Luke and Devin return to watch Spider-Man take down the Kingpin, get sexually shamed, meets the Enforcers, helps a Iron Man who will be erased from reality, and also Devin hasn’t seen Hudson Hawk! Also there are a lot of Simpsons references in this episode so that should help the analytics.
Issues Covered:
- Ultimate Spider-Man #9-13
- Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #4-5
Check out the show notes and images after the jump!
UltiversalQ Part 1
Sales were doing poorly, Bill Jemas conceived a new universe using the current characters while keeping the old universe – the alternative to a DC universe reboot. Brian Michael Bendis made the new Spider-Man with art by Mark Bagley and would go on for 111 issues uninterrupted.
It was about cutting continuity out for new readers, making a new more modern world for the characters to inhabit, and returning heroes to the original premise.
Ultimate Spider-Man #1-8
Writer – Brian Michael Bendis and Bill Jemas (story credit)
Pencils – Mark Bagley
Inks – Art Thibert and Dan Panosian
Colors – Steve Buccellato, Marie Javins, Colorgraphix, and Transparency Digital
Letters – Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Norman Osborn of Osborn Industries Inc is working on a new product called Oz using animal DNA.
Peter Parker is a nerd with at least some sense of fashion.
2000 comic fashion, wow.
He is normally picked on by Flash Thompson (that ugly bowl cut) and Kenny Kong, and he has a crush on Mary Jane, another student who is also very smart.
Peter is protected outside of school by his hippy ass uncle Ben who fills his paternal role and in school typically by Harry Osborn who needs him to help study. The dynamic of the friendship is less altruistic than I would expect, he won’t get the bullies to stop. (See you on the flipmode)
He is bad at sports, and in general his Aunt May and Uncle Ben are worried about him but supportive since he is getting his work done. In his free time he works in his lab in the basement studying his father’s research since they died in a plane crash. Currently he’s working on a molecular adhesive his father worked on.
Peter’s class visits Osborn Industries Inc which makes a bit of everything except for a father who has time for his son. While there the genetically altered spider bites Peter and is then stomped on and he blacks out, when he wakes on the bus Mary Jane is there to comfort him. Osborn pays for the medical bills, sends a fruit basket and while May and Ben aren’t completely happy, Ben is willing to look at it as an accident and forgive Osborn.
The next day when Peter is back at school rumors are flying but when Kenny Kong tries to trip Peter, Peter is instinctively able to trip him instead before he faints again. He gets checked out at the hospital and the doctor takes a blood sample that is stolen by Mr. Shaw, who works for Osborn and they decide to just try to kill him in an accident.
When Shaw tries to hit Peter with his car he dodges and crashes, Peter goes to try and help and Shaw pulls a gun so Peter runs and Osborn hearing the news calls off the hit.
Peter goes and looks up the research from Osborn Industries Inc having skipped the day at school and determines what is going on – which Osborn Industries Inc just has out there online. We want these super spiders. When he gets in trouble for skipping school he is grounded but uses the time to climb the walls for the first time.
That all is in issue one.
Back at school after accidentally breaking his desk he finds that he has enhanced strength and coordination, even allowing him to shoot a basketball into Flash Thompson’s face and he is then challenged to a fight. Peter accepts and ends up breaking Flash’s hand when he catches a punch.
Osborn overhears Kenny Kong telling this to Harry and asks Harry to bring Peter back to the lab for a personal tour.
Unfortunately Flash’s family threatens to sue if the Parker’s don’t pay for the twenty five hundred dollar bill which seems cheap and Peter is in trouble because they don’t have the money. That night Peter runs out to take out aggression in an abandoned factory, Dirty Dancing style.
Peter apologizes the next morning, has stopped wearing glasses and goes on the tour with Harry where he meets Doc Ock who takes a blood sample causing Peter to leave.
Ock notes that Peter has stabilized and Osborn wants to take the new OZ compound directly on himself.
At the mall Crusher Hogan from UCW Spankdown challenges people to defeat him in the ring for $500 if they are adults so Peter makes a mask and defeats Crusher, is offered another match and gives the money to Ben and May pretending it is from students and faculty.
The coach on the basketball team offers Peter Flash’s position and despite being given the mascot number of 00 leads the team to victory.
Mary Jane liking his new attitude sometimes asks him out but he turns her down to wrestle and is made the UCW champion, the Amazing Spider-Man. The promoter doesn’t like the anonymity but gives him a new costume and Peter is able to pay off the medical bill.
And Harry goes to see his father testing the OZ compound. When we return most of the scientists are dead or injured along with Harry and the lab was destroyed.
After Spider-Man wins another match the promoter accuses him of stealing the petty cash (I bet the promoter used it to change his hair color) and so he runs away.
