Ultimate Spider-Man #106

Background

Recently, Doctor Octopus was secretly making clones of Peter Parker. The clones escaped from their laboratory and made a mess out of he real Peter's life. In the bedlam that followed, the clones destroyed the Parker home, MJ was injected with the Oz formula (the substance that mutated the spider that gave Peter his powers), and Aunt May suffered a near-fatal heart attack after discovering Peter's double life as Spider-Man.

Reed Richards (super-genius leader of the super-hero team, the Fantastic Four) seems to have cured MJ of any mutations caused by the Oz formula, and Peter and MJ have gotten back together... meaning that Peter's troubled relationship with Kitty Pryde (of the mutant team, the X-Men) is effectively in shambles.

Since gaining his powers, Spider-Man has had several confrontations with New York crime boss Wilson Fisk (A.K.A. the Kingpin of Crime) and a couple of run- ins with the guardian of Hell's Kitchen, the mystery man known as Daredevil.

They are not friends.

Story Details

At the Parkers home, Damage Control is about to fix the house. Peter wants to get his stuff. He gets his Spidey suit and wants to call Kitty. Unfortunately, his cell phone is empty.

At the hospital. Aunt May, MJ and Peter are having a talk, about Peter being Spider-Man. He's on TV, fighting the Hulk.

Elsewhere, Wilson Fisk is seeing the same footage. Spider-Man is now the most popular super-hero. Fisk owns the licensing rights to Spider-Man. He tells his men to flood the market, to run it into the ground.

Later, Peter and MJ are waiting for the bus. They decide to travel by web-line. They are visiting the Fantastic Four. Doctor Storm wants to do some test on MJ. Peter leaves for the Daily Bugle. Jameson fires him. But when Peter tells him about the situation with his Aunt, Jameson un-fires him. Ben Urich wants to hear the whole story, and Jameson agrees to a tiny raise.

Elsewhere, in a parking lot. Fisk is meeting somebody who wants to work for him. They fight and it turns out the masked man is actually Shang-Chi. Fisk orders his men to shoot him, he escapes. Then, Daredevil comes to the rescue.

At the Fantastic Four, it turns out MJ is having post traumatic stress. They advice her to see a therapist, but MJ thinks that's a bad idea. Outside, they are met by Matt Murdock. Peter realizes he's Daredevil. They make arrangements for that evening, to go after the Kingpin. Later, at school, Peter and MJ are exchanging notes, did he call Kitty yet or what? Then a new student enters the class, it's Kitty.

General Comments

Mr. Rose.... cool reference to the 616 universe. I liked that. Other than that, just setting up stuff in order to move on to the next issue... and the next... and the next.

Shang-Chi seemed a bit out of character. I can understand him wanting to bring down / kill the Kingpin, but why use such a silly disguise? Also, Shang-Chi is a martial arts expert and the Kingpin mops the floor with him. Hmmm, we'll have to see how this develops in the next issues.

And Kitty, after last issue I hoped she'd be gone from this series. She belongs in the Ultimate X-Men. But here she was, on the final page, ready to make Peter's life miserable again. Let's hope she wanted to transfer before the Clone Saga started, but doesn't want to anymore, and it couldn't be undone until certain paperworks are processed. Yeah, right....

Overall Rating

In short a nice issue after the explosive Clone Saga. Great jump on point for new readers. Nothing fancy though.