1 – “I’m Not Even Supposed to be Here Today”
The launch of the new Ultimate line, Ultimate Invasion, had Jonathan Hickman stepping in for the survived-a-horrible-car-crash Donny Cates in an oddly synchronistic move for an alternate timeline comic book universe. At some point into the first six months or so of Ultimate Spider-Man, writer Chip Zdarsky revealed that Hickman had originally asked him to write this comic and it was Zdarsky refusing and encouraging Hickman to do it instead that resulted in the comic that kicked off the Ultimate line proper. More synchronicity.
As the flagship book, at least initially, of the Ultimate line, the approach reflects Hickman’s seeming desire to not be the centre of attention. After the events of Ultimate Invasion and Ultimate Universe #1, the natural leadoff into this world seemed to be The Ultimates. A big superhero epic of Tony Stark and Doom’s team of rebels fighting against the evil empire of the Maker’s Council, hoping to take back enough of the world to give the Maker a fight when he emerges from the city after two years. That seemed like the logical next step to continue the broad, sweeping story that Hickman had begun.
Instead, Ultimate Spider-Man homes in on one man whose destiny was stolen by the Maker and what happens when it’s given back to him. Together with the other launch titles of the line, the approach was a surprisingly scattered one that looked at the effects of the larger conflict, while using allusions to provide updates on how that larger story is progressing. In the first six issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, we get the effects of the Council framing Tony Stark for the orbital attack on New York, Tony Stark’s efforts to restore some of what the Maker took from people, and a bit of the Council’s power structure, particularly in their divvying up of North America after the fall of Stark and Stane. This is decidedly a book that inhabits the Ultimate world, but a ground level one that shows a narrow picture.
Because, that’s what a Spider-Man comic is. There’s an understanding of Marvel and its structure at play here that seems almost counterintuitive for a line like this. While the original Ultimate line similarly began with Ultimate Spider-Man, there was no overarching story told there. No conflict over control of the world and the secret ruling class that holds everyone down. But: Spider-Man is the main Marvel hero. He’s the Superman and the Batman rolled into one. Starting a new line and not including Spider-Man seems foolish and misguided, because he represents the central ethos of Marvel: no matter how big, how fantastic, everything boils down to a regular guy with extraordinary powers trying to do the right thing and go home at the end of the day. So, after giving us the big lead-in of the Maker and Stark and the Council and the Ultimates, Hickman puts all of that stuff into the background and focuses on this guy in New York whose world is only as big as his family, his job, his friends, and his city. That’s how we get to see this larger than life conflict.
2 – Spider-Man is Anyone and Everyone
Around the time of Into the Spider-Verse, that wonderful animated movie that made the whole world realise that, maybe, Spider-Man is actually a kid named Miles Morales, I saw a lot of variations on the same story online that I’d never considered before. Now, I’m a white cis heterosexual man from Ontario, Canada, and I’ve always related to Peter Parker to a degree. He looked somewhat similar to me, seemingly had somewhat similar or, at least, relatable problems to me, and, in some ways, was aspirational for me. There was always an element of power fantasy at play, I suppose. And I had heard similar views on the characters from my fellow white males and, as is the general flaw of many people, I thought, for a long time, that the way that I viewed the character was how everyone else did. I’d never really given it a ton of thought, honestly. However, when the Into the Spider-Verse movie came out, I saw how much not just Miles Morales, a black/Puerto Rican teen, being Spider-Man meant to non-white people, but how much Spider-Man, in general, meant to them already. It confused me at first because Peter Parker is very white and the idea that he would be a character that non-white readers and viewers would admire and see themselves in was surprising. But, it wasn’t Peter Parker I learned that was the draw: it was Spider-Man, particularly his costume. With a full body costume that covered him entirely, including his face, he was a hero without a set racial identity. In costume, he could literally be anyone in a way that most superheroes couldn’t. You can see that Superman, Batman, Captain America, Flash, Thor, Wonder Woman, and countless others are white. But, Spider-Man, one of the three biggest superheroes in North American comics, in costume, could be anyone and anything. It was a window into a perspective I’d never considered.
