Ultimate Spider-Man #79

Background

In the aftermath of Peter's fight with Harry Osborn, Hobgoblin, Peter ended his relationship with Mary Jane because he felt he couldn't trust her.

Story Details

Allan Silvermane meets with Hammerhead, to try and come up with a way to capitalize on ongoing legal actions being brought against Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Silvermane tries to convince Hammerhead to work with him, when Hammerhead rejects this plan, grabs Silvermane and snaps his neck.

In class, Peter Parker's teacher drones on, in a repeat of a scene from issue #78, but this time told from Peter's point of view. Peter fights with himself in his mind, as he wants to talk to MJ, but also knows he doesn't want to and shouldn't. He decides to just cut out of class, snaps at his teacher, and takes to the skies, swinging through the city. Peter realizes that Spider-Man isn't the problem, but Peter Parker is, that he should focus on being Spider-Man instead.

Meanwhile, Kingpin is woken up out of bed by Mr. Dini, and told that Silvermane was killed, his head smushed to nothing. Fisk realizes that with Silvermane out of the way, there's a new player on the streets, which is bad news because Fisk is keeping a low profile, and Silvermane was the next in line to take a grab at his territories. Fisk resolves that he has to make people fear him and be afraid of him again, so he tells Dini to get him Elektra.

At a Fisk-operated warehouse, Hammerhead crashes the party with the Enforcers, Fancy Dan, Montana and Ox. Fisk's men pull their guns, and one shoots a bullet in Hammerhead's head. Hammerhead is laid out, and then sits up and reveals the bullet simmering in the middle of his forehead. He rips it out, and the Enforcers kill the man who shot Hammerhead. Hammerhead issues an edict, and the warehouse clears. Hammerhead shoots some combustable pipes and drums, which results in the warehouse blowing up and erupting in flames and explosions.

Spider-Man, who was swinging by, notices the warehouse explosion, and swings down to the warehouse area. He sees a female silhouette on a building ledge, jumps up to find whoever was there, only to get a projectile hit his head. His head gets grabbed and smashed into the ground, and when Spider-Man looks up, he sees Moon Knight.

General Comments

This was a pretty good issue. There's some great characterization of Peter, Wilson Fisk, Silvermane and Hammerhead, and plus a real strong story flow. This is the first issue of the storyline, so it's setting up the pieces for a huge gang war that's going to rip through Ultimate Spider-Man. And it does a great job of setting things up, and what makes it very interesting is that it has an unpredictable nature to it, and it keeps me, as a reader, on the edge of my seat.

Overall Rating

A very enjoyable issue, the artwork is much stronger than it was during the Hobgoblin arc, and the writing is very strong and no scene is wasted.