Marvel’s New Ultimate Spider-Man Just Rewrote Everything You Know About Peter Parker

Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe line of comics is here, and Ultimate Spider-Man is the first out of the gate, with some major changes. As previously revealed, Ultimate Invasion scribe Jonathan Hickman and superstar artist Marco Checchetto (Daredevil’s “The Red Fist Saga”) would be the team bringing this new Ultimate Spider-Man to life and with the first issue here their take on teh character has been revealed. In a move that shouldn’t surprise anyone who read , this is a version of Spider-Man unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Full spoilers for Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (2024) will follow!

The biggest thing that this new Ultimate Spider-Man has compared to every other is how he gets his powers, which is to say that he doesn’t have them. Ultimate Invasion saw The Maker totally alter this universe, preventing many heroes from every getting their powers, including Peter Parker. It’s also worth noting that this Earth has its own number designation, Earth 6160, which stands as an inverse of the original Ultimate Universe, designated Earth-1610 (itself a flip on the “main” Marvel continuity, Earth–616).

This version of Peter is also married to none other than Mary Jane, and also has two kids, Richard and May. He remains employed at The Daily Bugle but seemingly as a reporter and not a photographer. Of note about his job though is that, yes, J. Jonah Jameson is still the editor (for now) but the Managing Editor for the paper is none other than…Ben Parker, his uncle. In this world Peter not getting his powers meant that Ben was still alive, but the Ultimate Universe one-shot confirmed that the inverse has now happened and that his Aunt May is dead. May was killed in a terror attack blamed on Tony Stark, but actually carried out by The Maker himself, an event that saw the death of other notable Spider-Man characters, including Norman and Emily Osborn, as a result, Harry Osborn is in charge of Oscorp. 

Only two Spider-Man supervillains make appearances in this issue, debuting on the page before Spider-Man himself. First up is none other than Wilson Fisk, Kingpin, who is revealed to be one of the members of the board of directors for The Daily Bugle (potentially flanked by Bullseye, though unconfirmed). Second is the Green Goblin, whose identity is not revealed, who uses his glider and bombs to blow up Fisk’s car. Though our nature has us assume it’s Harry Osborn, the fact that he carries this out after Fisk forced both JJJ and Ben Parker out of the paper makes his identity a little suspicious.

As the episode ends Peter has a tough talk with Mary Jane, seemingly one of a mid-life crisis, only to reveal that he’s talking about his superhero potential. In a flashback we see that the night before this big issue Peter was given a box containing a message from Tony Stark. This hologram from Iron Lad reveals everything to him, what The Maker did and how superheroes were removed from their world.

“You’re supposed to have a different life, Peter Parker,” Tony’s message tells him. “You were supposed to protect the innocent, save lives and inspire the citizens of this world to be their best selves. An instead, all of that was taken from you. These people stole your future. These people robbed you of your destiny. The question is, do you want it back?”

While holding the contents of the box, a metal sphere, Peter says, “I want it.” It opens up, revealing a tiny vial with, what else, a spider inside it. Tony’s box has given him the tools to become Spider-Man, calling it a “picotech stealth suit” to mask his identity and a “bio-organic catalyst” for his “post-human transformation” aka The Spider. That’s where the issue ends, but this new Spider-Man begins.