Ultimate Spider-Man (2024)

*Ultimate Spider-Man*
Ultimate Spider-Man
	Cover of Ultimate Spider-Man #2, with Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Green Goblin (Harry Osborn).
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing
Genre	Superhero;
Publication date	January 2024
No. of issues	12
Main character(s)	Peter Parker / Spider-Man
Creative team
Written by	Jonathan Hickman
Penciller(s)	Marco Checchetto; David Messina;
Letterer(s)	Cory Petit
Colorist(s)	Matthew Wilson
Editor(s)	Wil Moss

Ultimate Spider-Man is an ongoing comic book series about Spider-Man, part of the Ultimate Universe imprint, written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Marco Checchetto. It began publication in January 2024. The series follows an older Peter Parker who becomes Spider-Man for the first time later in life, already a father of two children and married to Mary Jane Watson, as opposed to his early/late teens like in the mainline. The series is part of the new Ultimate Universe timeline, which puts several Marvel characters in a radically altered sociopolitical status quo, including elements of alternate history.^[1]

Plot

"Married with Children" (#1–6)

Following the "Ultimate Invasion" plotline, Peter Parker is a married man living in New York City with his wife Mary Jane "MJ" Watson and his two children Richard and May. His Aunt May has recently died as one of the casualties of a false flag attack orchestrated by the Maker's Council on Stark Tower, with the media framing Tony Stark as a terrorist and the culprit. Stark reveals to Peter that he was supposed to be bitten by a radioactive spider and become a superhero in his youth. He has retrieved the spider and offers Peter a chance to become a hero. Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson and Peter's uncle Ben Parker have resigned from the Daily Bugle over their creative differences to set up their own investigation into a series of apparent assassination attempts on the Daily Bugle's owner Wilson Fisk. Later, Peter reveals his identity as Spider-Man to armored vigilante, the "Green Goblin", who unmasks to show himself as Harry Osborn. Osborn is married to Gwen Stacy who works in PR. As Peter reveals his identity to MJ, she suggests calling himself "Spider-Man".^[2]

"The Paper" (#7–12)

Now friends, Harry Osborn introduces Peter Parker to Dr. Otto Octavius who tells Harry and Peter that their suits are based on Stark/Stane designs and run on the same network, along with Iron Lad - Tony Stark. Meanwhile, the Kingpin and his assistant James Wesley meet with Kingpin's lieutenants Black Cat, Kraven the Hunter, Mister Negative, Mole Man, and Mysterio and discussing the issue with vigilantes Spider-Man and Green Goblin interrupting their plans. J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker launch "The Paper" including their investigation into the different crimes being stopped by Spider-Man and Green Goblin while using former co-worker Robbie Robertson as their inside person. Elsewhere, Otto offers Spider-Man and Green Goblin a way to free themselves from Stark/Stane, only for the pair to be ambushed by Black Cat. During the fight, Black Cat is blasted off the building by Green Goblin and is loaded into an ambulance. Jameson and Ben meet with Wesley in an attempt to arrange a negotiation with his boss. Then they speak to Gwen Stacy about how Stark/Stane was sold off cheap. Later that night while having dinner with Peter's family, Ben speaks to Mary Jane about their meeting with Gwen. Two days later, Harry visits "The Paper" and advises Ben and Jameson not to write the Osborn story. He does cave in on the identity of those who actually killed Harry's parents and Ben's wife while giving them a USB drive about it. Under Harry's advice, they write out the story under the alias of "Ben Reilly" as they begin to run it.^[3]

Publication history

Ultimate Spider-Man is the first ongoing series from the Ultimate Universe imprint, following the Ultimate Invasion miniseries that introduced it. Despite the similar name, it has no relation with the Ultimate Spider-Man comic that ran from 2000 to 2015. The former comic was a reinvention of the Spider-Man character as a teenager still attending school, in contrast with the older character from the main continuity. The new comic uses a similar angle, but makes Spider-Man older instead of younger, and also married and with two kids. Hickman said that he was inspired by the version of the character seen in the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.^[4] Another significant departure is that Uncle Ben, a character that usually dies during Spider-Man's origin story, is alive in the new continuity.^[5] Although Harry Osborn keeps the Green Goblin identity in the new continuity, he is reimagined as a superhero, closer to the classic portrayal of Iron Man.^[6]

Collected editions

#	Title	Material collected	Format	Pages	Released	ISBN
1	Married With Children	Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #1-6	TPB	168	10 Sep 2024	978-1302957292
2	The Paper	Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #7-12	TPB	136	18 Mar 2025	978-1302958282

Reception

Ultimate Spider-Man #1 sold out three times in just two months.^[7] If sales for the comics with the standard cover and alternate covers are taken separately, it got 8 places in the top 10 most sold comics.^[8] User comments in social media praised the arts and plots, and compared it favourably to the main Spider-Man comics.^[7] Those sales are higher than those of Ultimate Invasion and the Ultimate Universe one-shot published before it.^[7] As of March 2024, Ultimate Spider-Man outsold the Spider-Man comics from the main continuity for three months in a row.^[9]