It starts out like any other normal day … for a neighborhood Spider-Man, that is! While gingerly doing some friendly wall-crawling, waiting for his injured arm to heal, Spidey suddenly feels the entire building shake … as he is hurled from his precarious perch! Ultimate Spider-Man #2 is written by Jonathan Hickman, drawn by Marco Checchetto, colored by Matthew Wilson and lettered by Cory Petit.

Scott Redmond: Hello all, welcome back to ComicsXF’s coverage of Ultimate Spider-Man. If there was any doubt, this is most assuredly a Jonathan HIckman comic (Make of that what you will). Hey, Sean!

Sean Dillon: Hey, Scott. This is definitely a Jonathan Hickman comic. Not in the sense of, say, five charts and a speech about great men. But nevertheless, this feels like a Hickman comic. And yet, there’s the sense that we’re still in the setup phase of the book. Chess pieces are being moved around. Dominos are being placed. The real show hasn’t begun yet. Which is fine for a second issue, though you kinda hope there’s more forward momentum by the third.

Scott: Fingers crossed! There was certainly far more older men sitting around in towels laying out plots than I expected. More on that later, though. Let’s dive in. 

Don’t mock the Shocker!

Scott: A fresh-to-the-gig hero stumbling their way through the first days is an age-old story at this point. Spider-Man in particular is no stranger to it, both in and out of comics. Hickman does save us a bit of time with the whole baked-in-six-months bit tied to the Ultimates, so issues can naturally skip some time. An older Peter Parker who is more worldly (one assumes with his profession) and settled in life should provide a different take on this premise. Yet, while I find it fun and intriguing, there is a certain naivete to the whole affair I’m not sure I bought.

Sean: Yeah, I can see that. I’m pretty sure Hickman’s take on Peter is not the sort to fall for the Shocker’s ploy a second time. The vibe I get from those scenes is very much in conversation with other modern takes on the Spider-Man archetype, in particular the teenage variety, where the baddies are just people in a bad spot trying to get by. And that has certainly been true of Spider-Man comics in the past (the Sandman being the most famous example).

I think what we’re seeing here, however, is less naivete and more uncertainty. Peter’s inner monologue (notably absent throughout the previous issue) talks about how he doesn’t know if this is the right job for him. Just because he should’ve had this life doesn’t mean he can have this life. And then there’s the second trick the Shocker plays on Peter, which is Peter not knowing his own strength and abilities. He might have actually broken the guy’s ribs.

Incidentally, I really like the Shocker’s design. You’ve got the classic yellow stripes on his arms alongside a more militaristic body armor over it. But then you have a basic bank robber mask over his face, which feels perfect for this nameless guy who’s just robbing for the money. I love that it feels too bulky on the guy, like he’s probably Peter’s build but he’s wearing something fit for a tank of a man.

Scott: You bring up a solid point about the inner monologues and their effect. On the one hand, they are extremely wordy and just pour through the pages, and in many comics that would be a negative for me. Here though, it works. That fits Peter’s type of personality, that even when he’s talking to himself he’s just gushing words like a broken faucet. In particular that question about a stolen life/destiny is something not explored in most of these multiversal what-if types of stories, so I hope that becomes a recurring theme. 

I’m one of those Spider-Man fans that has a deep fondness for Shocker and have long advocated for more being done with that guy. So I’m very much on board for this take, and really like that costume, too. Far more than the previous Ultimate version of the character. Just a dude doing his crime thing because he can. Curious if this one also has an engineering background but just decided to use his brains to rob places. 

Sean: We don’t really get any information about the Shocker here. Which is great since his abject lies about himself are quite funny. But we do get a rapport between the two. And it’s a rather fast one at that. What’s notable about this rapport is that it isn’t really that quippy. Peter isn’t telling jokes about the Shocker’s style of clothing, whether the Yankees have won their next ring or anything like that. But it’s still quite witty. It’s a conversation between two weirdos dressed in costumes. And, for all their opposition to one another, it’s a nice one.

How better to remain above suspicion than to expose the problem yourself?

Scott: Speaking of conversations of a friendly nature, a portion of the issue takes us back to the duo of Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker. Our intrepid newsmen, without a place to do news, are getting their sweat on at a bathhouse. As nice as the conversation is from a banter point, it also serves a bigger plot purpose. They’re here to fill us in on the happenings around Wilson Fisk, masked figures running around the city and news-related conspiracies happening between the pages of the issues. 

There have been more attempts on Fisk’s life, at least three so far, and their former paper now under Fisk control is very much focused on the new black-suited figure running around town (Oh hey, Peter). While it was more time in a bath house with these guys than I ever expected to spend, it was effective at filling in some gaps in a logical way.

Sean: At the same time, this plotline feels a bit in the background. We’re starting to get an introduction to the wider world (for those reading this without reading the previous Ultimate series by Hickman). And it’s a decent one with some mystery (again, for those who haven’t read Ultimate Invasion). Who is this Monsieur Britain, and what is his relationship with Fisk?

