In this review of Ultimate Spider-Man #14, Richard Parker makes a new friend while Peter and Harry work to survive Kraven’s subterranean death trap.
Ultimate Spider-Man #14
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Art and Main Cover: Marco Checchetto
Variant Covers: Mahmud Asrar, Carmen Carnero, Gerardo Sandoval
Page Count: 31 pages
Release Date: February 26, 2025
This comic book review contains spoilers
Ultimate Spider-Man #14 begins on a misty New York City rooftop, as fifteen-year-old Richard Parker, borrowing his dad’s black picotech Spidey suit, meets sixteen-year-old Felicia Hardy, also borrowing her father’s old identity: The Black Cat. Felicia tells him all about her dad and her past. Richard shares his name and face but stops short of telling her Spider-Man’s real identity.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles below the New York City streets, Harry and Peter are stuck in Mole Man’s subterranean jungle. They are trying to escape before Kraven can kill them or their families back home. They encounter Mole Man in the woods who helps them by providing “Moloids” or little gremlin creatures to show them to the edge of the jungle. Once they arrive, Peter is ready to leave and save his family while Harry wants to stay and fight. Harry reveals that Otto Octavius has created a system to guarantee his wife Gwen’s safety in the event of his disappearance. Peter’s family has been extended no such protection due to his distrust of Otto.
When they’re almost at the very edge of the course, Kraven unleases hellfire from a Gatling gun and they duck for cover. Peter engages with Kraven and Harry encourages him to take out Kraven for good. He says it’s either going to him or them. Peter refuses as Kraven pulls out a pistol and shoots Harry in the head, killing him. Peter beats Kraven within an inch of his life before Mysterio reminds him that his family is still in danger. He rushes home to MJ and tells her they have to run.
Analysis
Ultimate Spider-Man #14 sees Jonathan Hickman making up for lost time so to speak after he was criticized for some of his talkey actionless issues last year (though not by me, mind you). This issue is almost entirely action, though still almost no Spider-Man to speak of other than a few pages of Richard in the borrowed costume. The moments between Felicia Hardy and Richard are cute although you’d think he’d be smart enough not to reveal his identity so impulsively.
It’s clear that he has a crush on Hardy and probably wants to share in some youthful secret but he’s also knowingly exposing Peter even if he doesn’t go as far as to spell out exactly what’s going on. Anyone with half a brain would be able to put together who Spider-Man is after he refused to say what his dad does. But in terms of supervillains who know Spider-Man’s true identity, Pete’s got bigger fish to fry.
The main plot of Peter and Harry trying to survive in Mole Man’s subterranean version of Jurassic Park while not getting shot by Kraven feels about as far from “Spider-Man” as you can get. And for me that’s kind of a problem. Seeing Peter and Harry ride around a jungle on the back of a saddled velociraptor does nothing for me.
I’ve always had a problem with Kraven using ridiculous weapons to hunt his prey. A Bowie knife is great, a crossbow is fine, even a long rifle I can see, but a Gatling gun? At that point why not just use exploding collars, it’s pretty much the same thing. I’m not sure how much skill it takes to simply graze the landscape with an automatic weapon.
But now we have to talk about the main event. Harry’s dead and I think it’s for real. First, I’ll mention how it’s executed. The death isn’t telegraphed in any major way that I noticed, in fact it’s preceded by a scene we’ve seen countless times. Harry is espousing his view that Kraven should die for what he’s done and to prevent future violence. We expect the scene to either end with Peter refusing to end a life or Harry stepping in to do it himself, thus corrupting him.
However, Hickman misdirects us by not only having Kraven be the one to fire the fatal shot, but leading us to believe that Peter was the one who got shot at first. In fact he was, but since his Spider Sense was never activated he realizes he was not the true target. Then on the following page, we see Harry on the ground with a bullet hole in his forehead. It’s a masterclass on dramatic comic book pacing and storytelling. I did not see it coming, and it’s sure to be a fascinating inversion of the classic death of Gwen Stacy from Gerry Conway’s legendary run.
The ending itself feels somewhat rushed after Harry’s death. Peter beats Kraven to a bloody pulp but stops when Mysterio reminds him of his family potentially being at risk. Peter then leaves without dealing with Kraven whatsoever. Mysterio indicates that he has some business with Kraven but while he’s incapacitated I don’t see why Peter doesn’t get him to the NYPD or restrain him in some type of way other than just leaving him free to hunt down the rest of his friends and family. We don’t see how Peter gets back home and his plan is simply to run from the man he just left free to chase him.
Despite all that, I will say “‘Peter, what are we going to do?’ ‘We run.’ To Be Continued…” goes hard.
Artist Marco Checchetto and colorist Matthew Wilson do great work as usual. The prehistoric jungle is realized with the same visual aplomb that we’re used to from the usual concrete jungle setting. The page of Richard and Felicia talking in front of the NYC sunset breaks up the action in a nice way and I’ve already praised the staging of Harry’s death. I love the way the gold and red of the forest fire start to consume all the colors after he’s shot. The panel showing all the Miloids that Kraven slaughtered for information is also a great horror movie image.
Final Thoughts
Jonathan Hickman takes Ultimate Spider-Man in a shocking new direction in Ultimate Spider-Man #14. Despite some narrative issues, this is not an issue you will want to miss.
