Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimatum

[cyberghostface]

'Ultimatum' probably doesn't need much in the way of introduction. It's probably one of the worst storylines published by Marvel. Worst not only in the quality of the writing but in how repugnant it was. It's one of the closest things to superhero torture porn there is.

At the time though the other Ultimate titles were forced to pick up the pieces and salvage what was left. Bendis did as fine a job as anyone could do. In particular Jonah's revelation is probably one of the best things Bendis has ever done with the title.

#129 deals with the fallout of the return of Gwen Stacy.















#130...







What ensues is the events of 'Ultimatum' in which Magneto causes massive flooding around the world.









#131...







The Hulk helps Spider-Man with civilians.

Later...



Banner hulks out again.





#132...





Spider-Man is haunted by his old enemies.













#133...















#133 marked the final issue of the series before being relaunched but there was a two issue 'Requiem' miniseries that served as an epilogue.





What follows is a flashback (illustrated by Bagley) in which Spider-Man teams up with Iron Man to take down Madame Hydra.





#2...



We get another Bagley story this time about Spidey teaming up with the Hulk.












And thus ends the first volume to USM. It would return as 'Ultimate Comics Spider-Man'. How many people want to see me continue with the second series?

Thanks for reading these posts, hope you enjoyed them.

Comments

[scorntx]

And of course, Spider-Woman addressing Aunt May as Aunt May to her face never gets brought up ever again.

... Why was there an overall and gingam shirt-wearing hillbilly type on a New York train? Is... is that a common occurance? Does New York have hillbillies and all those shows have just carefully edited them out?

JJJ realising he's been a berk to Peter...
That might be one of the better parts of the Ultimate universe.
For a thing that was meant to push new ideas and character beats, it sadly ever actually did anything GOOD with that.
Jonah realising he's a jerk was one of the good bits, and possibly one of Bendis' better ideas.
Still pissed that he was pointlessly killed during Miles' run.

Not too fond of dumb Hulk, especially after Millar had him being semi-articulate.
But contrary Hulk is pretty funny, so there's that.

Kitty and Jess's meeting is both one of the sadder and yet more inexplicable parts of the whole story.
Okay, if Jess was attracted to Kitty, that makes sense. But she makes gestures like "don't you recognise me". So somehow Jess recognises Kitty despite never having met her before, or does she expect Kitty to recognise her?
Yeah, it don't make a lot of sense. But Jess's expression is heartbreaking.
(Dammit, Immonen!)

(Oh, hey! Zarda. Boy that went absolutely nowhere.)

-"Our better days are ahead of us"-
Heh.
Hah.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA... hooo...
They were so screwed.

[cyberghostface]

But she makes gestures like "don't you recognise me". So somehow Jess recognises Kitty despite never having met her before, or does she expect Kitty to recognise her?

She still has Pete's memories, it was probably a spur of the moment thing. Probably the same reason why addressed May as an aunt.

[scorntx]

But wasn't she cloned before Peter dated Kitty?
... or did the CIA just have psychics following Peter around to get every memory he had, just to put them into someone whose mind they were gonna wipe anyway?

"Do we... really need to record his memories while he's in the shower?"
"WE MUST HAVE EVERYTHING!"

[cyberghostface]

I'd need to read up on the issues again but I don't think the timeline of when she was cloned was made clear.

EDIT: Just looked at the issue, it's not made clear how far ago she was cloned and Peter had been dating Kitty since around #86 in the comics.

[matrix_dragon]

"And of course, Spider-Woman addressing Aunt May as Aunt May to her face never gets brought up ever again."

I still regret that the reaction to May and Jessica meeting wasn't for May to drag what is essentially her daughter inside and make sure she actually had something to eat. The following Ultimate Spider-Man series should have had Jess as part of the Parker household. I mean, come on, it had Iceman and the Human Torch, it should have had her.

[scorntx]

It is bizarre that this young woman addresses her as "Aunt May" to her face, and May apparently never asked Peter about this.
I really did believe Bendis had something against Jess because of stuff like this.

-"The following Ultimate Spider-Man series should have had Jess as part of the Parker household"-
Jess is mentioned as keeping her distance from Peter to be her own person, which is understandable.
And Peter's also weirded out by her, which is an asshole thing to be, but still understandable. Just not likeable.
(And because we all know if Aunt May knew about her, she'd hunt Jess down and make her stay with them, and there'd not be a damn thing she could say to stop her.)

[raspberryrain]

Gingham? I see a construction worker in a plaid flannel workshirt and hard hat.

[sarahnewlin]

Didn't they find Daredevil's corpse in the aftermath?

[cyberghostface]

Peter found him during the main story but I had to cut out the page.

thanks for posting this series.

[7dialsmystery]

I would like to see more.

Re: thanks for posting this series.

[cyberghostface]

Thanks, will do.

[jetpack_monkey]

I'm not crying, it's just raining on my face.

(stupid JJJ giving me feelings)

[mrstatham]

And this is Bendis at his best. Wordy, yes, but capable of near single-handedly rescuing an absolute piece of shit event.

Seriously. The only stuff I remotely object to is Aunt May being taken in by some average cops; I find it difficult to believe Nick Fury would not be all over that the second a warrant or notice for arrest or whatever got put up, given his relationship to Spider-Man.

But the rest? Gold. Jonah's characterisation absolutely trumps the useless full circle the character has gone through in 616, and besides Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, is perhaps Bendis' best development.

[scorntx]

Nick Fury was still in another universe when the event started.
Ugh. Remembered Ultimate Power again.
Ugh, I say.

[mrstatham]

I thought he was back at this point? Or did they actually make a point of getting him back (with Zarda) during Ultimatum?

[scorntx]

They made a point of getting him back mid-way through Ultimatum.
(I would append that with "for some reason", but everything in Ultimatum happens "for some reason" anyway.)

[arthur_wynne]

Damn, this is good. This is pretty much perfect super hero comic storytelling, in my eyes.

Pity the overall Ultimatum event was such a massive pile of shit.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I am totally down for continuing this series of scans.

[cyberghostface]

Thanks I'll try to do it.

[thenicochan]

I've loved your comprehensive posts of this series. <3<3<3<3 Thank you so much for all the time you've put into them.

[coldfury]

Cap and Iron Man digging Peter out of the rubble of New York and saving him is such a powerful moment, it's great. That moment where Steve pauses on "Oh crap this is Spider-Man" and he redoubles his efforts to pull him out is just amazing.

Peter discovering the remains of so many of his allies built up over the course of the series was really depressing, and really sold how game changing Ultimatum really was. Dr. Strange & Daredevil dying like that was really shocking to me, at the time.

This is really the only truly good thing to come out of Ultimatum.