Despite a small (and rather sad) contingency of Marvel people at this year’s Chicago Comic-Con (you may know this as Wizard World Chicago), there are still a couple of Marvel panels to report on. The first of which happened on Friday afternoon – the Marvel Ultimate Panel – involving news and discussion of the Marvel Ultimate Comics line. In attendance were Jim McCann, Marvel’s PR guru, Lauren Sankovitch, Associate editor (formerly with the Ultimate line), Mark Paniccia, Ultimate line editor, and Mark Millar, writer of many Ultimate books and co-creator of the Ultimate Universe.

The panel started a little late, as Millar walked in and said that he was “taking a poo”. To which McCann replied that they are only 3 minutes late, like many of their books. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the panel, which was as much filled with witty banter as with actual news on the Ultimate U.

As the laughter died down, McCann said that this is the first panel where they can actually talk about a lot of the Ultimate stuff, now that Ultimatum #5 has finally shipped. The first book coming out with be, as many of you know, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man this Wednesday. Paniccia said that these are his favorite books and Sankovitch said that they are resetting the bar even higher now after Ultimatum. The panel members said look for some huge surprises in Spider-Man from the very first issue. There was also a general praise for David LaFuente’s art on the book.

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Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3 Cover

So, I’m pretty sure that I’ve said this many times before, but my favorite part of Ultimate Spider-Man is the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good relationship drama. Apparently, Brian Michael Bendis is too, cause he really makes the personal life of Spider-Man the highlight of the book. Sure, there’s a lot of great action and cool plots about villains, but I feel like the heart of the book lies in Peter’s real life and how he balances that with his responsibilities as Spider-Man.

In Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3, Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship really takes the forefront in the book. Why is that? Cause this entire issue is about whether Peter and Mary Jane should “go all the way”. Oh yes, my friends, this book is all about Spidy-Sex. So stick around and see what I think about this little comic with my full review below.

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