Finally, one of the Ultimate Universe books sticks the landing, and of course, it’s the flagship title Ultimate Spider-Man with Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, David Messina, and Matthew Wilson concluding the series on a suitably heartfelt note. The strength of this series has been its focus on the web (Pun intended) of relationships between Peter Parker and his family and friends, and the extra pages in Ultimate Spider-Man #24 gives plenty of space for character-driven grace notes as well as an exciting battle royale against Kingpin, Mr. Negative, Mysterio, and Earth 6160’s Anti-Venom, who is a gnarly love child of Todd McFarlane spaghetti webbing and John Romita Jr. bulky design with a sleek high tech Hickman twist.
To use a vastly different comic as a metaphor, Ultimate Spider-Man #24 has a nice balance of love and rockets. Checchetto and Messina draw some big, physical action sequences especially when an enhanced Wilson Fisk is involved. However, they and Hickman also make a flashback to when Mary Jane realized she was pregnant with Richard end up becoming the crux of the issue and probably the whole run. There’s a clear throughline to Peter unexpectedly becoming a father and also obtaining superpowers, and it’s been cool to see his relationship with his son Richard develop throughout the series as he takes on the mantle of Spider-Man, er, Venom. (I was kind of sad to see Peter’s interactions with May kind of tail off because her being the only one to know he was Spider-Man was an adorable highlight of early Ultimate Spider-Man issues.) Richard levels up and has a big damn superhero moment in Ultimate Spider-Man #24, but it’s nice that the comic doesn’t end with some big blast of energy instead giving the Parker family some time to breathe and reflect before leaping headlong into the action of Ultimate Endgame in which Peter plays a key role.
Ultimate Spider-Man #24’s excellent rounding out of character arcs doesn’t just apply to the Parkers, but to their friends the Osborns as well. Harry Osborn wants to be a heroic figure like his friend Peter Parker, but he’s caught in the middle between his wife who has merged with four other people to be Mysterio and his father Norman, who taunts him via AI. So, he doesn’t really do anything in the big final battle except watch the Maker’s Council try to rebuild and watch Mysterio consolidate power and not resemble the woman he married in the slightest. These scenes and Harry’s whole arc in Ultimate Spider-Man explore what if your family was a negative influence on you as a hero instead of giving you something worthy to fight for. This search for motivation is what ends up being the last stop for Harry in Ultimate Spider-Man (I’m sure we’ll see him in Endgame.), and it’s cool seeing Peter take up a mentor role in his life as well as being his best friend. In a positive way, it reminds me of Peter and Harry’s relationship in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films sans the James Franco smarminess and with more cool tech because this is in fact a Jonathan Hickman comic.
Without gratuitous guest stars and through an epic broadcast/monologue from those truth-searching newspapermen Ben Parker and J. Jonah Jameson, Hickman, Marco Checchetto, and David Messina align Ultimate Spider-Man with the anti-fascism and capitalism of Deniz Camp and company’s The Ultimates. The narrative captions add a heft and relevance to the book’s extended fisticuffs/whatever is going on with Richard Parker’s web fluid/symbiote. You can see why these characters play a key role in Ultimate Endgame, but as I mentioned earlier, Jonathan Hickman doesn’t focus on big political statements, but every day resistance through the lens of an iconic superhero and his supporting cast.
Ultimate Spider-Man #24 succeeds because it brings all of what made this book great to a crescendo. There’s the action against colorful, tech savvy, ultracapitalist villains, a grounding in family and friends, and even some romance, both mature between Peter and Mary Jane and developing between Richard and Black Cat. Add the gorgeous art from Marco Checchetto and David Messina and solid coloring from Matthew Wilson (He nails the flat colors for the Venom/Anti-Venom fight scene.), and this is a memorable final chapter in this superhero comic for grown-ups that still know has to have fun and will go down as an evergreen run for Marvel’s mighty webslinger.
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Marco Checchetto and David Messina
Colors: Matthew Wilson Letters: Cory Petit
Story: 8.6 Art: 8.6 Overall: 8.6 Recommendation: Buy
Marvel Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
