Comic Book / Ultimate Spider-Man (2024)

"Peter Parker, you are not getting any younger."

"You were supposed to have a different life, Peter Parker. You were supposed to protect the innocent, save lives, and inspire the citizens of this world to be their best selves. And instead, all of that was taken from you. These people stole your future. These people robbed you of your destiny. The question is... do you want it back?"

— Tony Stark

Ultimate Spider-Man is a 2024 comic book series by Marvel Comics, written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Marco Checchetto. It's part of Marvel's second Ultimate Universe line.

Although it's linked to the wider Marvel Universe, the Ultimate Universe is an Alternate Universe within the same continuity, where the meddling of the supervillain known as the Maker has ensured that the world, and its superheroes, take a very different path.

In this universe (identified as Earth-6160 by some of Marvel's other comics), Peter Parker was never bitten by a radioactive spider as a teenager, and continued on living life as a normal man. He married Mary Jane Watson, had two kids with her, works at the Daily Bugle, etc. But underneath it all, Peter feels that something is missing. He learns what that is when a message from Tony Stark reveals the secret, dark history of his world; Peter was meant to be a superhero, one of many that the Maker prevented from existing in his bid to rule the world. Invigorated by this sense of purpose, Peter accepts Tony's gift of truth and allows himself to be bitten by the radioactive spider.

Thus, we now follow an older Peter Parker as he struggles with being a family man on top of patrolling New York City as Spider-Man.

