It’s 2000 and I’ve recently started going through back issue bins at my local flea market grabbing as much 90s Spider-Man related series as my lawn mowing earnings would allow. One weekend I spend at my Grandmother’s and she surprises me with a copy of Ultimate Spider-Man #1. I had spent weeks reading random issues, part 3s of story arcs I couldn’t find the first part for, crossover issues that I didn’t know I had to look for in a different section of the back issues, and sometimes the worst, missing pages. This was the time I had ever read or even held a Spider-Man comic that had #1 as the issue number. It was the ultimate timing, the Ultimate Universe was a way for new readers to jump into Marvel comics without having decades of continuity behind the stories bringing references that made me feel more clueless than Steve Rodgers fresh off the ice. It was perfect for a kid who’s main understanding of Spider-Man outside of a few random back issues he could afford, was the 90s animated series to jump in a fresh timeline and series. Peter was younger, much closer in age to me at the time. It was great, each time I’d visit my grandmother I’d have a new issue or two waiting for me. To me, this was my Peter Parker, I got to watch him become Spider-Man over time and grow as a hero as I grew, the book may have been called Ultimate, but to me it was Amazing.
It’s 2011, it’s been a few years since I had read an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, my grandmother moved a few states away and I had grown a little out of comics and Spider-Man. It’s my Senior year and after moving to the same state and city as my Grandmother she mentions a comic book store in town, I walk in and see Ultimate Fallout on the shelves and decide to see what the Ultimate version of Spidey has been up to. If you don’t know, spoilers, it’s the series where Peter Parker of the Ultimate Universe dies and the first appearance of Miles Morales, again the ultimate timing with the ultimate Spider-Man series. I’m about to enter my college years and a fresh new take on Spider-Man is being spun in the comic series I loved so much as child, just as I’m putting a fresh new spin my life. It was amazing.
It’s 2024, I don’t know it yet, but my wife is about to find out and tell me she’s pregnant- right after a new Ultimate Spider-Man series redefining Peter Parker as married with kids in his 30s. We’re only 14 issues in, but being a lifelong fan of Spider-Man and now having a daughter of my own while an ongoing series is being release where Spider-Man has a wife and daughter has been amazing. Each month the series is a highlight for me, and I hope the Ultimate Spider-Man line can continue to be something special for me in each chapter of my life.
P.S. This lifelong Spider-Man fan named his daughter Gwen. #realfan