Issues Covered:

• Ultimate X-men Vol 1 #34-39
• Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 #47-53

Luke and Devin accidentally got Bendis to write both Ultimate Spider-Man and X-men this week and we got egg all over our face and now a military ops team is trying to kill our buddy Wolverine and Spider-Man is dealing with girl problems!

Check out the show notes and images after the jump!

Ultimate X-men 34-39

Writer – Brian Michael Bendis, pencils – David Finch, Inks – Art Thibert, Colors – Dave Stewart, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos

While Wolverine is eating at Girshwin’s Diner, a blonde haired woman recognizes Wolverine, commenting on his fame. She pays his bill, confusing the diner, and then leaves, calling someone. Wolverine is about to ask for something when he looks outside to see three diaper vans that open fire. Wolverine is unable to avoid it but when the woman comes back in the crowd to look and investigate, he’s gone.

Spider-Man meanwhile is worried about the PSATs and money and when he gets home, Wolverine takes him by surprise and Peter wails on him till Wolverine stops him. He explains he followed Peter home when they first met, to make sure he was who he said he is, but now he needs help so he can hide overnight before Mary Jane walks in, sees Wolverine and feints.

Wolverine wakes up two days later and finds that the vans are now outside the house.

Inside the van, the people inside are debating blowing up the house and making it look like an accident. Inside Peter suits up and Wolverine stabs himself to mess with the life tracker, moves in to flip over the truck, disrupting the mission and then Wolverine heads back to the diner. He threatens the owner who reveals the bill the woman paid for the meal with had a note telling him to leave because they were an FBI task force but afterward he looked into it and the FBI had no knowledge. Wolverine figures they have ties to the military and probably have his Weapon X file.

Wolverine heads to SoHo to talk to Black Widow who he has a history with, albeit short and intense, and they both point out the dangers of being in the public. Spider-Man comes in, recognizes Black Widow, asks if she’ll pay him for stealing his gauntlets and she makes them leave. Spider-Man and Wolverine regroup and Spider-Man says his Spider-Sense might help keep Wolverine safe, moments before a rocket impales his chest and drives him into a wall.

Meanwhile the helicopter that shot the missile starts firing bullets at Spider-Man and he ends up trying to go after Wolverine but he stays silent so Spider-Man doesn’t see him.

Daredevil approaches Wolverine asking if he’s responsible for the bombing and then warns that the people who actually did it are here and then Daredevil leaves.

The blonde woman shows up, calling him Logan and shows off her soldiers with adamantium deflecting armor before shooting him in the head with adamantium bullets eventually knocking him out, ranting about how he’s famous and how this is her revenge for the people he killed, before Daredevil stops her, telling them to get out of Hell’s Kitchen.

Back at the X-Mansion, Jean has a vision of Wolverine asking for help.

While Daredevil has them stuck, Spider-Man swings in getting them to start shooting, angering Daredevil. Spider-Man gets them out though and Wolverine heals, pushing the bullets from his head. Daredevil hears them talking and planning for the second wave and tells Wolverine to take them out of the city if there will be more damage and then Wolverine has Spider-man take them to where the woman will be and he takes her by surprise and asks who she is and at first she claims to be his wife and socks him in the jaw. She starts lying about who she is and Wolverine is ready to kill her when the attack helicopter returns and Daredevil returns and tells Spider-Man and Wolverine to get out of the city and Spider-Man asks why he doesn’t want the X-men involved and Wolverine explains that he believes in Xavier’s dream but he doesn’t know his past and he doesn’t want to force him to deal with Wolverine’s past – but the X-men have shown up because Peter already called them.

Wolverine wakes up in the memory of the Weapon X lab where his memories begin with Professor Xavier invading his memories to help figure out what is going on. He ends up seeing the blonde woman with Wraith and Wolverine wakes up realizing the attacks are being done by decommissioned Weapon X agents.

Xavier asks why he left and Wolverine explains he doesn’t think they really trust him even though they want him back and Xavier says “no shit Wolverine, they are teens and you tried to murder one of them.”

Charles checks in with Nick Fury who wants to handle this as a matter of national security because Wraith’s men were loyal to him. Xavier wants to pursue this as a mutant hate crime and Fury tells him to just keep Logan back or they’ll take him.

Wolverine talks to Jean who says she won’t forgive him or forget what he did and that is he thinks anything inappropriate about her, she will kill him but she senses a helicopter nearby that is looking for Logan and the other mutants and she turns into the Phoenix and destroys the helicopter.