After changing he fails to do anything to stop a thief who robbed a deli and when Peter gets home he is in trouble for letting his grades seriously slip so he runs away and meets up with Kenny Kong who let’s him crash and who is a big Spider-Man fan.
While at the party, Liz Allen who also died her hair (along with Flash Thompson, maybe they all stole the money for hair costs) show up at a party, Liz tries to make out with Peter, Mary Jane sees it and when he goes after her, he runs into Uncle Ben who tries to give the weirdest let’s not actually say “With great power comes great responsibility” speech and Peter runs off.
When he finally comes home the police are outside.
Harry meanwhile wakes up with his mansion on fire, his mother dead and a mysterious large caped figure throwing fire balls at him before flying off.
Aunt May relates that Ben died when the thief broke in and tried to say they had no money or valuable and was shot.
Peter overhears the thief made another attack and is in a warehouse so Peter chases after, catches him and realizes it is the man who he didn’t stop. Peter looks up his information and tosses him to the police and realizes Uncle Ben’s words and starts stopping small crimes.
J Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle is meanwhile angry because every other paper reported on the Spider-Man and they reported on the Osborn mansion. He wanted to know about Spider-Man and keeps referring to him as the new OJ.
Peter meanwhile made web shooters but the time fighting crime was taking a toll on him so he quit the basketball team.
Harry shows up and the school attacked so Peter knowing Spider-Man needs to be there, makes a diversion so he can enter the danger and finds the Goblin who he fights until they leave the school and who recognizes him as Peter Parker. He tries to catch him but fails again and again as the police also get involved. They end up shooting the Goblin and he falls off the bridge sinking into the water. The police then turn on Spider-Man who goes back to the school and hides in the rubble. When Peter is rescued, Harry reveals that is his father and he can’t understand why and Peter is unsure of what to do and in a final shot we see the Goblin still lives.
Peter then ends up fighting the Shocker who he stops easily from robbing a bank but then the guards think that he wants the money do he leaves.
Peter overhears that the Bugle is offering money for pictures of Spider-Man, does a photo shoot and gets to meet and show the pictures to editor Robbie Robertson, reporter Ben Urich and J Jonah Jameson. Jameson likes one photo but they are interrupted when Betty Brant can’t fix the website so Peter fixes it, explains what he did, and gets a job after he has Aunt May talk to Jameson.
That night he has a dream about the robber killing Uncle Ben again so he uses his Bugle sources and finds that the thief works for Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Peter asks Robbie about why it happens and he explains when they tried to go after him, he bought a share of the paper and that removing him would start a power vacuum. We will continue our main story there next time but for now…
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #1-3
#1
Writer – Brian Michael Bendis
Art – Matt Wagner
Colors – JC
Letters – Comicraft
Wolverine hears some racist white people talking about mutants so he threatens them. And gosh do I hate the look of Ultimate Wolverine who looks like he fronts a rap rock band. Only second to Ultimate Sabretooth who looks like normal Sabretooth made poor life choices and got bad tribal tattoos.
Wolverine takes him and his government goons by surprise and gets on the subway and chases after.
Meanwhile Spider-Man stops some people robbing a store and is called a mutant and has a moment of crisis over what it would mean if he was one.
Wolverine has an angry call with Charles Xavier because he doesn’t want to deal with Sabretooth and then he goes to deal with Sabretooth on a rooftop. They fight and fall off the rooftop spilling into Times Square where Spider-Man saves Wolverine and a little girl and tries to break them up. The crowd is angry though and the police aren’t helping so Spider-Man takes Wolverine away. They talk and Spider-Man asks if he is a mutant but Wolverine is like if you know where you got your powers you aren’t and he leaves. The next day at school Peter tries having Wolverine hair and is made fun of.
#2-3
Pencils – Phil Hester
Inks – Ande Parks
Colors – JC
Letters Richard Starkings, Comicraft
Ben Urich and Peter are hanging out at the Bugle when he gets a call from a general that a giant green monster is coming near the city. Jameson and Robertson are meanwhile having an argument about covering the mutant scare.
Peter goes after thinking it might be the Goblin and has a big fight with the Hulk while he tries to protect the people so he tries to lead the Hulk away. When they get to the docks the Hulk smells fish and eats one reverting back in the warehouse where Spider-Man finds Bruce Banner and Thunderbolt Ross and his men come in wanting to collar Banner which makes him Hulk out again. The military attacks, Hulk escapes and Spider-Man is left behind, tired but valued by some of the people he saved.
Ultimate Rankings
- Ultimate Spider-Man #1-7
- Marvel Team-Up #2-3
- Marvel Team-Up #1