Messina delivers some great art throughout the issue. I love the visual style and how the imagery emphasizes the characters and their emotions. Read Full Review

Ultimate Spider-Man #20 is filled with the scraps of threads left boiling on the cutting room floor, the genius of mirroring issue four lost within Hickman's inability to build his characters with true detail against the decompression of this series. Read Full Review

Ultimate Spider-Man #20 is the weakest issue of this series thus far. This entire issue is about two long conversations that are had. Both conversations are basically recapping what has been learned in recent issues. To Jonathan Hickman and David Messina's credit, they do a great job at creating tension and making the ending involving MJ and Gwen a rewarding moment. But that reward isn't enough to mask what is largely a recap chapter. Read Full Review

Ultimate Spider-Man #20 is a masterclass in how to stall a story. It promises a big conversation but delivers nothing but empty dialogue and tedious filler. If you are looking for a Spider-Man comic with action, drama, or any kind of forward momentum, this is not the one for you. This is an issue that could have been a single page and still told the same story. Read Full Review

Gabe watches Michael Bay films on loop.

The dynamic between these 4 central characters is absolutely magnificent.

They have the kind of character rapport that most writers would kill for.

The punch.

Magnificent. The best Marvel comic on the shelves and the best Spider-man since the previous Ultimate Spider-man. DC are absolutely trouncing Marvel in terms of quality- this is one of few runs Marvel has that can go toe to toe with DC Absolute.

Just the dialogue alone makes this a 10 for me. I understand the people that don't enjoy the slow pacing tho.
I like it a lot.

Finally someone who isn't committing character assassination on MJ, love that we got a comic where we have an understanding where the characters mentally are before the big battle.

This series is so good, I wish everyone would read it

this critic. mrgabe has a brain of five year old child. you are getting beautiful dialogue frome the best writer for the best suporting cast in comic and you say it is bad and boring??? you cant stand one issue without punch?? some of the best spiderman stories are without action. pleas delet his rewies. i really don't like this website any more.

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OpticRageX - Aug 28, 2025

Careful! Gabe will get set one of his buddies on you for highlighting how garbage his ragebait reviews are. Ignore him. He does it because he likes to post screenshots of people talking about his poor reviews on his Twitter, where he and his sychophant buddies go on to circlejerk insult said individuals. Those who cant create, critique, and those who cant critique in an insightful manner, rage bait.

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I usually expect a little bit more of a punch from Hickman, though there is one! Good comic overall, I know a lot of people have been begging for more character development and explaining motivations, this issue definetely has that.

While I would not give this issue a 3/10 like Gabe Hernandez, I do understand Afre and Gabe Hernandez criticism. I get how this is good character development where there's no action and it's just Peter and MJ having a conversation with Gwen and Harry Osborn. The dialogue is good. But.... like Afre said, this is the 5th to last issue of the entire series. I predict that Hickman will probably have another series similar to how Bendis had Ultimate comics Spider-Man after his main Ultimate Spider-Man run.

But there are so many things that are either rushed or not brought up until recently. Peter's kid talking to Uncle Ben falls flat because I literally forgot about them. I forgot about J Jonah Jameson, and Mister Negative. Like what did Gwen say "That it only ends when we win?" I forgot about the importance of Gwen getting her amulet in ten days. What's up with Maybelle and Uncle Ben? And again, it's not good to compare og Ultimate Peter Parker to Hickman's Peter Parker because Bendis wrote that Peter Parker for a long time, while Hickman is writing Peter Parker for 1.5 years.. But bendis Peter Parker feels more developed if we compare Bendis writing Ultimate Spider-man for a year and a half.

It's not a bad comic. But it's just fine. And I can see why there is a vocal minority (myself included) that slowly find this a little bit dissapointing and frustrating. Peter Parker isn't the main character, a lot of things happen off-screen, and it just feels rushed. more

The most frustrating comic book of the century continues. It is harder to be invested in this comic, when the creative team keeps faltering.

Is this a bad comic? No. On it's own, it's quite good. I like the focus on MJ and her feelings on the matter, even if this is late. It's clear how this is mirroring issue 4, and I liked that issue. But that issue was still building towards something. This issue... is just stalling mostly.

But is it good? Yes. On it's own on. But as 20th issue and 5th to last, it's disappointing.

This is what we call stalling. This is not filler, somewhat important stuff happens here, but clearly Hickman doesn't want to have the confrontation before the last 2 issues. So... we are left with character stuff, which would normally be nice...

If we had any input from the supposed "main character" of this book. To this day, I have zero clue why Peter does what he does, how his character has changed in any way since issue 2, how good is he using his powers now and how has the stuff affected him. Because Hickman refuses to focus on Peter, it's hard to stay invested. And when he is supposedly the main character, it's hard to stay invested in this book. At least we saw May in five panels now. And few lines. Is that a record?

Like, what are we building towards? Gang War? Confrontation with Kingpin? That has been building up since issue 7, or 13 months of this comic's timeline and what really has happened? What has the supposed "main antagonist" of this book done really? Nothing. Kraven did more in spawn of 2 issues than Kingpin has in 13.

We are supposed to believe he has the resources to kill every Ben Reilly on the planet, but so far he hasn't been able to do anything towards Parkers? Or Mysterio? Or find out that Harry is alive?

Having each issue focus on each month really hurts this book. Nothing feels worthwhile. This comic ends in interesting way. But a month has passed again in the next issue. So we can see maybe flashbacks, or probably just characters talking what happened, instead of seeing.

TLDR: not a bad comic, but this series keeps being frustrating to read, because few things advance and lack of focus on Peter is disappointing to see every month. more