Miles Morales is finally visiting the new Ultimate Universe with Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion. This new mini-series is going to be finally addressing one of the biggest dangling plotlines introduced in Ultimate Invasion #1. That was the card that The Maker gave to Miles Morales. It was unknown what The Maker was playing at visiting Miles Morales before going on to create his new Ultimate Universe. But now we will be finding that out. Let’s see how it goes with Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Deniz Camp and Cody Ziglar
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Cory Petit
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN: INCURSION #1 SOLICITATION
“Miles Morales caught in the middle of a universal collision! Two of today’s most exciting writers, Deniz Camp (The Ultimates) and Cody Ziglar (Miles Morales: Spider-Man), join forces for an adventure that will change Miles Morales — and the Ultimate Universe — forever! Drawn by rising star Jonas Scharf, the brilliantly moody artist who brought you Ultimate Universe: One Year In and Dark X-Men…
Before The Maker remade Earth-6160, he left Miles Morales the key to reach his new universe… and when Miles’ baby sister, Billie, uses it to travel to the Ultimate Universe, it’s up to Spider-Man to save her!
But the Ultimate Universe is never safe for any Spider-Man! When the Spot attacks, Miles will have to team up with an all-new Peter Parker — and that’s just the start of his journey across Earth-6160…” – Marvel Comics
REVIEW
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1 is a get the job done opening chapter to a story as there is. There isn’t any sort of wow moments as the thing leaving us coming back for more is still the initial pitch of how this will all factor into The Maker’s return. That ends up being both the strength and weakness of this first issue.
When it was announced Miles Morales would be visiting the new Ultimate Universe the obvious question is what happens when he meets the new Peter Parker’s Spider-Man. Deniz Camp and Cody Ziglar don’t waste any time on that front as most of Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1 is dedicated to the Spider-Men interacting. It is a selling point that Camp and Ziglar use to establish how they will be approaching writing the characters of the Ultimate Universe. And with Camp’s experience in the Ultimate Universe that is mostly in line with how Peter and Richard Parker talk and Ziglar has written Miles in the past.
What worked particularly well when it came to the interactions between the Spider-Men was how it established Miles impact on the new Ultimate Universe. Miles is coming into this visit having experienced not just the previous Ultimate Universe continuity but also the events on Earth-616. Bringing in that knowledge can have some risk of sharing information that can throw things off for characters of the new Ultimate Universe. While it is played for laughs with Richard taking the Venom name after Miles mentioned it, this provided a hint at his impact.
That impact is emphasized with how The Maker’s Council all are now targeting Miles for his possible connection to The Maker. They don’t even care if it is Miles or some other character from Earth-616. It is a reminder of how important The Maker is to them that any sign of his return is taking priority over everything else.
With how interesting that side of the narrative is it makes the time dedicated to the Spider-Men running around in circles is a greater waste of time. There’s was an opportunity to use Spot more as the one getting in the Spider-Men’s way of finding Miles’ sister. But that really doesn’t happen. Instead, we get a lot of just spinning wheels until its decided that Miles needs to go off on his own.
Even the integration of The Ultimates doesn’t work as well as it could have. Iron Lad, Captain America, and Doctor Doom don’t even realize how game changing someone from another universe arrival is. It shows how far behind the game they are compared to The Maker’s Council. It is a reminder of how ineffective The Ultimates are as they are narrow focused and how not seeing the big picture has caused all their defeats thus far.
That all highlights how surface level of a start Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1 turns out to be. We get what was pitched. Which is fine as we are getting what was sold on. Unfortunately, there isn’t a big memorable moment that leaves us wanting more from this story. And with how big of developments, we see in Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimates, and other Ultimate Universe titles on a monthly basis a “get the job done” approach is not enough. This series needs to match the level of what we’ve come to expect from an Ultimate Universe comic book.
Jonas Scharf’s artwork is just fine. This is what you expect on a normal level of a comic book. That does lead to Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion looking like an average comic book. This isn’t a big event looking comic book. The artwork is at its best when we get the Spider-Men vs Spot. But that scene doesn’t last long so Scharf’s strength isn’t given a lot of time to shine. The talking heads heavy direction makes it standout that the artwork isn’t on the big event level we see in other titles released just this week alone.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1 gets the job done of beginning Miles Morales journey in the new Ultimate Universe. The dynamic with the Spider-Men carries this first issue. But once we get beyond that initial chemistry they have there is a lack of this feeling like a big event. There is a special element that is just not captured, and it is very noticeable. Maybe the next issue will fix that problem.
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
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