This week on UltiversalQ, Luke and Devin are here to catch you up on their lives, and also to talk about Magneto and his dumb plan, Spider-Man, and also Geldoff! Geldoff! Geldoff!
Issues Covered:
- Ultimate X-men Vol 1 #27-33
- Ultimate Spider-Man #40-45
- Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 #1/2
Check out the show notes and images after the jump!
Ultimate X-men 27-33
#27
Story – Mark Millar, Pencils – David Finch, Inks – Art Thibert, Color – Dave Stewart, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
At the Louvre in Paris, France, Mastermind and Multiple Man, members of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants, execute a robbery together with Mastermind causing everyone to hallucinate bees while Multiple Man and his clones move the painting before leaving with Sabretooth.
Meanwhile at the White House, Nick Fury shows Dick Cheney their new Sentinels who are SHIELD agents in non-metal armor and weapons, and the White House is being set up to protect them. Fury also explains they are finishing up a satellite that will allow them attack groups of mutants expecting them to be pockets of the Brotherhood or the X-men and they want to stop them before they start committing robberies.
Meanwhile at Glasgow Station, Moira MacTaggert returns to her hidden mutant camp as she struggles to help the mutants while they are hiding. That’s when Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner, who had been with the government’s Weapon X program calls her to find out she isn’t sure how to reach the X-men because she hasn’t been in contact.
Back at the Citadel, Magneto’s base, Forge is working on a power enhancer for Magneto for which he’s been promised Canada, which Sabretooth isn’t too happy about. Sabretooth and The Blob also wonder what Magneto is collecting his art for before realizing he’s living a lot of his childhood dreams on his floating asteroid base.
Up in Space, Magneto appears and dissembles the mutant tracker, stranding the astronauts in space.
In Chicago a group of mutants are causing some trouble so Colossus puts a stop their car and Iceman freezes them, while Wolverine takes out their ship and Storm helps to stop the fire they caused with the weather. For the time being the X-men are moving house to house with Jean hiding their presence, but they are all under a lot of stress especially with Jean still processing the Phoenix events and losing Scott, which she now thinks was something Wolverine caused.
In Cuba at Camp X-Factor in Guantanamo Bay, Fury tries to get Xavier to give up Magneto but he’s not a snitch and he still thinks he did the right thing so Fury brings in the newly captured Nightcrawler who he plans to torture but Xavier still won’t break.
Back at their base, Jean’s resent towards Wolverine is starting to show as her abilities allow her to move past his mental blocks when Magneto appears through a hologram using a device that Forge created. He offers one final chance to join or die and he gives them 7 days to make a choice.
29
Pencils – Adam Kubert, Inks – Danny Miki
We then flashback to the Savage Land where Cyclops was barely hanging onto Wolverine and Wolverine then let him fall into the gorge where his entire body is pretty messed up.
Meanwhile in Texas, Kitty sneaks into a base but has doubts if Magneto is wrong.
On the second day in the pit, Scott has accounted for his situation and regrets trusting Wolverine
In LA, Wolverine and Colossus team up to stop more Brotherhood agents and Colossus proposes the Fastball Special.
On the twelfth day Cyclops is barely surviving and holding it together. By the 26th he’s wildly hallucinating until he is rescued by a mysterious organization.
Meanwhile on the Blackbird, Ororo and Hank talk about their feelings and how Hank knows their feelings for each other are true since the Professor hasn’t been around.
At Camp X-Factor, Nightcrawler was tortured to give up Moira’s location and Charles finds the bright side – that they will get the care they need (dumb naive Charles) and he’s been getting to share his message.
And then as Cyclops is in medical care, it turns out he’s on the Citadel.
30
Story – Mark Millar, Pencils – David Finch, Colors – Chris Sotomayor
Magneto prepares to enact his big plan where the idiot has an ark of only two of each animal including humans and Magneto, you need like 50-500 of each species to preserve genetic health my dude.
