I remember this arc has a lot of guest stars. I remember thinking the book was turning around during it. We’ll see how good my memory is. We open on some shadowy figures watching a news story about Kingpin’s right-hand man going to trial for, you know, being Kingpin’s right-hand man (This story was Tivoed. Timeless reference). Then we learn the people watching it are Ultimate Silvermane and some associates.
Cartoon Italian mobster Silvermane says “tuchas,” of course.
And there’s Ultimate Hammerhead, with a pretty finely crafted opening line there. Next day, it’s high school, and more specifically, it’s the scene where Peter storms out of class last issue, now from his perspective. Real Bendis move. He is upset about breaking up with MJ, didn’t want to, but knows it will keep her alive. He has some very unkind thoughts about how she’ll probably start dating Flash to get revenge on him, and then storms out like he did.
“Peter Parker no more!” Only took 79 issues to get from 1961 to 1994! Elsewhere, Kingpin’s right-hand man wakes him up to tell him Silvermane is dead. Kingpin wants to know exactly what anyone knows about it, which is nothing so far, no one’s taken credit. He says to summon Elektra.
Now we’re getting to a very Frank Miller kind of Kingpin. Just in case the very dated Tivo reference earlier wasn’t enough…
Hammerhead says that really hurts, pulls the bullet out of his head, and wonders why his new goons, the Enforcers, haven’t shot that guy yet. So Fancy Dan does. Hammerhead says anyone who stays with him will be taken care of, and anyone who doesn’t should leave town and never come back. Many leave. Hammerhead is offended by how penny ante this operation is and shoots a bunch of stuff to blow it up… which gets the attention of a certain wallcrawler swinging around. He swings over to see if anyone’s hurt, seeing a female shape up on a roof watching the fire, who promptly disappears…
The Moon Knight, everybody! That’s Ultimate versions of 3 characters in 1 issue, tho one of them didn’t make it out. And it’s only part one of a 7-part saga. This mob stuff is what Bendis excels at, so returning to the seedy underworld is a good idea after all the floundering around the last 10 issues.