Marvel Teases Big Plans For Ultimate Spider-Man in 2025

Ask any friendly neighborhood fan what their favorite ongoing Spider-Man comic book series is, and chances are they'll answer with Ultimate Spider-Man (2024). I can't blame them. In fact, I'm one of them. I impatiently await until a new issue in Jonathan Hickman's beloved run is released to see what Peter and their family are up to. What can I say? The story has a lot of heart, and it's nice to see Peter living his best life as a father of two next to Mary Jane Watson (something we'll never see in the mainline saga). Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) is everything fans could've asked for and more, which is fortunately reflected in its stellar sales.

Marvel knows they have a hit on their hands, so it doesn't come as a surprise that they have big plans in store for Earth-6160's Peter Parker. Proof of that is a rather cryptic image that teases everything that's to come in the comic book world in the upcoming months. On one hand, see various hints about the future of iconic characters such as Ms. Marvel and Doctor Strange. On the other, there are two entries that might have big ramifications for the Ultimate version of Spider-Man. So it's time to break them down and try to uncover what they could really mean.

Where is Spider-Man?

Perhaps the second-most striking element in the list is the one titled "Where is Spider-Man?". Granted, it doesn't explicitly mention this has to do with the Ultimate version of the wall-crawler at all. However, Earth 616 Peter already has another entry of his own in the form of "The Eight Deaths", which, of course, references the ongoing Eight Deaths of Spider-Man comic book arc. Furthermore, Miles Morales is currently undergoing a whole spiritual trip in an attempt to get rid of his vampiric nature, so it's unlikely that the mysterious "disappearance" has to do with him.

With that in mind, we only have one likely candidate left: Earth-6160 Peter Parker. But to truly uncover what the "Where is Spider-Man?" tagline means, we have to look at the latest issue of Ultimate Spider-Man (2024). It features a pretty peaceful Christmas story that takes place inside the Parker and Watson's house where beloved characters such as Uncle Ben, J. Jonah Jameson, May Parker, Richard Parker, Mary Jane, and Peter all come together. Everything appears to be just laughs and cheers... until things unexpectedly take a dark turn. The last pages reveal that the version of Peter Parker celebrating Christmas with his family was just a double. His Picotech suit was merely pretending to be him by taking his form. That big reveal made us all ask the same question: Where is the real Spider-Man?

This is just pure speculation on my part, but perhaps the image above is referencing the upcoming Kraven's Hunt storyline, which sees the world's greatest hunter kidnap the Ultimate versions of Peter and Harry Osborn. After all, Marvel has been teasing this storyline for quite some time now. The real Peter Parker is missing, so his family will likely try to uncover his true whereabouts—especially with reporters J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker on the case.

Granted, there's always the possibility that the list is presented in chronological order and Marvel is teasing a completely different arc altogether with the "Where is Spider-Man?" tagline. But even then, chances are it's referencing the newest and most beloved version of Peter Parker in comic book pages.

The Ultimate Incursion will have big ramifications for Peter Parker

Now, let's move on to the single most shocking entry on the list: The Ultimate Incursion. Just as a refresher; an Incursion is an apocalyptic-level event where two different universes collide with each other and one (or both) are destroyed in the process. Perhaps the most notorious example of this is... well, the Ultimate Incursion that took place in Secret Wars (2015). During that story, the previous Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610) clashed with Earth 616 resulting in the death of the former. Characters such as Miles Morales would later be forced to move to Marvel's Prime Earth as their home was completely decimated.

Now, 10 years later, it looks like history will repeat itself once again. The newest Ultimate Universe (Earth-6160) will likely clash with the Prime Universe (Earth-616) and the results could be catastrophic. On the bright side, there's a chance we see the newest version of Spider-Man interact with other variants of himself across the multiverse. Not only will it be an interesting scenario because Ultimate Peter is one of the few to have a wife and kids, but he's also a hero whose biggest problem until today was facing the Kingpin of Crime. Getting to explore alternate realities will definitely be a big leap, and I'm not quite sure if he's ready to take it yet.

Unfortunately, we don't have any idea of when in 2025 we can expect these stories to arrive. But one thing's for certain: the future is looking worrisome (but amazing) for Ultimate Spider-Man, and we couldn't be any more excited.