It’s called Strange, but the Ultimates are on the cover. Who knows what will happen inside? Not me, I don’t remember this. In my mind, the next major arc followed the Carnage one. I guess the “write for the trade” rule was so stringent that if B wanted to do that Wolverine 2-parter, he had to do two more 2-parters. Or maybe he just wanted to do some shorts, who knows? It’s nice t0 have stories of varying length when you’re reading a whole bunch of issues, even if it’s not optimal for trades. I keep waiting for USM’s 3rd inker to take over. My memory was Scott Hanna wasn’t here too long, but I didn’t remember 4 issues in this period, so clearly I can’t be trusted.
Well, that’s cute. Peter flashes back to being in class, not paying attention, unable to think about anything but Gwen’s empty desk, which he was refusing to look at, and knew he had to get out of there. So, he left school, became Spider-Man, and swung around. He talks about how he still doesn’t know if he wants to be Spider-Man, how he thinks he’s too young, but he keeps putting the suit on. This is the first variation on “Peter wants to quit” since ASM 50 that isn’t pure torture. Because it’s not the 50th time Peter ever decided to quit, it’s the first. And since it’s Ultimate Spider-Man, while we can assume Peter will eventually realize Spider-Man is part of him, not only do we not know how or when, it could conceivably go on a lot longer, and hi quitting could be a lot more dramatic, than was possible in every previous instance of “Peter wants to quit.” So it’s not just a rehash of the worst Spider-Man trope, even though it also is. Anyway, he stopped a pickpocket, and then decided to go put in some hours at the Bugle to try to pay for this date, when he saw smoke, and beneath that smoke…
“That Iron Man dude” feels out of character for the kid who idolized Tony Stark back in UMTU 4.
Kinda funny Thor is the only one who wasn’t there since he’s on the cover. And, yeah, that was Ultimate Deathlok, likely never seen again, but I don’t know offhand. Ultimate Hawkeye having kids is, of course, why movie Hawkeye has kids despite the classic character never having done so. The outsized impact of the now largely forgotten Ultimates is pretty absurd. “Forgotten” is the wrong word, it’s for sure a book people remember, it’s just not one anyone cares about anymore. It was frankly not very good, it was just very zeitgeist-y. It had “realistic, grounded” Avengers drawn in a photoreal art style when both those things were extremely in fashion, it couldn’t have come at a better time to have an outsized impact. To me, the most memorable things about the series are all negative. Captain America being a jingoist xenophobe. Hank Pym beating Janet nearly to death. Hulk trying to eat Freddie Prinze, Jr. Mark Millar not having the balls to call the Ultimate Skrulls “Skrulls” because it was too silly for the new, “grounded” world. The team never actually fighting any supervillains. Black Widow turning out to be a traitor. Etc. All very Mark Millar choices, all bad ones. Boy, this is my most tangent-laden post in awhile. Peter sat at the Bugle feeling angry about how all adults seem angry to him, and then JJJ bellowed for him to come to his office. In short order, he learned that the thing JJJ promised, about letting him go out with a real reporter and learn the job, is coming to pass. Ben Urich is being made to take Peter to do a piece on “Dr. Strange: Sorcerer to the stars,” which Ben does not want to do. We find out famous people go to him for… magic?… then return to the present so Peter can recap his deal at MJ, by telling her about the documentary he says they watched together (Clumsy!), which, after getting past his dead dad, tells us…
It’s an angle. So, now we’re back in the flashback, as Peter & Ben approached the Sanctum Sanctorum. But Wong turned them away, saying it’s not a good time, and as he closed the door, Peter’s danger sense went off. He and Ben parted ways since the story was a bust, and thusly…
Well, that seems suspicious in a magic story! In the flashback, Spider-Man smashed through the big famous window, thinking Wong was hurting Dr. Strange, instead stopping Wong from defending him against something. Then the world went black, with a blurry shape of some baddie in the darkness.
May in the real MJ’s wedding dress is a fun touch. Well, we must be dealing with Ultimate Nightmare, not to be confused with the later miniseries called Ultimate Nightmare. And still, I don’t remember this story. I’m really surprised by this.