This week Luke and Devin are here as Peter Parker meetings 4 different Peter Parkers, each with fantastic new powers and also his dad is back and so is Gwen? Also Luke explains his theory about how Ultimate Peter Parker is Trans.
Issues Covered:
- Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 #97-105
Check out the image gallery and show notes after the jump.
Ultimate Spider-Man #97-105 – Ultimate Clone Saga
Writer – Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils – Mark Bagley, Inks – John Dell, John Sibal, Drew Hennessy, Matt Ryan, Colors – Richard Isanove, Justin Ponsor, Studio F, Avalon’s Andy Troy, Letters – VC’s Cory Petit, Chris Eliopoulos
Peter tries to reach out to his girlfriend Kitty Pryde on the phone and she is angry that he has been spending time with MJ again after the vampire incident instead of reaching out to her. Peter doesn’t understand what the issue is and Kitty explains he still loves MJ, she loves him, but then Peter can’t keep talking because Aunt May comes in and Peter hangs up on her.
The next day at school, Peter and MJ hang out after school at the mall to try and mend things and Mark Raxton of The Molten Man says hi, leaves, and Peter and MJ start talking about relationships. Suddenly the mall is attacked by a mysterious figure dressed like a Scorpion who is ranting about not falling for tricks. Peter switches to Spider-Man to save people and then the police come in and Scorpion attacks them. Spider-Man tries to intervene but the police are also after him as well.
The fight continues on through the mall as the Scorpion continues to rant and when Peter destroys the Scorpion’s mask, he sees his own face and realizes the quotes were from when Peter tried to be a wrestler.
MJ meanwhile gets home from the mall, checks in with her mom, and is then kidnapped from her room by someone else.
Meanwhile at the Baxter Building, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, Reed is making Johnny drink recycled piss water when they are interrupted by Spider-Man, bringing in the Scorpion. He makes Reed promise to keep a secret as they find out that the Scorpion’s DNA is 94% similar to that of Peter Parker, and Spider-Man reveals that he is also Peter Parker, and Johnny is like “Oh I remember you!” Reed calls Fury to ask about cloning and seeing if he knows things and Fury knows nothing.
Peter has to rush home then because he lost track of time and when he gets there, Aunt May asks if he knows what happened to MJ which Peter doesn’t so he runs off to look, checking at the Watson’s house. He then heads to the warehouse where she ran away to before, and there he encounters a woman in a Spider themed costume. She claims to not know where MJ is and Peter doesn’t believe her so he attacks, and she is forced to knock him out and leaves him behind, claiming she’ll get revenge for all of them.
When Peter gets up, he decides to check his old house when he sees someone going inside – and that someone is Gwen Stacy, previously killed by the symbiote Little Ben! Peter has no idea what is happening and starts to have a panic attack thinking it’s all a hallucination.
MJ meanwhile wakes up in a tube at the ruins of Oscorp where a figure who looks like Peter promises he will keep her safe forever. He rants about using his intelligence to keep her safe by making her his equal and then she sees that half of his face is messed up. We’ll call him Messy Pete.
Back at the Baxter Building, Scorpion Peter wakes up and Reed and Sue introduce themselves and he mentions the Zoo and then asks how he got back, they mention Spider-man and he starts to attack so they are forced to knock him out. Reed and Sue rationalize that the clone was a failure and the biografted suit couldn’t be removed without killing him and they decide to go against Peter’s wishes and bring in Nick Fury.
Gwen tries to recall waking up and seeing a dead doctor and then being shot at which are memories of Little Ben and as Peter tries to help her, Aunt May comes in and freaks out and Gwen and Peter chase after her. Peter tries to calm her down and explains that he is Spider-Man and isn’t sure what has been happening and she doesn’t believe him and asks for proof. He climbs on the wall and she puts the pieces together and when she has them, she tells Peter to get out as she starts to break into tears. That’s when Richard Parker, Peter’s presumably dead dad, comes through the door which doesn’t surprise Aunt May, which in turn shocks Peter.
Meanwhile Fury seeing the Scorpion at the Baxter Building calls in the Spider-Slayers and a cleaning crew to go after Spider-Man in Queens.
Richard pulls Peter in for a hug and Aunt May tells them to get out. Peter is now obstinate though and asks if May knew about Richard and she said she wanted to protect Peter and Richard is just like “let’s all eat cold pizza and talk”.
