Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 16: Deadpool

Ultimate Spider-Man (Collected Editions)

by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley (Illustrator), Mark Brooks (Illustrator)

Collects Ultimate Spider-Man #91-96 & Annual #2. Spider-Man teams up with his new girlfriend - the X-Men's Kitty Pryde, who gets a new super-hero identity for when she's not hanging with her mutant mates! Plus: Meet the dangerous Ultimate Deadpool! It's mutant action, with Spidey caught in the middle!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Spider Man, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was so good!

We get to see Spider-man and Kitty work together and well they have to fallin love and all that and then with the other X-Men they go to Krakoa island and there they are being hunted by Deadpool and the reavers and turns out its all a game and Mojo is the main villain here and its so fun and just seeing the drama and the hunt and omg such long monologues of Deadpool and all the epic battles and then the ending was just perfect and it makes for a great read!

And then the stuff with Morbius and Vampires and how Spidey deals with it and it makes for a great fun story there and I like how Bendis explores that and it really challenges Spider-Man in a fun way and with Ben Urich's life in the balance and it makes for a fun read! And great art!

So yeah great collection of stories and it makes for solid read but that version of Deadpool was weird lol, I mean way too different from the 616 version and reminded me of the version from X-Men origins wolverine movie and not in a good way lol but yeah still okayish read.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another fun volume of USM and not just because of my Peter/Kitty fixation (although that helped). Guest stars galore: the X-Men, Daredevil, Moon Knight, the Punisher... oh, and Deadpool, obviously (the title gives that one away) but be warned, Deadpool fans: Ultimate Deadpool’s a full-blown bad guy; no tortured anti-hero here, folks.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man BMB packed A LOT into this volume!

We get Kitty and Peter facing off against the Ultimate version of Deadpool (who is distressingly named "Wadey Wilson") and some Reavers alongside the X-Men, then it's freaking MOOOOOOOOORBIUSSSS and THEN Daredevil, Moon Knight and Punisher. Still fantastic entertainment value, can't wait for vol. 17.


BTW no that isn't a gender-swapped version of Deadpool on the cover. He has a...different look, though!

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a weird volume. The first issue is real solid, with Kitty and Peter teaming up to take down some crime. Overall real good stuff. But then Deadpool comes into the picture, and this Deadpool has a crew to make a TV show about surviving and...it's really dull. Maybe the most dull arc of the entire series IMO. Luckily we turn things around at the end with some Daredevil team ups, Moon Knight returns, the asshole Punisher exacting revenge and more. All some really solid stuff by the end atleast.

A 3 out of 5.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The team-up with the X-men here is pretty cool, and I do still enjoy Peter's relationship with Kitty Pryde. It's -- so far -- sweet, and much less emotionally roller-coastery than his relationship with Mary Jane. Of course, that's because he loves Mary Jane, and he doesn't love Kitty, so I don't know how long this is going to last.

But yeah, sorry Lisa-love, I like the X-men (the Ultimate X-men, at least) quite a bit. Ororo looks so cool. Looking forward to getting those TPBs...

Deadpool, meh, I'm not fussed about him from what I've seen just in this issue.

[Nigar Osmanlı · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love me some Kitty Pryde, but overall this was... meh

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bulk of this collection is taken up with Spidey teaming up with the X-Men (and, incidentally, girlfriend Kitty Pryde) to take on the Ultimate version of Deadpool. Who is, appropriately, incredibly creepy and intimidating. Despite being almost entirely action, it's still a pretty good story, and I really do like the Kitty/Peter relationship that anchors it. The last two issues are very different: vampires, guest starring Morbius and (very briefly) Blade. Supernatural stuff always seems like a weird fit in Spider-Man, to me. And yet, these things do exist in his world, and he can't possibly avoid them forever. I like that Bendis allowed Peter to be really and appropriately freaked out that he's encountering vampires.

[Jordan Lahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard Spidey/x-men team up. Not a fan of what they did with Deadpool though. Not enough there of what makes the original character so great...

[Jack Herbert Christal Gattanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, it should really be "Ultimate Spiderman vol 16: Dead pool, Morbius and a little Daredevil and Punisher etc", but that probably doesn't sell so well. The irony of course is that the Deadpool here is... Disappointing to say the least. The first half of this (technically the first four issues of this volume, 91 to 94) have Spider-Man happening to be brought into an X-Men Battle Royal style battle where theyre all taken bt Dead pool and his goons to Krakoa (off of Genosha) to fight to the death for televised sport.

