f i t .

As good of a time as any to drop my Spider-Man pitch I suppose.

My idea for the run is Spider-Man being brought to a new landscape of Psychological Horror mixed with the Body Horror that Spidey is more familiar with through the lens of "depressive surrealism."

Do you know that feeling where you're so depressed, so out of touch with yourself and reality that everything takes this almost unreal look? Like you can't even fathom what's happening to you anymore, because it all seems so out of your control?

That's what Peter's going through in this run. He is, by all definitions, clinically depressed. You want to make him relatable to modern audiences? There you go! Now he's just like us fr fr

As a follow up to the status quo now, Peter in this run is at his absolute lowest.

Not just materially. Emotionally. You've seen him angsty, screaming "I'M THE SPIDER!!" You've seen him without any friends, but still taking solace in kicking butt.

But you've never seen him like this. Completely and utterly emotionally despondent.

There is no "What did Peter do!?" There is no big inciting incident that caused him to be all alone this time. There's just a question.

What happens when he can't lift the unliftable weight? What happens when he's crushed by it?

This run starts with Peter about to be evicted, while he's staying up all night, staring out the window. He hasn't had a job in months. Everything has finally gotten to him. He is completely out of it.

He wants cereal. He has no milk. So he goes out swinging. Time to get milk.

On his way, there's a massive attack in the middle of Manhattan by the Sandman. Spidey is confused, it's not really like Flint to just be mindlessly destroying. But he goes anyway. Lives have got to be saved.

But when he gets there, he hears something strange.

Sandman is screaming his name, but it's not in the normal villain "I'm gonna beat you!!" way. No, it sounds like... a cry for help?

Sandman turns around to look at Spider-Man and Spidey is shocked. Sandman's all...wrong!

Like his body didn't completely turn into sand, but is now this mess of misplaced nerves and bones and muscle without the protection of his skin, all being constantly stabbed by a mess of sandy particles.

Flint screams "SPIDER-MAN!! HELP ME!!!"

But it's like his body isn't responding to his brain! He keeps wreaking havoc! Spidey tries to stop him, but nothing works! Water doesn't even turn his sand into mud, because it's not even sand anymore! It's just a wave of dead skin!

Peter is being beaten into the ground.

He tries to save as many people as he can, but it's almost impossible. He feels it. Like he's going to die. But before he's pushed anymore, before death can finally take him, Sandman just stops and dissipates.

Like his body couldn't take existing anymore.

Peter is battered and bruised. He tries to run back to his apartment, but he can barely make it to a nearby alley. He starts bleeding out, all alone, among the trash.

He tries to keep it together and just sleeps, hoping it'll get better when he wakes.

The sun is setting again when he finally wakes up. He limps towards his apartment, weakly web-slinging the big distances. He makes it back through the window and takes a breather.

He sees it on the kitchen counter. That cereal bowl from last night. And he remembers.

"Oh. I forgot to get milk."

He laughs. He's done this a hundred times! How many times has he forgotten the groceries during his Spidey action? He did it with May, he did it with MJ...

They all had a good laugh about it. But there's no one else here.

No one here to make him feel like it's okay to screw up sometimes. No one else here to lie to him to hide their disappointment. It's just him.

The only person he's failing now is himself.

And Peter Parker finally breaks. He cries and cries until the sun is gone and that's left is the pitch black of the urban night sky.

And that's a taste of the tone of my pitch. Peter Parker is going to be broken down to his lowest. A complete deconstruction of who he is, of his relationships, and of why he wears the mask.

All so he can be built back better than ever.

Because that's what happens when you're crushed by the unliftable weight. If it doesn't kill you, then all that's left to do is be better. Be stronger. And lift it up.

The premise of the story is that something is messing with Spidey's rogues.

They're being mutated into these harsh, horrific monsters, and the roster of rogues being chosen are rather strange.

They're all villains who've been redeemed before, or who have stronger moral fibers, or are generally not pure evil. So no Norman, no Jackal.

