Alright. We are back with the dream team, one of many dream teams I’ve had the pleasure of revisiting on this blog, of Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger and Justin Ponsor. And while Ultimatum itself is something that’s not remembered fondly (If at all), there’s business in these tie-ins that is top tier USM. So I got that going for me as I slog through the main book, at least. We open on one Johnny Storm, back on a date with the same pop star who wasn’t too great back in USM 118, and it’s still bad. It is once again her trying to be seen with him for her career. Bendis’ obsession with celebrity culture was always so funny to me. It’s something I just couldn’t care less about, and he seemed pretty into it, and to enjoy commenting on it.
Interesting, indeed! A fun scene for our young couple. I always enjoy when they get to have some fun before things go terribly wrong. Well, speaking of going wrong, Aunt May is having a time with the vice principal. As Gwen sits outside, the guy incredulously goes through the letter from SHIELD explaining that Gwen isn’t as dead as previously believed, as well as a letter from Tony Stark corroborating all that and vouching for her. The vice principal wants to know how May even knows Iron Man.
Ouch. Don’t tell Peter he’s getting the school shut down, his sense of responsibility would never make it. Back downtown, Johnny is suffering through his date when Peter calls, saying they should plan to get together with his friends again. Johnny loudly acts like he’s being alerted that Dr. Doom is back and flies away. He feels kind of bad, but only kind of. And then, wouldn’t you know it, he flies right by the Vulture up to no good, in classic Marvel fashion.
Johnny yelling “baldness!!” is genuinely funny to me.
Johnny is mad now, and he’s just about to fry Vulture’s whole suit off when, as the cover might suggest, the Ultimate Spider-Woman shows up and clocks him in the jaw. We will recall, of course, that this is a female clone of Peter.
That can only get awkward! Meanwhile:
Oh, no! What does this mean? Well, the answer would probably not be good under the best of circumstances, but given what’s coming… Aunt May better hang on tight.