Class, Ultimate Spider-man

Yesterday, one of my students told me about how his grandparents saw the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki since they were only twenty km away at the time. This was followed by an in depth discussion on how the dropping of the atomic bomb is taught in schools in America and Japan. Earlier in the class, we had a discussion about Shinto, its modern variations and the differences between it and Buddism. And after that we were discussing colonialism and its impact on the Native Americans. God, I'm going to miss this class.

In other news, I've been reading through Ultimate Spider-man and it's fantastic. I found myself reading about fifty issues in one go and I was wondering why they read so easily when I could barely make it through ten of the older Amazing Spider-man. I realized it was a difference in writing and in art. It's kinda funny though since I started out many years ago with Ultimate X-men and while I enjoyed it, I never could be bothered to pick up any after the twentieth issue (lost the comics urge. yep.) and about a year ago I did read the first three issues of Ultimate SM. The trouble being that those three issues are pretty weak since they have to introduce the story so I wasn't all that inclined to pick up more. Thank god I changed my mind.

Let's see, the art's okay and when it's bad you can just ignore it (not the horrific, "omg, what did they do to his face!" bad). The writing itself is pretty good. Nice funny quips and good use of word balloons. I really dislike the so-called "teengage" dialogue though. It's not that some of it isn't accurate, it's just that I never want to read it in print format. This especially goes for people repeating every last thing the other person said. Realistic dialogue is not actually realistic comic writer person. The teenage drama can get a bit too much too, but I figure that's the price you pay, ne?

Okay, the fantastic thing for me is that Spidey keeps loosing his mask/costume/secret identity right left and centre in this series. I love that Mary Jane has to make a list of how many people know his secret and it takes up an entire page. And it doesn't stop. It's like watching a series of "how many ways can a superhero loose his secret identity" shorts. Brilliant! Other than that, what's really excellent is the depth of characterization for Peter and the supporting characters. I'm still not sure what makes Jameson tick, but I know there's alot more under there than is being said/shown. Aunt May is really fascinating too, though I suspect when she inevitably finds out, she's going to seriously kill Peter. I can't decide if the series suffers from the chronic "writer ran out of panels" problem, or if these fights are happening in other books I'm not looking at. I suspect it's the former. Either way it seems like major story arcs take only a few issues which is disappointing, but only cause the writing is good.

So yeah, in love with the series, especially when Peter's being all emo. (There's this hilarious panel where he's looking all forlorn on his floor and the narrative balloon says "Everyone on the planet Earth is picking on me." I was laughing for a straight minute.) The only trouble is, you always want to give Peter a hug, which really isn't the best image for a superhero. No wonder everyone keeps calling him a kid.

Class, Ultimate Spider-man

Yesterday, one of my students told me about how his grandparents saw the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki since they were only twenty km away at the time. This was followed by an in depth discussion on how the dropping of the atomic bomb is taught in schools in America and Japan. Earlier in the class, we had a discussion about Shinto, its modern variations and the differences between it and Buddism. And after that we were discussing colonialism and its impact on the Native Americans. God, I'm going to miss this class.

In other news, I've been reading through Ultimate Spider-man and it's fantastic. I found myself reading about fifty issues in one go and I was wondering why they read so easily when I could barely make it through ten of the older Amazing Spider-man. I realized it was a difference in writing and in art. It's kinda funny though since I started out many years ago with Ultimate X-men and while I enjoyed it, I never could be bothered to pick up any after the twentieth issue (lost the comics urge. yep.) and about a year ago I did read the first three issues of Ultimate SM. The trouble being that those three issues are pretty weak since they have to introduce the story so I wasn't all that inclined to pick up more. Thank god I changed my mind.

Let's see, the art's okay and when it's bad you can just ignore it (not the horrific, "omg, what did they do to his face!" bad). The writing itself is pretty good. Nice funny quips and good use of word balloons. I really dislike the so-called "teengage" dialogue though. It's not that some of it isn't accurate, it's just that I never want to read it in print format. This especially goes for people repeating every last thing the other person said. Realistic dialogue is not actually realistic comic writer person. The teenage drama can get a bit too much too, but I figure that's the price you pay, ne?

Okay, the fantastic thing for me is that Spidey keeps loosing his mask/costume/secret identity right left and centre in this series. I love that Mary Jane has to make a list of how many people know his secret and it takes up an entire page. And it doesn't stop. It's like watching a series of "how many ways can a superhero loose his secret identity" shorts. Brilliant! Other than that, what's really excellent is the depth of characterization for Peter and the supporting characters. I'm still not sure what makes Jameson tick, but I know there's alot more under there than is being said/shown. Aunt May is really fascinating too, though I suspect when she inevitably finds out, she's going to seriously kill Peter. I can't decide if the series suffers from the chronic "writer ran out of panels" problem, or if these fights are happening in other books I'm not looking at. I suspect it's the former. Either way it seems like major story arcs take only a few issues which is disappointing, but only cause the writing is good.

So yeah, in love with the series, especially when Peter's being all emo. (There's this hilarious panel where he's looking all forlorn on his floor and the narrative balloon says "Everyone on the planet Earth is picking on me." I was laughing for a straight minute.) The only trouble is, you always want to give Peter a hug, which really isn't the best image for a superhero. No wonder everyone keeps calling him a kid.