The problem, as I'm sure others have noted, is firstly that it is *not* the Deadpool one is used to after so many years of being the snarky Merc with the Mouth. You'd think Bendis would be apt and ready to write that dialog, but instead he is a dear serious usual mercenary lump. The larger issue though is that these issues are kind of over-written - too much TV commentary dialog that doesnt mean much - and the art is messy and not well organized as far as the various panels. I just couldn't get into this mini-arc, despite it meaning to possibly lead to some more development between Peter and Kitty (it doesn't), and then the note at the end involving Aunt May (she's in a relationship ermagerd) isnt followed up on in the other subsequent issues of the volume. It really just feels more like a mini X-Men story arc that happens to get Spiderman roped into it.

The Morbius/vampire stuff fares better, if only because it's swell to have a change of pace and tone involving some horror (not Ben Urich!) and some horror-style artwork and just... Well, having Parker dealing with vampires makes things even more apparent to him how out of his element he can get when putting on the suit to take on these responsibilities (nice Blade cameo too). It may also just be that Im reading this so close to Halloween and am in that mood for horror material.

There's also a pretty good final "Annual" issue that ends this and sort of brings to a head a running story arc involving the (dirty!) cop Captain DeWolfe and Kingpin still on the sidelines. The one criticism there, however, is the flashback structure Bendis implenents is a bit sloppy (though how he couldve fixed that I dont know).

So it isn't this series at its best, but it has enough decent material that it isn't any sort of overall disaster.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to reiterate my comment from the last issue that Bagley's art is really my least favorite thing about this series on a re-read. All the women have the exact same size 00 body, at least a C-cup if we're being generous, and have the same faces. Storm looks like Aunt May with a tan and it's just weird. And this volume has not only a comment about Kitty Pryde's short pajamas but a panel with her skirt flying up for frankly no reason. And they're teenagers! It's weird and really the biggest black mark against the series.

That aside, Deadpool certainly was taken in a direction. It's cool to see the universe fleshed out more and I do like what they do with Peter's and Kitty's relationship, but the Morbius stories feel a little tacked on and the Daredevil annual issue could have gone on longer all things considered.

[Frédéric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only the annual is worth something in this volume.

The Peter/Kitty romance seemed promising but it’s diluted here with a stupid and boring "manhunt on Genosha" arc followed by... Morbius.
Yeepee! And here I thought we had hit rock bottom with yet another Mojo appearance- for those who don’t know me well I bloody hate Mojo even with Arthur Adams on pencils (and I hate Deadpool too btw. My, I’ve been twice lucky with this book)- just to get the lousiest vampire ever.

The annual fares a tad better, more urban and gritty. Too bad Mark Brooks shows no talent whatsoever illustrating it.

[Alex G · Rating 4 out of 5]

HATE THE DEADPOOL. Love the rest of the characters in this run.

[Daryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great volume in this series. Volume 16 covers three story arcs. The first four issues/chapters contain the Deadpool story that gives the trade its title. Deadpool is possibly the worst character in the history of Marvel comics. Fortunately, his Ultimate version is very little like the regular Marvel U version. These four issues are more of an Ultimate X-Men arc, with Spidey as a guest star. I’m really enjoying Peter’s relationship with the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde, however, so it was good to see them work together. In the Ultimate universe, they make a great couple. The second arc is a two-issue Morbius story. This is different, and much darker, than anything that’s come previously in the series. If the Ultimate U is closer to the real world than the Marvel U – Spider-man mostly battles tech villains and mob guys rather than crazy super-villains – there are still mutants and, apparently, vampires. Spidey meets both Blade (thankfully, just for a cameo) and Morbius, who is fighting other vampires, and says that Dracula is his father. All of this appropriately freaks Peter out. Nothing really gets resolved here, which is as it should be. The last story is a reprint of Annual #2, featuring Daredevil, Moon Knight, and Punisher battling some mob guys. We see the death of a character (wrapping up the storyline that surprised me at the end of volume 14 – maybe), and the genesis of the next trade in Daredevil’s plans to fight the Kingpin.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This paperback is called 'Deadpool' and its worth noting that the Deadpool parts are not very good at all . I'm not a big fan of '616' Deadpool, but at least he's written as a quippy, comic relief character most of the time. Here, Bendis throws that out of the window. Also, he makes him a shape shifter. Sure, it's later mentioned that it might just be his costume or alteration to his facial muscles that allows him to do this, which doesn't make much sense either (comics, everybody). But Ultimate Deadpool is just... bad. It would have been better to just have him as the normal Deadpool, and then Bendis could have had him playing off the fact that everything's different. But no. If I was a Deadpool fan, I'd probably be offended. Since I'm not, it's just hard to care.