We're dealing with Flint Marko, Quentin Beck, Curt Connors, Aleksei Sytsevich, Felicia Hardy, Otto Octavius, and Michael Morbius.

They're our Sinful Six (not counting Felicia, because she has a more specific purpose).

All throughout the story, Spidey has to confront each of these mutated villains in battles of endurance, because he is not beating them in any way. He just has to outlast them.

There is nothing more human than our stamina giving us an edge.

While this is happening, Peter is losing his sense of self. As he starts to lose all his material connection to being Peter Parker, he starts to wonder "Why am I even bothering being Peter in the first place?"

Officially, Spider-Man has actually ruined Peter Parker's life.

We explore the relationship Spider-Man has with Peter Parker through two people who can attest to that identity's importance the most: 

His brothers from the same genetic sample, the Scarlet-Spiders for Hire, Ben Reilly and Kaine.

They will reach out to Peter, telling him not to give up on himself, because they know what it's like to not be able to call upon that.

Spidey doesn't listen. Because the truth is, there isn't much to give up on in the first place.

He has no job, he has no apartment, he has no friends, he has no significant other, and besides May, who he's too ashamed to talk to, he has no family.

He's all alone.

But there's always one person he can confide in. He feels selfish and awful for it, but he know she's there.

Mary Jane Watson. MJ is having her own transitionary period at the moment. She's left show business. She loved it, but it's gotten too volatile, too stressful, too, too, TOO MUCH!

She hates to admit it, but maybe it's all become too much for her.

The stalkers, the cameras, the lights, the stage, it's starting to suffocate her! But without her dream of showbiz, what is she looking for? What does she want? Who is she?

In these months of self-discovery, she realizes what it actually is she was finding in showbiz.

The ability to artistically express herself. To be herself. Ironically, in hiding behind characters and fancy dresses and makeup, she was getting more and more in touch with herself.

The self that was subdued in her broken home. The self that had to hide behind a no-care attitude. The self that she only felt like she was being honest with in the presence of one other person.

She starts up her own business. A small fashion boutique where she expresses herself through creative and bombastic designs that hopefully other people will like as well.

This only makes Peter more unwilling to reach out to her.

He doesn't want to bring her down anymore. Especially when she's making these big changes. He... He... 

He doesn't want her to see him like this. Until eventually, he stops having a choice in the matter.

Following up my Ultimate Superman is the pitch that inspired this effort: Ultimate Wonder Woman!

The main difference between this and Prime Earth is that the Amazons do not exist as physical entities (yet). 

Rather Wonder Woman is a being born of faith and sisterly love. 

She is a modern myth. Literally. She functions the same way all myths do in the DCU: the more people believe in her, the stronger she gets. 

Her idea was formed in response to the Great War...

Where the women of the world effected by the war dreamt of a force whose power came from compassion. a power that they can trust and so formed The Beating Heart of The Wonder Woman. 

A pure idea that fought to protect all those hurt by the senselessness of man's world.

She appeared wherever she needed to be, and her idea was only powered even more by all the people who she protected--of all creeds and genders.  

Then as the war waned, The Wonder Woman faded back into mythology, because in the end, she was only an idea given form by belief.

She rises once again, taking different form during the 2nd World War. 

Then for the next century, different manifestations of The Wonder Woman appeared all around the world, taking on the form of the communities that imagined her.

But what happens when the myth gains ultimate agency? When it escapes our collective imaginations and becomes its own existence?  

In the modern day, by the coast of Greece, lived two sisters: Donna and Diana. They had been living on their own for a while now...

Trying to scrape by. One day, the older sister Diana, fell extremely ill. 

A final gift from the abusive family the sisters escaped. Unable to do anything for her sister, Donna invoked the myth of the Wonder Woman--not to protect her sister, but to heal her.

And so began the newest transmutation of the myth of The Wonder Woman. To heal Diana, she had to become one with the myth. 

And so, as though her body were remolded by the muddy sands of the Mediterranean coast...  Diana and Wonder Woman became one.

