Peter Parker has a pretty good life
Certainly the recent loss of his Aunt May in terror attack was a blow, but he does have…
… Uncle Ben?
At home, he’s loved by wife Mary Jane and kids Richard and May.
At work, the Daily Bugle Old Guard is being forced out.
Dark days are coming for the newspaper, it seems, but outgoing editors J Jonah Jameson and Uncle Ben are all fired up to start something new.
So here goes with Marvel’s latest Ultimate Spider-Man. A quarter of a century ago there was a new Peter Parker, a few years after that Peter died and was succeeded as New York’s Friendly Neighbourhood webslinger by young Miles Morales. And then their world went away. Miles was moved to Marvel Earth where he became friends with an older Peter Parker.
On this newly introduced Earth Peter Parker isn’t the teenager he was when first bitten in the comics. He’s not the Spider-Man in his twenties who has been through the wars and survived. He’s a 35-year-old man with responsibilities, but no power.
He does, though, have potential, as becomes clear at the end of a pretty great debut issue. Writer Jonathan Hickman grabs my attention by giving us a new situation – a Peter Parker who, we learn, was almost bitten by a radioactive spider.
This 40pp story isn’t what you’d call action packed in the Mighty Marvel Manner. There’s a car explosion followed by a splash page of a surprise supervillain. Other than that, as with Brian Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man, we have page after page of talking heads. I was never a regular buyer of that comic because despite the modern setting, it felt too familiar in terms of the story beats.
This feels new. We have a thoroughly grown-up Peter and MJ. Uncle Ben is here, Aunt May isn’t. There are Parker children to get to know. A J Jonah Jameson not driven half mad with envy at Spider-Man. An overarching plotline that looks set to unite the new Ultimate line.
And best of all, a Spider-Man who’s beginning his superhero career at a different point to his predecessors. A Peter Parker who’s going to find his fun side. The story could go anywhere.
Where Bendis often seemed to be filling space with cod David Mamet-style back-and-forth dialogue, Hickman is moving the story forward from first panel to last. I like this down-to-Earth setting, and hope Hickman doesn’t build towards a cosmic conspiracy involving multiple megalomaniacs. We know there’s one behind Peter’s current ordinariness, let’s keep it at that.
A question – what’s Peter doing working at the Bugle? Traditionally, he’s a freelancer selling photos of himself as Spidey to help pay the bills, but his inclination is towards science. Is Peter a tech writer? An IT man?
Amother two questions…
Firstly, are those comic longboxes under the desk? This is an Earth with, apparently, only a few superheroes so Peter may be able to use some four-coloured role models.
Secondly, why wasn’t he wearing his wedding ring? By the end of the issue we know he wasn’t cheating on MJ the previous night. Heck, the lovely relationship Hickman gives the couple makes the very idea preposterous.
I know we’ll find out, if nothing else, Hickman is a planner. I’m just wondering if anyone has ideas.
Marco Checchetto is a real boon to this book. His pencils and inks are slick and modern but his storytelling values are delightfully traditional. He begins scenes with an establishing exterior shot. Interiors carry a convincing sense of space and modernity. He give us clear views of each character as they join the story. He varies angles for interest. He never repeats panels when characters are chatting. And the emotions are always there. Always.
Matthew Wilson’s colours are naturalistic but never drab, and Cory Petit’s letters are strong and sharp… it’s still the Ultimate storybook font rather than proper comics upper case, but I lost that battle a long time ago.
Checchetto and Wilson’s cover illo is a good hero shot, and I like the treatment given it by Production – up to date and stylish while the boxing of the image evokes the classic Ultimate look.
I got to the end of this issue and went straight back to the start and re-read the story. That rarely happens, but the last few pages reframed things for the start of the book and the second look proved fascinating. That’s good storytelling and it’s going to have me on tenterhooks until next issue arrives.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
It is a genius idea for redoing the Spider-Man mythos. There really isn’t anything major to complain about. I’m hoping after this Peter continues being so open with MJ and she partners with his efforts in a realistic way. Add May and Richard and you might get the best version of Wally West’s family dynamic Marvel style.
