Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Penciler Mark Bagley

Inker John Dell

Colorist Justin Ponsor

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Deadpool, Part One of Four

Cover Dated May 2006

After reading Ultimate Spider-Man 200, I wanted to reread some issues that I remembered.

This issue opens with Spider-Man being tied by . . . The Ringer!

The Ringer is straight up from Waldorf, Maryland.  Which I love how much Spider-Man is thrown off by this bragging.

The Ringer calls Spider-Man a mutant (a running gag throughout this short arc, but I am only reviewing this first issue).

This very cool new brunette superhero is on the scene, and she wants the mutant race talk to cease.

The new hero is really Kitty Pryde, we’ll get to the why the new costume later in the issue.  It is such a great reason.  Kitty starts wailing on the Ringer.

I like how Kitty is so used to shutting fools down, that she’s surprised when it doesn’t work.  While the guy is freaking out, she notices that Spider-Man is getting into an even tighter bind.

Is this the first time she phased him?  I believe she phased her hand through his chest on their first date, but that was probably super quick, as she was only showing him her powerset.

I like how willingly Kitty shows her sexuality with her comment about how him not wearing a shirt is a real bonus for her.  She’s enjoying this relationship with him.

I like how the Ringer is so second rate, that he is taken out by a basic webbing to a wall technique.

As the Ringer turns around, Kitty finally notices that he has a mechanic contraption on his back.  Which I would assume she would have noticed earlier but he never does turn around in front of her.  Plus, she’s use to mutants who don’t require any fancy gizmos so she might not have been looking either.  By touching the contraption, there is a giant explosion.

That panel of Spider-Man with his gloves, when he is screaming “Kitty” – Spider-Man looks odd without his shirt, right?  Reminds me of times when Batman rights with the cowl, but shirtless and capeless.  It is a good look, but it is unusual to see.

I like how Kitty tries to shame Peter in not knowing how her power works.  He doesn’t have to worry about her, as much.  He wants some boyfriend concern points but her “technically” says it all.

The Ringer isn’t thrilled with this turn of events.  Spider-Man works in putting his shirt on, he doesn’t need to be showing his goods.

How funny is Kitty, written by Bendis?  Pretty darn!  Gosh, I really did enjoy Peter and Kitty together, they have such great chemistry.

She tells him to look at the Ringer’s butt, and he rather he didn’t.  She notices that the Ringer has his wallet on him.  Who carries their wallet on them, and commit crimes?  I recall stories of the Proper Marvel Universe Spider-Man wanting to buy a snack or some other small purchase, and not having any pockets, meant that he didn’t have any money on them.  When I got married, I didn’t have my wallet on me.  It was one of the few times I’ve been outside and without my wallet.

The Ringer’s real name is Anthony Davis from Medina County, Ohio – so he isn’t from Maryland.  He must have said that to throw people off, but it sure does confuse Spider-Man.  Which I know Bendis is from Ohio but looking the name up, turns out he is a proper Marvel character who got Ultimatized in this issue.  Who got Ultimated?  Who now has an Ultimate counterpart, yeah, that seems to be better.

The police arrive on the scene and Spider-Man knows that means they have to take off now.  Kitty keeps wanting to shout the guy’s information.  Are people from a county?  Shouldn’t his driver’s license only say “Medina” or whatever city within the county the Ringer is from?

I do like how instead of calling him The Ringer, Kitty keeps calling him, Hula Hoop Guy – she wasn’t on the scene when he announced himself, so tries to come up with his villain name.

Once alone, Kitty lets Peter in on a secret – he has the worst villains.  She has fought, with him, the Ringer and the Shocker, and both are below average in difficulty.  Bendis takes the time to take a swipe at the Ultimates, as they did spend the first six issues of their series, fighting each other.  Ultimates 2 is a much better volume, if you want more of a hero v villain plot.

Spider-Man swings them over to the Daily Bugle.  Once they land, Kitty explains her brilliant idea.  She wants to create a separate costumed identity so that the world doesn’t put the X-Men’s Shadowcat and Spider-Man together as a couple.  Kitty wants to date Peter Parker and be seen out in public with him.  A couple pairings is an old fashion team-up but anymore than that is suspicious.  So Shadowcat can’t be seen with Spider-Man too many times as people seeing Kitty Pryde and Peter Parker, it wouldn’t take much to make the connection that Spider-Man may be Peter Parker.  Kitty Pryde is a public figure, so a simple Google search reveals that she is an X-Man.

