In my recollection, this treatment of the webbing here is a reaction to the upcoming Spider-Man movie suit. I’m not sure the timeline works, but that’s what I think was going on. So you have the shiny, raised webbing (Which I never understood in the movie itself. They thought teenage Peter designing his webshooters was too much and made them organic, then showed him making a costume in his bedroom that was so complicated it cost $2500 per suit to produce in real life). Well, inside, we’re right where we left off, Kingpin about to grab Spidey, saying, “Can I help you?”
Kingpin’s totally honest “I don’t know who that is” is so funny in context.
The Elektra/Electro business, also funny. Just having a lot of fun with fan expectations here. Electro proceeds to demolish the young Spider-Man. I’ve said many times on this blog that Electro should be one of Spider-Man’s scariest enemies with his power set, and the way he’s usually treated like a joke because of his goofy mask is a shame. Here, a man who can shoot lightning at will is as terrifying and dangerous as he should be, unleashing more power than Spidey can avoid for long and zapping him unconscious with relative ease. Kingpin says to take off his mask.
Carson Daly is a dated reference, obviously, though he’s managed to remain a TV presence a lot longer than I would’ve predicted back then, but even so, great gag. As is the unmasking. Superheroes are always so worried about being unmasked, but unless you’re Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark under there, it probably won’t matter unless you’re carrying your driver’s license.
A gag stolen shamelessly out of Ghostbusters! A lot of gags to cushion what a brutal defeat this was for young Spider-Man. A brutal defeat happening, more or less, at the moment in his career when the real Spider-Man was brutally defeated by Doc Ock. Hitting the beats in a new way is something this series really did well. Peter walks home dejected, embarrassed, internally swapping between beating himself up for stupidly charging in there with no plan and retroactively freaking out about being electrocuted, all of which is pretty reasonable!
So good. So good! Out of nowhere. You thought the superhero beating was bad, you had no idea what was coming. The real, messy, consequences of a massive loss. Man oh man. This series was so good. Ultimate Aunt May is going to prove a wonderfully real woman when compared to the perpetually dying and clueless Aunt May of 1962-2001. That Aunt May is in for a real upgrade, too, once we get to ASM’s next writer, but that’s skipping ahead. To make matters worse, the recently beaten and electrocuted Peter has to call off his date with an understandably very upset Mary Jane. The Ol’ Parker Luck will find him in any universe. Meanwhile, in a pretty intense sequence, Mr. Big is brought before Kingpin, acting really snotty for a guy being brought before Kingpin. Kingpin, having figured out Big sent Spider-Man after him, instructs Ox & Montana hold Mr. Big while Fisk puts Spider-Man’s mask on him and crushes his head. Most off-panel, of course. No “who is the Big Man?” mystery in this version.
That is Detective Christian Walker of Bendis’ hit Image comic, Powers, about a pair of cops who work superpower-related homicides, and that’s very funny. Walker was a former superhero himself, hence him being built like Superman. Well, anyway…
And so, a plan begins to form in the mind of our young hero. All the “acting” in these last few pages from Bagley is top notch. He’s really found his groove by now. Not just any… honestly not too many… superhero artists doing it since the 80s would’ve been equipped to do this kind of book. They got very lucky that the very recognizable Spider-Man artist they wanted to lend this series some legitimacy is also really good at regular people. The letters continue the mountain of praise, with one writer saying this series brought them back to comics. This is not an uncommon position. A lot of people smarter than me who bailed when things went south in the 90s heard about USM, gave it a try, and found their way back to the medium. Which, no doubt, is exactly what a still punchy Marvel Comics trying to put itself back together after bankruptcy wanted to hear.