Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Art Dave Marquez
Art (Kitty Pryde Sequence) David LaFuente
Art (Miles Morales Sequence) Sara Pichelli
Art (Gwen Stacy Sequence) Mark Brooks
Art (MJ and May Parker Sequence) Mark Bagley & Andrew Hennessy
Colors Justin Ponsor
Lettering VC’s Cory Petit
So I bought this issue with my Christmas giftcard to Mile High Comics. I went with the Peter cover as he is my Ultimate Spider-Man. If Kitty’s face was on the Miles’ cover, I would have gone with that one but she isn’t. I had special ordered this issue from Hastings, but they didn’t get their shipment that week (for two weeks!) so I missed out on the issue originally. If they were out of the Peter covers, I would have been fine with the Miles one.
It is weird that Mary Jane and Gwen are both captioned with being Peter’s ex-girlfriends but Kitty isn’t, right? What is up with that?
I suppose that it is nice that Kitty Pryde isn’t ‘just’ his ex-girlfriend, she has a proper identity outside of him. I do like how Kenny is only Kitty’s ex-boyfriend – nice that both genders have people with that label.
Queens, Today. Miles and his friend, Ganke, are on their way to the Parker home. Ganke is Miles’ plus one, so he brought a gift. Apparently, he likes Legos and made Gwen a Lego related gift.
The Home of Peter Parker. Which is up for sale by Realtor Alison Blaire, who is Dazzler’s real name but I don’t see Ultimate Dazzler as a Realtor. Plus, she died during Ultimatum.
Mary Jane is walking towards the house, with Liam, some dude who understands that she doesn’t want him to go into the house with her. He kisses her on the cheek, so there’s that.
In a limo, Jessica Drew and Bombshell is arriving. Their driver almost hits Liam, which on the page before, Mary Jane tells him to not get hit by a car. The driver references Galactus, so this issue takes place after Cataclysm.
Liz Allen, Firestar, catches up with Iceman, who is on his way to the Parker home as well. The Human Torch flies on the opposite side and of course, Iceman’s slide melts and he drops. Which is super funny!
We see the e-mail that May sent to everybody. Her e-mail address is – silverhippy@jeemail.com
Miles hugs Aunt May. Ganke gives Gwen the Lego present and she really likes it, Miles watches on as he is concern how this will go. Gwen gives Ganke a big ol’ kiss, and goes upstairs to put her present away. Is that ever revealed, what it was? Or do they ever kiss again?
The doorbell rings and Aunt May answers it. She sees a giant catering service, Tony Stark couldn’t attend so he sent truckloads of food.
Kitty phases through the door, like only she can! Kitty hugs Miles for saving her life. This issue takes place after Cataclysm. Kitty had punched Galactus to his stupid purple hat wearing face and she was about to get sucked into the N-Zone but Miles saved her from that fate. Thor had already gone through as Kitty was already shrinking and Galactus needed that extra shove. Invisible Woman also assisted in saving Shadowcat.
I’m not sure exactly how Kitty’s hair goes from long in that first panel, to short for the rest of the issue.
Is that look from Jessica foreshadowing All New Ultimates 4 reveal?
Johnny and Gwen start talking about the fallout from Kitty saving the world. Kitty wasn’t that impressed with meeting the President. I imagine not, having being screwed over with the whole Nation X fiasco.
I still don’t get the whole mutant racism in either Marvel Universe. Liz puts it best, how she is essentially a female Human Torch (plus the daughter of the Blob) but she is hated and feared and he gets to be the poster child of superhero cool.
Aunt May greets Kitty, who says that she thinks about Peter all of the time. Poor Kitty, I still don’t get why he downgraded from her to Mary Jane. Except that Mary Jane survived Clone Saga and Peter took petty on her.
So the knock on the door Aunt May answered, was Kenny! Kitty came through the back, so Kitty’s entrance happened at the same time. Which is a fun art / story choice.
Kitty hasn’t seen Kenny since they ran away with each other and lived in the sewers for a while. When next we saw Kitty, she told everyone that they broke up as Kenny couldn’t take living on the run. This all happened during the “Tainted Love” storyline in Spider-Man. Well, the school trying to harass Kitty and her and Kong leaving together. Kitty reveals Kenny’s fate in Ultimate Spider-Man 155, when she comes back to publication and Peter’s surprised birthday party. His last before his death, mere days later. Kenny and his parents moved to Wisconsin, so no one has seen him since he disappeared. He looks like he lost some weight. People give Kenny the reputation that he is Bendis’ avatar in the story, which was cool until he started dating Kitty Pryde – then it became a tad . . . creepy isn’t the right word.
That is a nice hug from the two of them. I mostly remember Kenny being a real jerk to Peter, when he was closer to Flash, but he told Peter he knew his Spider-secret and they became a tad closer after that. I’m not sure if Mary Jane is right in that they were close friends.
Kitty wants to talk to Kenny later, but I’m not sure if they ever do. It is never referenced again and Kenny isn’t seen again.
