We’re back to the Ultimate Universe. Original recipe Marvel is in mid-2002 where we left it, and this brings us back to late 2001 in the Ultimate corner of publishing. And we’ve left one Doc Ock for another. We saw him back in the first arc, we left him injured when Norman blew up his lab in USM 4, and now it’s time for him to shine. Staff on USM remains Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Art Thibert and Transparency Digital.
Meanwhile, we cut to some guys checking a seemingly comatose patient in a medical facility while also giving us their random thoughts on the movie industry because that’s Bendis for you when their patient wants to know something:
Gross! Grosser than it’s ever been in the regular comics. But it always sort of seemed like he should have stayed fused to the arms. The business, like we just saw in ASM 43, with him controlling them from a distance, even miles away sometimes, feels like a cheat. Back at the school, a pep rally is in progress, and Peter, MJ, Liz, Flash & Kong are discussing how it doesn’t make anyone feel peppy. Talk turns to the assignment from earlier, and Liz reveals she may have a prejudice against mutants. Kong thinks the assignment sucks. The discussion about mutants gets heavier, and Kong asks if it’s like the end of Ghostbusters, with the mutants and superheroes all popping up out of nowhere meaning something big is coming. MJ makes fun of that, but…
Now that’s an entrance! Yes, folks, we got an Ultimate Gwen Stacy, and she couldn’t be much more different from the boring ol’ whitebread original version. But the funny thing about introducing a Gwen Stacy is… and I certainly remember this being a topic of discussion at the time… is the clock ticking? What are Gwen Stacy most famous for? How different is Ultimate going to be? Her just showing up makes you think about all sorts of things. Playing with readers’ expectations quickly becomes a hobby in the Ultimate office. We cut away to the unnamed facility Octavius is in, where he’s been sedated so a Doctor Pym can come talk to him. He’s been in a coma for 3 months. Pym wants to know if he remembers what happened, but it’s cloudy. He explains that Ock has had some damage to his eyes, and he can’t handle bright lights anymore. Octavius isn’t handling it too well, and as he begins to notice he has some weird appendages, he demands to know what they’ve done to him. But we cut back to the pep rally, where, as cheerleaders hype up the crowd, our newly minted young couple share a moment.
Cute! Back to the “B” plot, with Pym explaining to Otto that his arms have fused so completely with his body that it’s “as if the two have become one” and that he’s able to control them. Ock demands that they take the bandages off his eyes.
“Dr. Reed–” doesn’t exist.
That’s a really good angle.
I think this sequence partially inspired the VERY Sam Raimi stuff with Ock’s arms in the hospital in Spider-Man 2. Well. Doctor Pym can’t die because he’s going to be a member of the Ultimates, like, real soon, but who knows what else could happen. Back in Queens, we find Kong laying in bed. He thinks about his superhero assignment. Then he thinks about Peter Parker comparing him to the Nazis. And then he starts thinking about Peter. About him breaking desks. About him getting bit by that spider. About a “Spider-Man” showing up immediately after. About Peter suddenly becoming a star athlete right before Spider-Man showed up at their school.
Whoa, indeed! Does Kong have it? It’s the Ultimate Universe, anything can happen!