Ultimate Fallout #4

History

Ultimate Fallout was a six-issue limited series conceived as an anthology epilogue to the 'Death of Spider-Man' arc in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, representing the second full relaunch of Marvel's Ultimate imprint in 2011. The writing duties on issue #4 were divided among three architects of that relaunch — Brian Michael Bendis handled the Miles Morales segment (pages 1–7), Jonathan Hickman wrote the Reed Richards / Maker segment (pages 8–15), and Nick Spencer wrote the Valerie Cooper section (pages 16–20), with each writer paired with a dedicated artist: Sara Pichelli, Salvador Larroca, and Clayton Crain respectively. Bendis has publicly credited actor Donald Glover's appearance in a Spider-Man costume during the Community season-two premiere as a direct visual inspiration for Miles, and artist Pichelli designed the character's look — including his now-familiar black-and-red costume — by rooting the design in Miles's personality, background, and body language rather than defaulting to a simple palette swap of Parker's suit. Marvel then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso played a key editorial role in shaping the character, and the cover art by Mark Bagley — depicting a masked Spider-Man holding his cowl in front of assembled Avengers — was deliberately constructed so that readers could not determine the hero's identity or ethnicity before opening the book.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First full appearance of Miles Morales (Miles Gonzalo Morales), the second Spider-Man of Earth-1610 (the Ultimate Universe), son of an African-American father and an Afro-Puerto Rican mother.
• Miles was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and Italian artist Sara Pichelli, with editorial input from Marvel's then-Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso; Bendis cited actor Donald Glover's appearance in a Spider-Man costume on the TV series Community as a direct visual inspiration.
• The issue also marks the first appearance of the Maker — the villainous identity assumed by Ultimate Reed Richards — as conceived by writer Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Salvador Larroca; the Maker went on to become a recurring threat in both the Ultimate and main Marvel universes.
• The anthology-format issue was co-written by three writers (Bendis, Hickman, Nick Spencer) with three separate artist teams (Pichelli, Larroca, Clayton Crain), each handling a distinct story segment within the single issue.
• The character of Miles was first publicly reported by USA Today on August 2, 2011, one day before the issue's on-sale date of August 3, 2011; the news generated international mainstream coverage and significant public debate about representation in superhero comics.
• Miles's debut appearance in this issue is deliberately brief and understated — he fights the villain Kangaroo, is mocked by onlookers for wearing the Spider-Man costume so soon after Peter Parker's death, and only unmasks on the final page of the segment, revealing a young teenager clearly in over his head.
• Marvel published an official facsimile edition reprinting the issue in September 2021, accompanied by multiple variant covers (including exclusives by Jonboy Meyers and a virgin Marko Djurdjevic connecting variant), making the story accessible to new readers at cover price.
• Following his debut here, Miles starred in a relaunched Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man series beginning September 2011, and later transitioned permanently into Marvel's main Earth-616 continuity after the 2015 Secret Wars event destroyed the Ultimate Universe — the only two Ultimate Universe characters to survive that transition as ongoing fixtures were Miles Morales and the Maker.

Key issues in Ultimate Fallout

★

#4 1st appearance — Miles Morales

#4★

#4 1st appearance — Miles Morales

Other variants of Ultimate Fallout #4 (3)