Ultimate Spider-Man #24: A Promised Realized

Ending a critical juggernaut like Ultimate Spider-Man was never going to be easy, but doing so on short notice proved nearly impossible, especially for a book that has burned as slowly and deliberately as this one across its many overlapping storylines and character arcs. With its ending finally here, I went in cautiously optimistic that, at the very least, Hickman would deliver on enough of his previous setups to preserve the goodwill he’s built over the last two years. To my shock, he concluded his epic in the way the best comics do: by promising a greater future beyond the pains of its past and doing right by nearly every character, even within the brevity required to make it all work.

Marco Checchetto and David Messina have been on this journey since the beginning, and before even diving into the writing of this finale, the art deserves recognition. Whether it’s Checchetto’s sweeping shots of iconography or Messina’s warm, heartfelt embrace of smaller character moments, there isn’t a single panel where the visual storytelling fails to exceed expectations. Even without the script, there are moments in this issue where the presentation alone delivers chills. Some stir pure hype, while others threaten to bring a tear to readers’ eyes. Avoiding spoilers as best I can, that final page arrives with a quiet swell of excitement that left me almost blisteringly frustrated with Marvel for ending the book just as it feels like it’s reaching its apex.

That apex comes with Hickman wasting no time in closing major character arcs, though not always in a deeply conclusive way. The brutal end of Kingpin’s reign, Peter’s growth as a father, Harry’s reconciliation with Norman’s ghost, and smaller beats for Richard, Felicia, MJ, and others unfold at a blistering pace. They scratch a necessary surface but rarely dig deep enough to slow the book’s momentum. On one hand, that lack of depth may feel slightly disappointing. On the other, it’s a necessary trade-off to ensure a well-rounded conclusion for such a wide cast.

That said, Hickman still finds room for one of the most intimate moments of the entire series, capturing the magic of this Peter and MJ relationship in just a handful of pages. It’s a sequence that perfectly encapsulates why this book has captured the hearts of so many readers and makes its ending all the more heartbreaking. In many ways, this issue reads like any other chapter in the run. There are hard-stop endings for major antagonists, sure, but if you told me there were another twenty-five issues on the horizon, I’d believe you. More than ever, the series finally feels established as a living, breathing engine for stories that extend beyond the framework of the Ultimate Universe, something I’ve been longing for throughout its entire run.

And that may ultimately be the book’s greatest strength and its greatest tragedy. Just as it fully settles into its identity, confident, expansive, and emotionally resonant, it’s asked to close the curtain. What remains is a finale that feels less like a definitive end and more like a turning point we won’t get to see realized. If this truly is goodbye, it’s a powerful one, proof that this take on Peter Parker still has endless stories left to tell, even if we won’t be there to read them.