The idea shaping the woman and the woman shaping the idea. This would forever change the face of the world.  

As with this new manifestation of the Wonder Woman, a new pantheon of myths influenced by her are soon to rise. Some out to protect and some out to destroy.

But this Wonder Woman isn't alone. As Donna and many women from all around the world will find out, soon...  

The Wonder Women of All Nations will raise their shields to protect the oppressed all around the world.

The Wonder Woman, while linked to Diana, is a being of pure imagination. She is meant to look unreal to the naked eye and the white and gold of her outfit to be rendered with almost complete purity.

Her arsenal can be any weapon that she can imagine, as long as Diana can understand how it functions. A limit to her imagination as she struggles to understand how to translate it into the real world.

Which is ostensibly the main theme of WW and the entire Ultimate DCU

"If we can imagine the world to be better, then it CAN be better."

The Wonder Woman is a harbinger of a better world, one run not by power, but compassion and understanding. This new phase of the myth is meant to close the gap.

For The Wonder Woman to tackle the greatest problem: how do we translate our imaginations to the real world and make a difference?

She is the shooting star given form. A wish for the desperate, one that WW, Diana, Donna, and the WW of all Nations intend to fulfill.

Now some more big ideas. In this universe, Wonder Woman is the beginning of the Justice Revolution (this will be relevant later)

She is symbolic of everything I want to achieve in this universe, which is not realism of premise, but rather realism of consequence.

These are larger than life superheroes but they cause REAL change. Border changes, new political systems, societal upheaval, the status quo is non-existent in this universe.

The moment WW is introduced, people realize their imaginations have REAL power.

This leads to villains like the government-sponsored  Heracles, or the lost soul Cheetah, or artifice and self-obsession incarnate Dr. Psycho. 

But also heroes like the other Wonder Women and Captain Marvel (who will be shown later).

It also becomes the rallying cry for our new team of heroes for this universe.

His confrontation with Felicia's mutation is the most heart wrenching and brutal one yet. He's left a complete mess. In his barely conscious mind, he goes to the one person he trusts.

Mary Jane.

His broken body left at the doorstep of "Jackpot" boutique.

Like every new era of Spider-Man, there needs to be a special suit that you associate with it. 

For my run, it's a suit I affectionately call the "Loverboy" suit.

I haven't sketched out a design for it (yet), but it's basically a suit designed by MJ that she makes him wear to advertise her boutique.

Because that's where they're at in their relationship at the moment.

They subconsciously want to express love for each other, but they're afraid to reach out, and so they hide it behind these selfish, jokey gestures, so they don't have to be vulnerable and get hurt.

Spidey's confrontation with Felicia and her subsequent tearing down of his relationship with her makes him realize that: he's not being emotionally honest.

He jerks the people he loves around and hides behind responsibility to avoid being accountable to them.

So him and MJ have a talk. A long, awful talk, in the middle of the night, as the moonlight shines through the blinds of her closed boutique and hits him and her as they lie on the cold, ceramic tiles...

"Why do we never work out?"

He loves her more than anything. She loves him more than anything. But there's always something in the way. 

Is it Spider-Man?

It can't be. She understands why he does it. He has a responsibility! He can't give it up. Peter solemnly looks away from her at the mention of it.

But sometimes it makes her so angry and she doesn't know why. He tells her that he doesn't need to justify it, he understands. But she corrects him:

"It's not that I'm angry that you're doing it. It's just that sometimes I feel like I don't know who you are. That nobody does."

When he's always trying to do the right thing, to do the responsible thing, where do the responsibilities end and Peter Parker's dreams and desires start?

She doesn't know and when she asks Peter, all he can say is...

"I don't know."

That's where this next confrontation starts. A very important one as it marks the big shift in the story and in Peter's character. One that will change him forever.

This mysterious force that's been mutating his foes is no longer limiting himself to those that are alive.

Emerging from his grave, filled with manufactured hate, a decaying corpse that keeps getting pulled out of his rest...

