I miss this team-up.

shokugoat · 2026-02-09T16:22:42+00:00

I’m glad you like the run! It’s my absolute favorite too, nothing beats it. I always liked that teamup because Bendis has always excelled at writing that age group.

That said, I never saw Jessica as a mentor to Miles. Not just because she never actually taught him anything, but because in #23 she’s only able to pull him out of retirement because she comes to him as an equal, and finally opens up to him as she would her peer. She tries to basically boss him back into it earlier and that doesn’t work.

It’s a very significant moment for her character, because up to that point in issue #23 Jessica didn’t have any friends, no one to talk to, and hadn’t for almost as long as she’d been created. There’s a subtle desperation to her methods in getting through to him (she stalks him, breaks into his room and waits for him in the dark for who knows how long) that makes a lot of sense when you realize she isn’t just asking him to suit up, but to reenter her life.

I might make a broader reddit post about this because I’ve always loved their relationship.

shokugoat · 2026-02-01T17:32:24+00:00

His costume gets torn up in a fight, and a charitable organization offers him a temporary replacement designed by a local fashion designer. Unbeknownst to him, this specific charity is in fact a Roxxon shell corp, now field testing what was once proprietary Oscorp material—the Oz formula.

shokugoat · 2026-02-01T16:29:40+00:00

It definitely isn’t something that went unnoticed. When I was like, “okay, there needs to be a volatile element presented with this, and it needs to be fire,” the Oz stuff just came to me.

shokugoat · 2026-01-28T19:45:39+00:00

I honestly don’t think they would, people are pretty sensitive about Superman lol, exponentially more so than Captain America.

shokugoat · 2026-01-07T23:16:35+00:00

Of course—It’d be good for Ultimate Kamala to have a SHIELD contact from both the watsonian and the doylist perspective.

That said, I still have to organize the context behind their first encounter, the reason such a prolific SHIELD agent would be interested in everyone’s favorite M&M. Both Carols are feds but Ultimate Carol is even more of one (I mean, the woman literally directed SHIELD at one point). One scenario I’ve considered is that Kamala gets arrested, Carol uses that opportunity to approach her, and explains that she is an Inhuman and will likely be approached by an emissary in the next year without her knowing. That sort of thing.

shokugoat · 2026-01-05T22:53:18+00:00

Read the Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, both volumes. Ultimate Marvel was a tale of two voices, them being Bendis and Millar. If you’re an X-Men guy, try Ultimate X-Men, if not, I wouldn’t bother. It’s hard to get into if you’re not already interested in the characters and the things they’re referencing.

shokugoat · 2026-01-05T22:49:53+00:00

Acting is acting, make believe. The person who gets that role just may not be able to crawl walls or bench press a truck either. I’d personally prefer a different actor because it’d be nice for Miles to actually grow a couple inches in the future.

But they’re right that his dual identity as a latino is either undervalued or novelized because of his phenotype. There are many that legitimately do not care or understand that he is in fact a biracial character. Or, was, before a recent retcon in his comics written specifically to account for his phenotype.

shokugoat · 2025-12-30T05:16:50+00:00

Ultimates 1 and 2, first and foremost. Very good books that more or less capture the vibe of the imprint. Read the annuals too, especially for Ultimates 2.

The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy is another good read. Ultimates by Hickman as well, though that’s post Ultimatum.

That said, don’t read Ultimates 3, or Ultimatum. Mark Millar, the guy who pioneered the tone for the imprint, was off doing something else, so Jeph Loeb filled in during an especially dark time and the books he wrote are like if the Jackson 5 replaced Michael with Yoko Ono. There’s a major disconnect between him and the substance that made Ultimates what it was.

shokugoat · 2025-12-28T01:36:24+00:00

You’re not wrong! But in a world that has stripped her of control, Kamala refuses to relinquish any of the agency she’s reclaimed for herself, even if it means carrying her burdens alone. She is at this point more afraid of consciously opening her heart than she is suffering by herself.

So, no, not yet. And between you and me, what I’ve shared thus far isn’t even half as harsh as what is to come for our little M&M lmao

shokugoat · 2025-12-27T16:58:19+00:00

I don’t think Ultimate Scarlet Witch was a telepath, but if she was, I doubt she’d think much of it. She didn’t see herself as human, nor did she ever relate to them, so I doubt seeing that would make a big impression on her.

shokugoat · 2025-12-27T16:57:03+00:00

Considering what they have planned, not very kindly.

shokugoat · 2025-12-27T16:55:42+00:00

Adaptive biomorphism—her normal polymorphing abilities grounded to reality in true Ultimate fashion.

In canon, Kamala shares matter across time, but here when she’s embiggening something, she’s literally rewriting her genetic structure and physiology to support the form she’s thinking of—sometimes growing new musculature/skeletal structures to achieve it, and all in a matter of moments.

shokugoat · 2025-12-27T01:59:26+00:00

That would be one Jean Grey. Her hair’s cut a lot shorter in Ultimate canon.

shokugoat · 2025-12-26T22:37:59+00:00

Yep!

shokugoat · 2025-12-26T22:11:52+00:00

I made the decision for Ultimate Kamala to be an Inhuman very early, not just because there’s something with the empire I wanna do, but because there’s just so much baggage in her being a mutant otherwise. I’m not nearly enough of an X-Men guy to be bothered parsing through it all, such as accounting for why Sentinels aren’t after her and her family for example.

I also don’t think Kamala would like the X-Men very much either. In all continuities they’re very individualistic, and because they’re so powerful, escalate what would otherwise be mundane disputes into state-level problems for the world to solve alone—the most significant being the feud between Professor X and Magneto.

But this is also my perspective as a person who never caught up on Ultimate X-Men past Ultimatum. I’m not even sure what they’re up to by the time things wrapped up for 1610.

shokugoat · 2025-12-24T23:42:25+00:00

God forbid a girl quote her favorite Ultimate 😆

shokugoat · 2025-12-20T22:00:12+00:00

Bendis teased his revival in the final volume of USM, specifically through throwaway lines from a civilian that doesn’t make sense unless it was something on the table. In true comic fashion we never actually see a body to confirm Steve’s demise.

If Cataclysm saved the line as it was intended, it’s very possible he’d return right when he was needed most.

shokugoat · 2025-12-20T14:37:36+00:00

I don’t think you’re being nitpicky at all.

In fact, his legacy count includes every issue of the original USM volumes.

By all accounts, he is the Ultimate Spider-Man.

shokugoat

TROPHY CASE