The mandate for the Ultimate line, and soon all Marvel comics, was “iconic covers.” Just cool pictures of the characters instead of the traditional plot-centered kind. I think the idea was it would seem more sophisticated, but as time went on, it mostly just made it harder to remember what issue you’re looking at. This one’s something of an exception, tho. What’s Spidey up to here? We’ll never know. This month, Dan Panosian pitches in on inks, and color credit goes to “JC.” Throughout the previous 3 issues, a reader would not be faulted for wondering, “What, so everyone at Osborn Industries knows Peter has spider powers? Isn’t that a problem?” Well…
Don’t you worry. We pull out to a fiery crater at the center of a thoroughly wrecked research facility, Norman really did a number on the place. Meanwhile, at an arena somewhere, Spider-Man is once again defeating Crusher Hogan, now in his new suit. You’d think they’d let him wrestle someone else.
Getting pretty cocky there. But he’s a Peter Parker, so…
And so we bid a happy farewell to Crusher Hogan’s really bizarre head tattoo. But we have to stay with our hero for a bit, because…
That has a familiar feel! Arriving home, Peter is confronted by Aunt May & Uncle Ben, who have a report card that shows his grades are slipping. Peter is, himself, shocked by this. But when they ask what’s changed and suggest he quit basketball, he blows up at them and runs off into the night. As he zooms through the city, Peter thinks he hates hiding Spider-Man from them, but something’s stopping him from telling them about it. He thinks about how he doesn’t like basketball or wrestling, how it’s all gotten too crazy too fast. He decides he can’t go home tonight. He also can’t go to MJ’s house or Harry’s house. And so, he makes a surprising choice…
Smash cut to a party at Kong’s house. Flash is incredulous that his friend allowed Puny Parker to crash here (Kong replies “What are you– six years old?”) while another friend keeps asking if they’ve heard about Harry’s dad. Meanwhile, an intoxicated Liz Allan makes a pass a Peter. He’s trying to politely avoid her advances due to her condition. A Marvel comic with teens who drink! And not in a “we must tell the youth the dangers of alcohol!” way! I mean, pretty revolutionary.
Perhaps a bit wordier than the classic phrase, but a nicely played scene. We cut to a shadowy monster in an alleyway, making guttural noises that sound a lot like “Parker” as it stalks through the rain, then to Peter standing a rooftop, chastising himself. He thinks Ben hit a nerve because he;s been thinking the person who would know what to do with his situation is his dad. But he knows he’s being hard on May & Ben, and resolves to go home and tell them the truth, regardless of the consequences.
And we’re off. This issue continues last issue’s flood of mail lavishing praise on USM 1 (And tease an ULTIMATE take on a classic Marvel concept for 2001). It really was an overnight success. But there was a dark side to the Ultimate line. Its creation was motivated by the unfair notion that the mainline Marvel comics were impenetrable, which was pretty rude to, like, 98% of people working at Marvel. And, not unlike Heroes Reborn in the mid-90s or Marvel Knights in the late 90s, the Ultimate line got a huge marketing push, better quality paper, these fancy covers. While this book was becoming a bigger and bigger hit, there were varying degrees of resentment for the double standard among the rank & file. But the success of the Ultimate line paved the way for the main titles to get the paper stock upgrade, and emboldened editorial to try out the new storytelling style in USM elsewhere, and Ultimate sort of became the tide that lifts all ships. That change of direction is coming in our next block of the mainline books, and I’m pretty excited to revisit that, too. The relaunch has been as difficult as I remembered it, but things are looking up!