Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman vol. 1: Married With Children
The original run of “Ultimate Spider-Man,” written entirely by Bendis, with the majority of it illustrated by Mark Bagley, a decent chunk by Stuart Immonen, and still smaller chunks from Davids Lafuente and Marquez, managed a really cool trick. That would be being really good for a really long time. It managed to frequently surprise the reader as it reinvented and updated familiar characters and tropes over its storylines and showed that a consistent creative team(s) could do wonders for maintaining the quality of a series over the course of its run. The series even managed to change out its main character after a certain point to reap even more creative rewards both inside and outside the medium.
All good things (that no longer sell as well as they used to) must come to an end, and “Ultimate Spider-Man” reached its after the best bits of the Ultimate Universe were folded into the mainline Marvel Universe following “Secret Wars.” That being said, Marvel has never met a once-successful concept that they didn’t want to relaunch after a certain amount of time has passed. Which is why we’re getting a brand-new Ultimate Universe showrun by Jonathan Hickman who is also writing the latest incarnation of its once-flagship title.
To the writer’s credit we’re getting something much more with this series than the, “What if Spider-Man was created today?” setup that the original series launched with. In this “Ultimate Spider-Man,” Peter Parker is a reasonably successful, middle-aged photojournalist who works for the Daily Bugle. He’s married to MJ and they both have two kids, teenager Richard and little May, and everything looks to be going well for them by all outward appearances.
Except something’s been bothering Peter. Over the course of the first issue we find out that he’s not quite happy with the life that he has. That he feels he was meant for something more and that just hasn’t happened yet. While we all know what he’s missing, he doesn’t find out until a nighttime visit from a holographic projection of Tony Stark fills him in on it and provides him with the means to receive it. Peter Parker’s life has now changed irrevocably, and now he has to figure out what to do with it.
The way Hickman has the title character do that is something I feel conflicted about. It all ties into the way the writer has set up this version of the Ultimate Universe as one that was orchestrated by the Maker who has parceled out the world into fiefdoms under the secret control of superpowered individuals of his choosing. Peter quickly finds himself caught up in the struggle to topple one of the local overlords while realizing that he may be out of his depth here.
Having Spider-Man caught up in a global conspiracy to topple the secret rulers of the world doesn’t really feel like a “Spider-Man” story to me. It’s not that you can’t have the character do that, but I think it works better when he’s doing it while helping out the Avengers. He’s always felt best when he’s dealing with local concerns in his home city, and while this first volume is still focused very much on these things, the concern that things are going to spiral out of control feels real here.
On the other hand, having a large threat to take on does give the story a large degree of focus and momentum. Everything about these six issues is focused on Peter’s growth as a superhero while naturally escalating the nature of the threat he faces. There isn’t any downtime as every character interaction, including an issue-length dinner with MJ and a couple of new friends, feels like its feeding into the overall story Hickman wants to tell. It works and by the end of the volume I was very much invested in seeing where things were going to go for Peter next.
Scratch that – Peter and his friends and family. Even though the title “Ultimate Spider-Man” implies this is a solo hero book, the supporting cast adds a lot of charm and surprise to the book. It’s really nice seeing that Peter has a good relationship with MJ and his kids, and they’re all willing to support each other in the way that feels genuinely refreshing. More surprising, however, is J. Jonah Jameson’s relationship with Peter as it feels like it’s based on mutual affection and respect without softening the former’s notoriously curmudgeonly demeanor. This is likely due to how Jameson’s longtime relationship with… a certain someone close to Peter is established here. The identity of this character is best left up to the reader to find out for themselves, but seeing the two of them work out their new life plans with genuine vigor is one of the most enjoyable things about this volume.
I could go on about all of the other surprises in this volume as a result of its cast. Harry Osborne’s surprisingly meaty role and how it represents a potential anomaly in Stark’s Anti-Maker agender. Gwen Stacy’s appearance, her corporate ambitions, and her current husband. The Shocker’s surprisingly competent appearance. Who actually drops the “With great power…” line. There are just a lot of little things to appreciate in Hickman’s reinvention of the Spider-mythos here.
Yet if there’s one thing that I appreciated most here, it’s the writer’s refusal to engage in petty drama. What do I mean by that? Things like how Peter’s home life with his wife and kids is actually good and not one where his wife doesn’t love him or his kids don’t respect him. That Peter is shown to be good at his job. That when people find out about his secret identity, it doesn’t lead to “Why did you keep this from me?” shouting matches, but new storytelling possibilities. That kind of petty drama. Peter has plenty on his plate with going after the secret powers of the world and it feels great that Hickman has chosen not to overload the character’s plate with trivial concerns like these.
Then we come to the art, and it’s pretty solid thanks to the work of Marco Checchetto and David Messina. Checchetto is the primary artist on this title, illustrating four of the six issues here, including the first three. He’s got a grounded, detailed style that I’ve loved seeing in other titles like “Obi-Wan & Anakin” and “Daredevil” and that remains true here. New York looks impressively gritty under his pencils while his characters convey the emotions in the story quite well. His Peter is appreciatively scruffy, while Harry has a friendly-yet-sinister vibe about him, and his Kingpin is as intimidatingly malevolent as you’d hope.
Messina’s style doesn’t have the same grit to it. His is a cleaner one that also feels detail-oriented, and consistent with Checchetto’s in that regard. The man also gets less conventional superhero material to illustrate in his issues as he gets to give us that issue-length dinner conversation I mentioned earlier, as well as a lengthy flashback illustrating Harry’s backstory. Both are good and they leave me with no concerns about seeing Messina alternate with Checchetto as this title goes on.
Which I hope it does for a good long while. I’m a little concerned about seeing whether or not the scale of the story Hickman is telling here scales up to the point where it doesn’t feel like a “Spider-Man” story here. Yet he gets so much right with this new take on the character that I really want to see him deliver a tale that manages to balance its epic ambitions with its intimate character details. Will this wind up being the ultimate “Ultimate Spider-Man” story? I’d say there’s at least a chance of that being the case after this first volume.