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Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Heroism: A newspaper byline in the first issue describes Mysterio as a superhero. The original Marvel Universe Mysterio is a supervillain.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Shocker is smart enough to gaslight Spidey into a false sense of security. Twice.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • Uncle Ben and Jonah are best friends in this universe, whereas they didn't even know each other in the original Marvel Universe setting. By extension, Jonah is significantly friendlier with Peter and something of a second father figure to him.
  • In the the mainline Marvel Universe, Harry Osborn and Peter were best friends in college, years before Harry became the Green Goblin. Here, Peter has never even met Harry as an adult, and Harry is already the Green Goblin.
  • In the mainline universe, Peter met Gwen Stacy in college, dated her while Mary Jane dated Harry, and Peter eventually fell in love with MJ after Gwen's death, while Harry ended up marrying Liz Allen. Here, Peter and Mary Jane first meet Gwen when Harry introduces her as his wife.
• Age Lift: This version of Peter Parker is about a decade older than his counterpart in the main Marvel Universe. By this point that original version has also been Spider-Man for about a decade, putting them roughly 20 years apart when they start their superhero careers.
• All in the Manual: The previous Ultimate Invasion series established that Peter's world is designated Earth-6160 and part of an Alternate Universe connected to the main Marvel Universe setting ('Earth-616'). None of this is actually mentioned in the Ultimate Spider-Man series itself yet, though.
• As You Know: Ben reminds Peter that he and May adopted Peter after his parents died when he was fifteen. And also that he and May loved Peter unconditionally and taught him about the world in order to prepare him for it.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In the first issue we're introduced to Jonah screaming "Parker!" in the Bugle bullpen, as you'd expect. When he actually sees Peter... he says hi, then goes to find Ben Parker. He's actually very friendly with both of them.
  • Late in the first issue, after Jonah quits the Bugle in protest, Wilson Fisk turns to Ben and offers Ben Jonah's job, provided he toes the line. Ben responds with a smile... then promptly walks out to the lift with Jonah and asks "What next?"
  • When Peter confronts the Shocker after losing to him the second time, the audience is likely to assume they're about to be treated to the usual Heroic Rematch where Spider-Man defeats the villain after learning from his mistakes first time around. Nope; Shocker tricks Peter into letting his guard down and defeats him again.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Kingpin likes to project the image of being an all-powerful mob boss, but on the wider scale of the Illuminati, he's really more of a pencil-pushing bureaucrat responsible for nuts and bolts work than anything. Bullseye sardonically describes him as a little fish desperate to seem like a big one.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • The premise is basically Peter having his life much more together than his Earth-616 counterpart. Also, unlike most versions of Peter, in which he becomes Spider-Man as a high-school student, here, he gets his spider powers as a married Family Man, and by choice as opposed to via an accident.
  • Uncle Ben, the arguable poster boy for Death by Origin Story, is still alive and part of the book's supporting cast.
  • Jameson is much nicer to Peter in this universe, even compared to his 616 counterpart who Took a Level in Kindness. He's still a bit gruff but is very well-meaning and supportive.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Peter muses that Spider-Man is more photogenic and charming than the Green Goblin as well as a man of the people as Uncle Ben and Jonah look on in confusion.
• Composite Character:
  • Uncle Ben is merged with Phil Sheldon and/or Ben Urich, being reworked into an old friend and colleague of Jonah's who works at the Bugle.
  • Harry Osborn is merged with Phil Urich, taking his role as the initially-heroic version of Green Goblin.
• Costume-Test Montage: Peter and May do one at the beginning of issue #3 to make Peter’s costume less scary, eventually settling on the classic red and blue outfit.
• Covers Always Lie: For obvious marketing purposes Peter’s Spider-Man outfit in promotional material and covers, as early as Issue #1, is presented in his recognizable classic red and blue colors, with the webbing pattern. In the story proper, however, Peter starts with a picotech suit which clads him in complete black, much like the symbiote but without a spider logo; Peter eventually wearing the suit that resembles his classic look is a plot thread that only starts to unravel in the first issues; with said eponymous suit properly debuting on Issue #3.
• Cue the Sun: Issue #1 was primarily set in snowy, overcast weather. When Peter accepts the spider bite and suits up for the first time, the clouds part and sun shines on New York City, signifying how one of the Marvel Universe's greatest heroes is finally born and hope has returned.
• Dead Guy Junior: Peter and Mary Jane named their son Richard after Peter's dead father.
• Death by Adaptation: Aunt May and Norman Osborn were killed in the terrorist attack on Manhattan. In the original Ultimate Universe, these characters managed to survive until its destruction and subsequent reconstruction, while on the main Marvel Universe both had their deaths reversed and/or retconned.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Peter's parents died when he was fifteen, while on both Earth-616 and Earth-1610, they died when he was much younger.
  • Emily Osborn dies in the terrorist attack (along with her husband and May Parker) while Harry is a grown adult, instead of when he was a teenager.
• Epic Fail: Peter's first night out as Spider-Man doesn't go great, as he ends up being embarrassingly outwitted and beaten up by Shocker of all people. And he manages to blow his secret identity near-immediately into his career when Mayday finds out. And than he has a rematch with Shocker and loses AGAIN. He's clearly got a lot of training to do.