As the Pizza Party at Aunt May’s house continues, Richard explains how the symbiote he worked on with the Brock’s failed because of Bolivar Trask’s demands to weaponize it, they got sued into oblivion, and then they got a second chance to fix things with Trask so he and Mary Parker, his wife and Pete’s mom, and The Brocks were going to fly to Chicago but Richard got cold feet knowing Trask still wanted to weaponize the suit, and refused to get on the plane, angering everyone and everybody died – except for him.
Everyone thought that Richard was dead and didn’t think he could raise Peter better than May and Ben so Henry Gyrich of the CIA approached him, asking for help opposing Nick Fury’s ultimate plans to form the Ultimates as an underground geneticist. Gyrich convinced Richard that he was targeted by Trask and they need to stay one step ahead before Fury could get the tech and then once they do that, he can fix the system and use the symbiote to help people. When Spider-Man fought the Eddie Symbiote, Richard saw footage and figured out it was his kid who Fury was already working with.
Richard went to talk to May who was rightfully pissed off and who told him to stay away from Peter. Richard checked on Peter to see that he was happy with his life before Gyrich explained he pulled Connor’s symbiote research. And before he can explain how it led to Gwen coming back to life, Fury and SHIELD appear.
Messy Peter meanwhile is attacked by a Six Armed Spider-Man before he can transform MJ. The two Spider-men fight and Messy Pete seemingly kills Six-Armed Spider-Man.
In the stress of SHIELD’s appearance, Gwen transforms back into Little Ben and attacks, Aunt May has a heart attack, and Messy Pete at Oscorp has transformed MJ.
As Little Ben attacks, the Tinkerer is trying to figure out how to respond to the symbiote with the AI Spider-Slayers and Fury orders them to just fire towards the house. Inside as lasers start coming through, Richard tells Peter to get out to stop everyone so he can save Aunt May so Peter runs out and punches Nick Fury who then shoots him telling him the situation has become too expensive to keep him around. The Tinkerer’s Spider-Slayer shoots at Peter as well, but that’s then the Fantastic Four come and tell them to stop and Little Ben tosses The Thing across New York. Peter tells them about Aunt May and his dad being inside and the team rushes in to help against Fury’s orders. Sue runs in to help and Richard, a doctor, has no idea how to help Aunt May with her heart attack so she asks him to come with her to the hospital, while Reed literally tangles with Little Ben. Sue offers to free Peter to but he refuses and starts punching bots and when Fury has the Slayers open fire Little Ben is caught up in the blast and turns back into Gwen who falls unconscious. Confused and dealing with a lot, Nick Fury tells Peter to either go with him willingly or by force.
Back at Oscorp, MJ is unsure of what the Oz has done to her and starts to panic, transforming into a large red hairy devil.
Reed pleads to Fury to let Peter be free when the mysterious Spider-Woman kidnaps Peter and runs off with him, freeing him from the shackles. She reveals as they go on the run that she’s a clone of him that was designed to be biologically female. She was created by Ben Reilly with all of Peter’s memories with support from the CIA. She was the most successful one and he planned to remove her memories and plant her with new ones as Jessica Drew, the Spider-Woman. The CIA planned to weaponize all of the clones but she passed out before Ben told her more for whatever reason.
Cassandra Webb was brought in to help Girl-Peter her with powers when Little Ben escaped and knocked out the power releasing the other 4 previous clones that were developed. Also Richard was there and tried to get them to go back home but they all left.
Girl-Peter mentions how MJ was taken by a clone and that’s when they arrive at Oscorp where they see Monster MJ attacking Messy Pete. They find Six ArmedSpider-Man who explains what happened and Peter talks to MJ and she changes back. Messy Pete is happy and Peter punches him in the face and he’s angry because there shouldn’t have been any OZ left – except that he was provided with some by the mastermind of this Clone Saga, Dr. Otto Octavius.
At the Xavier School, the news reaches Kitty about Spider-Man’s troubles and she runs off to request help from Xavier. Xavier tries to calm her down but she brings up all the times Spider-Man has helped the X-men so they get prepped.
Meanwhile at the hospital, Sue and Richard get there and Sue, suspicious, takes a blood sample from Richard and sends it to the Baxter Building.
