The Good
Recently returning to the spotlight, Miles "Spider-Man" Morales and Spider-Woman take on the mysterious Taskmaster with the help of Cloak, Dagger, and Bombshell. Guess what Bombshell does? She blows things up.
We have a contender for "Fight of the Week" on our hands. This issue literally packs a punch (because punches are thrown on every page) as Taskmaster, who is pretty dang awesome, goes toe-to-toe with not only Miles, but also with Spider-Woman, in one of the cooler fight sequences we've seen in this series in a long time. Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Taskmaster take each other on "no holds bars" here and don't pull any punches. However, at no time does this issue feel overly brutal. We just get treated to a very satisfying fight here.
The art, as always on ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN, is top notch because of David Marquez, with Justin Ponsor and Paul Mounts on colors. There's tons of fantastic examples of movement within art here. Marquez nails it with these action sequences and the page layouts. It has a very cinematic feel, and tremendous flow between panels. There's some really cool things done here with colors and light as well, thanks to Ponsor and Mounts. And aside from a few differences in shading on a couple panels, there's a lot of consistency here within the coloring.
Taskmaster was a very cool addition to this issue. The guy has a fantastic costume, but what was really cool about him was his power set. What I loved about this version of the character was that while the 616 version can replicate certain moves a character does or mimic their voice, this version of Taskmaster can actually replicate powers, as long as he's been hit with them. It's a cool cross between Bishop and Rogue. That little tweak made me really interested in this character.
The Bad
The story is ok, but no where near as great as the others we've seen in this series. It's interesting, but just doesn't pack that "punch" that the series normally packs. Because the whole issue is a fight scene, it takes place in one spot, on a roof, so the issue feels like it moves a lot slower than it actually does.
The Verdict
The closer and closer we get to Cataclysm, the more and more I start to believe the entire Ultimate Universe is ending, which makes me a very sad comic book fan, since I love this universe so much more than the 616 Universe. While the story isn't really winning me over, this issue was a ton of fun. It was a great back and forth battle between these characters and the art was just beautiful. Taskmaster is the main selling point here, though. He's just a really awesome character with some very cool powers. This series may be coming to a close (hasn't been announced yet, but it really feels like the Ultimate Universe is completely ending), but it's still a solid book, and I highly recommend picking it up!