Kitty wants Peter to come up with her new name.  He comes up with, Spider-Girl, she quickly shuts it down and he has no other ideas.  Spider-Man, was as good as he came up with.  Well, in the Ultimate Universe, the wrestling league came up with it.

Sorry, our scanner is only so big so the top panels are missing – mostly it is Kitty repeating that she wants help with the new name – the costume doesn’t lend itself to any ideas.  After that, Kitty gives a giant, Yahoo, as webslinging must be fun.

Also missing is Kitty, once again, needing to have Peter say that he wants this relationship – which now that I’m this far removed from it, I want to say she does rather often.  She may have always been more committed to the relationship than he was.

Okay, we are at the house panel, so you can follow along, dear reader.

Peter worries about how his aunt will handle him being in a relationship.  Kitty points out that all of the horrible things that his aunt had to deal with, is simply due to him being Spider-Man.  He’s not ready to tell his aunt his spider-secret – so it isn’t Kitty related at all.  That slash she is the easier thing to say, less revealing on his part.

Kitty wants to simply date Peter.  She comes up with the great idea that, if Peter had a girlfriend, that would give him plenty of opportunities to lie to his aunt and put on some red and blue spandex.  She takes another swipe at his lame villains, he tries to mock her’s but she does have some decent villains – Magneto, Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood.

Kitty mentions Mojo, which is important as this Deadpool arc is a sort of sequel to the Ultimate X-Men Most Dangerous Game arc.  Which I’ll review one of these days but since I’m already reviewing five issues inspired from one issue, I feel like I’m already down one rabbit hole.  We’ll get there.

Kitty tells Peter that she is very open about her being a mutant, so she would not not tell Aunt May.  Kitty will also tell her that she is an X-Man.  I like how Peter’s first thought is how does a kid from Midtown High School dating one of the X-Men.  They do need a better cover story than ‘meeting in a mall.’

The X-Plane arrives, it is on remote now.

Her teammates thought it was cool that she was dating Spider-Man but they are over it.  Peter should just be out with dating Kitty.  That is a pretty decent kiss!

Kitty gets into it and phases through him, which both ruins the moment and not grosses but unsettles him.  Peter wants her to call him, once she goes home.  Their relationship really is good, except for his complications.

I like that Bendis gives us a full page of Kitty’s thoughts.  She barely got much play in X-Men, so I was all for her slowly getting onto this title.  Kitty hasn’t told any of her teammates about her new costume identity idea, she really isn’t that close to anyone at the mansion.

I really like her wanting a life outside of the X-Men, which more X-Men should want that in every dimension.

She worries about pushing him away.

There is an add for the first Fantastic Four movie.  Ioan Gruffudd will always be my Reed Richards.

Kitty comes home to an empty mansion, which must be super unsettling.  She must think they are out on an adventure until she runs into Wolverine.

Who isn’t Wolverine, rut row!  He tries to stab her, she lets him phase through her and she takes off.  He attempts an energy attack.

Kitty feels the sting of the energy attack.  Storm enters the room but she doesn’t recognize, Ororo, as a word.  So that isn’t Storm and Kitty phases down a floor.

Kitty heads to the garage but men with guns are already there.  Kitty’s first thought for help is to call the Ultimates, that can’t be a good sign of her confidence in a certain wall crawler.  She phases through some computers and the X-Plane sequence is set.

Kitty is outnumbered and is knocked out.  We got a pretty great six page sequence that didn’t have Spider-Man on any page – that is a nice commitment.

Meanwhile, at the Parker House.  Aunt May is getting ready for a date, she doesn’t care what he has been up to.  He notices the X-Plane is going to his spot that he meets Kitty.  Is that an abandon house or something?

Once entering the plane, it sets course back to the mansion.  We learn that it is only a twenty minute plane ride to Westchester, which seems super reasonable.

That is super funny, Peter saying “Hello Kitty” and then immediately recognizing it.  What keeps that franchise alive?  Is there a new cartoon, how are people discovering it or getting into it?  The dolls and various other merchandise isn’t that cute.

Shadowcat walks up to Spider-Man, his spider-sense goes off but he doesn’t know why.  She then blasts Spider-Man and knocks him out.  Issue ends with Kitty shifting into . . . Deadpool and the Reavers!

Letters Page features letters from – Nekolas Martin of South Boston, VA / Onsy “Scorpy” Al Hagrassy of Dubai, UAE / Phillip Tallman / Stuart West of the United Kingdom / Xalibar / Alec Berry / Mark H and Jacob Silvers of Warren, OH.