Ultimate Spider-Man seems to embrace that idea of Spider-Man as a somewhat blank canvas to imprint metaphor upon in a manner that is usually reserved at Marvel for the X-Men. After the first issue was released, I read numerous takes that Peter’s feeling of living his life wrong and not being his true self is a metaphor for coming out of the closet or transitioning, particularly the latter. There’s a sense that Peter Parker the man is not right, while Peter Parker the Spider-Man is who he really is and, at the end of the first issue, he undergoes treatment to modify his body to be his true self. It’s easy to see why this would jump out to trans people as familiar and something that they see themselves in. But, it can easily be Peter realising he’s gay or Peter realising he needs to finally follow his passion in life, or any concept of change. It’s presented broadly enough that there’s no hard, fixed metaphor or meaning in place. That’s a big part of what makes this version of the character so resonant and successful: it doesn’t stray too far from the original idea of the character, but is mindful to present it in a manner just open enough for anyone to find themselves in it. It’s a true embrace of the ‘everyman’ concept that Spider-Man has always been touted by Marvel as embodying even if he didn’t always.
It’s a concept that’s reflected out from Peter across the cast of the book with Ben and Jonah’s venturing out to do journalism the way that they want to or Harry putting on his green armour to fly around and attack a powerful man echoing Peter’s changes. We learn that Mary Jane did something similar in her career years prior for further resonance. It’s a book about people deciding to be who they want to be and do what they want to, while their loved ones support them in those efforts. Like, shit, I love that. I really do. I’m lucky enough to experience that in my life and even I cling to those scenes for dear life some days, so I can only imagine what people in some truly horrible situations get from Mary Jane telling Peter “And go get ‘em, Tiger” with total love and support. It’s sappy and kind of embarrassing to say out loud, but that’s what makes these dumb little books worthwhile sometimes.
3 – Ultimate Peter B. Parker
Going back to Into the Spider-Verse, my personal takeaway from that movie was that Peter B. Parker proved Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas wrong. If you’ll recall, undoing Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane was one of their big goals when they ran Marvel, arguing that an older Peter as someone that readers can’t relate to (which, perhaps, as the previous section showed, was actually a skill issue). This, despite having launched Ultimate Spider-Man with a teenage version of the hero, allowing readers to have both a younger, unencumbered Peter and an older, adult Peter at the same time. It was a misguided, narrow vision of what the character could (and should) be rooted in this weird obsession that young readers would only want to read about characters their own age and that the older, existing readers only wanted the character from their supposed youths (which ignored just how long Peter had been a married adult). It was an odd contradiction that said one group only wanted themselves, while another group only wanted what they used to be, overlooking the fact that, perhaps, adults wanted to read about adults.
Into the Spider-Verse featured an alternate reality version of the character called Peter B. Parker to differentiate for all of us viewers. He was in his late 30s, divorced, and it was the first time that I, a husband and father in his mid-30s, saw a version of the character that resembled me. He was the same mess of a character struggling with balancing being Spider-Man and having a personal life, except the nature of that conflict had changed a bit. It was, honestly, everything that I wanted from a Spider-Man at this point in my life. And, of course, he only existed in that single movie (and, then, the sequel). The comics follow the movies all of the time, but not in this case? Come on, son...
That is, until Ultimate Spider-Man #1 where the Peter Parker is married to Mary Jane, has two kids, and is firmly in the approaching middle age doldrums where his life is, seemingly, exactly what he was shooting for and, yet, it doesn’t feel right. Now, here’s a Spider-Man for me as I was on the cusp of turning 41. In that first issue, Hickman nails that weird contradiction of having the life you want and not being satisfied. Not because you want out, but because you need something inside, not just around you, to be right. The ensuing issues touch up against the difficulty of balancing the different priorities of life when you have to wear so many hats (husband, father, employee, friend, etc.) and you don’t always know when and how to put yourself first. These first six issues can easily be read as Peter getting a new hobby and the ensuing fallout of meeting friends through that hobby and figuring out how to integrate this new stuff into his existing world. And that shit can be tough.
That Hickman used the idea of a new Ultimate Spider-Man to return to an adult Peter Parker in stark opposition of the original’s concept is quite clever. And needed. Because I’ve seen teenage Spider-Man, a lot, and, in fact, the dearth of adult superheroes that reflect (some of) the true realities of adulthood is annoying. In these first six issues, the biggest conflict within the Parker household is how long Peter waits to tell everyone about Spider-Man – and, even then, it’s a relatively minor conflict. It’s refreshing to see, in superhero comics, a family environment like this where everyone is accepted and loved. Even when Peter is considering accepting Tony Stark’s offer to be who he was “supposed to be,” Mary Jane encourages him blindly to do what will make him happy with the only thing she needs to know is that they’re okay. There’s no cheap melodrama or soap operatics... but it’s no boring. Hickman wisely knows that by emphasising the normalcy and love of Peter’s family, it only heightens the drama of Spider-Man. The stakes are that much larger when Harry and he completely fail in their attempt to take down Wilson Fisk, a man with the means to wipe out their loved ones, if he so wished.
