the plot: Spider-Man has tracked down and confront Otto Octavius, now the rampaging Dr. Octopus. Doc Ock is mad, and wants to take his former boss Justin Hammer down, and Spidey tries in vain to stop Ock from destroying one of Hammer's labs. Not only that, but Ock sounds beats Spider-Man, and sends him away, into the waiting arms of the NYPD and SHIELD. Spidey manages a quick escape though, and webslings away, but loses part of his costume in the process. Later, Peter is shocked when Justin Hammer blames Spider-Man for Dr. Octopus' attack, and he and Mary Jane plan on making a replacement suit. MJ goes home, and Peter, still in mid-costume, is out of luck when Aunt May comes home early and Peter has no way to avoid her seeing him in his Spidey suit!

the review: As a way of balancing the mainly diologue driven past issues, Ultimate Spider-Man #18 spends two thirds of the issue showing Spider-Man's first fight with Dr. Octopus, and his confrontation with SHIELD in grand fashion. Mark Bagley takes advantage of the action by presenting us with big, splashy panels, and writer Brian Bendis really cuts loose with the Spider-Man banter that had really only been done in doses so far. I really liked the action and thought that some of Spidey's oneliners in this issue are among the best in years actually. This book makes Spidey fun, it really does.

The problem with doing an issue mainly full of action though is that characters start getting short-changed, and with the large supporting cast and numerous sub-plots that Ultimate Spider-Man has, it leaves the book with an unfinished feeling. This was the same thing with Ultimate Spider-Man #7, the big fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. Of the large supporting cast (including Flash Thompson, Liz Allen, Kong, J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, Ben Urich, Gwen Stacy, Captain Stacy, Betty Brant), only two of them appear this issue, and one of them (Aunt May) is only in one panel. Aside from Dr. Octopus, the other characters that show up, namely Sharon Carter and Justin Hammer, are so short-changed that it doesn't even matter that they do. Bendis seems to have opened a can of worms for himself by introducing such a large cast so soon, and while it is fun seeing Spidey fight a baddie for twenty-two pages, it just means it's going to be an extra month to find out what's happening with the characters.

Hopefully next month the punching will subside a little while so we find out what's going on with the characters, but not so long that we get so action-starved that we're handed an issue like this, that's all action but no sub-plot business.

Despite the lack of continuation of the ongoing plots, and lack of the strong supporting cast, Ultimate Spider-Man #18 was still very impressive and gets a solid *** out of *****.

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