Spider-Men #4, a.k.a. 616 Peter learns more about "himself" and his "family"

[stillanerd]

When Marvel announced the Spider-Men miniseries in which the 616 Peter Parker and Miles Morales would team-up, fans wondered just how Peter would interact in a world in which his counterpart was dead and how the Ultimate Comics versions of Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, and Mary Jane Watson would react to him. Well, in this weeks Spider-Men #4, we get to find out.

After the inital shock (and anger) from the Ultimate Aunt May and Gwen subsides, 616 Peter, Miles and Ultimate Gwen Stacy get to talking about each other's worlds up in the late Ultimate Peter's bedroom. When Peter gets evasive about Ultimate Gwen's questions about her 616 counterpart, she assumes, much to her annoyance, that Peter and MJ are dating in his world just like they did in hers. Naturally, this makes Peter want to know more about the Ultimate Universe's MJ:

 

And no, Peter STILL doesen't tell her what happened to his world's Gwen, for obvious reasons. Aunt May then arrives upstairs, and Miles asks whether or not he exists in Peter's world (he does according to the Spider-Man: Season One graphic novel, BTW), leading to this terrific and touching scene:




And thus Peter, to his utter disbelief, learns of how the Ultimate universe's Peter and Kitty used to be an item.

Finally, we get what is truly a heartbreaking encounter involving Ultimate MJ...which is then followed by a very amusing moment involving Ultimate Nick Fury:




Don't worry, Ultimate Nick. I'm sure Peter is bound to meet Nick Fury Jr. in the near future. :-D

BTW mods, if this is over the 1/4 issue requirement (the first and fourth scans are half-sections of complete pages) let me know.
 

Comments

[silverhammerman]

Excellent, I'd been waiting for someone to post more of this crossover.

It's weird, usually I can't stand the way Bendis writes, but this, with the talking and the emotions and whatnot, actually totally works. And even if this is first time I've seen Bendis write 616 Peter he still seems to have a much, much, better handle on the character than Dan Slott, writer of Spider-Putz.

This is a great scene, I might have to get this in the inevitable trade edition, despite my initial evaluation of the premise as "bush league as hell."

[nefrekeptah]

Actually? I really like how Slott's written Spidey, and I was kinda wishing in the beginning that we could see how Slot would handle this kind of crossover.

It wouldn't be so unnecessarily drawn out, for starters.

[mrstatham]

I'm definitely getting this in trade/HC.

As it is, it's basically an extension of Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man stuff, which is superb anyway, but he gets to handle both a character he's raised from the ground up and a character who is arguably just an older incarnation of the one he used to be handling. Differences in origin aside - although it's funny Bendis notes the differences between the people who 'know' about him - and Norman Osborn is always there - the 616!Peter Parker arguably shouldn't be fundamentally all that different from the Ultimate!Version. Which is why an Ultimate/616 crossover between the two Spider-Men wouldn't have worked before now.

That's why I think Bendis has a good handle on Peter outside of the Avengers team dynamic, where he is just comic relief.

[salinea]

No problem :)

[darkknightjrk]

I wonder if this was ever meant to be an actual "event." Like, maybe Bendis was planning on doing this in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, but with the whole "Divided We Fall" thing that Hickman, Humphres, Spencer and Wood were working on and towards, he figured it was best to just put it in a mini. It seems to make the most sense, since, while I'm not one of the folk who says that Bendis sucks because "nothing ever happens," because they quite clearly do, but it feels different from the way he's written events before, like Secret Invasion and Siege. It feels more like just another regular arc with a HUGE guest star.

[mrstatham]

I think the fact it has such a huge guest star, plus the fact that it is basically the 616/Ultimate Crossover they said they'd never do, is the reason this got put together as an 'event'. As it is, I don't think it is an event - it certainly hasn't received as much publicity as say, AvX, but it has been promoted fairly well - I think Marvel and Bendis wanted to do this separately of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, but just wanted to give it sufficient attention; like seperating off Ultimate Six into a mini-series because it was the first big crossover between Spider-Man and the Ultimates. As it is, this just feels like a well-promoted crossover that doesn't disturb what Bendis is doing in his main ultimate book.

[jaybee3]

How can Ultimate Spider-Man be so good while the rest of the Ultimate Universe be so...you know - not good?

I would like this so much more if Peter brought back some of the emotions/thoughts he's experiencing here (particularly for MJ or even Gwen, in the sense of knowing she's fine and alive SOMEWHERE) back to the 616 universe. But we know that's not going to happen.

