What would a rebooted Ultimate Spider-Man look like?

[MarvelMaster616]

Honestly, I think rebooting Ultimate would be a mistake at best and a disaster at worst, especially for Spider-Man. It's not that Bendis set the bar so high with his iconic run. But Peter has been rebooted and reinvented so much in recent years that I don't think there's room for much nuance in a rebooted Ultimate. Unless you want to do a radically different Peter Parker, which almost never pans out and Disney would never allow it, there's not much more you can do than make Peter an awkward high school student or a downtrodden young adult who constantly screws up.

Ultimate was originally supposed to be the gold standard. It was supposed to tell stories about classic, familiar characters in a way that felt fresh, modern, and refined. However, after a while, it just fell into a trap of trying to be different for the sake of being different. It tried to radically reinvent every character and/or replace them. And it didn't work. There's a very good reason why Ultimate Spider-Man was the most successful in the long run. It stayed most true to the core of the character. Every other character in Ultimate was twisted beyond recognition. By the end, none of them were likable in the slightest. There was no vision or plan. It was just, "let's shock everyone by making these characters do crap they would never do and hope that gets peoples' attention." The fact that Ultimate sold so poorly and was such a mess, outside of Bendis, is a sign that Ultimate lasted way longer than it should have.

And Bendis was the exception and a very rare one for Ultimate. As much as I respect Cates, I honestly don't think he could recapture that same magic with Spider-Man. I'd be willing to give it a chance, but I think Ultimate Marvel should not be revived.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

That's a good point. Ultimate Peter's secret identity would be kaput because it was revealed when he died. 616 Peter only briefly had a public identity. A few months later One More Day happened and that was that. So I think a Peter with a publicly known identity would be a fresh angle.

In the Amazing Friends or Halfway Boarding House arc where basically Johnny Storm, Iceman, Kitty Pryde and others all hang out at the Parkers and Peter basically becomes the team leader and Reed Richards of that team, it was setting up that Spider-Man would ultimately become the big leader of the superhero community, i.e. the 616 Reed and Steve Rogers kind of stature.

Then there's the X-Men. Jimmy Hudson went over to 616, and Logan is dead. So there's no Wolverine. Maybe introduce Laura Kinney?

What about Ultimate Kitty Pryde? She's still around isn't she? She was there in USM#200 and was basically the Xavier/Jean Grey/Cyclops figure of the Mutant Community at that point.



I actually do think that around 2025 there will be an anniversary miniseries with Bendis/Bagley that does the equivalent of those epilogue title cards at the end of teen movies, "Where are they now?"

[Inversed]

That's a good point. Ultimate Peter's secret identity would be kaput because it was revealed when he died. 616 Peter only briefly had a public identity. A few months later One More Day happened and that was that. So I think a Peter with a publicly known identity would be a fresh angle.

As for other characters, we already saw that something incapacitated Iron Man (which must've happened differently compared to 616 since Ultimate Carol Danvers is powerless) and Riri took over. How would her path have been altered by being with the Ultimates instead of the Champions? Speaking of which, where are the rest of the young heroes? The Young Avengers except Cassie and Kate (Kate is a member of Hydra, so she's a villain in 1610) and Champions except Miles and Amadeus never existed in Ultimate. And Miles is gone (because he was shifted to 616) and Amadeus is another one who doesn't have his powers (though that's probably just because he gained them in 616 after Secret Wars). Kamala Khan unfortunately cannot get an Ultimate counterpart without major backstory changes, as New Jersey was destroyed in Cataclysm, and the terrigen bomb never happened in Ultimate. So if her backstory matched 616, she'd be dead having never got her powers. I'm pretty sure it's impossible for a few other members of both teams to exist as well. The Young Ultimates we know disbanded, as Miles and Bombshell migrated to 616 and Jessica joined the adult Ultimates. Who would be on a new version?

Then there's the X-Men. Jimmy Hudson went over to 616, and Logan is dead. So there's no Wolverine. Maybe introduce Laura Kinney?

I think that would be a really interesting place to take the series, showing Peter being Spider-Man with a public identity, without the Civil War baggage. That's something that hasn't really been explored and would be something new to do with it.

I've also seen some people suggest the scene in Spider-Men II was Peter as an adult leading the Ultimates, which I didn't really think about, although given how much time had passed since the beginning of the series even counting Miles series, he would at least 18 anyway.

I do think it would be the smart thing to only try to work in other 616 equivalents if it fits with a story, trying to wonder where all the other Young Avengers/Champions, etc. would be would just make things too confusing. Riri only really suddenly showed up in SMII because she's Bendis' baby, though at least in that case its easier to buy since she's just a smart girl, compared to some of the others.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I guess it depends on what Cates's plan for the Ultimate Universe are: full reboot or continue where they left off. I can see them deciding to skip Pete and go straight to Miles for a reboot. Hell i could see them doing that for all the mantles outside the X-men; keep the mantle but different person underneath. Granted its not as easy to do in Marvel as it would be to do in DC.

I guess if they pick up for where they left off- maybe they might do a timeskip so Miles is older than his 616 counterpart.