Since the store was sold out of every DC book I wanted to read when I got in, I decided to pick up Ultimate Spider-man #1, starring Miles Morales as the new Spider-man.
Or at least, it probably will in 3-4 issues.
The problem with the big Marvel events that are supposed to shake up the status quo and establish a new working universe is that, well, Bendis is still the writer. He's been writing Ultimate Spider-man for over a decade now, and you can tell he's kind of lost steam. His stories are taking longer and longer to tell us stuff that we probably are already familiar with. Since it's a Spider-man story, we know the beats are that Miles will get bit by the spider, misuse his power, lose someone close him and learn about Power and Responsibility before being inspired to take up the mantle of Spider-man. That's just the way it goes.
Ditko and Lee did it in 22 pages, Bendis circa 2000 did it in 3 comics. By the end of this Ultimate Spider-man #1, Miles has only JUST been bitten by the spider. This would be more forgivable if anything else interesting happened in the other pages. But, nothing much but people talking about exposition gets done. And most of it is the same kind of rapid-fire family drama dialogue that I'm sure Bendis has a program on his computer to generate.
On the plus side, Sara Pichelli does draw really good art, with expressive characters and interesting panel design (even if Bendis seems to be forcing her to draw his trademark double-page spread of a lot of little panels of talking heads). The colors are also vivid and bright, rather than the dark, gritty colors of most modern superhero comics.
Is it worth following further? That's up for debate. In Miles's first appearance in Ultimate Fallout #4, he's already in costume beating up bad guys and delivering the Spider-man banter. In this, he's mopey and silent. I understand the dichotomy between quiet Peter Parker and wise-cracking Spider-man, but it just feels weird to get a taste of Miles being Spider-man, then have to set through maybe 40+ pages of him getting to that point.