And so far every mutant who Magneto reached out to who knows him has turned him down.
Forge goes to talk though and he’s worried about Magneto’s plan to reverse the magnetic poles because it’s a bad idea.
The doctor’s on the citadel are frustrated about Magneto’s plan as well but when they arrive, one of them recognizes him as Cyclops and gets optic blasted and he takes a doctor hostage.
Magneto gets in his big machine and starts a series of attacks including one on the X-Factor Camp where they pull out Xavier and the other mutants. As Magneto feels his power growing Cyclops in just his briefs blasts Magneto and Magneto gloats about how Cyclops is all alone when Cyclops reveals that he called all the X-men who suddenly crash in with the Blackbird and start wrecking things and Storm electrocutes Magneto while Jean uses her psychic powers to allow Scott to see and Wolverine decapitates Sabretooth. Magneto does his big I’m not down yet! as Kitty works to disable the machine but Magneto in the machine sets off a nuclear reactor explosion near Miami, something he cannot stop.
31
Pencils – Adam Kubert, Inks – Danny Miki, Colors – Dave Stewart
Gloating, Magneto begins to torture Wolverine and call him out on his shit until Colossus fights through the pain of his own control and Colossus starts to beat the shit out of Magneto.
Meanwhile Xavier and the escaped mutants fly on the Sentinels to Miami under his control to help do evac and damage control.
The X-men, reinvigorated, beat up Magneto more and he starts talking about The Thing from Another World and then tries to crash planes into them and Jean throws up two shields – one around her, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine and Kitty, and one around Magneto and Beast and proceeds to let him curb stomp an old man.
Xavier calls in to let them know the reactor is going to go critical and Rogue is doing her limit to absorb the powers with Xavier somehow amplifying them by a factor of nine. Jean has the Phoenix take over her again and lifts up the entire 5 mile or so radius and like half mile beneath it off the ground.
And back at the base, Wolverine and Cyclops realize they need to throw down. Wolverine confesses that he did try to kill Cyclops and they have to fight it out so Cyclops optic blasts him like a chump.
Meanwhile in Florida, the Phoenix Force is still moving the nuclear area into space when the humans around them start to crowd and they start cheering.
With the world saved by the X-men and Wolverine removed from the school, the President gotta hand it to the X-men which Fury is fine with but others are against. Fury suggests making the X-men a government controlled and funded agency who are their future.
So a few months later at the new school during Parent’s Day, the Ultimates, the X-mn and the potential students and families meet up with Rogue joining the school along with Nightcrawler. Professor James Braddock also shows up and explains his daughter Betsy ended up in the body of Kwannon a comatose Japanese woman who apparently consented despite being in a coma. He also mentions he’s working on a EU version of the Ultimates. Meanwhile Beast’s parents show up which he didn’t expect because they didn’t like him but now they’re writing a book on raising mutant kids despite being shitty parents – so Storm comes over and freaks them out. Thor and Jean meanwhile talk about how military funding should instead be used for the greater good and then about the Phoenix and Thor tells her to still be careful. And Fury and Xavier share a few final moments looking forward to working together and then Xavier leaves to feed his cat, Mystique.
Magneto meanwhile envisions his escape and revenge, brutally murdering everyone and then destroying the world except for America but in reality he was reading a letter written to him by a fan.
Charles visits and they discuss the world, Magneto being a celebrity.
Meanwhile in Canada, Cyclops finds Wolverine killing and eating a bear but Cyclops wants to apologize.
Magneto criticizes Charles working with SHIELD now and Charles views it as a small price to pay for getting to coexist and getting small things like minority representation in TV shows and big things like equal rights acts. Magneto is still unhappy and regards his kids as only being worthwhile for killing their human mother and so Charles is asked to leave.
