The Marvel Rundown: ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN: INCURSION #3 merges classic superhero bombast with Ultimate melodrama

We’re approaching the Ultimate Endgame and the days are ticking down until The Maker returns to terrorize the Ultimate Marvel Universe. But in the meantime, it’s another Wednesday and we’ve got an exciting slate of reviews for you! Including the continuing adventures of the Ultimate Universe’s first crossover, Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #3, which will undoubtedly play a big role in whatever finale we have to look forward to for this exciting line of comics. But that’s not all! We’ve got the usual Rapid Rundown of reviews this week, including: Giant Size X-Men #2, Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #1, The Ultimates #15, and Uncle Scrooge: Earth’s Mightiest Duck!

As always, The Beat wants to hear from you, True Believers! Tell us what you think of this week’s Marvel Comics! Shout us out in the comment section below or over on social media @comicsbeat, or @comicsbeat.bsky.social, and let us know.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #3

Writers: Deniz Camp & Cody Ziglar
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Color Artist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover artists: Sara Pichelli & Tamra Bonvillain

After a pretty unremarkable start to this miniseries, I was ready to write off the Ultimate Universe’s first big crossover as a waste of time. But cowriters Cody Ziglar and Deniz Camp have turned Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion into an exciting tour of the whole Ultimate Universe. It certainly makes sense for one of the last two remaining characters from the original Ultimate Universe to cross over with this new take on the line, and it was inevitable with how Miles Morales was left off in Jonathan Hickman’s original Ultimate Invasion event. What I didn’t expect was how much fun it would be to see the younger Spider-Man, who despite having his own multidimensional drama to deal with, injecting old-school superhero energy into the line. 

Art by Jonas Scharf and Edgar Delgado

The original Ultimate line, while reinventing old characters, still operated in a traditional bombastic approach to the monthly comic book structure. Miles is a fish out of water in more ways than one, and his frustration with the slapdash guerilla crusade of the Ultimates and his budding friendship with the offbeat outcasts of the Ultimate X-Men illuminates just how different this world is from the 616. Miles’ original world was a place where bad things could happen but most problems could be solved through a big fight scene while his life in the 616 has led to a certain level of stagnation and comfort. Thrown into the new Ultimate Universe, a place of desperate heroes branded as terrorists and a cruel cabal of rich villains ruling from the shadows, he is completely out of his depth. But his moral clarity and single-minded focus on finding and rescuing his sister is like a breath of fresh air for a group of characters who live among moral compromises. 

Art by Jonas Scharf and Edgar Delgado

Camp and Ziglar’s structure is a fun excuse to send Miles hopping around through each different Ultimate series, which makes for a fantastic primer for readers who have not yet checked out the first year and a half of these comics. It has allowed for characters to express new sides of themselves. It’s particularly fun here to see the Peach Momoko X-girls step into the wider world beyond their high schools and the family cults. This is the first time we’ve really seen these characters interpreted outside of Momoko’s unique style and Jonas Scharf perfectly translates them into a more traditional superhero style while keeping a bit of manga flair. It’s the strongest issue so far, visually, in part because Scharf’s figures are so exaggerated and the quirky, youthful Japanese characters fit so well. It’s a fine middle ground between Momoko’s vision and the rest of the Ultimate Universe. 

It’s always hard to tell in a comic who exactly does what between writer and artist. It’s especially complicated when you’ve got two writers with such different philosophies on superhero comics. Ziglar’s big action-comedy approach to Miles is a far cry from Camp’s cerebral and melancholy Ultimates (though there’s no denying Camp’s ability to deliver on the action). Throw in Scharf’s rubbery facial expressions and flailing limbs and it’s a strange stew of visions. Somehow it all works, though, in part because the chaos is part of the point. Miles is desperate, and the universe itself  is constantly fighting him. It’s even more chilling to see the cruel evil of Emmanuel De Costa set against the bright, bounding Spider-Man. Edgar Delgado makes that contrast even greater with his moody changes in color between scenes and characters. His work adds greater depth to the emotion and mood of each page, helping to guide the emotional ebbs and flows of the story through the sharp change between warm golds and inviting greens of nature to the chilling violets and desaturated thronerooms of the villains. 

While Scharf’s pencils and finer details are not always to my taste, there’s no denying his talent in laying out the page and choreographing big action scenes. The page crackles with motion and electricity as Miles bounds and flips his way through the world and May Storm and Miles’s lightning powers sync up for over the top action. VC’s Cory Petit pulls it all together with SFX that blend in with the action. Electricity sounds are jagged and harsh, alarms interrupt the flow between  gutters of adjacent panels. 

I am eager to read the next issue and see how Miles deals with the ultra-dark Russian contingent of mutants. With each Ultimate title so densely packed due to the constraints of the month-by-month structure, Incursion helps to flesh out the universe more while highlighting just how different the Maker’s hopeless world truly is from the one we know so well. As long as this energy keeps up for the remainder of the series, it will be a fine companion piece to some of the already classic books of the new Ultimate Universe.

