Glad to hear (well, see it implied) that you still like the books. ^^

“I’m currently at volume 15, by the way, so at this rate you’ll be catching up in no-time.”

Perhaps. I’m about to start on volume 10 now, but I’ve yet to lay my grubby little hands on volumes 15, 17 and 18, so unless Avalon or Outland have them in stock one of the two times I intend to go downtown before going home for the summer, I probably won’t for a while.

Unless, of course, I go tomorrow, and ask the guy at Avalon if he’d be willing to order the three I’m lacking for me…

(Obviously, the easiest way to get a hold of them is to go via Amazon, but I kinda like supporting my local comics and fantasy shops, especially Avalon, as they’re usually empty of other costumers every time I’m in there…)

((Also, it just struck me that “costumers” sounds kinda like “people who make costumes”, alternatively “people who wears costumes”. Huh.))

“written by an almost as confusing plethora of writers, none of whom stayed with the comic for longer periods of time,”

Meeep, wrong. Mark Millar stayed on for six volumes, only one less than you’ve read Bendis’ on Spidey so long. Then, agreed, a little upheaval as Bendis wrote only two volumes - but let’s face it, Bendis rocks, so those volumes are actually among the series’ best ones. Then Brian K. Vaughan steps in with a lot of volumes by a single writer again - five of them. Last, Robert Kirkman has been on the series - and still is - and has so far written five volumes himself.

So yes, a bit more confusing than Spidey’s “Bendis, Bendis, Bendis”, but it’s not like they tossed it around every year or anything. Your arguments against it story-wise are totally valid (and I agree), but the writers aren’t as many and short between as you seem to think. Also note that Bendis and Millar are responsible for a lot of other Ultimate-stuff, and they together wrote the first eight volumes, which (at least up until that point) ensured a rather good shared continuity with especially “The Ultimates” and “Ultimate Spider-man”.

On “Ultimate Spider-man”, by the way, as far as I know, there’s never been another writer than Bendis. They changed artist once, that’s it as far as I know.

I’m currently at volume 15, by the way, so at this rate you’ll be catching up in no-time.