Over a year in now it would be easy for the bloom to be off the rose with Marvel’s new Ultimate Spider-Man, but series scribe Jonathan Hickman continues to find ways that reinvent what we know while also pushing things into exciting new directions. The formula that has worked for this series from the beginning is still what is keeping this series trucking into exciting and weird areas. It’s simple, Hickman continues to take what we know, or think we know, about Spider-Man and puts him in places that the mainline comic series can simply never go. In addition, the lingering shadow of this entire universe and its threatening aura deliver are still delivering the most exciting and fresh superhero comic in ages.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Picking up a month out from the shocking conclusion of the previous issue, the Parkers are on the run, and they’re far from the streets of New York. Having befriended others living on the road in their RVs, Peter is in a weird place not only as an active superhero but a husband and father. Tack on to all this the wrinkle of Richard also learning the ropes of being a different kind of Spider-Man (including his own potential romance with a villain), and there’s a baseline for the title hero that Marvel has just never had.
David Messina steps in once again as the guest artist for Ultimate Spider-Man, now his fifth issue across the entire series. Messina does good work in bringing his own style to the series but in still channeling the designs and layouts that Marco Checchetto has been utilizing from the start. It’s a fine line to walk, but it works, one that gives fidelity to the entirety of Ultimate Spider-Man’s visual palette but also allows Messina to shine as his own kind of artist.
[RELATED: Ultimate Spider-Man Has Marvel’s Best Love Story (and It Doesn’t Involve Peter Parker)]
Messina makes this work because of the specific beats that Hickman has given him in the issue. Not only do we have to catch up with the Parkers and their new status quo, but the specific intricacies of Peter and Richard acting as heroes together. This leads into what might be one of the most classically “Spider-Man” instances of the entire series, the reveal and remixing of a classic villain out in the desert. It’s not only a well staged action sequence by Messina, but Hickman uses this entertaining set piece as a motif to continue enriching the characters of Peter and Richard. After the death of Harry, Peter is feeling wayward in how he approaches this side of his life, and it shows both in the writing and art. Shout out to color artist Matthew Wilson here as well who gives a distinct pop to both Spider-Man in what could be a drab setting, making them feel like living heroes.
As he’s done in previous issues, Messina also manages to take the very plot heavy scenes in Ultimate Spider-Man and keep things visually interesting even as we bask in balloon after balloon of dialogue. The final act of the issue is one that carries a lot of weight for the entire series but there’s hardly an onomatopoeia to be found or even a punch thrown, but Messina’s art keeps us glued to the page as we look for any kind of clue with the characters about what’s going to happen next. It’s masterful stuff.
Ultimate Spider-Man has been THE comic for a time, and it would have been easy to predict that over a year later it might have fallen off. But what’s clear is that Jonathan Hickman is still as confident about his material and clear on its direction as he was in issue one. The strength of this series is that it’s making us reconsider our own preconceived notions and challenging the status quo of a major superhero’s story, and that’s something Marvel comics have been incapable of for some time.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Published by Marvel Comics
On March 26, 2025
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by David Messina
Colors by Matthew Wilson
Letters by VC’S Cory Petit
