Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Review

Look, I know this is ostensibly a blog about covering older comics and collected editions, but did you really think I wasn’t gonna talk about this?

If you’ve been following me on Twitter for the past few months, you know that Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s rebooted Ultimate Spider-Man has been my most anticipated comic… maybe ever. My favorite currently working Big Two writer tackling my all-time favorite character in a brand new continuity, from the ground up, with an all-star artist on board? I’ve been positively salivating for this thing from the very first teaser. And I am very, very pleased to report that USM #1 more than delivers. If you’re just in it for the Peter B. Parker middle-aged family man vibes, I can’t begrudge you that, and you’ll certainly get it here, but make no mistake- this is a Hickman book through and through, fully infused with the thematic trappings that occupy his entire Marvel oeuvre, and I cannot wait to see where he takes it from here. It’s a terrific first issue, Marco Checchetto’s art is in top form (if you’ve read Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil, which you should, you already know full well what Checchetto’s capable of). The spoiler free bottom line is it is extremely good and you should pick it up, but I have to get into spoilers to really discuss the meat of what Hickman’s doing here.

SPOILER WARNING

So this issue picks up directly after the events of Ultimate Universe #1, which, if you haven’t read, you really should (along with the Ultimate Invasion miniseries from last year). Those issues are more than just table setting for the world USM takes place in- the core ideas laid out in that series, the premise of a world that has been robbed of its heroes by a cabal of ultra-powerful world leaders, characters struggling with the concept of destiny, Hickman’s all-encompassing preoccupation with the idea of the Great Man and the Great and Terrible consequences of his works, are all central to USM’s narrative. The core premise here is that we have a Peter Parker who has, by way of The Maker’s time-traveling interference, been robbed of his great and heroic destiny, and, 20 years later, has been given the choice by this world’s Tony Stark to either accept the quiet, idyllic family life that he’s built in the interim, or to reclaim that destiny (and in turn, all of the turmoil that we, the long-term Spidey aficionados, know will inevitably come with it). This is a Peter Parker who has, for all intents and purposes, already completed the never-ending coming of age character arc that defines the character in mainline 616 continuity, and with little of the same tragedy and guilt. He has a seemingly stable job at the Daily Bugle, which, in this universe, is run by both J. Jonah Jameson and a very much alive Ben Parker (May, unfortunately, is one of the victims of the devastating attack on New York that occurred at the end of Ultimate Universe #1). He’s got a loving, healthy marriage with Mary Jane Watson. He’s got two great kids and a nice place in Manhattan. He’s still Peter Parker- he can’t make an appointment on time, he owns a dress shirt but not a tie- but he’s a Peter Parker who basically has his life together. But he feels like something is missing. Like his life was somehow supposed to be more. And in comes Tony Stark with a stealth suit and a radioactive spider to tell him that yes, actually, he WAS destined for greatness, he DOES have more to offer the world, that his rightful position as one of the Great Men was taken from him, and it’s now his to choose to take back if he wants it.

In other words, Jonathan Hickman has taken the traditional Spider-Man story- one of adolescent angst, of a child being thrust headfirst into the exhilarating, terrifying world of adulthood and having to figure out how to become a good man- and rearranged the ingredients in order to turn it into a tale of the mid-life crisis from hell, a man who has built a comfortable life for himself and his family and yet can’t help but want for something greater, to wonder if this is all there is, and is willing to risk everything he’s built to find out. Quite simply, it’s the perfect way to recontextualize the Spider-Man story from an adult perspective, and it also feels entirely of a piece with Hickman’s other stories of men and their relationships to power- 6160 Peter Parker is right in line with Hickman’s Tony Stark, Reed Richards (both of them!), Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, just on a more modest scale. The final panel of the issue, a newly suited-up Spider-Man cloaked in shadow, standing tall against the Manhattan skyline bathed in a fiery sunrise, is equal parts triumphant and terrifying. To Peter Parker, in any universe, Spider-Man is as much a gift as it is a curse, and with the setup given in this issue, I have full faith that we’re about to see him receive both in spectacular fashion.

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