Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man Ends 2024 With Massive Cliffhanger

Ultimate Spider-Man has been killing it for the last year and issue #12 is no different. Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto serve up a rather heartwarming Christmas story, one that brings back obscure Spider-Man characters and redefines them for the Ultimate Universe – in this case Mary Jane’s mother Madeleine and sister Gayle. However, even as things seem to be going perfectly, the family’s long held wounds seemingly healing, a call from Gwen Stacy changes everything for the Parker family and ends the first year of Ultimate Spider-Man on a huge cliffhanger with major ramifications for the next year of the comic book series. Spoilers Ahead!

Gwen’s News Leads to a Horrifying Moment For Mary Jane

Throughout the issue, Gwen Stacy keeps trying to call Mary Jane, and MJ ignores it because of their family holiday party. However, MJ eventually takes the call, with Gwen asking if Peter is there because she needs to talk to both of them. Peter and MJ leave the room and MJ put the call on speaker. Gwen tells the two of them that she’s been out of town for business, came straight home for Christmas, and hasn’t been able to find her husband, Harry Osborn, for six days. She then asks if Peter knows where her husband is.

MJ asks Peter if he heard what Gwen said, but his back is turned to her, staring out over the city skyline. She reaches out to touch Peter’s back and black pico-tech flickers around her fingers. She pulls her hand back and Peter turns around, revealing the horrifying truth.

[Related: Ultimate Spider-Man Reveals SPOILER Knows Peter’s Secret Identity]

Peter Parker isn’t there. Instead, his suit had taken his place. Looking back over the issue, there are some clues that there was something up with Peter. He doesn’t speak at all throughout the issue. At one point, Mary Jane tries to talk to him about the problems with her sister – Gayle once said that Mary Jane was wasting her life marrying Peter – and he doesn’t say anything at all. At first, this just seems like MJ is using him as a sounding board, but with the issue’s revelation, it makes sense – the pico-tech copy’s unique speech bubbles imply that he wouldn’t sound exactly like Peter. The issue ends with the reveal that Kraven the Hunter is holding Peter and Harry hostage and has been for almost a week.

Ultimate Spider-Man #12 Calls Back To The Original Symbiote Saga

Ultimate Spider-Man has been setting this up since issue seven. In that issue, Peter had Otto Octavius, who works for Harry in the Ultimate Universe, set his suit’s AI to be basically him. The suit copied his brain waves and thought patterns, all because Peter only trusted a computer system that was based on his own personality. The pico-tech suit can change whatever it looks like to match the wearer’s specifications, so it would be easy for the suit to copy Peter. With Peter captured – it happened off-panel, using the fact that issue of Ultimate Spider-Man takes place a month after the last one masterfully – the suit could have made a copy of him to go and be with his family, which the suit certainly thinks of as is its family as well.

This mirrors the original symbiote story of the late-’80s. Peter’s symbiotic costume wanted to bond with him and share his life completely. Peter refuses to bond with it, using a church bell to “kill” the symbiote. All of this is what leads to Eddie Brock finding the symbiote and becoming Venom. In fact, Ultimate Spider-Man #12 references the Brock family, with Richard Parker telling Uncle Ben and J. Jonah Jameson that Mr. and Mrs. Brock couldn’t show up to the Christmas party, which they apparently did every year beforehand.

All of this could be leading to Peter rejecting the pico-tech suit when he and Harry escape and the suit finding Eddie Brock, creating Ultimate Venom. Or Hickman could take things in a completely different direction, something the new Ultimate Universe excels at. Regardless of the outcome, this cliffhanger bodes well for the future of Ultimate Spider-Man.