Cover: Marco Checchetto

Ultimate Spider-Man #16

Jun 2025 · Marvel · 4.99 USD

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“April”

About this Issue

Issue #16 of Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto's 2024 Ultimate Spider-Man series is the single most consequential character-building chapter of that run, simultaneously revealing the origin of the Ultimate Universe's Mysterio collective and repositioning Gwen Stacy-Osborn — long treated as a supporting presence — as a fully realized agent with her own covert history and moral complexity. By recasting Mysterio not as one villain but as a five-person arcane cabal secretly working to expose the Maker's fabricated reality, Hickman delivers a wholesale reimagining of one of Spider-Man's most recognizable rogues for the Earth-6160 continuity. The issue also delivers two consequential in-story milestones: the death of George Stacy (Earth-6160) and the in-universe death of Kraven the Hunter at Gwen's hand, while simultaneously confirming that Harry Osborn is alive and setting the Osborn couple on a collision course with the Maker. Its Rashomon-style structure — recontextualizing events from earlier issues entirely through Gwen's hidden perspective — marked a formal storytelling ambition that distinguished the series from conventional superhero monthlies.

writer Jonathan Hickman · artist, inker Marco Checchetto · colorist Matthew Wilson · letterer VC's Cory Petit · cover Marco Checchetto

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $5

CGC 9.8 · 129 in census $49*

CGC 9.6 · 9 in census $30*

CGC 9.4 · 2 in census $30*

CGC 9.2 none in existence

CGC 9.0 · 1 in census $30*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

Find on ebay

Search eBay for Ultimate Spider-Man #16 ▸

No confirmed live listings for this exact issue right now — this opens an eBay search.

Read it digitally

Marvel Unlimited Marvel’s subscription reader ▸ Amazon Kindle Buy the digital edition ▸

Opens a search on each platform — digital availability varies by title.

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

The series was launched in January 2024 as the flagship title of Marvel's relaunched Ultimate Universe imprint, itself seeded by the 2023 Ultimate Invasion miniseries. Jonathan Hickman conceived the entire run as a finite, self-contained story; he later confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that the series' 24-issue length matched his original pitch without deviation. Issue #16 features interior art by David Messina, the series' co-regular penciller alongside Checchetto, with Checchetto providing the cover and Matthew Wilson on colors — the same core production team that had maintained visual consistency across the run. Editor Wil Moss oversaw the issue under editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance and origin of the Ultimate Universe (Earth-6160) Mysterio collective — a five-person arcane cabal sharing a power-granting amulet, distinct in concept from the 616 Quentin Beck.
Gwen Stacy-Osborn (Earth-6160) is revealed as the active Mysterio, having inherited the role from her father George Stacy upon his death; this constitutes her first appearance in that identity.
First full appearance of Quentin Beck (Earth-6160) as a named member of the Mysterio cabal.
Death of George Stacy (Earth-6160), who had been one of the five Mysterios before Gwen took his place.
Death of Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff, Earth-6160), killed by Gwen/Mysterio — retroactively recontextualizing events from Ultimate Spider-Man #14.
Harry Osborn (Earth-6160) is revealed to be alive; his apparent death was an illusion staged by Gwen using Mysterio's powers.
Peter Parker/Spider-Man appears only in flashback; the issue is a Gwen-centric 'bottle episode' employing a Rashomon-style perspective-shift structure.
Written by Jonathan Hickman; interior art by David Messina; cover art and colors by Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson; lettered by Cory Petit; edited by Wil Moss. The issue received a second printing and was simultaneously reprinted in the Ultimate Spider-Man Infinity Comic series.