Ultimate Comics Spider-Man is threatening to become a superhero team comic. Recently, Johnny Storm was taken into the Parker household, which could only lead to some teenage hi-jinx to come. But then in this issue, there is a seemingly random story concerning Bobby Drake being kicked out of his house by his parents who consider him a freak. At first, he tries to crash at Kitty Pryde's, but her mom won't have any of it. So what's the result? Aunt May takes him in also. It's like the "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" show from the 80s (except there, the Human Torch was replaced by a made-up character due to licensing issues, but I digress).

More on the action side of things, Peter is pretty much beat after his fight on the bridge with the fake Hulk from last issue, but all is not lost. The mysterious hero of unknown gender shows up and helps defeat Mysterio. Mysterio's flaming head is even busted and we get a glimpse of his face. The mysterious hero runs off, but not before pointing out a piece of tech that Mysterio dropped. Spidey takes it to the cops who will no doubt analyze it in future issues.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #5

I have some questions about this issue. First of all, am I supposed to recognize the new police chief? Have we seen him before? Spidey pops in on the chief and mentions how he's the only cop he trusts. So again, I ask, have we seen this guy before? If not, that's a lot to ask of the reader, to trust a complete unknown just because Spidey says so. And if we have met him before, he obviously didn't make a lasting impression with the readers (namely me), so why does Spidey trust him so much?

Next, let's touch upon Aunt May. She says that she finally decided that she needs to help out in the only way she can, and that is taking care of people who need it. It's a very noble thing, taking in all these strays. But taking in strays with public personae is pretty risky. Someone is going to realize that Iceman and the Human Torch live in a bungalow in Queens. Then people will start asking questions about Peter. Why did they choose this house, they'll ask. It will eventually lead to Peter's outing. Whether the story will actually go that way or whether Bendis will ignore this remains to be seen. I just think for security reasons, despite her altruism, Aunt May should say no.

I do feel that we're finally making some progress on the mystery characters in this first arc of Ultimate Spider-Man's second volume. We got a glimpse of Mysterio's face, but we still don't know his motives. He definitely hates Spidey for what I can only imagine is a very specific reason. While we didn't get much concrete information, I think the analysis on the tech will lead to a major breakthrough in his story very soon. Considering Mysterio now has Spidey's blood also puts these two on a collision course in the near future. As for the hooded hero, we still don't know much about him/her, but I'm convinced his/her story will be intricately tied to the resolution of this Mysterio story. At least I hope so. I don't think I'd be able to stand his/her identity being secret for much longer.

So we get another comic with very few reveals in the way of heroes and villains, but the Parker home life is very interesting indeed, if not a little reckless. As usual, the dialogue just breezes by and I'm becoming more and more of a fan of the art in this book. The anime style needs a little getting used to, but by now, I find it just works.

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