Ultimate Six #7

Background

Norman Osborn and his crew of villains are beaten, as Doc Ock, Kraven, and Sandman have all either been killed or taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. Thor and Electro have disappeared, while the rest of the Ultimates and Spider-Man are surrounding Norman as Harry Osborn shows up, pleading his father to stop what he is doing.

Story Details

Norman complains that Nick Fury can't fight nay better than to shove his own child in front of his face. Harry does start to talk sense into Osborn, but Iron Man doesn't see any of it, and fires his genetic destabilizer at Osborn, causing all hell to erupt one more time, if briefly. Osborn is enraged, but before he can do anything, shields and lasers and blasters and arrows and everything you can really think of puts him down hard. Harry watches in horror as they kill his father. Peter, still without his mask, looks on, as this can't be too healthy for young Harry. A bright flash erupts over the skies, and everyone watches intently to find out whether Thor or Electro won the fight. Of course, the crazy pinko with the hammer won, and everyone congratulates him.

Peter walks up to Harry, offering condolences for Norman's death, but there isn't a lot Peter can really do. Harry promises to kill all of them for this. At this point, Peter realizes that he hasn't been wearing his mask all day, but has been wearing the costume (which I insist is a stupid idea and a writing lapse for Bendis, who should know how protective of his identity Spider-Man is), and realizes that bad things are on the way.

Fury tells Peter to get out of Washington. The villains have all been moved to the Triskelion, Sandman in several jars. There are several filler moments, Peter reunited with Aunt May after a few hours of horror, Wasp staring at Hank Pym's ravaged body, a long-winded interview with the Secretary of Defense, and a conversation between Nick and Captain America. This was a bit of a waste of an issue.

General Comments

Ultimate Six was an amazing story, but there are two noticeable problems with it that I can't let go of. The first is that this really should have been a six-part story. Too much of issues 5 and 7 is just filler, and wasn't necessary (other than to make sure each villain got to be on a cover, I suppose). The second problem, as I mentioned earlier, is that Spider-Man did not put his mask on at any point over the course of this story. This is disappointing, and a serious lapse of character, not something Bendis is often guilty of. Still, I tried to ignore the second problem as best I could, as this is a compelling story, and certainly the main factor in Harry's inevitable downward spiral. I just wish that some of the filler could have been avoided. I have to give this issue 3 out of 5, as it is still reasonably good, but nothing special, as it just wastes a lot of space.

Overall Rating

Fantastic story, just wish it was 6 issues instead of 7.