There's also two issues featuring Morbius the Living Vampire and I think Werewolf by Night. They're okay, they just seem too short, which is an unusual thing to say for a Bendis comic.

The Annual that closes out the book completely snuffs the Death of Jean DeWolff to the point were I'm wondering if there was any need for the character to begin with.

Out of 16 volumes, this is my least favourite and the first that I've not really cared for at all.

But there is a lot of Kitty Pryde. And she is awesome.

[Wing Kee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible.

This was just terrible pointless filler except for the annual and the beginning with Kitty.

World: Art is fine but not a fan. The world building is okay it does expand the MUU but the pieces and how it was displayed was fairly wonky and janky.

Story: The only good thing is the start of the Kitty story and the Annual the test is pure garbage. Krakoa was pointless and dumb and lacked teeth. For a hunting show no one dying was fairly stupid, mindless action. The Vampire story, also stupid and pointless. The Annual had some teeth but I also wanted more time with De Wolfe before this end.

Characters: Pretty bad. Nothing of substance and MJ and Kitty being like they are to Peter is just not where these characters should go and what they deserve. Deadpool us bad, u take away his humour and he's a pathetic copy of Deathstroke.

Bad bad bad.

Onward to the next book!

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series continues to be great fun to read, even after sixteen volumes. Bends continues to write a heartfelt story of what struggles are like for a high school superhero, while ramping up the humor in this one. I caught myself cracking up several times aloud while reading this.

The art by Mark Bagley and Co. is spot on. A perfect style for the fun and action this book so often brings.

I've mentioned it in prior reviews, but as I read this series this time through, it's part of a sort of brushing up of Spider-Man history. I honestly might recommend leaving all the supposed classics behind and reading this as one of, if not THE best Spider-Man runs I've ever seen.

Certainly my favorite thus far in my own readings.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many ultimate characters in one volume. This was a nice run that Marvel never should have changed.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bad news, this one. Thin. And Deadpool is boring and shallow.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favorite of the Bendis Ultimate Spider-Man issues so far, the theme of this volume is: crowded. There are too many characters. I kept thinking that this was the beginning of Kirkman's Ultimate X-Men run, and that it had gone quickly off the rails, but then I'd remeber it was Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man and wondered whyhe felt the need to throw in The Ultimate X-Men, Mojo and the Ultimate Krakoa characters, all while introducing Ultmate Deadpool and The Ultimate Reavers.

I could never be bothered to keep up with the 616-Reavers, so a whole new bunch of them didn't warrant me trying to learn names, and ... I don't think they were given any? If they were I don't remember. Also Ultimate Deadpool is the biggest Deadpool disappointment I can think of, and I'm including that weird Deadpool Corps series from the early 2010s. His personality is as bland as the original Deadpool from New Mutants, his trick is that he uses image inducers to appear as other characters, and he's ... somehow in league with Mojo? Sure, I guess.

But it's not just the story that's crowded, the art is crowded too. Bagley's art has been as vital to the series as Bendis's writing. He is THE artist I think of when I think of Spider-Man, even though his long run on Ultimate Spider-Man isn't / wasn't / who knows anymore / part of Marvel's canon. My one gripe with his work has been that the way he lays out a story over two pages can be confusing, as he ometimes treats them as two separate pages where you read the action traditionally, and sometimes wants you to read across the two pages, and it's not always clear which techniue he's using. But this particular volume was headache inducing. The Frank Miller Dark Knight Regurgitates talking head panels above and below the action were frustrating enough, but his two page action spreads are just sloppy. Since Bendis't use of the talking heads wasn't making the story any more interesting, I started skipping them, and then ended up just flipping through the pages to get to the next storyarc.