• Family Man: Peter has two children with his wife, Mary Jane Watson. This makes him somewhat hesitant to jump into superheroism, as he points out that he doesn't just have himself to worry about.
• Foreshadowing:
  • May's refrigerator drawing of Peter's spider is colored red and blue, foreshadowing how the two would come up with their version of the classic red and blue suit next issue.
  • Green Goblin's armor looks oddly like that of Iron Man, because he got it from Tony.
• Government Conspiracy: The Illuminati's efforts to frame Tony Stark and control the world from the shadows is well underway, with news outlets like the Daily Bugle being bullied into toeing the line and spewing the state propaganda or fluff stories.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Coming off the heels of Ultimate Invasion, the Maker is responsible for robbing Peter of his destiny as Spider-Man, making him this.
• He Knows Too Much: Bullseye's job is killing anyone who disrupts the Illuminati's plans or comes a little too close to finding out they even exist. He is exceedingly good at it.
• Heroic Rematch: Hilariously subverted in Issue #2 when Peter's second fight with the Shocker goes only slightly less poorly than it did the first time.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Peter and Harry's first response to finding out each other's secret identities? Getting some alcohol in them.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite the Maker personally intervening to contain the radioactive spider before it bit Peter Parker in Ultimate Invasion, with Peter's life taking a very different path, he still marries Mary-Jane Watson and works for the Daily Bugle. Also he still suffered a personal tragedy at 15, though here it was the death of his parents instead of his uncle.
  • Peter's suit is picotechnology and redesigned with input from his daughter. Despite these differing circumstances to its creation and design, Peter's red and blue suit still ends up being the classic Spider-Man suit with little to no variation.
• Internal Reveal: By the end of the first issue, Peter's aware that Tony Stark wasn't responsible for the attack on New York, which the audience knew all along. It's implied that the Daily Bugle has been digging into the truth for a while anyway, finding gaps in the Stark story.
• Jumped at the Call: When presented with the revelation that he was supposed to be a superhero, Peter is suddenly filled with existential doubt about his place in the world. When Uncle Ben and Mary Jane unknowingly encourage him, Peter more than eagerly allows himself to get bitten by the radioactive spider, fulfilling his destiny and becoming Spider-Man.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Peter's very first line, "Peter Parker, you are not getting younger" sounds like a wink at how 616 Peter was Not Allowed to Grow Up for years since One More Day.
  • In Issue #2, Peter wonders if he should try catching up on the twenty years that were stolen from him by reliving some version of it, but also notes the stagnation that would come from such regression. Again, sounds like Hickman commenting on Spider-Man being stuck as a troubled young man for the past few decades.
• Manly Facial Hair: This Peter sports a beard which adds to his more grown up appearance compared to other Peter Parkers.
• Meaningful Background Event: A newspaper clipping in the Bugle includes a headline about Mysterio saving the city, giving yet another hint as to how much Maker has changed things.
• Must Have Caffeine: Peter pours himself a cup while muttering "thank God for coffee."
• Mythology Gag:
  • Mysterio is apparently a superhero in this version of the world, not unlike how his MCU counterpart (initially) was.
  • It turns out that the sphere Peter has contains his costume, which has taken the shape of a small ball. This is similar to how the Venom symbiote originally appeared as a black ball back in Secret Wars (1984).
  • In the opening pages of Issue #1, little May Parker is playing with the sphere, which Peter quickly grabs telling her it's not a toy. It's later revealed that the sphere contains the radioactive spider, meaning May came really close to getting powers much like her MC2 counterpart.
  • Peter receives his suit from Tony Stark here, and it's explained to be a tech-based stealth suit. This is not unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe where Tony is the one who directly and indirectly provided Peter with most of his suits.
  • After seeing May's encouraging drawing, Peter smiles and decides to try continuing to be Spider-Man for one more day.
  • The suits that Peter creates for his Costume-Test Montage are evocative of the black suit (specifically it seems to harken to the second stage of the version from The Spectacular Spider-Man), the Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man 2099, and Superior Spider-Man.
  • To Ultimate Spider-Man (2000):
    • A variant for Issue #1 recreates the iconic cover◊ for the first issue of the original series.
    • The sketch variant cover for Issue #1 shows the back of Peter's hand heavily disfigured from the spider bite, referencing how the original Ultimate Peter had a massive scar on the back of his hand from where the spider bit him.
    • Here, Peter's Spider-Man suit was originally a blank version without the iconic webbing pattern or spider insignia much like the original Ultimate Peter's wrestling outfit. This series takes it further by making the initial suit completely black with no distinguishable features beyond the eyes.
    • Much like the original series, the first three Spider-Man villains to be (re)introduced are the Green Goblin, the Kingpin, and the Shocker.
• Nephewism: Ben Parker, Peter's uncle, is alive, and is also working at the Bugle as an editor.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Kingpin is The Dreaded in New York's criminal underworld, with good reason, but it's made clear that in the wider organization of the Illuminati, he's a very low-ranking member, pretty much a middle-manager at best. When confronted by the much higher-ranking Captain Britain, he's easily browbeaten into submission in a way nobody in Manhattan would get away with, and Bullseye later explicitly notes that he's a small fry on anything but a local level.