And back at Oscorp, Peter is furious as Octavius, Fury, the other members of the Fantastic Four and SHIELD are there. Octavius takes his credit for the clones and Fury works to keep everyone civil. Peter asks the Fantastic Four to take MJ to reverse the OZ formula and when Messy Pete gets angry, he gets zapped so everyone tries to calm down again.
Octavius plans to take away all of the clones and Fury tries to place him under arrest, so Octavius explains that the FBI (not the CIA now?) made a deal with him to be released to create heroes to oppose Nick Fury which is why Fury knew nothing about his. Octavius gloats about being above the law and working to destroy Peter’s life.
Back at the hospital Sue finds out that Richard’s DNA matches Peter over 99% and Richard realizes this means he’s a clone when he reads over her shoulder. Octavius reveals he was behind the clones as a result including Richard who is actually an aged version of Peter Parker.
Peter asks Fury to give him 10 minutes alone before he goes with Fury and Octavius tells him to wait and hold onto the Peters. Fury sides with Peter and the Spider-Men attack. Octavius reveals that he didn’t actually have control over just the metallic arms as he kills Six-Armed Pete, he has power over Metal.
At the Baxter Building, MJ wakes up as they try to explain the situation as she transforms and attacks.
Meanwhile at the rooftop hospital, Sue talks to Richard-Pete (Poppa-Pete) who refuses to believe the truth.
Meanwhile outside Oscorp, Gyrich of the FBI appears and stands off with Nick Fury who plays dumb until he realizes that Gyrich’s career depends on hiding Octavius’s activity.
And inside Oscorp, Peter and Girl-Pete face off against Octavius who summons arms because he likes the gimmick.
Back at the Baxter Building, Monster MJ frees Scorpion and she sees his face, calms down, faints, followed by Scorpion Pete when he saw her turn back.
As the Peters fight, Octavius notices them being quiet and the two tandem punch him in the face, knocking him out. They find that Six-Arm Pete and Messy Pete are dead. Girl-Pete tries to convince Peter to go on the run and so he decides to surrender while Girl-Pete decides to leave.
Peter comes out with Octavius, Fury notes that Girl-Pete is missing and Peter is angry about Gyrich. Johnny interrupts though and flies Peter away to MJ. Meanwhile Poppa-Pete asks Sue to be friends with Peter because he’ll need people to rely on before he dies.
At the Baxter Building a cured MJ is awake and Peter explains the situation and they embrace. Peter realizes he was wrong to worry about MJ being hurt as a reason to break up with her. Dr. Storm and Reed think she should be safe and Reed also offers to cure Peter’s Spider-Powers. Peter asks to think about it and then asks her to stay with Reed and then has Johnny fly him off. Seconds later, Fury, Captain America, Iron Man, and Wasp show up looking for Peter and MJ asks why because she knows Peter wants to be a hero and help people.
The X-men land at Peter’s house and find Aunt May had a heart attack and head to the hospital to look for Peter. Peter, already at the hospital, finds Sue and talks about what happened and he’s just very tired. Peter takes a moment to apologize to Aunt May for lying while she’s unconscious when his Spider-Sense triggers as Fury and the Ultimates show up.
Fury explains he showed up to take down Spider-Man because he believed he could always become a villain. Fury admits that he was wrong and could be someone great. Fury leaves and Peter tells him to tell Reed he’s going to pass on the offer.
Aunt May wakes up as the X-men arrive and Kitty asks Xavier to wipe Spider-Man’s identity from Aunt May’s mind and he says no because he doesn’t plan to sleep with Aunt May and it would be unethical. Kitty storms off, and Peter and Aunt May hug.
Meanwhile, back in town Sharon Carter shows up to cover up the story saying it is classified but that Spider-Man helped, as MJ and her mom are reunited and Agent Jimmy Woo has something to share.
Peter ends up finding Girl-Pete and she decides to start a life as Jessica Drew and Peter gives her the rundown on the fallout, and they hug and she swings off with organic web shooters.
Back at the Triskelion, Fury has Scorpion Pete and Gwen in stasis for studying while at MJ and her mom greet Peter. The cover story is Norman Osborn stole MJ and she was saved by Spider-Man. They kiss because they now will be living together for a bit since SHIELD destroyed Aunt May’s house, and as they kiss they are unaware that Kitty Pryde was watching, and unaware that both of them have had a lot of trauma to deal with.
Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 #97-105 – Ultimate Clone Saga