I’m on a quest to read all Spider-Man stories, one collection at a time. Today, I read the remaining issues of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up. This series features Spider-Man and other superheroes of the Ultimate Marvel universe.
I collected these issues in the trade paperback “Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Ultimate Collection”. You can also read most of these issues on Marvel Unlimited.
Ultimate Spider-Man teams up… again!
UMTU #9 sees Spider-Man visit the Fantastic Four at the Baxter Building. This entire issue is non-canon (it’s not part of the continuity of Ultimate Spider-Man or other Ultimate Marvel titles). In UMTU #10, Spider-Man encounters the Lizard and the Man-Thing in the sewers of New York. We also get to see the origin of the Lizard. He was once a scientist named Curt Conners. In an attempt to regrow a missing limb, he accidentally transformed himself into a monstrous Lizard. Next, Peter Parker encounters the X-Men in UMTU #11. Wolverine recognizes Peter as Spider-Man, who he met back in Issue #1.
UMTU #12-13 shows a crossover between Spider-Man and Dr. Strange! We see his origins as the son of the former Sorcerer Supreme, and heir to the title. UMTU #14 sees Spider-Man meet the assassin Black Widow when she infiltrates the Latverian embassy. Finally, UMTU #15-16 presents a team-up between Spider-Man and Shang-Chi, the master of Kung Fu!
Review
Reading the latter half of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up was entertaining. The Fantastic Four team-up is filled with witty banter, excessive censored swearing, and fourth-wall breaking. I would imagine that producing this issue must have been very entertaining. However, in a way the entire issue feels like an inside joke for Marvel staff. The rest of the stories were more reader-friendly. If I could pick one of these issues and label it as “essential” to the Ultimate Marvel universe, it would be the Lizard/Man-Thing issue. This story felt more like an Ultimate Spider-Man story. I’d still encourage you to read these issues, as some of them are very fun! But skipping them won’t damage your experience with the Ultimate Universe.
Score: 6/10
The latter half of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up is fun and quirky by itself, but cannot live up to the first issues in the series. Fun to read once if you want to complete the entire series.
About Author
