Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Knights

[cyberghostface]

'Ultimate Knights' marked the final hurrah for Mark Bagley on 'Ultimate Spider-Man'. He would show up for guest spots (the most notable being the 'Death of Spider-Man' storyline and 'Ultimate End' if you count that) but this was the end of his stint as regular artist. At 111 issues together Bendis and Bagley had the longest-running partnership together on a Marvel title, a record that has yet to be broken.

First up is the second annual (which was double-sized) the lead into this arc. For all the talks about Bendis and decompression this was something that in my opinion would have benefitted from being its own arc as opposed to one issue. It's way too crammed and the end result is an underwhelming epilogue to the previous 'Warriors' storyline which I will get into later.









There's a lot with Moon Knight and Punisher, mainly how Moon Knight got out from his coma and escaped from the hospital and how Punisher escaped from Prison. Daredevil gets involved as well. This all leads into a big confrontation with Kangaroo.



















So yeah... the idea of DeWolffe working for Fisk was really interesting so for Bendis to kill her off this soon in my opinion was a huge mistake. Ah, well. I still like the final page with Fisk mourning her, though.

#106...



A new assassin tries to audition for Fisk. Fisk asks him to prove himself by killing his business partner and when the new recruit hesitates Kingpin exposes him as being Shang-Chi in disguise.













#107...





Kitty says that this was the closest school for her. The two get into a small argument with Kitty thinking Peter views her as a 'mistake'.












#108...



The Knights want Moon Knight to create another persona to infiltrate Fisk's circle.





Ronin ends up taking out all of Fisk's men. Fisk is impressed. He asks Ronin to find Spider-Man, who is believed to go to Midtown High.

At Midtown, things are still awkward with Kitty.



Ronin crashes the bus into the school.









While Spider-Man is battling Ronin, the Ronin persona is fighting the Moon Knight persona inside Spector's mind. In both cases, Ronin ends up triumphant.



#109...









Kingpin turns around and starts to beat the crap out of Ronin. He says he knows he's Moon Knight and tells him that Matt Murdock is his lawyer and that he works for him.



After he's freed Spider-Man attacks Daredevil, thinking that he's the mole. Daredevil insists that he's not, and says that Fisk had his father killed for throwing a fight. Behind them Matt's law office suddenly explodes.





#110...

Danny says that Fisk knew about his girlfriend and daughter and blackmailed him into being his inside man. Daredevil tells him to report back to Fisk and to distract him.

When Fisk realizes what's going on, he rushes to his wife's room and finds out that Daredevil has her in a chokehold.



Spider-Man arrives and tells him to stop before it's too late.





All while this is happening, Ronin has been taken out by Fisk's men and shot. He survives however and the Ronin persona manages to wake up the Moon Knight persona. Ronin/Knight takes off his mask and brings himself to a hospital and tells what happened.









#111 is a stand-alone issue in which May has the talk with Peter about him being Spider-Man. 



Peter says that he has to be Spider-Man because of "with great power..." and May recognizes it as something Ben used to say.




The rest of the issue is mostly Peter explaining things to Aunt May about his life as Spider-man.