The Morbius / Blade storyline had tighter art, but the story felt dull. I didn't connect with anyone in the story, including Peter, who I already had 90 issues of Bendis's work to like. But in this story? Ehhh.

The Daredevil Punisher Moon Knight Kingpin story was another crowded issue, but, given that we were already familiar with Peter's relationships with all of these characters, it did feel like the mot focused part of the volume since the first issue (Peter and Kitty's relationship in the beginning was fun until the rest of the X-men were pulled in). We get a Major Story Beat from the original Spider-Man run, and it feels earned and interesting here.

Still, I can't really recommend this trade, unless you like those big crossovers where you barely have time to register where all the characters are before another twist changes the pace and tone of what you're reading.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

The romantic pairing of Kitty Pryde and Spider-Man continues into this arc, as they find themselves working as a superhero duo for once. Though Peter is happy to have found himself a girlfriend he doesn't have to worry about as much due to Kitty's powerful phasing abilities, it now also requires him to be tied into more issues concerning the treatment of mutants everywhere. This comes to a head when Deadpool, a malevolent and heartless mercenary in this version, is tasked with rounding up mutants to hunt for sport on television. It's a weird mix of classic X-Men beats like the Mojoworld stuff from the mid '80s X-Men titles like Nocenti's Longshot and Claremont's Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants, but with '90s Deadpool added in. This is the furthest from the more heroic (or even anti-hero) version of the Merc with a Mouth as Deadpool here is just a straight up Terminator-style villain.

The back third of this volume introduces the Ultimate version of Morbius, the Living Vampire. It's a fair bit more interesting than the "Deadpool" arc, but still not all that memorable. The best story here is the one contained within the annual where Moon Knight, Daredevil and the Punisher come into play as they all act independently to disrupt Kingpin's operations. Things get ugly quickly when the Punisher takes a violent swing at Spidey's police pal Jean DeWolff. It's a sharp reminder of how deep Fisk's hooks are entrenched in the city, and Spidey finds that he still has a lot to learn about the nature of organized crime.

An okay volume, dragged down largely by the bland "Deadpool" arc which takes up most of the page count here.

[Henry Blackwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars again because I loved the annual in this. This is how annuals should be done, bigger issues with awesome stories that actually are necessary to the main story. The first one setting up Peter and Kitty which is a big thing in the latter half of this run and this second one I’m guessing setting up the Ultimate Knights trade and I think might be teasing the end of the Kingpin saga.

I’m so happy with this run, it’s one of my favourites of all time already and I feel like everything is coming to a head and a close.

My criticisms of this trade are mostly with the deadpool arc. I think it was an issue too long and could’ve been wrapped up in 3 issues. and I wish they showed more of Morbius or Blade in the other arc but I still enjoyed both of them. Especially the starting of the Deadpool arc - as I said, I just felt it dragged a little too much. But I love how everything Peter and Spidey go through in this series it has a big affect on his life in the subsequent issues and they aren’t just resolved and put back to the norm within one volume (back to the status quo - if you will). It actually explores the ideas a little more. I really really hope that the last few trades wraps everything up the way it seems to be.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the super-iconic cover of Peter and Kitty, you'd hope this would be great. Sadly, not. It's such a disappointing volume (through multiple stories) that you wonder if Bendis has lost his mojo.

Deadpool (91-94). Possibly the most disappointing USM arc to date. Oh, it starts off great with Kitty and Peter having a date/supervillain fight. But then it pretty much becomes a UXM comic with the whole team, and worse than that it becomes a very boring UXM comic with a huge long fight scene. An attempt to give it color with Deadpool monologues and news reports flops because it just makes it duller. And the Ultimate Deadpool is awful, having nothing to do with the original [3/5].

Morbius (95-96). What in the world? The plot of this barely makes sense. Because it's a vampire adventure, but it starts off with Blade fighting the vampires ... but then it's Morbius fighting the vampires. And there's this long, dull black-and-white monologue about vampires. And MJ is still throwing fits. Waagh. [2/5]

Jean (Annual 2). Much of this feels like a rerun of "Warriors". This time we have Spider-Man, Punisher, and Daredevil doing the big fight against someone coming in on Kingpin's territory. But after that repetition it's got a killre ending. Wow. [3+/5].

