Ultimate Spider-Man #16.1

[cyberghostface]

 So basically Betty Brant attempts to find out who the new Spider-Man is. Via detective work, she finds the dead spider that bit Miles in the apartment of the Prowler (Miles' uncle) and deduces that the new Spider-Man is none other than... Miles Morales' father, due to his relationship with the Prowler.

She goes to Jonah with the story:








Soo... Venom's back. What role is he going to play in Miles' future? (Also I'm not tagging him here for obvious reasons.)

Once again, I'm liking Bendis' take on Jonah and giving him some moral scruples. One of the benefits of the Ultimate title is that he can actually grow as a character. (Not that 616 Jonah isn't complex, but he's often written as a caricature and if he ever did make peace with Spider-Man the next writer would find a way to undo it). 

That being said, this has to be the umpteenth time someone has referred to Ultimate Jonah's mustache as being a Hitler one when he doesn't have one in this universe. Unless ULTIMATE Hitler had a different mustache in this universe. Dun dun dun...

Comments

[skemono]

Unless ULTIMATE Hitler had a different mustache in this universe. Dun dun dun...

That... that would be amazing. I can see it now: in every universe (well, those where both Hitler & J.J. Jameson exist), they always share the same moustache, no matter what style it is. It drives Reed Richards crazy trying to figure it out.

[joeyconqueso]

Will the Hitler mustache of our universe be more of an Average Joe's mustache in the Ultimate U ?

I can't really picture my Ultimate dad with one, though for all I know he'd probably have a ponytail and a soul patch.

[mishalak]

If I had god like powers I would totally make that happen just to drive Reed Richards crazy. Not out of Doom like vendetta, just because I would want to do little things to make Richards crazy. Also I would make all time travel involve at least one instance of ending up in November 12th, 1955.

[espanolbot]

Huh, weird to think of the JJJ of the Captain Planetverse looking like this then,



Yes, Hitler was a Captain Planet villain. And the team also solved the problems in Northern Ireland in about twenty minutes as well,

[crinos]

That makes me want to see the Captain Planet version of Jameson.

Also, how weird is it that JJ is the one sticking up for Spidey here?

[halloweenjack]

It's not as if Hitler had the same style of mustache his entire adult life; in WWII he sported a fuller style, which is accurately depicted in Grant Morrison's The New Adventures of Hitler. It's more accurate to call it a "Little Tramp" mustache, as Charlie Chaplin's famous movie character was wearing it well before Hitler (who had it by the time of the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923).

[joeyconqueso]

Aww, Poor Ult. Betty. I hardly knew ya

[zabilac]

I this this Jonah is way more likeable than the original version.

Also, poor reporter. (Her name's Betty?)

[q99]

Yes. He *did* start out anti-Spidey, but events came that made him change his mind. By the end, he knew Peter's secret ID and had decided not only to sit on it, but help him.

Betty Brant.

[captainbellman]

So maybe Eddie's head is (marginally) straightened out now that he's absorbed Carnage, and he's attempting to protect someone who he thinks is Peter as a kind of oddly sweet guardian monster?

Or he's just on a righteous crusade based on the semi-libertarian ideal of preventing anyone from profiting off the labour of others, as Roxxon tried to do with the Venom suit. Which spells out big trouble for Miles, considering that a mentally unstable individual such as Eddie might (understandably) consider his use of the Spider-Man identity as 'profiting' from the good name of Eddie's dead friend Peter, who he'd known since childhood and who never gave up on him...

All worth pondering.

[joeyconqueso]

I wonder how he even found out what she was doing

[thehood]

It might not be Eddie, this Venom seems different.

[blackruzsa]

I like this.
Too bad about Brant.

[cleome45]

I think I'm mostly disappointed because she could be a character whose an interesting adversary without being a full-bore villain... if she'd been given a chance to come around part way in the story. Maybe she'd be persuaded somehow to shelve the story for a while or something.

