Peter and Harry learn more about their suits, just in time too, because Kingpin is setting plans into motion. Your Major Spoilers review of Ultimate Spider-Man #7 from Marvel Comics, awaits!

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #7

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Wil Moss
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: August 31st, 2024

Previously in Spider-Man #7: Peter Parker, with the help of his friend Harry Osborne, has his first big win under his belt by thwarting Kingpin. But there’s still a lot he doesn’t know about what is going on and what The Maker’s Council has in store.

UPGRADES

Ultimate Spider-Man #7 opens up with Peter being introduced to Otto Octavius by Harry. Otto has been examining both of their suits and has discovered that they’re both capable of handling an A.I. assistant. These A.I.s can be modeled off of anyone they want, Peter chooses himself and Harry chooses his dad. Elsewhere, J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker arrive in a parking garage to meet up with a contact who has info for them. They get the intel, and their informant lets them know that he’s on their side but is going to stay at The Bugle as an insideman. The Kingpin is visited by Monsieur Britain, who says he has a team of agents he’s willing to give Fisk, but he refuses them, saying that he has his own plans in place. Back at Oscorp, Peter and Harry spar and get used to their new AIs, when suddenly their training session is interrupted by an unexpected visitor.

RE-SETTING THE PIECES

It’s not surprising when a new story arc kicks off that the first issue has a slower pace, and Ultimate Spider-Man #7 doesn’t stray from this status quo at all. In fact, the entirety of this issue is concerned with where all the characters are after the events of the last issue. This leads to this comic being weighed down by a massive amount of exposition. Nearly two-thirds of this issue is dedicated to going into the nuts and bolts of the tech that Spider-Man and Green Goblin are wearing. Now that isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of seeds planted here, it’s just none of them sprout in these pages, they’re barely watered. In terms of writing though, it’s clear that Hickman still has the best grasp on how to pull from things that readers are familiar with to add color to the Ultimate Universe. Throughout the issue, there are little winks and nods to characters like War Machine and Bullseye, but they’re true easter eggs and don’t distract from what’s going on.

HELPING THINGS ALONG

Visually, Ultimate Spider-Man continues to be a good-looking series. Part of that is just how in tune with the storytelling the art is. Throughout the issue, multiple characters get draped in shadow in a stylized way, and due to the unique nature of The Ultimate Universe, it isn’t really clear if this is foreshadowing or just acknowledging the dark paths that these specific characters have gone down before and it’s this uncertainty that enhances the reading experience here. You really get the sense, though, that Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson are doing the best with what they have. Since there is very little action in this issue, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for anything dynamic.

BOTTOM LINE: SOME SOLID FOUNDATION IS LAID, BUT TOO EXPOSITION HEAVY

Ultimate Spider-Man #7 isn’t in a desirable place. It has to kick off a new story arc that follows not only the first one of this series, but the first one of the whole universe it exists in. While it’s expected that this would be a slower-paced comic, it wasn’t expected to be this slow. The whole issue is a big conversation spanning across four different settings, where all that is accomplished are hints to things that might happen down the road. Thankfully, the visuals of this manage to elevate all the mild-mannered chit-chat into something that is interesting to look at. All in all, this issue just feels inefficient. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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