A Decay-Goblin. Harry Osborn. The puppetmaster has finally been reduced to just another puppet.

Unlike the other mutated monsters, he seems to be completely conscious, but altered. He's not on a random destruction streak, he immediately guns for Peter and they lock into the most brutal battle they've ever had.

Broken arms, legs, noses, it's a bloody awful fight.

The entire time, Harry is interrogating Peter. Asking him why he does it. Why does he abandon all his friends, his family, to go out and swing across buildings and save the day?

"Because I have a responsibility--"

Harry beats him into the ground. He's lying.

Peter keeps getting pummeled into the ground as he desperately holds on to that rationale...

"It's my responsibility!"

He can barely squeal it out from the pools of blood in his mouth.

Harry insists that he be honest. That it would be far easier that way. Harry's not going to hurt anyone if he doesn't. He's not going to tell anyone either. No one's going to die or be dragged into their blood feud anymore.

It's just them. Two friends. And he can trust him, as Harry drags his head through cement.

Peter finally breaks and he finally tells Harry the reason he is Spider-Man.

"Because I love it! I love it. I do it because I love doing it. I do it because I want to.

But if I want to, that means...

Everybody I've hurt...

Everybody that's died...

It's all because of something I... I wanted."

Harry smiles, satisfied with the answer. He fades into the wind leaving with one final "Gotcha."

Peter is finally, completely broken. His final barrier, the one thing protecting him from self-reflection, his sense of responsibility, has been torn away from him.

Spidey finally makes his choice. If Spider-Man is something he loves doing to an extent that he'll let the important people in his life suffer for it, why is he even bothering with being Peter Parker?

From this point on, he's Spider-Man full time. Peter Parker No More.

The next few issues are this faux-happy go lucky issues of episodic action, like he's actively trying to trick himself that this is the right thing to do.

Yet in these episodic issues, there is one serialized element: he seems to be going through spells of excruciating pain.

This is purposely harkening back to "THE SPIDER," by accentuating the differences. Peter doesn't live in denial of Peter Parker, it's not a state of psychosis.

It's a rational decision. An active one. And he decides to go tell Mary Jane about it.

MJ tries to talk him out of it, but he tells her what happened with Harry. This is him being true to himself. No longer splitting himself between two flood of responsibilities that he can't handle.

She wanted to know where Peter's desires and dreams start? Here it is.

If Peter needs money, he'll go to the Avengers and get salaried. Someone will throw him a bone, probably. He's a full-time superhero now, there's nothing stopping him from committing to teams.

MJ is disappointed, but understands. She says she's happy for him.

But she reminds him: what about May? Are you just going to disappear and not tell her where you've gone?

Peter realizes what he has to do.

After months of not even speaking to her, he knocks on her door.

May is ecstatic, worried, and she immediately coddles him. She's remarks that he's skinnier, his hair is shaggier. 

(Artistic tangent here: for this whole run so far, Peter's design is meant to look like his Ditko-self. Skinny, lanky, nerdy, but with messier hair)

It's like the warm embers of nostalgia are tickling his whole body, coaxing him to lose himself in the comfort of the past.

But he can't do that now. He has to be honest with May.

In between barely kept tears, he tells May that he hasn't been okay, but he's finally found a way out. He's going to be gone for a while, but he tells her to not be worried. 

He's okay. That she can see him in the newspaper, on TV, that... He's around.

May asks him what it is that he's going to be doing now. Peter takes a deep breath and shows her his Spider-Man suit underneath his clothes.

He tells her he's Spider-Man.

But this isn't like The Conversation or #400, this isn't this big triumphant moment of honesty...

It's a sad whimper, a sign that Peter has completely given up on the life that May and Ben tried to give him. 

It's a tragedy.

May is left struck by shock, her mouth agape.

And this is where we call back on an old continuity quirk. After BND, what would happen is that if Peter ever revealed his identity to someone who knew it before the spell, all their memories would come rushing back all at once.