I checked online to settle misgivings about Ben being Jonah’s partner and found nothing that made it an impossibility. True, The Maker’s tampering can explain little niggles like that but I was curious. And thinking about it, Jonah’s current status in the 616 would work for me here like it never will for OG Pete.
i also had a a little problem with MJ being the wife at first though I accepted it because it was written so well and MJ is ‘it’ for Peter with readers younger than me. Her coming to Peter revolved round first her dating Harry, which she never did here, and after Gwen’s death, which there wouldn’t have been because no Goblin or Spidey. Then I realized May and her friend still would have introduced them and without Gwen in the way, the couple could have had a much easier and steadfast relationship sooner.
Thoughts on the Goblin? He could be Harry and Hickman doesn’t shy away from obvious if t here’s a good story he can tell. Lack of any explanation for the attack makes any guesses wild however. The Goblin could just as easily be someone new or in another identity in the 616 that one of the puppet masters gifted the tech too. Since Harry and Peter have no emotional connection or history together, Kris Keating or Herman Schulz being used would tell the same story. I’m just disappointed Fisk wasn’t killed. He’s not at Joker level oversaturated as a character but he’s close. Frankly I would have gone with 616 style Miles Morales instead.
Wild isn’t it that one single issue could inspire all you wrote and this huge reply. I’m down bigly with what I actually read lately but Ultimate Spider-Man 3.0 is on the list!
BTW, I read recently Cates had the Ultimate assignment first but had to drop it. Can you imagine? Before I swore off of all cates written comics, I realized his ideas were basically what we all thought were cool when we were fourteen. I also realized most of my ‘wouldn’t it be cool’ ideas from1975 sucked.
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Thanks for some excellent comments and observations!
To address something that never came up, am I reading too much into Teen Holo Tony’s comments about his companions escaping in thinking he meant everyone who supposedly died. Then again, I suppose there were remains… but maybe Aunt May escaped!
What were your misgivings about Ben working with Jonah? Were we ever told what he did for a living? I’ve just had a look online and apparently he was a carnival barker as a young man, and a military policeman. Still, this is a different universe.
I wonder what MJ’s business is. Maybe she’s running a model agency with Millie.
I’m not keen on metal Green Goblin costumes, I hope they change that. Maybe it’s really Elf With a Gun.
I’d hope this Peter had enough about him to find his own job without Uncle Ben, but who knows?
We see a bit of Richard’s personality, I wonder what May is like?
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I don’t think they are comic boxes, just file boxes. As implied, he’s still a science whiz, I imagine manilla folders with test results and theories reside within. Maybe with the age of this Parker, there is still that part of him that wants to retain the analog while understanding and utilizing the digital. Maybe they have formula for impact webbing or other gadgets to come.
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Oooh! I forgot to mention my thoughts on Peter’s career here. I never questioned it because it just fit BUT I very much doubt Peter ever was on the photography staff. My thinking was if you were the Bugle’s managing editor and your son was adrift after college, wouldn’t you hire him for some position you knew he was qualified for and would excel at?
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Oh, I like that idea! Hopefully we’ll get a look inside soon
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I would normally never be interested in “Ultimate Anything,” but with the married with children Parker’s I think I’m going to give it a shot.
Matthew Lloyd
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Hope you enjoy it too!
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This sounds like a great premise. A new Peter who’s older and more settled than I would want mainstream Peter to be, starting out on a new adventure. How many superhero stories start out with “middle-aged (or nearly) dad gets powers?” What kind of “great responsibility” will Peter feel when he already has a great responsibility to his family?
I gather that this spins out of Hickman’s recent Ultimate Whatever storyline, and I gave that a couple issues before deciding that I couldn’t buy fairly expensive issue after issue of characters just telling me how smart and villainous they are, over and over.
Since this emerges from that, I feel the urge to give it a few issues (and reviews, I hope!) to develop before maybe deciding to dive into the first trade …
—bpm
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I only read two issues of the Invasion mini myself before getting this issue. More enjoyable when I had a goal then reading it for its own merits.
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That was me. I took my Kindle Fire with me when I soaked in the tub and didn’t realize I hadn’t been to this site on Silk before.
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I read one, maybe two issues of the Hickman lead-in series… probably one that was so long it felt like two.
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