider-Man movie. Just a pathetic plot, pretty much. So, he isn't happy, neither is Dr Octopus, whose wife has sold rights to her story to the producers.
He breaks out, wants to get even, ends up fighting Spider-Man in a plane to Brazil.
Gwen Stacy finds out who he is by breaking into stuff in his room. The rest is rubbish.
spidey rules ultimate spider-man by bendis and bagley is one of the best series out there. not as much action and non-stop bad guy fighting, but a good mix of that and a lot of peter parker being a teenager with problems (girls, bullies, being grounded, etc.) along with his spidey life. the series is great great great. only a few minor things that could be better: 1. i don't like how nick fury comes in and tells spider-man he's going to work his whole life for him and shield. the idea of peter being...trapped in a web? haha...well it isn't too cool. superheroes need to fight the good fight because they want to, not because shield will go and take away their superpowers (as fury has threatened) if they don't comply. plus the issues where the ultimates come in aren't that great, the whole series gets hijacked by them and not a lot of spidey. imo, the ultimates are easily the worst part of the ultimate universe. beyond ultimate spider-man and the ultimate fantastic four the ultimate universe isn't too great. 2. bendis needs to cut down on the tuchas talk. seriously if parker grew up in nyc today he'd more likely speak spanglish than yanglish. 3. geldoff.
Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 10: Hollywood More great work from Bendis and Bagley! This storyline is filled with many comic moments, as well as serious knock-down, drag-out fights between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus. The Ultimate version of Doc Ock is no pushover, and he has left quite the body count in his wake since the time of his origin and subsequent appearances in this title. Doctor Otto Octavius considers his life to be completely and utterly ruined and blames everything on Spider-Man. So, he murderous madman has only one goal in life now: a dead or suffering Spider-Man. Spider-Man has always known Doc Ock is dangerous, but by the end of the book, he's taking the guy completely serious. No time for witty banter, as he's fighting for his life and is hurting bad. What makes this story even more realistic, though, is how Peter worries that he won't make it home to his Aunt May. Not only will he probably not be home "on time," but he wonders if he'll make it home at all. Very good writing, in my opinion.
This story also features a major revelation for one of the supporting characters at the end of the book, as well as some closure on the problem of Doc Ock. This book sets the stage well for more development between Peter and Gwen Stacy, which I look forward to. Well worth the time and money, I found this TPB to be very enjoyable!
Spider-Man is not crazy about the new "Spider-Man" movie In anticipation of the summer release of the "Spider-Man 2" movie it seemed like every one of the Spider-Man titles put out by Marvel comics did a Doctor Octopus storyline, with a few Doc Ock mini-series thrown into the mix as well. For "Ultimate Spider-Man," the series that has updated the wall crawler for the 21st century by going back to the beginning and focusing on a 16-year-old Peter Parker living next door to Mary Jane Watson, that mean the six-issues of the "Hollywood" story arc (issues #54-59).
This is the one Doc Ock storyline Marvel offered that up in the summer of 2004 that tackled the idea of Hollywood making a movie about Spider-Man. It is not that Spider-Man ends up in Hollywood, but rather than Hollywood brings the magic of movie making to New York City and Spider-Man's home turf. Aunt May is out of town leaving Peter and Gwen Stacy alone and there is a story on the news about a Spider-Man film about to be made in Hollywood, starring Tobey Maguire and telling the story of a nobody/loser who grabs the world's imagination when he puts on a mask. The kids at school are all excited about trying to get parts as extras in the film while Peter can only tell MJ "I live in Hell." Spider-Man goes down to the movie set in NYC to chastise the actor and director for doing this (although he admits "Evil Dead 2" was cool, in a nod to Sam Rammi). Then Doctor Octopus breaks out of jail; it seems he has heard about the movie as well.
Brian Michael Bendis (story), Mark Bagley (pencils), and Art Thibert (inks) have more going on behind the cameras than they do in front in this six-part story. At school Kong is excited to get a part in the movie but Gwen cannot get past the fact that as far as she is concerned Spider-Man killed her father and Peter is unable to tell her anything different. When Doctor Octopus attacks the movie set Spider-Man has to deal with the insult added to injury because he has to save the actors and crews from the super villain. But the attack was just a reason to bring out Doc Ock's true target, which is Spider-Man himself, and our hero gets to go someplace he has never been before.
Ultimately, the most important thing here is that Spider-Man defeat Doctor Octopus and get home before Aunt May comes back from her trip, because our hero is more worried about being grounded by his aunt than being pounded to pulp by a super villain (which is quite reasonable given what we know about Aunt May's disciplinary inclinations). But there is something even worse in store for our hero beyond that point and the best part of "Hollywood" is the last part, which is pretty much a coda to the big fight. While this one does not end with a bang and the whimper definitely belongs to Doctor Octopus (the Nick Fury of the Ultimate universe is a pretty smart guy who does what needs to be done), it is strongly grounded in the characters. Granted, the action takes a back seat to the character dynamics, but I did not mind it this time around.
"Ultimate Spider-Man: Hollywood" has a nice mix of comic moments (e.g., Mysterio) with more personal ones, especially given the horrible thing that is going to happen in the next volume of the series, "Ultimate Spider-Man: Carnage." Reading these stories again known what lies ahead made several of the scenes especially poignant. I think it is clear that Bendis et al. have a clear view of the big picture and the long term with this particular comic book, which is why the "Ultimate Spider-Man" experiment has worked so well. You can appreciate it on its own terms or you can enjoy the way they work in twists and turns on the original Spider-Man stories. I am happily ensconced in the latter camp and will be for some time to come.
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