[Sam Whale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another fun read. I think having volumes 15 and 16 be a bit pulpy was a good idea as I know from having read them before that the next few volumes tackle a lot of heavy ideas.

I enjoyed Kitty and Peters superhero date a lot. The Ringer was a silly new addition to the Ultimate rouges gallery and I really liked Kitty's Spider-Woman outfit.

The following story in which the X-Men and Spidey are kidnapped by Deadpool to do a superhero Hunger Games was an absolute blast. Exciting action, great new villains and a lot more cute moments between Kitty and Peter, I had a great time with this one.

The back half deals with a story introducing Vampires to Peter's life, with both Morbius and Blade making an appearance. This made for a good enough read as well, though I felt the whole premise felt a bit rushed with not a lot of time to build any real tension or horror. I did like the moment where MJ reassured Peter however and liked how the crux of the story revolved around Ben Urich.

[Matt Goldberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose it was inevitable that the Ultimate universe would get so big that Spider-Man would end up the comic relief character in his own books, but it still kind of stinks. That’s kind of the problem with these superhero universes because there’s a trade-off between crossovers and drilling down on your main character.

Some of that’s okay; I think Peter and Kitty is a cute idea. But when you pile on Deadpool, Blade, Morbius, Daredevil, Moon Knight, and Punisher, I feel like I’m not reading a story as much as seeing ads for other books I have no intention of reading.

Anyway, I hope the next few volumes are more about Spider-Man, which shouldn’t be too much of an ask for the Ultimate Spider-Man series.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter and Kitty volume? Hard-line that stuff into my veins please!! They were a great team, I particularly liked the first issue before it went... a little weird with the Ultimate take on Deadpool. It was actually a fairly solid adventure but the Deadpool take was not at all good. The crossover with the X team was nice and more Peter/Kitty time was great, I really want them to work out! (Though I'm almost certain it eventually won't.)

The last two issues with Morbius was ok, nothing special though it was nice to see Blade. Again my favourite part was angry Kitty on the phone to Peter at the start.

Great stuff, onward.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am confident in giving this a 5/5. Both Deadpool and Morbius stories were captivating. The X-Men perfectly complimented the Deadpool story. It almost felt like a crossover event in itself. Usually, a run focused on a single character would feel crowded if invaded by such a large roster, but Spidey stayed a centerpiece. At points, it definitely felt like it could be an X-Men volume featuring Spider-Man, but I won't complain. Morbius is perfect for today, Halloween! Those last panels with MJ were powerful and the moment was executed beautifully.
Annual #2: I really like the Moon Night/Daredevil interaction. Spidey really doesn't know who to trust after this issue.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book got kinda taken over first by the X-Men as Spider-Man gets dragged into yet another effort to have the X-Men die as part of television entertainment on Krakoa island (not the cool Hickman version) and so it's a big mutant story. The latter half has him dealing with more of the inter-gang stuff including dirty cops, Daredevil, Moon Knight, and whatever. It's a good kind of bonkers, but I hope we get to more Spider-Man things without the distraction of all these guest stars in the subsequent volumes.

[Greg Callahan]

(3.5) Similar to the last, the story being told is fun and the action is alright. The team-ups are cool, but I'm a little wrung out on X-men appearances. Don't get me wrong, I like the X-men, but can it focus back on Peter's life, outside his relationship with Kitty? This volume tries towards the end, furthering the Kingpin and Captain de Wolfe drama, but it does so with even more team-ups so that Spidey is in the backseat for a lot of it. Still fun, but I'm losing interest.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's three stories here.

The first one has Wadey (not a typo, or at least not my typo) Wilson hunting the X-Men and Spidey on Krakoa as part of a reality show. It's very boring.

I forgot how bizarre interpretations of Deadpool in the 2000s were.

The second one is a Morbius story. It's rushed and silly.

The third is a continuation of the Spidey and the mob arc. It's actually pretty good.

Overall, though, this is the worst volume yet.

[Joey Amorim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spidey teams up with the X-Men to take on Deadpool and his team of Reavers, and while it has a decent enough setup, the whole reality TV show format made it a bit exhausting to read. I can appreciate Bendis trying to shake things up, but it didn’t land well for me. The Morbius two-parter was also fine. It felt like it could’ve gone longer, and Blade just vanishes after his initial appearance. The annual setting up Ultimate Knights was pretty cool, can’t wait to get to that arc!