A Spider-Woman with brown hair in a story called Clone Saga? Wouldja believe…? Drew Hennessy shares the inks this month, and Justin Ponsor is back on colors. Are they just swapping?
Another glimpse of the really mishandled Ultimate FF. Who, as you can see here, have kind of settled into their roles in the group, except they’re all 16 for some reason. It was a weird choice.
I guess the FF technically met Spider-Man during Ultimates 2. Man, what a dumb situation. That book had villains led by Loki taking over the US or whatever and they rounded up all the heroes. We saw Spider-Man in shackles with the FF and others in a single panel in issue 11. Look, here it is…
And on the cover of issue 12…
…and inside, when the good guys inevitably turned the tide, he was in this double-page splash…
But neither he nor any of the characters who didn’t star it that book actually spoke at all, and the momentous first meetings of many Ultimate characters happens off-panel in a prison cell. Great stuff. Anyway, there you have it. Our man asks if Reed can identify who the guy he brought is in, and do it in a way that Nick Fury won’t be aware of. He says he can.
Hilarious bit from Johnny. But so real. Reed awkwardly calls Nick Fury to make sure cloning is still illegal, with a flimsy excuse, which makes Nick think Reed wants to try it, which is a better excuse. Sue continues to say they should wake the clone up, and Reed wants a blood sample from Peter to compare. While taking it, he asks where Spider-Man got his powers, and like everyone else, thinks he’s making a joke when he answers honestly. But then Spider-Man realizes what time it is, and has to run before he gets kicked out of the house for not being home on time. The FF are pretty amazed he’d run away from this, but Sue says, “The kid’s a kid, give him a break,” like she’s not also a kid.
Peter goes to MJ’s house first, where her understandably freaked Mom shows him her room, with the window open. She asks where MJ went when she ran away last time, and Peter runs off to check their spot. He doesn’t find her, but he does fine…
He attacks her, but he’s half-crazed, and she easily sidesteps him and throws him into a wall.
Now, look, obviously, you have to be able to suspend your disbelief and all, and I do, but everyone has their breaking points, and web fingers? How would that even work, biologically? Shouldn’t she have weird thick fingers and/or some kind of spinnerette bulging out of her wrist or palm or something? Does she have hollow finger bones through which this web travels? It’s a bit much.
Peter wakes up, wondering how long he’s been out. He clocks that the Spider-Woman acted like she knew him. He suddenly hits on the idea that MJ might’ve gone to his old house. She still hasn’t been to his new one, after all. So he rushes there, and the door is open. And someone inside says, “You moved?”
It’s a Clone Saga!
“Years ago” is a weird thing to say. I think he’s meant to still be 15. Maybe he’s turned 16, tops. They knew they wanted to keep this book in high school essentially forever, he definitely hasn’t been Spider-Man for years. But also, that’s clearly another clone, so…. What’s going on?
We have to wait til next time. This one was just so intense. The next issue could not come out fast enough. And that only gets more painful when the book abruptly returns to a monthly schedule after next issue. Bags produced 16 issues of USM in 2006, he’s entitled to slow down a little.