But in terms of a book in the context of that, one that likewise expects at least some familiarity with those plot beats, it feels like Ben and Jonah are trying to solve a mystery we know the answer to. And that can be a lot of fun. Columbo is perhaps the most famous example of that mode of mystery fiction. But the key to those stories is that the leads aren’t the detectives, they’re the criminals hiding the crime. So it comes off as frustration for the reader rather than suspense.

Yes, having a bomb known under a seat is a good idea. But having a bomb introduced three months ago and still waiting for it to go off isn’t.

Scott: This is where that aforementioned six-month gap might be more of a hamper than a boon. Clearly, a lot of what is happening is meant to build to and wait for the moment when Tony Stark and his team make their return at that six-month mark. In the meantime, books will be building their corner, stretching where they need to along the way. 

We get a lot of nudges and winks here about those mysteries you mentioned, a lot of them centered on characters we the audience (most likely) are very familiar with. Certain identities and potential relationships/first meetings look to be stretched to maximize the mystery effect. Doesn’t help that solicits and covers pretty much give many of these beats away if one wasn’t already aware who was behind the green mask or is lurking there alongside Fisk.

Sean: Not to mention the whole “Oh look, it’s two characters who aren’t even in the book. I wonder if they’ll be important later.” (Tellingly, the only one we’ve actually met in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man gets his face covered by the logo.)

I have to get moving, and you have to get to sleep!

Sean: What seems to be the most important thing, even from the advertisement, is Peter and his relationship with his family. And, I’ve gotta say, it’s a bit weak. We get Peter engaging with his daughter about her fears of the black-suited weirdo swinging around New York, but May is written like every single moppet child from comics who isn’t a complete and utter brat. She’s got the affect of adorable cuteness that many child characters are written with. But there’s not much there to pull at. She’s a kid.

Scott: Full agreement here. Might as well put cardboard cutouts up and call them family, because right now there isn’t much to write about when it comes to them. Even Mary Jane is just sort of there. A whole point about the family aspect was seeing how doing all the Spider-Man stuff is harder to pull off with these responsibilities rather than a single teeanger. Now there are still more issues to come, but so far it seems like Peter has easily been running around for weeks doing his thing with his family none the wiser and pretty much not affected at all. 

No doubt there will be some beat that puts them at extreme risk, a choice to be made, or other typical Spider-Man moments. Right now though, the addition of a family just isn’t doing much to differentiate this from doing single, middle-aged Spider-Man.

Sean: To be fair to Hickman, I like Peter as a father. He has a good moment with May, bribing her with ice cream and trying to make her less afraid of the black-suit guy. But this gets us back to my opening complaint: It’s moving chess pieces around, not engaging in narrative. Spider-Man comics are at their best when they’re character dramas about hot messes. And we can tell that Peter is a mess, even as he’s getting better. But we don’t get a sense of MJ, Jonah, Ben, or May and Richard’s degree of messiness.

Additionally, there’s a sense of pacing that makes things feel a bit rushed. Each scene is given two or three pages to work with, the longest being the five-page second confrontation with the Shocker. Indeed, both scenes with the Shocker are the longest scenes in the issue, giving us the most to work with. But as a result, Peter’s relationships with other people feel sidelined in contrast to this one baddie who keeps kicking Peter’s ass.

Scott: We do like a messy Spider book. Often it’s said that Hickman isn’t a good character writer or can’t write characters. To an extent I have agreed with that, but I think it leaves out an important point. When Hickman connects with a character or has something to say with them, he writes them quite well, to your point about Peter as a father here. Same can be said for some other lead characters in his previous Marvel works. It’s the characters around that lead that mostly take the brunt of less characterization, coming off sort of hollow in comparison. 

Were this just an issue and not a piece in the overall chess game as you mentioned, perhaps there would be more room to actually slow down. Hickman is a grand idea man, conceiving vast epics and things that take time. More often than not it works. If one is more into character development and relationships (integral to Spider-Man stories), they’ll be left wanting many times with how he builds stories. 

My fingers are crossed since they did advertise the family aspect so hard, but I’m prepared for them to also stay this sort of flat. 

One More Day

• That final line was trolling so many people with a certain expectation for what this book is going to be.
• Good on Peter to still be leaning on the take-a-picture-of-yourself-as-a-hero-to-sell-to-your-newspaper side hustle in 2024. 
• Speaking of, boy, it sure says something about the new Marvel Universe the Maker made up that newspapers are a thing people read in 2024. On the app, sure. But read nevertheless.
• For want of a better term, the fight scenes are quite dynamic. Marco Checchetto really highlights the impact of the blows Peter and the Shocker are dealing to one another. 
• On another artistic note, as nice as night scenes and melancholy vibes are, might be neat to see Checchetto and Matthew Wilson get a chance to draw and color lighter, brighter things. Perhaps some nice warm days in March or April?
• Most of the events in the issue are either at night or indoors. Still, a bit of the warmth found in the final page of issue #1 might be nice.
• Kinda disappointed that this was a regular-length issue as opposed to the previous issue’s double length. It really helped with the pacing issues I noted above.

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