What comes to mind is Grant Morrison’s discussion of Superman in All-Star Superman a echoing the gods of old where everything he does is more than a regular person. That superhero stories are meant to be bigger and better versions of our day to day lives. And that’s what Hickman achieves in the Parker family. Not by expanding the drama into melodrama or soap opera, but by expanding the love and understanding and acceptance of a family. It’s an ideal, yes; one that suits the material.
Ultimate Spider-Man is, ostensibly, a comic about Peter Parker. Jonathan Hickman has never written an ongoing solo superhero comic. Up until this point in his career, he’s written team books and, even in his creator-owned work, it’s been a focus on large ensemble casts. He tends to take things large and view the world from somewhat of a distance. So, him taking on a solo character seemed like a change of pace, something new and different, and, honestly, the first issue seemed like this would be a comic about Peter Parker with a healthy supporting cast. That was wrong. Over the course of the first six issues, it becomes apparent that Peter is the starting point, perhaps an anchor of sorts, for a comic that’s really about a group of people. Issue five, for example, focuses on Harry Osborn and how he became the Green Goblin with Peter very much in a supporting role. Ben Parker and J. Jonah Jameson’s efforts to start their own newspaper after quitting (being fired from?) the Daily Bugle often jockeys for the ‘A-story’ in any given issue.
Spider-Man comics have always been known for the width and depth of the supporting cast, so it’s not like Hickman is exactly breaking with tradition. However, it becomes apparent quickly that what seems like establishing the world around Peter prior to him plunging into becoming Spider-Man in the first issue is actually a bit of a backdoor into an ensemble cast book. I said earlier that, instead of focusing on the actual conflict between the Maker’s Council and Tony Stark, Hickman focuses in on a small part of that conflict, and, by the end of the first six issues, it’s apparent that by making this a book about Peter, Harry, Ben, Jonah, Mary Jane, Gwen, and the kids that it’s about showing that conflict on multiple fronts. Peter is at the centre of the cast, but his fight with Fisk/the Council is not the same as Harry’s or Ben’s or Jonah’s, etc.
It’s a reminder that the system of this world isn’t simply superhumans running things where the only way to dethrone them is to punch them in the face (and, as the sixth issue shows, even that isn’t as sure a thing as you’d hope). The Maker and his Council control every facet of this world from government to media to business, and all of those areas overlap and affect everything in everyone’s lives. After all, the first time we see Fisk, it’s as the owner of the Bugle and his conflict is introduced as being with Ben and Jonah. They share the same enemy, but engage in conflict on different fronts. In that way, Hickman shows that he’s still himself. He’s not deep diving into a single protagonist at the expense of an expansive view. Hell, it’s only four issues before Spider-Man becomes ‘Spider-Man and the Green Goblin,’ basically.
The thing that I find interesting is that I’ve yet to come across criticism of the series for not focusing on Peter enough. I’m sure it exists, but quality wins out, sometimes, I suppose.
5 – The World Outside Your Window
I think what hit me first was Matthew Wilson’s colouring in the first issue. Lots of muted blues and warmth in the faces of people in January. A sense of dreariness meant to reflect a world whose essence was stolen – and the lives of people not free to be who they’re really meant to be. It doesn’t look like the colouring of other superhero comics – and, honestly, it doesn’t really look like the subsequent issues. Part of that is no doubt down to first issues being given (presumably) more time and attention to make that strong first impression. But, I’d like to think it’s because everything changes at the end of the first issue. The world opens up, things become brighter and more lively for Peter, so the visual tone of the series changes, too. It’s actually a subtle change and carries with the idea that each issue carries through time month by month. As we all know, the world looks different at different times of the year. Throughout those issues, I love the way that Wilson imbues scenes with a certain colour to establish lighting and feel. It carries across two different line artists and gives a sense of visual consistency. It’s a low key strength of these first six issues.
