In this review of Ultimate Spider-Man #10, it’s October in New York as Ben Parker and J Jonah Jameson team up for some investigative journalism.
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: David Messina
Color Artist: Matthew Wilson
Cover Artists: Marco Checchetto
Variant Covers: Bengal, Ben Harvey
Page Count: 28 pages
Release Date: October 16, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers
The Story
Ultimate Spider-Man #10 picks up with Ben Parker and J. Jonah Jameson taking a coffee fueled road trip to Long Island to confront Wilson Fisk’s business attorney: Mr. James Wesley at his private golf club. They present him with paperwork showing the sale of Stane/Stark to a series of offshore companies, complete with Mr. Wesley’s signed approval. He doesn’t bite, and instead signals club security to remove the pair from the clubhouse. Dead end
A week later at Paper HQ, Jonah finds something interesting. Through a series of convoluted sales, resales, and asset distributions, it turns out Oscorp Industries owns a key stake in Stane/Stark. The following week, Ben and Jonah attend a meeting at Oscorp HQ with none other than Gwen Stacy, the very benefactor who is responsible for The Paper’s inception. When confronted with the evidence they’ve gathered, she demands her money back. Another dead end.
Later at the Parker residence, little Richard beats his dad (Peter) at chess while Ben and MJ talk shop in the kitchen. It turns out Gwen reached out to MJ to ask when they’re running their Stane/Stark-Oscorp exposé. MJ’s also concerned about funding if Gwen pulls out since she doesn’t have advertisers lined up yet. Ben informs her that the story is the story. It’s happening. And she has one week.
Two days later, who shows up at The Paper HQ but the heir and golden child of Oscorp Industries himself: Harry Osborn. His unannounced appearance isn’t surprising to Ben and Jonah, in fact they took bets on it (Jonah won). He asks them hat-in-hand not to publish their Oscorp story. They say they’re not writing an Oscorp story, but they think Oscorp bought Stane/Stark to access the old Iron Man technology. They think Oscorp threw a new coat of paint on the tech to create the Green Goblin, and they think either Harry or Gwen is the person under the suit.
Harry activates the suit’s arms, revealing that it’s him (Jonah loses that bet). Ben and Jonah insist that they aren’t writing an exposé on the Green Goblin either, but they want to know why Wilson Fisk sold the company that’s being used to destroy him. It turns out Fisk doesn’t realize what he sold them.
Harry hesitates and asks the pair sincerely, “Peter says I can trust you. Can I trust you?” Yes. So Harry hands them a flash drive with a rabbit hole showing who is actually responsible for the attack on New York City that killed Harry’s dad and Ben’s wife. It shows who made the world the way it is, the secret council that’s behind it, Fisk’s involvement, everything. It’s too much. It’s too dangerous to publish under their own names. But the public must know. So they use an alias: Ben Reilly.
Analysis
“It’s funny, I came thinking I was going to have to stop you by any means necessary… or to help you get to the bottom of things… I thought the latter would be easier, but now I’m scared to give it to you.” – Harry Osborn
Jonathan Hickman, you’ve done it again. You wildman. You crazy son of a gun. When I first read Ultimate Spider-Man #4, I thought it was one of the best and boldest comics I’d read all year. Just think of it, the fourth issue of the most popular current Spider-Man series, and Spider-Man doesn’t make a single appearance. Twenty eight pages of Peter, MJ, Gwen, and Harry talking over dinner with not a whiff of action in sight.
I knew the response was going to be mixed, and sure enough, it was. People either loved it or hated it. Well here he does it again with an All The President’s Men-inspired investigative journalism tale inside the corrupt world of Marvel Comics’ NYC. And save for trading a couple friendly jabs about chess with Richard, Peter’s barely makes an appearance.
I expect this issue will prove to be just as controversial as the aforementioned mentioned Ultimate Spider-Man #4, but I will spend most of this review commending both Marvel and Hickman for being so willing to experiment with the form. And on a top selling book, no less! At this point I’ve fully bought into Ben and Jonah’s buddy-cop (buddy-reporter?) patter, even if they’re more Starsky and Hutch than Woodward and Bernstein. Does that make Harry ”Deep Throat”? And as for the lack of action, I’m way more surprised by its absence than anything an action panel could’ve shown me. I’m not even mad that we got clickbaited with the sweet front cover homage to Amazing Spider-Man #39.
Harry still seems to be struggling with the burgeoning violent impulses that were hinted at last issue when he says he hopes that Peter will forgive him for what he’s about to do, and mentions that he thought he might have to stop Ben and Jonah “at all costs.” Luckily it didn’t come to that. But I’m sure one day it will.
There were several times that Hickman’s dialogue nearly gave me chills, not least of which the quote I included at the top of this section. I’m sure I’ll sound like a broken record praising the art every week but fill-in artist David Messina as well as colorist Matthew Wilson kill it here. Messina’s tag-in is so seamless, I was actually convinced Marco Checchetto drew this issue until I went back and checked the credits. I had to rewrite this portion as a result. And the density of the narrative is such that most pages utilize a nine-panel grid. That’s A LOT of drawing.
The only drawback with Ultimate Spider-Man #10 I can possibly think of is that this is not an issue (or run for that matter) that I can see a 10 year old burgeoning comic fan getting hooked on the way the original Bendis Ultimate run was. But as an adult comic reader, I couldn’t be happier.
Final Thoughts
Hickman and Messina knock it out of the park here with another bold and unexpected issue with Ultimate Spider-Man #10. If you’re at all a fan of the medium, ignore the detractors. This is something truly special.
Editor’s Note: Marvel Comics provided The Comic Book Spot with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support us in the process by ordering this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