Killing her off just seems wasteful. :/

[nate_abril96]

I know this is probably going to sound a bit rude, but I think that Ultimate Betty Brant deserved to die. She was okay with ruining Mile's family's life, just so that she can earn a profit off of it. As far as I'm concerned, that makes her a villain, who had what was coming to her. Then again, this is probably wasted story opportunities. I mean what if instead of being killed by Ultimate Venom, she was captured by him thus leading Miles to rescue her, and her seeing the error of her ways and becoming Miles's publicist and/or partner or something. Then again, that might be a rehash of the last volume of Ultimate Spider-Man with Jonah discovering Peter's identity, so maybe it is best that she died; because the alternative is her becoming a legitimate arch-villain, and to me that sounds a bit ridiculous.

Mod Note

[icon_uk]

Though Betty is clearly an antagonist in this story, she's hardly a villain per se.

So whilst there is no denying her actions were indefensible, it doesn't mean she "deserved to die" and suggesting that a female character "had what was coming to her" borders rather too closely to excusing violence committed against women as an appropriate punishment, and that's the sort of thing which goes against the fundamental ethos of scans_daily.

[darkknightjrk]

The sad thing? Despite all of that, the 616 Betty Brant is probably more of a horrible person than what we see here.

[oddpuppets]

Deserve? No. Apt? Yes. Her pathetic death does fit into the maxi-arc Bendis has written for her over the years. She's always been the hack, the glory-hunter, representing all that is wrong with today's journalism. And in her moment of glory, she bites it. A very neat, tidy character arc.

[silverhammerman]

Miles is like, 12. How on Earth did she think he was his father? Do they not have pictures of the new Spidey even though he's been around for a while now? Was she all "Nah, it couldn't be a kid." conveniently forgetting the fact that Peter Parker was a kid too? Did she think Miles Dad can just change his freaking build when he puts on the suit?
Shoddy investigation, and an unlikable character. I'm glad they killed her off, I very much dislike characters like this and I always find it a pain to have them flitting about a book for a year or so before being shown the error of their ways.
And hurrah for Jonah having scruples, that was an awesome scene. I wish he could be more like this in 616, instead of being a caricature of himself.

[littlepunkryo]

Miles is like, 12. How on Earth did she think he was his father? Do they not have pictures of the new Spidey even though he's been around for a while now? Was she all "Nah, it couldn't be a kid."

Right? I was sitting there going, I'm not even a reporter and even I can tell the difference between a 13-year-old boy and a fully-grown man. And they've emphasized before that Miles is pretty tiny, so it's not like he's big for his age and could pass.

[md84]

I imagine Jonah would have been even harder on Betty if she had claimed Miles was Spiderman instead and tried to write an article exposing him.

And really? She's using the fact that she found a dead mutated spider in the house as all the evidence she needs to claim that Miles' father is Spiderman? She doesn't think to, I don't know, tail the guy for a while? Jonah definitely made the right call.

It's a real pity 616 Jonah can't be more like this.

[zechs80]

Wow I'm surprised Jonah didn't hit Betty over the head with the guilt that, "Yeah you run this story. Every super villain will be after this Spider-Man's hide. Just like Peter Parker. You want New York to bury yet another Spider-Man?"

Still, I wonder last we saw Eddie, the Beetle captured him and was taking him to DOOM. I wonder if Bendis will address some of those plot points.

[md84]

Seeing how Betty's only response was "Do you know how much money I could get for this?", I doubt she would care if he did. I suppose the only reason this wasn't shown was because the readers are supposed to still have a modicum of sympathy for Betty when Venom kills her.

[starpiper]

Is it just me, or does ult!Betty look a little like Sally Floyd?

[nefrekeptah]

I like how they're saying "To Be Continued... in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man!" Like they're launching a whole new series when all they're doing is dropping the "All-New" from his title.

[eyz]

So basically, what it would have taken for JJJ to like Spidey would have been for him to know Pete was a family man as well. (Mayday, ...)