Ultimate Spider-Man #65

Background

Gwen Stacy, high school student and houseguest of the Parkers, is dead. She was killed outside their Forest Hills home by a mysterious red monster that has also killed several other people throughout New York City.

Peter was able to defeat the monster by tossing it into an industrial smokestack. His revulsion of what the creature had done, coupled with his sense of helplessness to prevent it, caused the troubled teen to give up his alternate identity as Spider-Man.

Story 'Detention'

Flash, Kong, Peter, Marry Jane and Liz are sitting in a class room, after school. Peter is very quiet. Flash is acting like a bully towards Peter. Mary Jane stands up for Peter and says it's Flash's fault.

Flashback, yesterday. Peter, Mary Jane and Liz are cleaning out the locker of Gwen. Flash sees them and asks "free stuff?". MJ is furious and attacks Flash. Peter tries to pull them apart but when he does, they take down a teacher in their fall.

Now. MJ asks why Flash is being so obnoxious. Silence. She then realises, Flash liked Gwen and says it out loud. Flash is not amused and runs off.

Three hours later. Kong tries to say a few good words about Flash. Peter then says Flash is a bad person. He is going to be a full-grown greedy, mean, selfish liar. And Kong lets him acts that way. Kong asks, what kind of person are you, Peter? He answers "Nothing" and runs away too.

MJ follows him, to the roof of the school. They have a talk. Peter says he has failed. He failed Gwen, Gwen's father, Harry, Uncle Ben. He then jumps away.

A few blocks down the road, a woman is being attack by some muggers. Peter jumps in between them, beats them up, gives them a little speech and then makes them say sorry. The woman thanks him. Peter runs to the roof. He ends this story ends with "I'm sorry Gwen".

General Comments

Well, seeing the title "Detention" and seeing the kids sitting in their class room, I couldn't help thinking "Breakfast Club". In that movie, we learn a lot about the characters, same here with this story. We find out Flash really liked Gwen. Through Peter, Kong finds out he's actually an OK guy and that he shouldn't follow Flash all the time.

But what about Liz, Mary Jane and Peter? They're in the story too, but it's not about them. And that is why I find it very annoying not seeing what happens to Flash when he runs off. Finally we get to explore Flash and we're cut off. Arrghh.

Near the end, Peter goes berserk against those three muggers. Well, almost. These are just normal guys, Peter has spider powers. These guys can walk away after the fight. If you ask me..... oh well, you don't so why bother.

Then, the final words of the issue, "I'm sorry Gwen". Peter says them, but I'd like to think it's Bendis speaking here. Last August, at Wizard World Chicago, Bendis said that Gwen was created for the sole purpose of killing her. Yeah, well, that certainly is worth an apology. Don't you think?

Overall Rating

Well, the art is (as always with the Bags) execllent. The story, great too, in a way. But there's something wrong here. After reading it, and re-reading it for the review, I still have a feeling there could have been more.