Ultimate Comics: Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #4
DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN: Part Four
Writer: Mark Millar
Layouts: Leinil Yu
Finishes: Stephen Segovia & Leinil Yu
Inkers: Gerry Alanguilan with Jason Paz & Jeff Huet
Colorists: Sunny Gho
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover: Leinil Yu & Sunny Gho
Variant Cover: Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary & Paul Mounts
Spidey is caught in the crossfire of the Avengers/ New Ultimates brawl! So what happened right after the conclusion to both Ultimate Spider-Man #157 and Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #3? Check out the review for the answer.
The Mission
Spider-Man is being looked after by Captain America while Nick Fury questions the Punisher about what the hell happened. Frank explains that he didn’t mean for it to happen and was only aiming at Cap’s knee-caps to maim him. After asking if he can do anything to help, Fury is shot in the shoulder and the area is quickly swarmed with S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Frank demands to be punished for what he did but only gets a rifle across the face to shut him up. Fury and Frank are cuffed while Cap picks up Spidey and even though Spidey is confused as to why Cap isn’t giving him crap for not listening to him earlier, Cap tells him that when Peter grows up he’ll be, “the best out of all of us”. 
Soon enough the bridge is smashed right down the middle by War Machine; everyone falling into the water below except for Spider-Man who clings to the road with one hand. As War Machine beats Cap underwater Peter wall crawls up to safety before holding his side in pain, wishing that this will all be over soon.**
** Check out Brian Bradley’s review for Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #158 to see where our young web slinger swings off to next **
Back underwater Thor dives in and lays the smack down on War Machine, saving Cap. Back in Midtown Blade knocks out the new Black Widow and runs from Giant Man before Iron Man smashes the Daywalker into the ground. Director Carol Danvers wakes up and calls for backup before getting hit by a NYPD police cruiser, injuring her pretty badly. With Nick Fury in custody and Carol Danvers unconscious and potentially brain-damaged, Gregory Stark has been appointed as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D for the time being. Gregory informs the President that both Carol and Fury could be behind trading secrets and super soldiers to foreign countries.
Back at Tony Stark’s penthouse; a while later; after throwing up in his washroom Stark asks Thor if he remembered their arrangement. Apparently before Tony ended up in the hospital Thor promised that if the God of Thunder started to speak in proper English and not in Norse God speech from now on that Stark would donate ten million dollars to charity. Anyway… the group talks about the recent events with Fury being taken into custody and that now the black ops Avengers are feeling pretty stupid after seeing the “evidence”. Cap also informs that he hasn’t heard anything on Spider-Man since the bridge collapsed. Even though it doesn’t look good for Fury, Monica believes that he’s being set up.
On the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier hovering over the city, Fury looks on and admires the old days when Hank Pym had the idea of a flying aircraft carrier while Gregory Stark and two agents watch him. Fury knows that Gregory is the person who set him up which Gregory admits. Explaining that it has always been a competition between Tony and him since they were young, he decided that since Tony became a super-hero he would become “the man who tells the super heroes what to do”. After trading super soldier secrets to the foreign countries he knows that will end up in chaos and when that happens he will step in and win. He will become the best Director of S.H.I.E.L.D the world will have ever seen, having Triskelions stationed in every capital city across the globe. Even though Fury likes the way Gregory is thinking he tells him that he isn’t the only one who has a grand plan in all of this. The S.H.I.E.L.D agents shoot Fury, leaving him a bloody mess. (Literally speaking)
Thoughts in General
I’m just going to pull out a bag, mix the good with the bad, and shake it all together for this one gang.
I’m glad that we finally got to see Spider-Man appear in this mini. It was about time that he appeared in a book that is listed as a Death of Spider-Man tie in. I liked the continuity that appeared here between Cap and Spidey where the Star-Spangled Ultimate told the young man to stay out of this back in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #156.
The moments with Cap and Spidey were written pretty well in my opinion. Even though Spidey put his life on the line to save the WWII hero, the web slinger still thinks that Cap must think he’s an idiot. In the past months; since UC Spider-Man #150 to be exact; we know that Cap believes that Peter shouldn’t be doing this and hang up the costume. Here you see otherwise as Cap tells Peter he’s going to be the best out of all of them. It just adds the dramatic conclusion to Death of Spider-Man where Peter Parker may not actually make it out alive. That’s what I like about Death of Spider-Man mainly so far: we don’t know for sure if Peter is going to survive. This is the Ultimate Universe and here, “there are no rules”.
The action isn’t as long as it is in the last issue but I’m fine with that. We needed to get past the whole “EPIC BATTLE OF THE AVENGERS VERSUS THE NEW ULTIMATES! ZOMG!” Yes, I added that at the end. We all know there are people out there who are saying something along those lines.
