This month opens on a cheery scene of some Kingpin goons dragging Moon Knight to a river late at night, shooting him in the head and chucking him in while arguing about how much of a boost to their rep this is. One says Kingpin wants him found and in costume, as a message to other costumes.
Iron Fist doesn’t know Spider-Man’s name, tho, of course, so he’s ok for now. But Danny says Fisk wants him most of all. Shang-Chi walks off without a word, and Danny kind of gives in to despair. So, then, in the present, Fisk wonders why DD didn’t kill Danny. Danny says DD gave him one more chance. To distract Fisk by coming here. This sends Kingpin into a panic, and he goes running out of the room and finds Daredevil with his hand around Vanessa’s neck. But then we cut away to the voices in Ronin’s head telling him to get up, and he does. A point blank shot in the head apparently isn’t enough to stop him. He crawls up out of the river.
That’s the stuff you want from this team, man. That is a great, great scene. While that’s going on, Ronin stumbled into a police station, announces his real names, and says Wilson Fisk tried to kill him tonight. Now Kingpin is in a car, headed for the airport, instructing Rose to kill DD and Dr. Strange as soon as he’s gone, and to have Spider-Man’s high school blown up while class is in session. Rose is obviously not into this, but he says he understands. Then they notice something.
Not often you see Kingpin caught out like that. Pretty satisfying.
And there it ends. Pretty cool end to this story. Bendis’ cinematic instincts expertly translated by Bags. 110 issues later, as sympatico as they’ve ever been. But nothing lasts forever, and this is Bags’ last (full) issue of USM. He’s actually not quite gone yet, but I’m saving that for next time. What an achievement, tho. By giving Ultimate Peter Parker 110 issues by the same writer and artist, they’ve made him the most developed, most consistent, most “real” superhero there’s ever been. He’s a character readers can really feel like they know. I definitely felt an attachment to him that I’d never experienced with a fictional character. 110 issues! A frankly mindboggling 110 issues in less than 7 years. A regular comic would’ve released #80 this month. And, sure, a writer can churn out scripts that fast, but not just any artist could deliver, time after time, for 110 issues. Bagley really made his mark here. If his long association with Spider-Man on ASM didn’t solidify him as one of the all-timers, this sure did. Ultimate Spider-Man is a truly special project for a lot of reasons, but these 2 plugging away for this long is #1. And Bendis got so lucky in being assigned Bagley. Few artists have the aptitude for both the real human drama and the crazy superhero action this title has demanded. But, guess what? His successor does, too! As much as I’m sad to see Bags go (again, the 2nd time), I’m excited to get into the artist who will debut in the next block. But… the magic is over. Bags’ successor is here for 22 issues, and then there’s a different artist. And then another. With a 2-issue guest stint by another. Etc. And they’re all great artists (Although I have gone on record that I think the 2-issue guest was a mismatch for the title). All very talented. But we were spoiled by the consistency of the Bendis & Bagley team, and we shall not see its like again.
This issue came out alongside ASM 542. We started out 2 years behind the main books and almost caught up in this block. A world where Spider-Man only appears in one comic a month is nice. It will not be the world we return to when we get back to USM later for awhile, tho.