Cyclops meanwhile explains to Wolverine that he needs to find better post-violent solutions for helping people and he invites Wolverine to come back as a preemptive action and the other students agreed to have him back. Wolverine doesn’t want to but as a final deal, he is able to give Wolverine back his wedding ring as a hint to his past with the promise to find out more.
As Charles is removed, Magneto tries to casually ask about Quicksilver healing and Charles erases the conversations he had from the minds of all of the guards.
Ultimate Spider-Man 40-45
Story – Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils – Mark Bagley, Inks – Art Thibert, Colors – Transparency Digital, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
Peter Parker, who lost his costume, is trying to find a solution but currently he’s unable to figure out a solution. When Mary Jane tries to talk to him passing notes, he gets caught after saying he doesn’t understand why they aren’t together.
Flash stops him after class to try and talk but Peter blows him off.
Spider-Man in his sweats costume stops a mugging but feels dumb when his mask breaks.
When he gets home Gwen asks if he’s going to a party with some kids from another school and when he’s there he sees Liz Allen and a goth’d out Mary Jane and it’s awkward for Peter so he goes to leave with Gwen when they hear the crowd chanting for Geldoff who is using his powers to destroy cars.
The police arrive and as they scramble through the house Peter and Gwen help MJ and Liz get over a fence and get to a bus stop. Two other students know Geldoff is a mutant foreign exchange student, Liz reminds everyone about her dead mutant uncle, Gwen reminds everyone Spider-man killed her dad, and luckily the bus comes and Peter and MJ sit together and Peter tells her that he lost the costume and MJ gives him a letter to open when he gets home.
So he gets home and the letter says she does love him but needs to work out her communication skills and they go over and smooch.
At school Peter is confused why people like Geldoff so much but he sees Mary Jane and then Flash tries to talk to Peter again and he is told off.
Liz meanwhile explains that Geldoff is now attacking things at his school and Peter wants to go but has no costume so MJ gives him half a costume which is the top as a long shirt and some khakis.
Peter swings across the city to find Geldoff and other students after he had exploded some more cars and the police are around him. Geldoff begs Spider-Man to take him away and when he is refused, he tags along and they end up on the ceiling of the school.
Peter gets to talking and finds out the principal suspended half of the football team because of the cars he blew up at the party. Geldoff initially just blew up the principal’s car in protest and then kept blowing them up.
When Peter talks about his powers he says he thinks Geldoff is a mutant which Geldoff doesn’t like because he is a Latverian orphan who was adopted and was taught to not like mutants. Spider-man tries to talk it out with him and Geldoff wants to know more about him and Peter talks about the responsibility angle of being a hero and needing to help people and Geldoff doesn’t really get it.
Suddenly Spider-man hears a robbery going on and goes to stop robbers in a Captain America, Iron Man and Batman mask but Geldoff interferes when they were standing down, almost killing people and Spider-Man goes back to smack him and get him to stop. And then Geldoff threatens to try exploding him – and luckily that’s when Storm, Jean Grey, and Kitty Pryde show up, looking for Geldoff.
Back at school, the principal evacuates everyone early after informing their parents.
The X-men introduce themselves to Geldoff and he faints realizing he is a mutant, so Spider-Man and the X-men get to talking about him actually being Spider-man and Geldoff recovers only to faint again.
They still aren’t fully sure if he is a mutant so Professor Xavier psychically tells them to bring him back to the school and Spider-Man is invited as well.
Back at the school evacuation Mary Jane’s mom and Aunt May showed up to pick up MJ, Gwen and Peter but he’s gone.
On the plane as Spider-Man explains about losing his costume, Geldoff wakes up again and explodes the Blackbird and as it starts to crash, Peter is sucked out. Now if I did the math, PS 44 is in the Bronx and West Chester, New York is 26 miles away. If the Blackbird can fly on average 2,200 mph it should have taken them .01 seconds to fly there.
Aunt May meanwhile on her cellphone tries to reach out to Peter at the Bugle but can’t get to the right line. At home May is still trying to call, reaching out to teachers now and finding out that Peter was also missing during classes and ultimately she breaks into the basement.
