As mentioned before, this month, Bendis & Bags tie Stan & Jack for the longest run by a single writer/penciler team in Marvel history (Although calling Stan the “writer” of those stories has a big ol’ asterisks by it). And, as mentioned before, Bags is hanging on longer than that, so they have the record. And the way comics work now, I sincerely doubt anyone will ever break it. I’m not sure a series will ever last 110 issues again, and if one writer somehow managed to do it, well, today’s comic artists can’t seem to do more than 6 issues a year, so there’s no way. Unless it was Dan Mora. As I write this, that guy is somehow drawing World’s Finest for Mark Waid at DC, and it’s their best comic by a wide margin. And the pair of them started doing a Shazam comic WHILE doing World’s Finest. And they’re about to do a crossover event. And Mora was still providing covers to many other projects during all this. He’s one of the best artists in comics right now, and somehow, also the most prolific. He could probably do 110 consecutive issues if he wanted to. But he almost certainly wouldn’t be allowed to. Popular talent has to constantly be shifted. Honestly, it’s pretty grim out there in comics land in 2024. But that’s a tangent.
Not as over as previously thought. We can’t have forgotten this Spider-Woman in all the hubbub. She disappears them into an alleyway, so even Peter’s new pals the FF can’t find them, snaps his restraints, and tells him to follow her. Soon, they’re on top of a truck headed for the Jersey Turnpike, and Peter demands to know who she is.
“Peter Parker but a girl, but a PRETTY girl” is a tough thing to draw, I think. Couldn’t just let her look like Peter, right? That woulda been a bridge too far for superhero comics, especially in the 2000s.
Turning Ultimate Ben Reilly into one of the biggest villains of the Ultimate Clone Saga is, like, next level trolling.
This guy’s bedside manner is the worst I’ve ever seen.
So, then, back in the present, Peter reacts about as you’d expect, and they rather comically throw Ultimate Peter Parker tantrums at each other. We learn they never got round to wiping the clone’s memories, so she’s still him, and she’s only been alive a month, and she’s freaking out a whole different way than he is. Then Peter demands to know how she got this suit.
Ultimate Madame Web! Who would’ve guessed?
“Jessica” watched Carnage rampage through the area, killing the power on its way, and this allowed some doors to open and reveal her “brothers.”
They’re at Oscorp, of course, and Peter doesn’t understand why one of the clones would bring her here, but Jessica just hopes she’s wrong. She’s not, of course, and that’s how the 2 of them bust in on the end of last issue. Peter hopes that thing isn’t MJ as Jessica webs the 6-armed one out of harm’s way.
One thing I remember thinking as this was happening, as this story kept unspooling… How do you make this comic after this? I mean if you were ever going to end this series, this seems like the story to go out on. The scope of it is bonkers. Look how many Spider-Man plot threads got yanked in here. And we’re STILL not done!