The X-men find her unconscious body and Nightcrawler teleports her back to Xavier who helps to comfort her. Kurt comes back and asks to go with Wolverine and Cyclops decides the rest of them will too.

In the secret base, the blonde woman is talking to her superior on a webcam who hired them to kill Wolverine and he cuts her off and tells her to leave. The X-men come in with Bobby destroying the computers. The blonde woman kills her compatriots and then kills herself before she can be stopped.

Dum Dum Dugan of the SHIELD mutant ops division comes in, dresses them down for busting in so they could wipe their trail, because someone high in the government wants to kill Wolverine, and all the X-men have done is united the people who hate mutants.

Back at the school Jean is talking to someone mysterious for comfort about the murders and Wolverine is stuck wondering about who his real wife was.

 

Ultimate Spider-Man 47-53

Writer – Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils – Mark Bagley, Inks – Art Thibert, Colors – Transparency Digital, JD Smith, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos

When the Enforcers are trying to collect the money Fisk is owed, Spider-Man busts in, he fights them, and leaves them caught for the police to find.

Kingpin bails them out but he’s unhappy that Spider-Man is continuing to cost him money and his lawyer suggests a political strategy so they throw support behind Sam Bullit who is running for District Attorney, now with an anti-Spider-Man bent.

J Jonah Jameson is happy to endorse him which beats Peter up.

Mary Jane meanwhile made a list of everyone who knows his secret identity and Peter isn’t handling everything well and Mary Jane, seeing the politician thing is bothering him, suggests it might be someone on the list (which Kingpin isn’t on).

Spider-Man is getting effectively vilified, Kingpin is cleared of charges due to the evidence of him literally killing a man on tape falling through. Robbie Robertson meanwhile is angry about Jameson backing Bullit against Spider-Man and when Peter tried to talk about them not going after Kingpin, Peter gets fired.

Peter is collecting his belongings and Jameson tells him it’s how he said what he said and Peter bites back saying he asked him a question that Jameson didn’t want to answer and that’s why he was fired and this just makes Jameson angrier and Robbie sticks up for Peter and calls Jameson on his shit.

Peter swings home as Spider-Man and as he swings past Kingpin’s tower and a Bullit anti-Spider-Man poster he decides to menace Kingpin but he fails to break through the glass and Kingpin taunts him for being powerless.

At school Peter asks his teacher about the justice for Kingpin killing a dude and getting off and he brings up issues but ends up going onto a rant and is asked to leave.

He goes to visit Aunt May at work and we find out he got suspended and he’s still upset about Kingpin. May thinks he’s upset about Ben but knowing Peter is upset about the job, she calls up Jameson and chews him out.

Meanwhile Ben Urich is interviewing Sam Bullit on what is supposed to be a puff piece and starts questioning him about Spider-Man vs other masked heroes and uses this to lead him to ask him about mutants and Bullit gives a political non-answer. Urich then points out a photo with Bullit, his law partner who is Fisk’s lawyer and Fisk. He asks if Bullit has an opinion on Fisk and mob lawyers and trips him up into saying his partner worked for the mob. Bullit gets angry and threatens him, stealing the recorder and kicks him out.

Back at the office Jonah is shocked about what Urich did (which included recording everything on a second mic) and Jonah is stuck not wanting to admit he’s wrong, which is when the call from Aunt May comes in.

As Jonah is walking to his parking spot the Enforcers are waiting for him because he took back his endorsement for Bullit and then connected Bullit to organized crime in the city. They try to threaten him into recanting but luckily Spider-Man shows up since he wanted to confront Jameson too and ultimately he takes down the Enforcers again, quipping about how they always get bailed out but then they get the drop on him. Jameson though pulls out a recording device and shows he knows who they are, and starts asking about their connection to the Kingpin and Bullit which distracts them long enough for Spider-Man to regain his bearings, and knocks them out.

Spider-Man confronts Jameson, asking for a thank you and Jameson asks him why he wears a mask and Spider-Man just comments he heard Jameson changed his support on Bullit and leaves and the Enforcers decide to break up.

Peter gets home and finds Jameson waiting for him who explains he lost his son on the Orion NASA exploration due to a technical malfunction where everything else was classified and he didn’t get a body to bury. Jameson confesses his judgement was clouded but he doesn’t think Spider-Man is a hero but he isn’t sure why, but because Peter asked the big question he has decided to hire Peter back to start working with Urich.

