Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Marco Checchetto
Colors: Matthew Wilson
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover: Marco Checchetto & Matthew Wilson
Variant Covers: Mateus Manhanini; David Marquez & Jesus Aburtov; Chris Samnee & Matthew Wilson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: 4.99
Release Date: June 19, 2024
No Drama For Drama’s Sake
Peter’s secret identity was his most closely guarded secret for about five minutes, until his daughter May found out. It was only a matter of time until the rest of the family figured it out. In Ultimate Spider-Man #6 they do. A lot of readers probably think they know how it’s going to go. A lot of readers are probably wrong.
It’s morning in the Parker household in Ultimate Spider-Man #6, and Peter steps out to breakfast sporting a whopper of a black eye. He tries to downplay it only for May to accidentally spill the goods about him playing superhero. By way of explanation for his eye, Peter finally comes clean about being a superhero/vigilante and recounts the recent fight that injured him. Harry and Peter confronted Kingpin and it did not go well. What will be worse for Peter, the beating Kingpin tries to deliver or the response from his family?
Hickman strikes a near perfect balance in Ultimate Spider-Man #6 with how he reveals Peter’s identity to his family. Hickman relies on the idea of an injury forcing Peter’s hand, but it’s not so serious an injury that it terrifies his family. It makes their acceptance of Peter being Spider-Man reasonable while preserving the possibility that a more serious injury down the line could push Mary Jane into a place where she wants Peter to stop. It’s a smart piece of writing–knowing what must be done but not overreaching and precluding future story opportunities.
The fight with Kingpin is surprisingly vicious. The warring expectations for readers are probably that the good guys either barely triumph or get barely defeated–that somehow merely being good makes up for the relative lack of experience. The sequence is more visceral than anything Ultimate Spider-Man has offered to date. It also provides an interesting check on Harry’s ego after two issues where Harry seemed to be ahead of the game when it comes to superheroing. The entire scene creates another avenue for a potential split between Peter and Harry when dialogue makes clear that their views on law and morality might not line up.
Mary Jane’s reaction to Peter’s reveal in Ultimate Spider-Man #6 reads like a payoff of a moment in Ultimate Spider-Man #1. Readers who keyed in on the late conversation between her and Peter likely expected in broad strokes how Ultimate Spider-Man #6 would end. Hickman is probably associated with big picture plots and longform stories more than anything else. And there’s nothing to say that the Ultimate Universe isn’t developing in a specific predetermined way. But for now Hickman is delivering a character-first series that is more interested in diving into these people’s hearts and minds than it is flashy fights.
Parker Smiles, Fisk Punches
Checchetto gives Peter an almost perpetual smile. In all but the most dire circumstances, his emotions are accessible and he looks almost perpetually optimistic. His only slightly downcast expression comes immediately following his recounting of the Kingpin fight to his family. It’s a very minor detail but it’s indicative of a Peter Parker who doesn’t emotionally surrender to hardship easily.
Kingpin is a terrifying mass of a man here. He’s always been imposing, but Ultimate Spider-Man #6 almost reframes the character entirely. Checchetto sells this particularly well in a two page spread of Kingpin attacking Spider-Man. He emphasizes the character’s size with generous shading to add shadow to the huge character.
The fight sequence in Ultimate Spider-Man #6 is outstanding in general. Checchetto is particularly skilled when it comes to these sequences, owing in no small part to attention to body language. Neither hero fares well in the fight against Kingpin, but from first panel to last, Harry looks like the truly arrogant man who has been humbled.
There isn’t a lot of radical color work in this issue. Certainly during the fight there are explosions that are rich in color combination and variation. And Wilson’s own work adding shadow helps emphasize Kingpin’s massive size. But it’s the look of natural early morning light that takes the cake here. The opening panels do show that it’s morning by virtue of a yellow sky and bright sun. Wilson plays that same color on the apartment’s exterior windows and further emphasizes it with very soft interior shadows. The Parker residence feels very warm and welcoming, and that effect helps soften the seriousness of the issue’s big revelation. The comic almost radiates an “it’s going to be okay” feeling at the outset.
Ultimate Spider-Man #6 is a lighter dialogue issue, relatively speaking, but there are still a number of verbose panels and pages. Pettit does his usual good job keeping all the text organized, often confined to the top of panels in relatively art free areas. He isn’t just not obscuring the art, he’s actively avoiding not pulling attention from it. Dialogue bubbles are easily forgotten after being read in most cases, leaving the focus entirely on the issue’s strong art.
Final Thoughts
Readers looking for the predictable drama of a hero unmasking to their family will be disappointed in this issue. Hickman avoids that drama entirely. But he also leaves open any number of story possibilities specifically because he downplays the drama. What appears to make no sense makes a considerable amount of it in this very specific situation, which is the only situation he is addressing. That smart writing and continued good character work combined with Checchetto’s intense action and emotional understanding of these characters makes Ultimate Spider-Man #6 another winner.
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