Jonathan Hickman Continues His Inspired Spins on Old Spider-Man Classics

This review contains some spoilers for Ultimate Spider-Man #9, on sale now, from Marvel Comics

For years, one of the easiest pop culture jokes was to simply point out a convention of superhero comics and, like, that would be the entire joke. The most infamous example was the absurd “What, would you prefer yellow spandex?” line from the first X-Men film, which bizarrely was included by the filmmakers as what they felt would be an Easter Egg for comic book fans (“See? We know Wolverine wears yellow in the costume! We’re acknowledging that fact! By mocking it, but, well, at least we’re acknowledging it!”). A much more difficult thing to do, however, is to get us to re-examine certain accepted parts of comic book mythos from a NON-cynical, “Ha, ha, isn’t it so dumb that Superman wears underwear on the outside of his pants?” position. That is what Jonathan Hickman is excelling at in his continually fascinating Ultimate Spider-Man series with the great Marco Checchetto.

Ultimate Spider-Man #9 is from Hickman, Checchetto, colorist Matthew Wilson, and letterer Cory Petit, and it follows up the introduction of the Sinister Six with Spider-Man and Green Goblin (Harry Osborn) being attacked by the Black Cat. The fight brings up a couple of fascinating new spins on some major aspects of Spider-Man’s background in a really clever way, while meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker’s journey into newspaper publishing is also an intriguing new spin on classic Spider-Man comic book concepts.

Can you imagine J. Jonah Jameson ever NOT wanting pictures of Spider-Man?

One of the regular subplots in the series has been the quest by Ben Parker (in this universe, since Peter Parker wasn’t bitten by the radioactive spider, Ben was never killed. However, before the series launched, a number of New Yorkers were murdered in a terrorist attack used to frame Tony Stark in the eyes of the world as a terrorist, and one of the victims was May Parker) and J. Jonah Jameson to form their own newspaper after they both quit the Daily Bugle.

Well, their newspaper (titled The Paper) has become a major success, but the twist is that their most popular articles by FAR are their articles about Spider-Man (complete with awesome photos taken by Peter Parker), and both Ben and Jonah are struggling with the idea that their success has been driven by these sensationalist Spider-Man stories. This, of course, is a twist on the fact that in the original continuity, J. Jonah Jameson was ALL about Spider-Man stories. Here, though, we see the downside of having success for something less intellectual than the work they WANT to be known for. It’s a very striking discussion, but Mary Jane explains to them why they are being unreasonable (as the success of the Spider-Man stories ALLOWS them to do the OTHER stories, including looking into the supposed Stark terrorisdt attack, something that the owners of the Daily Bugle wanted stopped, since the owner, Wilson Fisk, is in league with the villains who are trying to frame Stark).

Marco Checchetto uses his visual literacy for some clever and subtle hints towards the future

In an excellent piece of visual hinting, Checchetto alludes to Otto Octavius’ destiny by showing him standing in front of some cables, which are meant to evoke his Doctor Octopus arms. It’s such a nice little, subtle bit. One of the problems that Spider-Man and Green Goblin have is that since their suits are based on Stark technology, Tony Stark can track them anywhere they go, so they try for a solution, but in the end, the solution for Spider-Man is to go to a VERY low tech costume, which is basically the classic Spider-Man story. It was a roundabout way to get here, and it is so clever to introduce the classic costume AFTER a number of issues with a high-tech costume.

In a battle with one of the members of the Sinister Six, we get to see two new twists on the Spider-Man mythos. First, the introduction of Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense, which he obviously doesn’t understand, so it is fun to see it in action. Secondly, and most importantly, is we get to see Spider-Man’s stance on killing. Spider-Man is famously anti-killing, but refusing to kill a bad guy that you’re fighting with is an interesting position that you really don’t get to TEST until you’re actually IN a fight. Hickman challenges our preconceptions about what is actually reasonable when fighting with someone trying to kill YOU. Harry Osborn feels no problem with killing the Black Cat, but Peter disagrees, and what’s funny is that without the history of the character, it IS a tricky concept. It is normal to US, because we know the superhero conventions, but it is harder to describe in a world WITHOUT superhero conventions.

Of course, the differing positions on killing are likely to explain how Spider-Man and Green Goblin will soon be at odds with each other, but in the meantime, it is an interesting ethical debate between two close friends.

Checchetto and Wilson depict the battle with Black Cat beautifully. They really captured well just HOW new Spider-Man is to fighting a supervillain. A couple of issues ago, Wilson Fisk tore Spidey and Green Goblin apart, and now we see just how new these guys are at being vigilantes, especially since Spider-Man won’t kill (which the Black Cat constantly takes advantage of).

The Black Cat’s possible fatal ending suggests that we will soon see his daughter in action as the NEW Black Cat, but that, of course, is a tale for another day. In the meantime, we just have this excellent current chapter in the world of this Spider-Man.