In this review of Ultimate Spider-Man #9, it’s September in New York as Spider-Man and the Green Goblin face off against Wilson Fisk’s newest hired assassin: Walter Hardy AKA The Black Cat.
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Color Artist: Matthew Wilson
Cover Artists: Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson
Variant Cover Artists: Carmen Carnero, Wes Craig, Anand Ramcheron
Page Count: 28 pages
Release Date: September 25, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers
The Story
Ultimate Spider-Man #9 opens with Ben Parker and J. Jonah Jameson drinking somberly in a New York bar. Despite the look of things, Jameson assures the bartender that they are in fact celebrating the success of their recently created Daily Bugle rival: The Paper. Before long, their PR guru: MJ enters and asks why the long faces. It’s because Jameson’s not happy with their coverage. In the first month, eight of their top ten news stories have been about Spider-Man. The team is afraid that their original intent to cover the smaller, more serious stories that other papers don’t cover is falling to the wayside. MJ assures them that the Spider-Man coverage is what has gained them such a huge reader base in such a short amount of time. Now that they have it, they can tell whatever kind of stories they want.
Over at Oscorp Skunk Works, Otto Octavius has made a firmware update to Harry Osborn’s Goblin suit that severs it from its original Stane/Stark frequency, thus giving him complete freedom. For Peter Parker’s suit, it’s not that simple. The picotech technology remains an enigma for Otto. He’s unable to customize it so instead he creates a new Spider-Man suit from scratch. He calls this suit the “Spider-Armor Mark I” but fans may recognize it more colloquially as the Iron Spider suit. Peter’s not down. For one thing, he’s worried that Otto wants to take possession of his original suit. And for another, the Mark I is stylistically a little over-the-top for his taste.
Back at The Paper HQ, J. Jonah and Ben Parker begin work on the non-Spider-Man story MJ has encouraged them to pursue: an investigation into Stane/Stark technologies.
Finally, Peter and Harry stand on a rooftop talking about holiday plans and Peter’s new suit. Peter’s still not fully satisfied. It’s got the classic look but is essentially just a high tech version of spandex. Don’t ask me how it works. Suddenly, Harry is hit by a beam of energy that causes his suit to freeze up, and the assailant, Black Cat, engages in battle with Spider-Man. Harry’s suit reboots just in time to blast Black Cat off the roof before he can attack Spider-Man from behind, sending him crashing into the concrete below. Peter’s not happy with this outcome. “We’re supposed to be better than that” he opines. Harry insists that he only did what he did to save Peter’s life. They reconcile. Harry’s still invited to Christmas. He’s not coming, but he might get something for Peter’s kids. Something in spandex.
Analysis
This book hasn’t let up since day one. Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto (with a special shoutout to Matthew Wilson) have been knocking it out of the park every month and this is one of the strongest entries yet. Some people have complained that Hickman’s choice to pace the book out monthly in real time has started to hurt its narrative momentum, and while I can see what they’re saying, I don’t fully agree. Unlike other Spidey books that string together to form a more complex intertwined narrative, each issue of Ultimate provides a brief window into these character’s lives. Almost like a series of short stories. They each build on each other, yes, but in a more organic slice of life kind of way akin to Richard Linklater’s 2014 film Boyhood that showed a small segment of every year of a boy’s life as he grew into adulthood. Think that on a much smaller scale, except he’s well into adulthood, and can shoot webs out of his arms…
As for the long desired Parker family dynamic, I’ve seen a mixed reception online for that as well although most people seem to be into it. Count me in that latter category. Nine issues in, Hickman seems to be pretty much sticking to the Gene Roddenberry school of writing: the good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and there’s very little internal conflict therein. This inadvertently lines up with Steve Ditko’s original objectivist version of the character back in his very first run starting in 1962.
On the one hand, I can see how it would get tedious to read scene after scene of all the Parkers hanging out together having a grand ole time. The perfect 50s nuclear sitcom family, with Peter and MJ trading quirky one liners with their ‘too clever for their own’ good freckle-faced kids. On the other hand, when a 35 year old Peter is coming home after being busted up and left for dead in a dumpster by the Shocker, don’t we want to see him come home to a loving and accepting family? And Hickman is so darn good at writing these family dynamics (as long as your tolerance for cutesy cheese is as high as mine is), that it just feels like a warm blanket you can wrap yourself in.
Having said all that, this issue does begin to foreshadow the dissolution of some of Peter’s alliances. We see that Peter is already openly distrusting Otto when he refuses to give him the original Spider-Man suit. Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson notably depict Otto’s face full in shadow here, with only his glowing yellow goggles visible. Of course we know where he’ll likely end up, but this artistic flourish expertly hints at Otto’s ulterior motives without being heavy handed.
The issue’s strongest moment is in the final semi-confrontation between Peter and Harry after Harry’s flagrant disregard for Walter Hardy’s life. The pair have become quite friendly over the last several issues, and this is the first moment to truly challenge their friendship. However, Hickman smartly hints at their conflicting worldviews without making Harry vindictive or unreasonable. He didn’t kill Walter Hardy, he almost did, and only to save Peter’s life. While Peter took special care to subdue Hardy without harming him, and even told him he had no interest in killing him, Harry has no such qualms. As far as we know, both their intentions are in the right place, but Harry just has a less forgiving way of going about it.
Final Thoughts
Half the fun of reading Ultimate comics is filtering our pre-existing knowledge of these characters and their implicit identities, and seeing how they’re impacted by altered circumstances. We know at some point Peter and Harry will become enemies when their ideological differences finally reach a breaking point. This is the beginning of that and boy is it exciting!
