Spider-Men #1

Background

At the announcement of this series, many pointed out a past comment (usually attributed to former Marvel Editor Joe Queseda, and repeated here in hopes that we never have to hear it said again) that when they started crossing over the regular "616" world of Marvel with that of the Ultimate Universe, Marvel themselves would officially be out of ideas.

Which brings us to Spider-men #1, where Peter Parker first crosses paths with newbie Miles Morales.

Story Details

The issue opens with Spider-man (the 616 Peter Parker version) swinging around at night monologuing about how he loves the city. He takes some time to foil some criminals on the run from the police in their car. After leaving the crooks to the cops and resuming swinging, Spidey sees a weird purple flash from a building in the distance. Entering, he finds a weird device that's emitting the purple light. He finds an encrypted computer, and a fishbowl dome--and three costumes hanging in the room. "Not him. I hate this guy." Spidey thinks--Mysterio. A flash of spider-sense--Mysterio (the 616 version) is behind him, about to club him. Mysterio brings the club down, shattering the helmet in Spidey's hands instead. Spidey sends Mysterio flying with a punch. They tangle for a bit, Spidey webs him up. Mysterio grabs a gun and fires on Spidey, and hits the device. It kicks up and transports Spidey--into the Ultimate universe.

He thinks it's one of Mysterio's tricks again. Swinging around the city, he stops to break up a street robbery. The victim thanks him, but asks why can't Spidey get his own costume, that it was Peter Parker's and wearing it is in bad taste. This takes Peter by surprise, obviously. He swings off, thinking he has to find his apartment and regroup, when he runs across Miles Morales, in costume, on a rooftop.

General Comments

With all the fanfare about Marvel crossing these two universes over (for the first time) aside, this first issue is typically brief, Bendis table-setting. The main questions so far are how Ultimate Mysterio got into Peter Parker's world, and how Peter himself will handle being in the Ultimate universe and interacting with all the counterpart characters there.

Sara Pichelli, who handled art duties on the early Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-man issues, was pulled off to do this crossover and does some really fine work here. Her sense of storytelling is as strong as ever, and she gets surprisingly expressive with Spider-man's mask and eyes.

Overall Rating

This is a decent-enough opening chapter. Crossing over the 616 Peter Parker Spider-man is an idea that's been done before, from Peter David's rather good Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man to the not-so-good meeting of the same in Timestorm. The David-written crossover was never referenced outside of the issue, and time will only tell whether the main Marvel Universe's Peter Parker will remember his encounter with Morales after this series.