I do like Ultimate Jameson, it makes sense that after seeing Spider-Man’s heroism, that he would dedicate his online newspaper, is there a better word for that?, to covering Spider-Man. Not the menace he originally thought but the hero he really is. He took Peter’s death rather hard, as he knew Peter.
It makes sense that Jameson wouldn’t want to be inside the Parker home, what would he even do there besides be wall paper? May could chat with him but after the initial ten minutes, what is the point. His presence would probably change the atmosphere, with what people can talk about with him around.
Mary Jane and Gwen hugging Kenny is nice, supporting characters should appreciate each other.
Aunt May directs everyone back inside.
I like Ganke’s idea of inviting Stark to everything, just for the free gift – that’s a genius right there!
That’s a great panel, representing that super awkward silence.
Mary Jane sets up the concept of the next few pages, with people talking about What If Ultimate Peter Parker Was Still Alive? Or what would the future be like if he was still alive.
Mary Jane starts the sequence with her dream.
Spider-Man is in his Iron Spider costume slash armor. Bagley gets to draw Spider-Woman, Giant Man, Human Torch, Thor, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Hulk, Miles Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger and Thing.
Mary Jane describes how Nick Fury came into her room once, which will have to be intense. Fury was grooming Peter to be the greatest hero the world has ever known.
Aunt May goes next. I’m including her vision because of the inclusion of Kitty Pryde’s other costumed identity that she debuted in Ultimate Spider-Man 91 – the beginning of the Deadpool arc. Man, I really should review some Ultimate Spider-Man issues as I’m sort of loving this memory lane that this issue has me going down.
I’m not sure why Aunt May includes it in her thought. Or why Bagley did. I do like that robotic Scarlet Spider, I’m a nut for that design.
I completely get May’s thought that Peter would maybe outgrow this superhero idea of his. It reminds me of Kevin Smith’s Daredevil run, where he wrote Murdock’s end-game being that once he had a child, he would hang up the red costume. Which seems like a natural time to stop. Karen told him that she rather kept trying to save the world, so that their child would have a future to grow up with but I side with Murdock on this one.
May’s idea of how Peter would most likely combine his two loves – Spider-Man and Science, for some Spider-Science! Then I think about Proper Peter Parker and how he only now has Parker Industries and that is only because Doctor Octopus, being the Superior Spider-Man – in every way – came up with that idea.
Gwen talks about one of Peter’s life goals. He wanted to, one day, combine his love for fighting crime in a blue and red leotard and his love for the news. He would want to combine the two, so he could fight crimes that no one knows about, or know about instantly. Or he would want to expose stories that he heard about in the superhero community. Sort of like Superman.
Miles’ thinks about how nice it would be if he could have teamed up with Peter, sort of like he did during Spider-Men.
How tragic is Kitty’s page? Done all the better by LaFuente and (I imagine) Ponsor. Great use of purple. She would have married Peter, if he wasn’t an idiot.
Her in her Shroud identity and him as Spider-Man, fighting crime. Spider-Man teaming up with the latest incarnation of the X-Men, would have been fun. I don’t get why Morbius is there, at all. She wasn’t in even that storyline, except for a small part, which was Non-Morbius related. This was Ultimate Spider-Man 95.
I do like adult Peter and Kitty together, also, how sweet and sour those bottom images are, as they are simply them spending quiet time together.
I imagine with Kenny in the room, she doesn’t want to voice any of this.
Iceman finishes the sequences with how he and Peter would have owned the superhero community, becoming super popular.
More awkward silence.
Gwen, who luckily wears a black headband (classic!) so we can tell her apart from Liz – wants to do some good. Miles gets the great idea to donate the food, which leads into the conclusion of the issue.
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Everyone heads back to the Parker home, so they can say their goodbyes in private.
Garke gets a second kiss, this time on the cheek, from Gwen. Does this get followed up on? It must, as Bendis has a proper Spider-Man title to write.
Kitty whispers something into Kenny’s ear and waves good to the rest of the crew. This, though, does not get followed up on as Fiffe gets to write her in All New Ultimates. Which I imagine this issue is suppose to come first, as the Ultimates don’t seem to be hanging out with each other in this issue.
People start departing, the heroes first by flying or sliding away. The normal folk leave last. The issue’s last panel is that someone is watching on.
The last section of the comic, is all of the Ultimate Spider-Man covers up to this point – which is a fun way to show how they came up with the number 200. As there isn’t 200 issues of a comic title, Ultimate Spider-Man, so to make it work, some funny math is used.
Ultimate Spider-Man – 133 issues
Ultimate Six – 7 issues
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Volume One – 15 issues
Ultimate Spider-Man 150 – 160 – 11 issues
Ultimatum : Spider-Man Requiem – 2 issues
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Volume Two – 28 issues
Cataclysm : Ultimate Comics Spider-Man – 3 issues
Ultimate Spider-Man 200
So yeah, that is 200 issues.
Pretty great issue! I read that the mysterious figure is Ultimate Spider-Man himself, Peter Parker, Anyone who has the Oz formula in them, is immortal. So Norman and his son Harry, and Peter Parker. But I’m not sure if that is still true.