Ultimate Spider-Man #18 pg 8-9 DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD, 2002 -- Spidey in the clutches of Doctor Octopus!

I DID ask "What's the deal with the Spidey Christmas tree bulbs?"! An excellently illustrated double page spread, drawn by a man whose artistic contributions to Spider-Man will one day be looked upon as being even more important than that of many who came to the character before him. Mark my words!

This DPS spreads Holiday cheer in the same way Die Hard does!

Love that bottom tier. Intense!

Great pages!

Beauty! 

It's always a good day when you can add some Bagley Spidey to the collection.  Congrats!!!

I suspected you might've been the one to grab this! Well, when you're too old for collecting and decide to give away all your Bagley art, I'll happily take it off your hands :)

Very rarely does Peter come out on top by himself in this series.  He always needs some friends' help to avoid tragedy.  Not only does it harken back to your splash, but for the time period, but a lot of this goes back to Ditko and also Spider-Man 2 movie which came out a few years later. 

I love the symmetry this gave your collection in conjunction with the ASM splash. Bagley did such a tremendous in giving his Ultimate Spidey a noticeably different body type and differentiating him from the adult Peter. Very cool pickup, Paul! 

Man, the baddies really love to beat on Spidey like he's their own personal drum. The artists, too! Heh, great Spidey banter, too, as you said. "Um, Doc? Your Christmas ornament sucks, and the stocking stuffer has a foot in it." Great Bagely Spider-Man DPS, Paul, as you do. A stunner 

What a grab (pun intended)! 

I always suspected pierced nipples would hurt but I no idea the process. They don't call him him Doctor for nothing.

Such a sweet dps of doc ock goodness 

You know, there needs to be an entirely new category of artwork added to CAF: 'The Paul P Add'.  Just right there, in the dropdown...  'interior page', 'double page spreads, etc., etc.  Just an option for those really luscious, jaw-dropping, collection-defining pieces that always pop up in your treasure-laden gallery, Paul.  I love it! :)

The spread-eagle Spidey is a familiar Doc Ock trope (going back to the cover of ASM 3, of course) and for any worthy "relaunch", it was only a matter of time before it was referenced... but Ultimate Spidey was SO much more than a relaunch, and Mssrs. Bendis and Bagley make this moment... more.  Infusing the moment with more humor and more pain (sorry, Spidey) makes it that much more indelible to the reader, and this, my friend, is INDELIBLE.  What a pick up!  Sincere congrats, Paul!  Boo-yah!

Oh yeah!  I remember this moment distinctly from issue 18.  Some of these DPS panel sequences are my favorites from Ultimate Spidey and this one is way up there.  Dug how menacing Doc Ock was from the start of this series, and I how they played up that original moment way back in ASM 3 :)  And yes, nice pairing with your splash from ASM, also by Bags!  Congrats!

INCREDIBLE DPS!! And that does go perfectly with your ASM title splash by Bagley. Ultimate Spider-Man is a modern classic, for me the best Spidey/Marvel (or even overall mainstream comics run) of the modern era (2000 to present) and my personal favorite

Thanks for the comment, Kavi!  Unfortunately I recently parted with the title splash to ASM 397 --- gots ta pay those bills.  But I'm super happy to still have this one to enjoy.