Peter meanwhile is reading Ben Urich’s book on the Kingpin when he wakes up naked in front of all of the X-men (except Wolverine) and Storm explains that they saved him from falling but had to take off his mask to check on him and then he blurts out his name revealing his identity to them.
May meanwhile examines his basement lab but finds nothing, including clues that would reveal he is Spider-Man.
Geldoff ends up waking up and Charles has him sedated and finds out that Geldoff was actually a mutate who was supposed to be made into a mutant but his powers didn’t activate til later. Xavier plans to write about this but Spider-Man is more concerned with Geldoff’s fate since he’s mutantphobic and Xavier is no-plussed. Spider-man has a brief fantasy of escaping with Geldoff, fighting X-men along the way, and Xavier promises to help him out and Geldoff apologizes and Spider-Man realizes it is incredibly late and when he gets home, Aunt May stops him.
We then switch over to Aunt May talking to her therapist and talking about how she confronted Peter when he got home and was angry and ended up opening his bad to find his mother’s Robin Hood book and Peter lied about being at the food court, and that he only skipped geometry.
May is upset and her therapist asks why and May talks about a time she saw Spider-Man stop the Skate Punks and she’s worried about Peter living in the world and she thinks Spider-Man might be a neighbor and he’s been so closely associated with their lives recently. She has a lot of pieces and just hasn’t put them together.
Her therapist asks if she feels guilty for getting help and she admits it was because of George Stacy’s death and that maybe that’s why she took Gwen in because she can’t deal with being alone and all of the thoughts when she’s alone. Seeing the tape Peter found also brought back a lot of feelings and caused her to feel worse because she feels like she can’t love someone without them dying.
She is also concerned about the nights Peter isn’t in, thinking he’s over with Mary Jane but ultimately she thinks the leniency is a way of keeping distance otherwise Peter will die too.
Her therapist points out how she is channeling the grief into doing positive things but that May needs to talk more to Peter, and to deal with the romantic feelings she had towards George Stacy, and maybe she needs to date more.
When she gets home Aunt May invites Peter to go with her to the movies and just have fun and Peter is excited.
Ultimate Spider-Man #1/2
The issue was offered through Wizard Magazine #126 with a special holder and certificate of authenticity.
Story – Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils – Mark Bagley, Inks – Art Thibert, Colors – Transparency Digital, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
Jameson and the staff at the Daily Bugle are meeting and discussing a story. Tara Keegan, a black woman walked out of a store followed by Warren Hepburn, an employee who accused her of trying to steal shoes when she snuck them into her bag. Hepburn asks to see the bag, she refused, so he assaulted her, throwing her against the store wall. She called and said she was pregnant and needed help. Clarence Wilson, a black man, forcibly separated the two but Hepburn now was calling for help while Wilson tried to force him to apologize. Then Danny Rand stepped forward asking Wilson to let Hepburn go and when he didn’t, Rand kicked him in the head and then prepared to use his powers to attack. Spider-Man swung in, socking Rand and inadvertently hitting Hepburn in face and knocking the shoes she stole out. The punch was captured on camera.
When Rand went to fight Wilson still, Spider-Man knocked him out Danny Rand when stopped by the police felt disillusioned about being a vigilante.
Jameson wants to run the picture and story on the front cover and Ben Urich has an issue with Jameson’s take on the story. He related Spider-Man’s side who says he took the risk to try and help and he attack Rand who had glowing hands which resulted in everything that happened, and that Tara Keegan had stolen the shoes, was not pregnant and the cops did end up getting her but he feels bad about stopping Danny knowing it would likely end up on the cover of the Bugle and Jameson ultimately decides to run the cover the way he wanted because he likes the picture.
Ultimate X-men Vol 1 #27-33 – Return of the King
Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 #40-45 – Irresponsible
Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 #1/2