Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimatum - Marvel Comics Graphic Novel | Superhero Action Adventure Story | Perfect for Marvel Fans & Comic Book Collectors | Great Gift for Birthday, Christmas & Superhero Enthusiasts

And because, sometimes, I like to start by boring the tears out of folks, let me start with this: Marvel's Ultimate imprint, established in 2000 to draw in a new generation of comic book fans, started out as very reader-friendly. In Marvel's regular line of comic books, the featured characters have been around since the 1960s and they've all piled up a heck of an extended backstory. The Ultimate line reimagined and updated the superheroes and introduced new spins on classic storylines. This worked well for a while but guess what - continuity got all complicated again. Which means it's time to cancel the Ultimate line's most popular, not to mention its flagship, title. So ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN got the axe with issue #133. Good thing the relaunch was just around the corner.I don't think it's really Jeph Loeb's fault, what with his getting tapped to write ULTIMATUM, the mini-series which pretty much smoked the Ultimate titles - except that I'm blaming him anyway. It's probably residual haterade I'm feeling, dating back to his crappalicious ULTIMATES 3. This trade, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN: ULTIMATUM, collects ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #3 and ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #129-133 and is the wallcrawler's tie-in to all the Ultimatum tomfoolery.First up is the annual which has Peter and Mary Jane having a conversation about taking their relationship to the next level. Also addressed is the concern that too many people already know Spidey's secret identity. On the superhero side, the mysterious Mysterio finally debuts, and this incarnation doesn't have the fish bowl affectation, which right away makes him a much cooler evil-doer. This story features the manga-esque, cartoony-cool artwork of David Lafuente who apparently was just getting his feet wet with illustrating Ultimate Spidey.Issue #129 centers on the just-back-from-the-dead Gwen Stacy trying to re-enroll in school. Instead she and Aunt May witness the Vice-Principal having a mini-breakdown as he rants on about how dangerous Midtown High is, what with Spider-Man being a student and mutants attending and supervillain attacks taking place on campus, blah blah blah. Johnny Storm also guest-stars and asks Peter to be his phone wing man. And then Aunt May, well, something...#130 begins Spidey's getting caught up in the Ultimatum arc (see