Ultimate Spider-Man's Triumphant Ending Proves Marvel Canceled The Ultimate Universe Too Soon
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Spoilers for "Ultimate Spider-Man" #24 follow.
"Ultimate Spider-Man" has officially wrapped with issue #24, capping a run written by Jonathan Hickman and co-drawn by Marco Checchetto and David Messina. (For this finale, Checchetto and Messina split the duty and drew different scenes.) This presages the end of Marvel's whole "Ultimate Universe", and while "Ultimate Spider-Man" bows out on a strong note, the series still reads as if it wasn't supposed to end just yet.
It's a simple, uplifting, and victorious ending. Spider-Man defeats Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin, the book's main villain. Peter's son, Richard Parker/Venom, gets the girl (Felicia Hardy/Black Cat), and the Parker family is safe and sound again. Harry Osborn has lost his wife, Gwen Stacy (who, as Mysterio, takes Fisk's place as ruler of Manhattan), but it looks like he'll be able to move on — and Peter will be there to help him.
When Harry asks Peter how he managed to never give up, the issue flashes back years, to when Peter and Mary Jane decided to tie the knot when they found out she was pregnant. That affirms what "Ultimate Spider-Man" was: A book about their marriage, and how they remained partners even as their lives kept taking turns for the weird and worse.
But the ending arrives feeling a bit muted. The announcement that the "Ultimate Universe" would end took the wind out of the whole project, "Ultimate Spider-Man" included. It's important to remember that when "Ultimate Spider-Man" debuted in 2024, it and other "Ultimate" books were hailed as a new genesis for Marvel. DC's competing "Absolute" line looked like a meager attempt to play catch-up. Instead, "Absolute DC" (especially best-selling "Absolute Batman") wound up surpassing "Ultimate Marvel." The decision to end the "Ultimate" initiative meant the early hype never returned.
Ultimate Spider-Man stuck the landing but still feels cut short
Reporting by Popverse suggests that while Jonathan Hickman planned to leave "Ultimate Spider-Man" after issue #24, he was surprised to learn that it would be the end. "Ultimates" writer Deniz Camp also told Popverse there had been discussions to do more.
Indeed, the atmosphere of "Ultimate Spider-Man" #24 isn't finality so much as embracing the new days that life always delivers. Peter's Uncle Ben Parker (reimagined as a journalist) and J. Jonah Jameson have spent the whole run investigating the Kingpin's grip on Manhattan. In this issue, after Fisk's demise, they get to write the last word on him. Retirement, though? Not a chance. This was the end of one story for them, not of the story.
Compare Kingpin's ultimate fate: he loses all his power, but he's not upset. The thought of being knocked down and having to fight his way back to the top? It makes him feel alive... until his rival, Martin Li/Mister Negative, telepathically pushes him to jump to his doom. Fisk's iron will relents, but only after he's dragged Li down with him. Fisk's plans for a fresh start getting usurped by an abrupt end feels reflective of how "Ultimate Spider-Man" is concluding.
What will the legacy of "Ultimate Spider-Man" be? If there was a central flaw, it was the book's gimmick of skipping ahead a month each issue to account for the real-time lapse of publication. In the end, that made it hard for the story to sustain narrative momentum. Now that we've got the complete package, the staying power of "Ultimate Spider-Man" could be defined by how well it reads as a single and uninterrupted story.
The happiest ending in Ultimate Spider-Man is Peter Parker and Harry Osborn
While MJ has Peter's heart, the soul of "Ultimate Spider-Man" is just as much about another crucial relationship: Peter's friendship with Harry Osborn. Here, Harry became the Green Goblin to take down the Kingpin, and so he and Spider-Man became crime-fighting partners.
I read "Ultimate Spider-Man," dreading when Peter and Harry would have their falling out and become enemies. Harry's Goblin suit is also operated by a recreation of his father Norman's personality; would Norman shouting his disappointment in Harry's ear drive Osborn Jr. to evil?
Nope, Harry's dark turn never came. In hindsight, the book may have been banking on those expectations to hide its true twist, lying near Harry: that Gwen Stacy was the ruthless Mysterio. In "Ultimate Spider-Man" #24, Harry decides to delete the Norman-AI from his suit, admitting that it was him living in the past. He was chasing his father's approval, but he doesn't need it. The issue that cemented Peter and Harry's friendship was "Ultimate Spider-Man" #4 (the first one drawn by David Messina), where Harry was the one who told Peter, "With great power comes great responsibility."
In issue #20 (another Messina issue), when the Parkers and Osborns laid their secrets out in the open, MJ said this: "You're a good man, Peter. And you could be too, Harry." In Peter and Harry's last scene (with Messina taking art duties again to bring it full-circle), Harry expresses bemusement but awe at Peter's determined heroism. With Spider-Man as his friend, Harry might truly become the same kind of good man one day.
The one silver lining to "Ultimate Spider-Man" ending now is that there's no chance for the Parker-Osborn bromance to break up.