Spidey and IM didn’t actually manage to team up last issue, so let’s see how it goes this time. First, we flash back 10 years to when Tony went to Guatemala based on a deal his cousin Morgan was trying to work out for him that resulted in him getting kidnapped. Before we can see what happened, we return to the present.
Peter says he was just about to do that as we get a splash of the Mandroids hovering above them. Cut back to the past, where Tony, Morgan and others sitting in a cell under news reports of their disappearance, then back to the present to see away from the scene, which unfortunately gets the baddies clearance to open fire on Iron Man. Peter is thrown into some debris, which is probably going to work out for him. Iron Man is being picked up to be kidnapped again, as that one guy just keeps being a goofball over the radios, then we flashback to him imprisoned some more.
So, like, “I put a magnet in my chest to keep the shrapnel from getting to my heart, and then just left it there” is a weird thing to do, but it was the 60s. Now, tho, Bendis is trying to come up with a similar plight that has the same stakes. And it’s… too complicated, really. Maybe if this had been developed as a series and not 2 issues of UMTU, it would’ve gotten to a better spot, but that’s the danger of this book, just as last issue’s letters warned.
Spidey’s obnoxious tinkering makes that guy’s backpack explode, and he starts going down. Iron Man remains incapacitated, and then it’s back to the past, where Tony and the others learn they’ve been kidnapped by guerillas who knew Tony was coming to a meeting about selling arms to the government they want to topple. They say Tony has to give them whatever tech he has to save his fellow passengers, and when he plays dumb, they shoot Morgan. In the present, Spider-Man goes falling into the drink, where his mask and gloves come off (And Allred forgets to give him webshooters). Spidey is rushing to re-conceal his identity as Iron Man continues to wait for his suit to do anything. In the past, Tony works on his armor while imprisoned, in familiar territory, and is then called on to demonstrate whatever he has.
Kind of a weird situation. I guess Bendis felt like he had to find a way for the enemies to not be too powerful for Spider-Man, so he made them not nearly powerful enough for Iron Man and then incapacitated him. But that’s that for that, abrupt as it is. But wait, there’s more:
You can see from the staging of these 2 pages that this was meant to be a surprising revelation that Ultimate Nick Fury is black. But due to lighting and skin tone choices, that did not land with me at all. I just saw Nick Fury, didn’t give it much thought. So when he was later drawn as Samuel L. Jackson, I thought that was a pretty major retcon, and I was not alone, and they had to come out and say that he’s supposed to be black on these pages. I mean… whoops. At any rate, certainly not the way he was introduced in the MCU. This Fury seemed like he could be a lot more morally ambiguous than the original, but it didn’t end up really going that way. But that’s for later, or maybe not at all, since it’s in a comic that doesn’t feature Spider-Man. Next time here, more with UMTU, as we catch up to USM.