posted 01-31-2002 12:42 AM               

Learning Curve is the first wholly original Ultimate Spider-Man story, following up Power and Responsibility's retelling/reworking of Spider-Man's beginnings. With the groundwork laid, Bendis can let loose and start exploring the new world he's helped create, and he does so with gusto here. Peter Parker gets a job working on the Daily Bugle's web site, and uses the newspaper's resources to investigate the crook who killed his Uncle Ben. When he discovers that the crook is connected to crime boss Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, and that no one in a position of official authority can make anything stick against Fisk, he decides it's time for Spider-Man to swing into action.

The only problem, as Bendis frequently gives Peter cause to remember, is that he's still new at this superhero game. With little experience and no reputation to speak of, Peter stumbles from one confrontation to the next, often at the receiving end of a pummeling. His adjustment issues at school haven't gone away, either, and his Aunt May is having trouble getting used to life as a single parent. Bendis handles the blend of character-based drama and superheroic action-adventure very well, as he usually does, with sharp dialogue and nice pacing. (Spidey's final confrontation with the Kingpin is particularly well done, displaying Fisk's arrogance and fury along with Peter's humor, moral outrage, and newfound street smarts.) He also gives the book a sense of progress and movement by letting Peter learn from his experiences and get better at what he does, and demonstrates that he is willing to shake up the status quo in the book's final chapter - a chapter-length conversation between Peter and Mary Jane that Bendis discussed at length in his interview here on the site.