Ultimate Comics: Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #6 – Review

So were finally here, the final issue that ties into the Death of Spider-Man. But does this issue actually do any justice? Who lives? Who dies? All this and the news of Spider-Man’s demise is finally heard.

Ultimate Comics: Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #6

DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN: Part Six

Writer: Mark Millar

Layouts: Leinil Yu
Finishes: Leinil Yu & Stephen Segovia
Inkers: Gerry Alanguilan, Jeff Huet, Jason Paz & Leinil Yu
Colorist: Sunny Gho
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover: Leinil Yu & Sunny Gho

*Note – This review was written BEFORE reading Ultimate Fallout #1*

The Mission
The Ultimates and Avengers fight Spider and the super human army backing him up. Gregory is informed that the Ultimates have engaged his agents in North Korea and decides to teleport there, abandoning Fury on the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. Back in North Korea as the Spider has the upper hand on the Punisher, Hawkeye smashes him into the ground with a good chunk of pavement, killing him. Gregory appears in the middle of the fight and snatches Thor’s hammer when it’s thrown to him. Gregory starts to lay down the smack down on the Ultimates and Avengers until Tony activates his electromagnetic pulse in his suit, taking out every piece of electronics in a ten mile radius, Gregory’s equipment included.

With fifteen seconds to take him down, Thor strikes Gregory down with a blast of lightning, killing him. Tony flips a bit at Thor as he meant he wanted someone to knock him out, not kill his own brother. Back at the White House, the president is informed that during the North Korea incident that Iran had a little revolution of their own. Fifty freedom fighters with super human drugs led thousands of rebels to storm the government and managed to execute the party leader. On the plus side, a rogue state was neutralized and a pro-western caretaker government was installed in its place.

Couple days later Nick Fury and Carol Danvers are having lunch together when Fury informs her that Spider-Man was murdered and blames her for letting things get out of control. With the possibility that she could have accidently started World War III, the president expects her to resign from S.H.I.E.L.D Director. Monica; the new Black Widow; is at her apartment typing an email to Fury about thanking him for making her his second in command and replacement for leading the Avengers Black Ops division. She continues on that Frank and Blade got what they were promised in the end and hopes that this entire thing wasn’t just a way for Fury to come back as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

At the New Triskelion, Fury is talking with a General on the phone saying that Iran can keep the old Triskelion as a gesture of good will. After he’s done speaking he hangs up and says, “Daddy’s home, boys. Hoo-ha.” Nick Fury is back on top.

Thoughts in General
Getting the art out of the way first, Leinil Yu continues to do a decent job on each of the panels and displays each battle scene throughout the issue in a great way. There are a few moments where there are too many lines added on the faces but it’s just a little nitpick.

The final issue of Death of Spider-Man barely ties into, well, Death of Spider-Man. Yes Peter does of course get mentioned in the book but again it feels as though there was potential and Mark Millar passed it up.

I have to admit when Gregory was killed by Thor and seeing the God of Thunder’s facial expression compared to Tony’s was funny. I don’t know if it’ll be brought up in Hickman’s run but just seeing those panels was hilarious. I can’t even say if Millar was being serious and it came off stupid or if he intended it to be funny but I did laugh on the inside nonetheless.

It looks as though the events that occurred in Iran may be brought up in Hickman’s upcoming series which I guess I’m fine with. In all honesty I didn’t care much with what was happening with Captain Britain but hopefully Hickman peaks my interest.

Carol Danvers getting kicked off her chair and being replaced by Nick Fury… awesome. Always hated her, wish she would have stayed in the hospital but it was nice to see some closure between the two of them. Hopefully she gets lost as she walks out the door.

After reading the bit with Monica emailing Fury it does bring up the question, everything worked out well for the reinstated Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. If you’ve read the first arc of Ultimate Avengers you know at the end Fury stated he wanted to get his old job back, no matter what it took. Well he got it with Carol Danvers screwing up. Gregory manipulated her, the heroes fought one another under her watch and Spider-Man; a 16 year old high school student; died.

I’ve been asked this already on the Ultimate Spider-Man #160 recording but I’ll say it here again. Brian Bradley asked me what is the reason to this mini (I believe it was something along those lines) and I said that in every confrontation Peter has ever had with Norman he’s had help. He’s had S.H.I.E.L.D backing him up every time Osborn threatened him or someone he cares for. This time no one was there to really help him. Yes he had Johnny Storm and Bobby Drake but they didn’t exactly “team up” with him. Peter had to fight Norman on his own and the result was he died saving the people he loved.

The Ultimates and the Avengers should be feeling real bad about letting a teenager who was shot just wonder off and not go looking for him. I want to also say that Nick Fury’s reaction to Peter’s death did suck. I expect the guy to at least feel bad about what happened considering MJ told him Peter looked up to him like a role model back in the Clone Saga arc. There was no emotion in this issue over Peter’s death, just all out action. Hell, the cover had more emotion and what you see on the cover never happened.

But I haven’t read Ultimate Fallout #1 as I type this review because I didn’t want to change my overall opinion on this single issue.

Rating
This issue was alright. Again, not Millar’s best but I’ve defiantly read worse. I do hope in Ultimate Fallout that we see a better aftermath for the Ultimates. 3 out of 5 lightning strikes.  

Overall this mini deserves a 3 out of 5 torn Spidey masks. This book really had nothing to do with Spider-Man even though it was labeled as a tie in to Death of Spider-Man. It’s an alright story and if you’re interested in the upcoming Ultimates book by Jonathan Hickman, pick this up when the trade comes out. Besides that you really didn’t miss much if you only read Ultimate Spider-Man except for the bridge scene. Now if you excuse me, I’ve got to go read Ultimate Fallout #1 and review that too.