Spider-Man then runs into Kingpin with the new Bugle heading decrying the Kingpin. Kingpin tries to threaten him and Spider-Man isn’t afraid and he leaves, having webbed Kingpin’s feet to the floor.

Later a mysterious woman breaks into an office with a mix of agility, technology and luck and steals a tablet. Spider-Man catches her as she is leaving, getting distracted because she’s hot and then getting left in the dust with his webs almost failing him. He gets back though and they get into a fight as she tries to escape and Peter keeps having bad luck so she gets away.

When he gets back to hang out with Mary Jane, he’s focused on her while she’s trying to study with him for midterms. Peter admits he’s thinking about hanging up the costume for a bit and Mary Jane is supportive of it if that is what he wants and Peter admits he wants time with her.

Mary Jane meanwhile is having issues with her dad who cheated on her mother and Peter says he wouldn’t cheat on her, they both say they love each other, plan to get married, kiss and then Aunt May interrupts them because Mary Jane’s father showed up with her diary which he read. He’s concerned about Mary Jane writing ambiguously about how she almost died on the bridge and Peter won’t respond, he forbids them from seeing each other and Aunt May forces him out.

Aunt May asks again and Peter lies saying she almost fell at the park. Aunt May and Gwen then go to walk by the Watson house to make sure nothing is going on inside, leaving Peter alone to focus on his new set of worries when the news shows him chasing the woman dubbed the Black Cat but it looks like they were working together.

Dini, Kingpin’s lawyer is upset about the theft of the tablet from Mr. Moore because it was stolen before it could be purchased and Moore thinks it might have been Kingpin behind it.

Dini gives Moore a contact card for help resolving things and Dini threatens him to make sure he finishes the job of bringing Fisk the tablet.

At school Peter gets detention for falling asleep in class because the news report kept him up. He tries to talk to Mary Jane who is worried about her father separating them and they get into a blowup.

At the Daily Bugle, Robbie gives Peter the the personal ads to enter into the system and finds a request for a half page ad from the Cat to Spider-Man asking them to meet.

Moore meanwhile goes to the location and pays Elektra the money needed to get her to retrieve the tablet. At the time this story was published, Ultimate Elektra had not started yet.

Peter tries to call MJ but her father picks up and considers going to meet the Cat to “talk” to her and finds her waiting with wine and cheese to talk with him. Spider-Man has issues with her criminal side but decides to share a drink with her when Elektra attacks.

Dini meanwhile lets Fisk know that Elektra is going after the tablet as Black Cat and Elektra get into a fight and Spider-Man watches. During the fight Black Cat says she’s not her father and tosses away Elektra’s sai, Cat is kicked into Spider-Man who gets up and interrupts their fight and tries to get them to stop, but Elektra fights Spider-Man instead, is tossed off the roof and barely survives the fall. Peter as he has to climb back up, flagellates himself for all of his bad choices only to see everyone else left.

Dini then reports the news to Kingpin while Aunt May gets a call that Mary Jane went missing and Aunt May needs to check with Peter who she can’t find and she thinks they ran away – until she finds Peter getting a late night drink. Aunt May tells him that Mary Jane went missing and he runs over to the Watson house. Mary Jane’s father tries to threaten him and Peter stops him and Mary Jane’s mom asks him for help. Peter wracks his brain to find out what happened and realizes she’s in the warehouse where she hid before and wakes her up. They talk things out with Mary Jane saying she’s worried about losing Peter because her father threatened to send her away to make them miserable like he is and wants to split them up. Peter says they need to head home though but Peter promises he will be there.

At the Bugle, Peter decides to look up cat burglars and finds amongst other names of characters yet to appear in the Ultimate Universe, Jack Hardy, who he connects to the Black Cat, aka Felicia Hardy who currently works for Fisk – who also pieced things together.

Kingpin and Elektra caught her at work because she planned her revenge because her father ended up in prison. Spider-Man stops Kingpin allowing Black Cat to escape with help. She has the tablet which is something Kingpin wanted and tosses it into the river. Eletrka throws a sai into Black Cat, she falls off the side, vanishes, and when Spider-Man gets back from checking for her, Kingpin and Elektra are gone as well.

Finally we find out that Kingpin wanted the tablet to help his wife recover because she’s currently in a coma.

 

Ultimate X-men Vol 1 #34-39 – Blockbuster

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 #47-53 Cats and Kings