The choice of Marco Checchetto as the book’s primary line artist grounds the book in a reality. He brings a sense of the real world to his characters and is surprisingly good at handling scenes where there’s no superheroics or action. While his approach to people is a bit more realistic than Mark Bagley, I see a lot of similarities in the use of repeated panels/perspectives, and a willingness to engage with the dialogue-driven scenes that often populate the issues. It highlights a subtle callback to the first Ultimate Spider-Man where much of these issues is about characters talking and the artist needing to find a way to keep things interesting visually. It’s a small thing, but the way that Checchetto draws Jonah might be my favourite bit of his art. He adds that bit of kindness and humanity that the character needs, particularly in this series where he’s less of a caricature than he often is elsewhere. He’s still gruff and serious, but there’s a bit of tenderness in his face that really works in the book.
The two fill-in issues by David Messina are interesting departures, particularly issue four, where Peter and Mary Jane have dinner with Harry and Gwen. The use of the nine panel grid plays off the dinner banter of the four really well and helps move the issue forward at a steady pace. That he draws that issue and the fifth issue’s spotlight on Harry kind of gives the sense of Messina as stepping in to give Harry’s perspective a bit more while Checchetto is more Peter/his family. That’s an interesting distinction to make, particularly since Messina’s work looks a little bit more conventional superhero comics than that of Checchetto. Harry is much more the typical superhero in this world than Peter, falling into a weird Batman/Iron Man hybrid sort of trajectory. While Peter’s story is much more a regular guy jumping into the extraordinary, Harry’s is a privileged guy forcing himself into the extraordinary, which recalls traditional superhero fare. Which isn’t to say that Checchetto can’t do superheroics. I really love the sixth issue fight with Fisk, particularly the way that, as it goes on and it becomes apparent just how overmatched Peter and Harry are, Fisk seems to grow in size, towering over Spider-Man by the end.
Often, this series feels like a book about regular people living their lives with the odd bit of costumed bullshit tacked on. Flipping through the issues, it’s weird how much of them actually feature Peter in costume doing stuff. I don’t know if that’s a compliment to the art team or not that what stands out in my memory are the quiet scenes between characters, while Spider-Man taking on the Shocker is often an afterthought. I will say: it never feels like either artist is just waiting for the ‘exciting’ stuff to happen and that’s a very large part of what makes all of this other stuff I’ve been discussing work.
6 – “We all gotta have something to fight for.”
The real time ‘gimmick’ of the Ultimate line is explicit in Ultimate Spider-Man with each issue given a month indicated, with these six running January through June. In my first piece, I argued that this was a twist on Marvel’s attempt at realism in superhero fiction where characters were meant to exist in a world like ours. Instead of placing the emphasis on space, Hickman uses time as the common factor. In the first issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, as we follow Peter’s day, we see the real joke at the heart of the line: Peter Parker’s daily world looks a lot like ours. Strip out the new powers and this could be a straightforward dramedy on network TV. The tragedy of this world is that the Maker made it like ours.
While this very much did not seem like our world in the Ultimate Invasion series, when the focus is placed on a regular person in New York, it’s apparent that this world is more like ours than it appeared. It plays off the fact that, long ago, Marvel stopped trying to give readers the world outside their window with superheroes grafted on, and has become this fantastical place, not unlike DC’s universe. What the Maker did was undo so much of that, turning a world of Marvels into one of ‘mundane.’ After the events of Ultimate Invasion and Ultimate Universe #1, Tony Stark is dedicated to undoing that damage and making the world into what it was meant to be. So, the real time progression of each issue corresponding to our progression of time is also tied to the world progressing towards the regular Marvel Earth. This mirroring of our world as it tries to move away from our world is an odd tension at the heart of the line.
But, this struggle also reflects our world. Beyond the metaphors I mentioned above, when you look at the actions of Peter and Harry against Fisk, or Ben and Jonah figuring things out within the broad system of the world, you can see a book about that feeling that pervades a lot people right now of a world where the rich and powerful have taken away something just as the Maker (a tech bro to the Nth degree if ever there was one) has done to the people of this world. That feeling of something wrong, of no hope, of a small group of powerful people constantly taking... These characters – and the characters of the entire line, honestly – are saying enough and working to make things better in whatever way they’re able. While later books are more explicit about the activist nature of the heroes in this world, the second that Peter opened the jar containing the spider and let it bite him, he wasn’t just becoming his true self, he was fighting against the system. For himself and for his kids.
Next: Ultimate Black Panther #1-6