• Positive Friend Influence: It's implied that with Uncle Ben alive and well in this universe, his influence tempered J. Jonah Jameson's fury and allowed Peter to grow into a well-adjusted adult without much of the baggage his 616 counterpart has.
• Real Time: Each issue takes place in the same month they were published, so there's a month-long Time Skip between issues #1 and #2.
• Recycled Title: This series shares a name with Ultimate Spider-Man (2000), but this book involves a different version of Peter Parker and takes place in a whole different universe.
• Rewatch Bonus: In Issue #1, Peter is noted to be acting differently, and hasn't managed to sleep the night before the memorial service. Mary Jane and Uncle Ben both reassure and encourage him to make whatever change he feels his life needs. The end of the issue reveals that the previous night, he was given the chance to reclaim his destiny as Spider-Man, giving greater meaning to their words of encouragement.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Matt Murdock makes a cameo appearance in issue one, appearing to be a humble Catholic priest. It's implied that the Maker's meddling ensuring he never trained his senses and fighting prowess, so never became Daredevil, as he did in the main Marvel Universe setting.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Wilson Fisk is back to being purely Spider-Man's foe instead of Daredevil's arch enemy, mostly because there's no Daredevil in this universe for him to fight.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Jonah and Ben quit the Daily Bugle rather than be forced to print lies or ignore stories by Wilson Fisk.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: A variation. At the end of the first issue, it's revealed that Tony Stark, who's now in the future, has sent a message back in time to Peter. It tells him that he was supposed to be Spider-Man. It's accompanied by the spider that should have granted him his powers, and a costume that'll help to preserve his identity. Tony can't go all the way back to the point when Peter should have become Spider-Man, but he can try to set him on the heroic path he would have taken. Peter readily accepts the role as soon as he hears the truth.
• Snow Means Death: The first issue takes place during snowfall in January, and it's the anniversary of the terrorist attack the Illuminati staged to frame Tony Stark.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Uncle Ben, of all characters. Instead, it's Aunt May who is killed, as a casualty of the Stark terrorist attack that the Illuminati concocted.
  • Usually when a spider that gives Peter his powers, it kicks it after biting him. Here, the spider Peter receives from Iron Lad is still alive, and is nowhere to be seen after Peter becomes Spider-Man.
• Spiritual Antithesis: This version of Peter is already differentiated from other versions by being a grown adult married man with children before he becomes Spider-Man, who famously started off as a Kid Hero. What's also a drastic change from the norm is the fact that rather than receive his powers from an accident (though he was supposed to), Peter here instead chose to be bitten by the radioactive spider to become a superhero. This directly contrasts with his traditional portrayals; Peter is usually shown receiving powers that he eventually has to learn to use responsibly, while the Peter of this universe has already pretty much learned what responsibility means as a Family Man, leaving only the great power he's already proven to deserve to carry out said sense of great responsibility.
• Spoiler Cover: An Issue #2 variant cover reveals Harry Osborn to be the Green Goblin.
• Take That!:
  • In Issue #2, Jonathan Hickman seems to throw some shade at Marvel's attempts for Peter to be Not Allowed to Grow Up, having the older Peter note the stagnation that would come from trying to relive a version of the life he's supposed to have twenty years ago.
    Peter Parker: Because if you did feel like you had to relive that life, wouldn't you just be twenty years behind the curve for... forever or something like that?
  • A rather affectionate one comes in Issue #3, where Peter attempts to create a new suit and ends up with one that nods to the Scarlet Spider. While Peter thinks it's cool... May says it's not cool at all and that Peter is old.
• Take This Job and Shove It: When Wilson Fisk tries to force the Bugle into stop digging into the Stark story, Jameson quits in protest. When Fisk tries to give the Jameson's job to Ben, Ben goes and joins Jameson.
• There Is Another: Spider-Man discovers that Green Goblin is also more or less working for Tony Stark's rebellion when they first meet, to the point that Harry's tech can be used to affect Peter's.
• Wham Shot: J. Jonah Jameson is running down the Daily Bugle screaming "PARKER!", so you'd think that he's going at Peter. Classic Jameson, right? But then he casually stops to give Peter a friendly greeting and goes back to yelling and storming across the office, to which we see Ben Parker, the managing editor of the Bugle. That's right, UNCLE BEN LIVES.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The radioactive spider Peter gets his powers from completely disappears after receiving his powers. Even after being Spider-Man for nearly a month.
• Worst News Judgment Ever: Invoked by Wilson Fisk, seemingly on the Illuminati's orders, as he tries to strong-arm the Bugle into stop digging into the Stark story and focusing their attention on meaningless fluff pieces. Jonah and Ben quit in protest, while Robbie reluctantly goes along with it for the sake of securing his pension for his family.
• Vigilante Man: Seemingly the Green Goblin of this universe, who has a grudge against Wilson Fisk and seeks to bring him to justice... using explosives.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Tony's revelation of what happened to Peter isn't just telling him that he was supposed to receive powers, but also that as one of the world's most prominent superheroes, he was supposed to inspire its people to be their best selves, painting him as a paragon that the Maker stole from everybody.

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