[stillanerd]

Oh, believe me, one of the repercussions from this story better be the 616 Peter deciding to let the 616 Aunt May know that he's Spider-Man again. To still keep her in the dark after experiencing something like this would just be downright cruel on his part, IMO.

[nefrekeptah]

To answer your question, Ultimate Spider-Man has always been good, so really it's just following the trend at this point. Also, I haven't read the other Titles, but The Ultimates has been pretty good so far.

[littlepunkryo]

I actually teared up a bit at the hugging scene. May in the Ultimates universe has been through so much crap, I'm glad she had this moment with A Peter. And Miles playing with the web shooters was adorable <3

[stillanerd]

And Miles playing with the web shooters was adorable.

Yeah, that was a nice touch. Just one more example of what made this issue work so well.

[auggie18]

*cough cough* wrong Spider-Man died *cough*

[junkurosu]

My heart. This issue. My tears.

[blake_reitz]

It's probably a good thing that Peter didn't tell Ultimate!Gwen that 616! Gwen died. Then Ultimate!Gwen would have to tell Peter that she died, but got better.

The Peter goes around looking for a Carnage symbote to apply to his dead girlfriend.

[silverzeo]

Huh... you think we get to see an alternate universe Spider-Man where he DID married MJ and DIDN'T take that plot and "moral" convenient deal and we get to see what could REALLY happen to the stories that occurred after it (rather than that cheap "What If" issue where Peter actually gets into a cop car and remarks he wish he never did married MJ)...

Good to see 616 Nick Fury get burned by his Ultimate-Self. I mean, come on, the guy was kicking Nazi asses in WWII, ... kinda like how they treated Donald Blake as a loser in the Thor movie, a great doctor but a lousy boyfriend that we never really see... plus Marvel HAS to make changes to their source material to their movies, afterall, it was worth it to have Peter's webshooters become organic because the Rami movies did it to save time to tell story. I mean, newer readers brought on by the movies NEED to have the material of the movie put in once they pick up the book otherwise.... they won't buy them and Marvel can't sell them, as well as their "Marvel" brand bottle water....

[propagandor]

Actually Ultimate Nick Fury also fought Nazis in WW2, just as a regular soldier though

[jaybee3]

There is an in-continuity universe where Peter is still married to MJ. It's the Spider-Man newspaper comic written by Stan "the Man" Lee.

[sianmink]

"Huh... you think we get to see an alternate universe Spider-Man where he DID married MJ and DIDN'T take that plot and "moral" convenient deal and we get to see what could REALLY happen to the stories that occurred after it"

Oh man, this would be perfect zinger to run as a 'What If?' a month after Quesada leaves Marvel.

Please let it be soon?

[valtyr]

Good to see 616 Nick Fury get burned by his Ultimate-Self.

Ult Nick also takes on something of the Isaiah Bradley role in Ultimates, ie he was subject to dangerous medical experiments due in large part to his race. I don't think it's narratively throwing shade on 616 Fury that Ult Fury is snarky that he's white.

[jetblack927]

After reading the issue, I came here thinking "Someone's gotta post something...", I'm glad someone did. SO MUCH here, I got emotional too with the hug...

[big_daddy_d]

Ok let me get this out of this way.....

AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Those last two panels gave me such a good laugh. Also Pete's reaction to Kitty being brought up.

Now..I brought this up wayyy too much but..dammit I wish OMD at least was held off till after this series. I feel like the parts that involve MJ would have so much more of an emotional impact if that were the case. It'd make it that much perfect.

Also another thing...

he does according to the Spider-Man: Season One graphic novel, BTW

Scan please!! ^_^

[stillanerd]

Here you go:
http://i.imgur.com/mVTqZ.jpg

[selke]

Okay, this made me smile.

[eyz]

Haha! Nick Fury, oh you!
Also, does Pete has a surprise when he'll be back to his regular place to find this very same Sam L. Jackson!Nick Fury over there as well! XD

[mrstatham]

I like how Bendis is one of the only people who can write Ultimate Nick Fury as a decent human being and not a walking take on Sam Jackson or a complete monster.

[turtlefu]

Considering how much of a jerk Peter is being to Kitty right now, I kind of want 616!Spidey to walk up now and be all "Hey baby it worked in a parallel universe?"

[nefrekeptah]

I'm sorry? When has Spider-Man and Kitty even interacted that much? Or are we talking about the other Peter?