Final Verdict: BUY

The Rapid Rundown

• Giant-Size X-Men #2
  • Kamala Khan’s adventure through X-Men History comes to a close this week with Giant-Size X-Men #2. There is, at least on the surface, a dual-purpose of this series is to be a celebration of X-Men over the years and the journey of Kamala coming to terms with her mutant side. All the while there is this whole plotline of The Mutant Formerly known as Legion messing with the timeline in an effort to get the power needed to breach the White Hot Room to confront the main Legion. This series has been an uneven ride the whole journey and, to be honest, fails to achieve either of its purposes. Writing duo of Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly are trying to have Kamala grow as a character.  However, with each issue repeating the same story beats, it felt like there was no real growth. How many times does Ms. Marvel need to learn this lesson? The theme of embracing your identity is lost in all the action of the issue. There may be something to say about Legion’s quest being a symbol of that longing for an identity, but it isn’t exactly clear. The series hasn’t really been the celebration of X-Men as each moment just hits on the highlights of the events and doesn’t really do much with it. An argument can be made that the series is a celebration of all the messy aspects of X-men comics, but I don’t think that is necessarily a great thing to celebrate. As for the art, Adam Kubert delivers something that is perfectly serviceable, but the same issues regarding the presentation of Kamala’s new mutant powers remain. She has hard light projection powers, ala MCU, but Kubert renders it like a disco ball. It doesn’t look great, and I hope we see more consistency going forward if Marvel insists on this change.At the end of this “mini” series, I was left asking “who was this made for?” Ms. Marvel fans are going to be upset by the lack of meaningful character growth, further X-men entrenchment, and the development of the MCU powerset. X-Men fans are going to be annoyed by the treatment of notable stories. There isn’t much here to tout as great or anything worth re-reading. To be clear, I didn’t hate this issue or this series. It is technically serviceable. Its biggest crime is being forgettable. Neither Ms. Marvel nor the X-Men gain anything from this experience. – JJ
• Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #01
  • I’ve been looking forward to the end of the Marvel universe at the blade tip of the Predator for a minute. As I’ve stated in a previous Rundown, writer Benjamin Percy has it in for our Marvel Heroes, building an amazing throughline, starting with Predator vs Wolverine to Predator vs. Black Panther to the conceptually confusing Predator vs. Spider-Man, until you read it and then it becomes conceptually brilliant. SPOILER ALERT, Predator Kills the Marvel Universe follows the events of Predator vs. Spidey, and if you haven’t read any of the previous mini-series, especially Spidey, just know there are major plot points laid out that won’t hinder your reading but will mess with the surprise/enjoyment factor of this blood bath. I feel like pencilers Marcelo Ferreira & Daniel Picciotto, along with inkers Jay Leisten & Daniel Picciotto, are slightly handcuffed with the violence, don’t get me wrong, this book is gruesome with the kills, I can only imagine what the red band edition would have been like. With that, I’m purposefully leaving out a character that drives this smartly done book because there is a great twist in this issue, and I can’t wait for more murder/death/kills. Killed Hero Count-8. – GC3
• The Ultimates #15
  • Ultimates #15 came out of the gate swinging with a fantastic issue, one that’s sure to be one of the best when the series reaches its conclusion. Written by Deniz Camp with art by Von Randal, issue 15 covers the Ultimate Universe’s take on Shang-Chi and the Iron-Fist. The issue starts with much exposition, but it’s much needed when discussing the world of K’un-Lun, and it rewards a patient reader with some fantastic action that shows how the Ultimates have grown as a unit and as fighters. It’s clear Camp knows and cares for these characters by showing how they’ve grown as genuine heroes, fighters, and people in this issue by returning them to the place where they received their biggest defeat. The fight with Uranium Brother #235 shows off guest artist Von Randal’s expertise in dynamic action panels, and he doesn’t hold back in getting gory with it. Giant-Man’s foot takes a nasty blow in this issue, but nobody takes it worse than Uranium Brother #235 after She-Hulk delivers one of the baddest lines in the Ultimates world. While it’s unfortunate the thread of Wanda and Pietro got pushed aside for this, it is refreshing to see the Ultimates get a big win and recruit the mysterious Shang-Chi. Hopefully, the next issue gives readers time to see how the team is doing with these new additions and how they plan to use them in the war against the Maker. I’ve said it once, and I’ll repeat it. If you aren’t reading Ultimates, you are missing out on Marvel’s greatest right now. – LM
• Uncle Scrooge: Earth’s Mightiest Duck #1
  • Uncle Scrooge: Earth’s Mightiest Duck #1 once again has writer Jason Aaron joined by an army of artists, with this issue featuring Mahmud Asrar, Ciro Cangialosi, Guiseppe Camuncoli & Daniele Orlandini, to create a very Marvel story featuring one of the all time great comic book characters. With aliens invading Duckberg and Scrooge hopping through his own mind, this is a very Marvel version of a Duck family adventure. Silliness, whimsy, and fantastical adventure don’t really happen in this. It’s a high octane adventure with maybe the most hardcore panel of Donald Duck ever committed to paper. It all feels off. The story is well executed and Aaron clearly has a passion for the character. One of Scrooge McDuck’s greatest strengths remains his ability to fit into any genre. So far though, Aaron’s stories appear limited in their understanding of what makes for a great Scrooge stories. Having him face aliens that hoard wealth and treasure could be the basis for a great story. The best McDuck adversaries are those who do things for entirely selfish gain. But Scrooge works best in a competition with his foes to increase his wealth and so far, this story has him just getting his own wealth back. Additionally, humor is such a key part of these stories there’s very little of that here. Aaron does absolutely get the wrecking machine that is Donald Duck. There are fun elements (Junior Woodchucks) in this story and it’s far from a grim tale. Yet there is a seriousness in this story that seems out of line with this group of characters. Aaron and his collaborators are capable hands but also hands crafting a story in a tone that feels ill at ease with these characters. – DM

Come back next week for more reviews or go through our archives to read past reviews from the Rundown team!