Ultimate Spider-Man #21

History

Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 3) launched in January 2024 as the flagship title of Marvel's rebuilt Ultimate Universe (Earth-6160), conceived and written by Jonathan Hickman — who cited the Peter Parker of 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' as a creative touchstone — with series artist Marco Checchetto establishing the book's visual language. By #21, fill-in and co-series artist David Messina had become a regular artistic partner; Hickman noted at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that the entire 24-issue arc was planned from the outset and that nothing in the published series deviated from his original pitch, making #21 a structural beat in a meticulously pre-plotted story rather than a reactive editorial decision.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Released September 24, 2025; written by Jonathan Hickman, art by David Messina, colors by Matthew Wilson and Erick Arciniega, letters by VC's Cory Petit, cover by Marco Checchetto.
• Spider-Man (Peter Parker) does not appear in the story — the issue is entirely devoted to the perspective and origin of Sinister Six member Martin Li, a.k.a. Mr. Negative, making it one of the series' most atypical structural experiments.
• The issue opens with Mr. Negative's Bullseye-led crew abducting James Wesley — a key lieutenant of Kingpin Wilson Fisk — and interweaves his interrogation with flashbacks to Li's criminal rise.
• A major subplot reveals fractures inside the Mysterio Collective: Gwen Stacy (Harry Osborn's wife and one of five people sharing the Mysterio identity) had already exposed her double life to Harry, and the blowback forces Mr. Negative's hand and catalyzes a larger Sinister Six civil war.
• The Mysterio Collective in this continuity is a secret society — including Gwen Stacy, James Wesley, Robbie Robertson, Quentin Beck, and Aihan Li (Mr. Negative's own sister) — that wields power through a generational amulet and has been covertly undermining Kingpin from within his own organization.
• The Earth-6160 Sinister Six (first assembled in issue #8) is led by Wilson Fisk/Kingpin and comprises Mr. Negative (Queens), Walter Hardy/Black Cat (Bronx), Kraven the Hunter (Staten Island), Mysterio (Brooklyn), and Mole Man (underground), each controlling a borough of New York's underworld.
• Walter Hardy (father of Felicia, and the Black Cat identity in this universe) and his daughter Felicia appear in a single-panel attack sequence by Mr. Negative's crew, signaling the Sinister Six's internal war is expanding.
• At SDCC 2025, Marvel announced the series would conclude with issue #24 (December 2025); #21 is therefore the fourth-to-last chapter of Hickman's complete, pre-planned 24-issue arc.

Cast · 28 characters

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