Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Art: David Messina, Marco Checchetto, Matthew Wilson, and VC’s Corey Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price:$4.99
Reviewed by: Anonymous
Release Date: August 28th, 2025
MY DINNER WITH HARRY! Harry Osborn lives! Peter and Mary Jane have another fateful dinner with Harry and Gwen…
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THE DISPATCH
From the moment you crack open Ultimate Spider-Man #20, there’s a palpable sense that something both domestic and seismic is unfolding. Jonathan Hickman isn’t simply tossing readers a dinner scene—he’s staging a pressure cooker. The pacing, careful and deliberate, mirrors the emotional weight of those awkward moments around the table, where memories and unspoken truth hang thicker than the wine.
David Messina steps in with a visual style that honors Marco Checchetto’s rich cinematic feel—a seamless transition that never jolts the reader. The panel layout smartly alternates between medium and tight shots—lingering close-ups on expressions, then pulling out wide to include the warm but tense domestic backdrop. It’s fluid, like a scene in a film, with characters framed in ways that both isolate and connect them. Although this issue’s coloring has a knack for using warm tones to undercut dramatic tension.
If earlier arcs like issue #13 were praised for their kinetic flow especially when it came to fight sequences and myth-reinventing escapades—this issue flips that expectation. The battlefield has moved to the dining room. Dialogue tiptoes the tightrope between familiarity and tension with chatter on the series often highlighting the odd, off-kilter atmosphere Hickman so effortlessly conjures. Every line carries double meaning, every silence, freighted. It’s the kind of scene where a character’s choice of fork or pause before speaking does more heavy lifting than speech balloons.
VC’s Cory Petit consistently delivers lettering that channels the emotional rhythm of dialogue—shifting size and placement to lend emphasis where panels hum with unspoken tension. In this setting, that subtle shift or the quiet weight in a caption could be the most telling form of punctuation.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ultimate Spider-Man #20 isn’t just an issue—it’s a quiet eruption. It trades sweeping action for emotional earthquakes, developmental reveals across dinnerware, and the electric tension of seeing a presumed-dead friend alive and seated at the same table. Hickman’s direction keeps the story intimate without sacrificing the epic underpinnings of this Ultimate saga. This issue earns kudos for its restraint and depth. Readers who savored the lush colors and family tension of the Christmas-themed issue or appreciated the improved pacing and high stakes of #13 will find themselves engrossed here—with the artistry of Messina, the quiet power of Wilson’s palette, and Petit’s expressive dialogue all reinforcing what makes this series feel alive, human, and uncomfortably urgent.