Carol Danvers getting hit by a car… is it wrong for me to like and dislike it at the same time? On one hand its Ultimate Carol Danvers and she just irritates me. I couldn’t help but give a soft laugh when I saw those few panels. On the other hand what the heck, random much? Of all the ideas that could have been thought up we took the road, the very same road, which ends up hitting Director Danvers in the end? This is how we’re going to sideline her for the next issue or two? Come on.
The reveal that Gregory Stark has been the guy who set up Nick Fury kind of seemed like it was left field for me. I didn’t get why he would be the person who’s been pulling everyone’s strings. And his reason for doing so; if Tony builds a car he has to build a rocket, Tony becomes a millionaire he has to become a billionaire. His idea is that since Tony is part of the super-hero community he wants to be in charge of it. This idea just seems pretty stupid in all honesty.
Thor now changing the way he talks… really? Personally this seems like laziness to me. If this is an idea of how to make Ultimate Thor different from 616 Thor congrats, you’ve altered the way he talks. That part in the issue just seemed to have come out of completely nowhere and felt like it was taking up space. So Thor sold the way he talks… does that make any sense to you?
I feel there was also a missed opportunity here to see some interaction between Nick Fury and Spidey. We haven’t actually seen those two talk to one another much since the Ultimate Clone Saga and in this case, I would have liked to have seen it here.
The Ultimate
You’d think I’d say this would go towards the big reveal but I’m not going to give it. With the lack of Fury/Spidey dialogue I really enjoyed the Cap/Spidey interaction. It looks like it will help set up what’s going to be happening in the reboot series. But yeah, the moment for me was Cap holding a bleeding Spider-Man in his arms.
Rating
This issue was very “meh”. The writing had its ups and downs, the artwork was still alright though in some scenes it was hit and miss. 3 out of 5 NYPD cruisers driving into Director Carol Danvers. How many times does the lady have to get hit in one day??
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You do have a point there Naomi. It’s been so long since I’ve heard Thor speak proper English (I believe it may have been Ultimates 2 actually and then once Loeb joined the Ultimate Universe he changed).
I personally didn’t like how it was solved but then again I didn’t like how it all started. I’m glad that between Millar and Hickman that they managed to make Thor come back to his originality in the Ultimate Universe. One thing I have noticed when reading/reviewing this mini is that Thor almost strikes a similiar resemblance to Thunderstrike in the regular 616 Universe. Just look at some of his panels and you’ll know what I mean.
To explain why there was the mention of Thor’s talking:
In the Ultimate universe, Thor always talked like a normal person and not in a faux Shakespearean tone. Then Leob wrote Ultimates 3 and he suddenly began talking like 616 Thor with the only explanation being a single line saying that he was faking talking like a normal person before. So Millar wrote that scene to explain why Thor has switched back to his old speech again.
And thank goodness Millar is writing Ultimate Thor properly, Loeb seemed to almost go out of his way to make the Ultimate characters as much like their 616 versions as possible when he held his reign of terror over the books. On a similar note, Loeb’s also the reason Thor now uses his 616 hammer rather than his much more impressive one from the original two Ultimates books.
I love how Tony shoots down the idea that he could be Director of SHIELD and lists the reasons why he wouldn’t get the job. Especially since Millar was the one who wrote 616 Tony into that corner during Civil War
@DMayor – I guess it makes sense for Gregory to do it but his reason for doing so I find stupid personally. Its in his character obviously if one has read the first Ultimate Avengers mini but still. I do agree with you about Carol though, she kind of had it coming heheheheh… -AHEM-. 🙂
@Brian – Thanks. And yeah Gregory Stark is Tony’s older brother by about a minute or so. Even at birth they were at competition with one another.
Oh yeah, and I may have missed this at some point… Gregory Stark… brother of Tony then?
Nice, definitely helped fill me in on why no one was around when Spidey came to. I love it when Cap acknowledges that Spidey is the best out of all the heroes. Kind of like in OMIT when Tony admitted that Peter deserved their help in fixing the issue because he was the best of all of them. Cause he really is, how many other teenagers would be out there risking their lives like he does. Good stuff…
I was going to try to get the latest New Avengers review up tomorrow after work, but now that you set me up so nicely (and because I find the latest NAs issue so irritating) I guess I’ll go ahead and get my latest Ultimate Spidey review up.
Good review!
I’m actually enjoying this crossover. When they first introduced Gregory Stark, it screamed “next major villain”. He was everything Tony was but better in Fury’s eye. That was bound to come back and bite him in the @$$. Thor changing the way he talks doesn’t really bother me. He’s kind of a “hippy” in the ultimate universe. He’ll change back to get more money out of Tony : ). Danvers getting hit by car was a good thing. I wish it happened sooner.