In 1985, Marvel published the first issue of The Web of Spider-Man. As the third Spider-Man title at the time, it ran for 10 years before the events of the original Clone Saga caused it to be canceled and renamed The Web of the Scarlet-Spider. Is it ironic that we have come full circle?
At first Ultimatum sounded like an awful idea – kill off as many characters in the Ultimate Universe in hopes of shaking things up and bringing readers back to the series that got people interested in Marvel again. To make matters worse, Marvel opted to go with someone other than Brian Michael Bendis to pen the epic disaster series, which was odd in itself as Bendis has done so much for the Ultimate Universe, it should have been up to him to bring it all crashing down around everyone’s head. With the final issue of the Ultimatum series, and all related tie-in issues out, Marvel indeed gets its wish in destroying what took nine years to build.
Shaking things up wasn’t well met with critics, fans, and many running around the Intardwebz, but having finished the saga, I think this event is probably one of the best moves Marvel could have done to the Ultimate Universe.