2001-2002

USM 14-28, UMTU 11-16, USM Super Special, USM Wizard 1/2. Spider-Man winning his first battle with Doctor Octopus by pantsing him is something that could only happen in the Ultimate universe. Along the way, Doc Ock menaces Justin Hammer, reality star Kraven the Hunter makes the mistake of trying to hunt Spider-Man, and Peter Parker gets grounded for staying out too late. Peter’s classmate Kong figures out Peter is Spider-Man, but no one will believe him. Ultimate Gwen Stacy is introduced as a chaotic and troubled new presence in the high school cast. Harry Osborn comes back to school as a prelude to Spider-Man’s 2nd conflict with Green Goblin, which ends with MJ almost killed and Harry having to spear his own dad, as Spider-Man meets Nick Fury for what certainly won’t be the last time. A school project reveals Liz Allen is prejudiced against mutants. The Daily Bugle team tries to piece together what happened when Spider-Man attacked Iron Fist in the street. Peter, MJ, Gwen & Liz meet the also teenage X-Men at the mall. Spidey fails to fight the Rhino, who’s picked up by Iron Man before he can get there. Spider-Man & Dr. Strange battle the wizard Xandu (I guess it happens in any universe!), Spidey helps Black Widow escape the Latverian embassy, and then he helps Shang-Chi fight off the army of his evil dad. Nothing copied this time, unless you count Black Widow being a remake from the very first drawing I did back in 2019, 1970-1972. I needed her to fit in that spot and remembered her from that, and it worked.