Loki: Agent of Asgard 3, Ultimate Spider-Man 200

Loki: Agent of Asgard 3
Ewing (w) and Garbett (a) and Woodard (c)

As god of mischief Loki spends some time with Verity Willis (guys, I haven't STOPPED rolling my eyes about her since my last review) and Lorelai, god of evil Loki, trapped in a cell in Asgardia while the All-Mother tries to figure out what to do with him, writes a piece of his own history, jumping in time to a day when Odin himself was just a young prince. Loki meets up with his adopted father and together they slay a giant otter who turns out to be a shapeshifting man. They run afoul of the man's family, all according to Loki's plan, and barter for their life with gold Loki procures from an ancient legend named Andvari who has spent his whole life as a giant pike (fish-type pike, not like a spear-type pike) guarding his treasures. Loki separates him from it with a bazooka and brings it, cursed though it is, to the man's family in exchange for their freedom. Meanwhile, one of the brother's, Fafnir, of the man slays their father and tries to slay his other brother, Regin, in order to keep all the gold for himself. The betrayal and lust for gold makes Fafnir transform into a hideous dragon who guards the gold forever until Sigurd, legendary hero of Asgard, is enlisted by Regin to find and slay the dragon with a special sword Regin has made. The sword is Gram, the truth-dealing sword. Sigurd does it, he ends up having to stab Regin with it because Regin actually hates Asgardians and eventually the sword falls into Odin's hands and Loki has him make a box with five locks and five keys to hold it and then later god of mischief Loki got it and he used it way back in the first issue and Sigurd is looking for it in the modern day and WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS BOOK.

This may be the single most roundabout story I've ever read in Marvel. Sometimes things like that, things that make me furrow my brow the entire issue until some sort of crazy reveal puts it all together at the end, shock me and win me over by the final page. This did no such thing. I, of course, say this knowing full well that there could be some sort of reveal coming that slides pieces into place but I wholeheartedly believe that that will end up being too little too late. There's just so much here I have trouble buying and have trouble coping with. Maybe that's partly on me but GEEZ, a horribly paced comic didn't help things. I swear this one took me half an hour to get through in the first place, thanks to the wordiness, and then I'd have to double check things to see if pieces were falling into place. FUN FACT: they never were. I think that Ewing's building to something (good god I hope so, otherwise this was just the craziest way to tell us how Loki got Gram, something I hadn't been bothering to ask, and why he's going to have to go up against Sigurd) but issues like this one make me wonder why I should care. Oftentimes you hear the saying that it's the journey, not the destination (or the band Journey and the band Destination's Child) but this one had the single most convoluted journey for the most inconsequential destination that I have to wonder if this is some sort of "What is Art?" post-modern art exhibit.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200
Bendis (w) and Marquez, Lafuente, Pichelli, Brooks, Bagley, and Hennessy (a) and Ponsor (c)

It's been two years in the Ultimate Universe since Peter Parker died and May, before she sells the house, wants to hold a gathering with those closest to him to commemorate his life. Attending are Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Human Torch, Liz Allen, Kenny McFarlane, Jessica Drew, Lana Baumgartner, Miles Morales, and Ganke Lee, although the last two admit to not really knowing him so well. Tony Stark, though invited, could not attend and sends tons and tons of food from a world-renowned chef in his place. Everyone present reminisces about Peter and speculates on what he'd be up to if he was still alive, or indeed what he'd have done with his future in the long run. The answers vary from Spider-Manning with science, Spider-Manning with reporting, Spider-Manning with Spider-Man, and more. All of the memories make everyone present want to do some good with themselves and Miles suggests they bring the food to those who need it, an idea they all agree to and which makes May incredibly proud. After a day of volunteering and helping those less fortunate, everyone goes their separate ways even as someone mysterious watches from the bushes.

It's a milestone issue from ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, unquestionably the most influential and most liked book in the Ultimate line, so it's certainly fitting that those involved would want to reminisce a bit. Interestingly, there's not actually that much reminiscing. There's really more speculating about a potential future gone. What could that mean, the idea that they didn't remember things about their lost friend but rather that they thought about what he could be doing? Well, I mean, your guess is as good as mine and I'd say both our guesses are pretty spot-on. ANYWAY, the issue is pretty nice though it does come with a lot of my personal qualms with Bendis books (back-and-forth dialogue, insane amounts of double page spreads, a still entirely weak, in my perspective, Kitty Pryde, and random tone shifts that seem entirely out of place almost every time they occur, to name a few) but I'm going to sit back and not dissect every bit of this one (sorry if I couldn't really help myself just then). For all of my irritations with Bendis, the truth here is that he's created something well-loved and deservedly so. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN should always be viewed as one of the high points of Bendis' long and esteemed career. It really was a game-changer and I think, in a lot of ways, it was a game-changer for good. Of course, there are many people who came after the success of the book and tried simply to ape the style to varying degrees of success but the real shift was that people saw comics as something different. Now somewhat stranger, more character-driven and maybe less action-driven stuff could exist because Marvel knew it could sell. Of course, Spider-Man has always been a character defined by his personality and who he is rather than by the fight scenes he would have so it was a logical choice to let him jumpstart this series but Bendis took it and made it his own and really changed the face of mainstream comics. I don't necessarily agree with everything he does at Marvel and I certainly don't always like everything he does but I give him a lot of credit for his work with this series. More times than not, I feel like this series gets brought up in the conversation about a person's favorite series. It's well-deserved. I remember binge-reading over a hundred issues of this within a few days myself. Issue 200 isn't just a big milestone, it's a huge achievement and one that's often hard to hit with a new series these days. Well done Brian Michael Bendis and well done to all of the artists who have contributed to this series (many of whom, if not all of whom, contributed as artists on this issue).