Issues 129-133

Ultimatum

Peter, MJ, Gwen, Kitty and Kong plan to spend their day in the city, however shortly after they leave Aunt May is taken into custody by the police due to her connection with Spider-Man. During her interrigation, the power goes out and soon May finds herself alone. She leaves the station and finds New York in ruins. Spider-Man is out on his own attempting to rescue as many civilians as he can when he recieves a telepathic message from Charles Xavier, who explains that the mutant terrorist Magneto has used his abilites to alter the Earth's magnetic poles and caused the massive tidal wave that hit New York. Xavier calls for everyone to attack Magneto, but Peter has no way of helping and stays in New York to rescue civilians, during which he encounters The Incredible Hulk.

As Peter's friends try to survive in the devestated city, Spider-Man and the Hulk rescue as many people as possible, but stop when they come across the corpse of Daredevil. Hulk reverts to Bruce for a moment, recognizing Daredevil before he goes into a panic, beleiving he's responsible for the destruction around him. Transforming back to the Hulk, he attacks Spider-Man, both of them fighting until they come across the Sanctum Santorum, home of Dr. Strange. However, the wave has broken the mystical sealsof the Sanctorum, causing monsters and demons to be unleashed, with Strange himself being posessed by the demon Nightmare. Nightmare attemps to plunge Spider-Man and Hulk into a dream state, but Hulk is able to defeat the demon, causing a massive mystical explosion that levels the Sanctorum. This draws the attention of Spider-Woman, who has returned to New York and previously saved May during the aftermath of the wave. Jessica encounters the Hulk, managing to outrun him and finds Kitty, who was sent by MJ to find Peter. The two look around the city, only finding his torn mask in the rubble. Everyone returns to the Parker residence, believing Peter to be dead.

Requiem

In the aftermath of Ultimatum, J. Jonah Jameson returns to the destroyed Daily Bugle, reflecting on his own beliefs about Spider-Man after witnessing him save people during the wave. He begins to write a story about Spider-Man, but Ben Urich reports that Spider-Man was killed in the wave, meaning that Jameson is now writing an obituary. As he writes, Jonah thinks of two different stories he wrote about Spider-Man, one where he stopped a robbery at Stark Industries and saved Tony Stark, and another where he encountered the Hulk being chased by the military, where the ended up saving a school bus. In the end, Jameson ultimately recognizes Spider-Man as a hero and encourages everyone to be as heroic as he was. As the Ultimates clean up the wreckage, they find Peter Parker in the rubble, who had survived after all.

Did You Know?

• Ultimatum was pitched as an ending/closing chapter for the Ultimate universe as a whole, as sales started to lose steam over the years. Instead of being written by Ultimate mainstays like Mark Millar or Brian Michael Bendis, the book was written by Jeph Loeb, who wrote well-acclaimed stories such as Batman: The Long Halloween and Spider-Man: Blue, but at the time he wrote the critically panned Ultimates 3. Ultimatum as a whole is universally hated and considered one of the worst comic books of all time, criticized for it's poor writing and gratuitous violence.
• Multiple characters in the Ultimate Universe were killed during this event, with most of them drowning in the wave. A majority of the deaths were also X-Men related/adjacent. There were some stand-outs, such as Wasp being consumed by Blob, Wolverine being killed by Magneto, only for the latter to be executed by Cyclops, only for him to be assassinated by Quicksilver. As a result of Ultimatum, both the X-Men and the Fantastic 4 disbanded.
• While the Ultimate publishing line continued afterwards, it's widely considered that Ultimatum killed the line, as sales never recovered and continued to dwindle off. Ultimate Spider-Man was revived under the same name, but restarted it's numbering until it eventually resumed to the original. Spider-Man recieved a slight shake-up status quo, with Peter now dating Gwen instead of MJ, with the latter recieving a goth makeover, along with Johnny Storm and Bobby Drake living with the Parkers under the guise as relatives. Peter Parker would eventually be killed in a battle with The Green Goblin, resulting in Johhny, Bobby, and Kitty leaving the book and restarting Ultimate X-Men. The Ultimate universe was ultimately cancelled and destroyed during 2016's Secret Wars, eventually being relaunched in 2024 with a new publishing line. The new Ultimate Spider-Man would feature a grown Peter Parker with a family recieving his powers in adulthood.