The segments in this series have served a few different functions: as a coda to Ultimate Spider-man, glimpses at characters who don’t yet have a clear role in the new Ultimate universe, and character driven preludes to the new series.

All the segments have done a decent job of closing the gaps between the varied characters, leading me to believe we’re in for a very cohesive Ultimate Universe, both in terms of story and approach.

As an Ultimate Spider-man fan, the Bendis segments have been my favorites and arguably the best parts of this book. Bagley’s redesign of Gwen is really awful (I’m pretty sure respectable teen girls abandoned mid-riff shirts somewhere in 2002), again reinforcing the cliche that you can’t go home again. His layout of the first page of the last scene was also not quite right. Maybe he’s swamped with Brilliant work right now.

The Nick Spencer X-Men segments and Jon Hickman Ultimates segments varied from just okay (predominantly the Spencer stuff) to pretty good (mainly the Hickman stuff). I’m definitely interested, but loathe to spend $4 for 20 pages, so I think I’ll wait for trades or digital discounts on those book.

Overall, it was a unique series that had the unenviable task of giving us endings and beginnings all at the same time. I think I’d have rather seen a double sized USM 161 or USM:Finale for all the Bendis stuff, and maybe a couple Ultimate Preview issues for the Hickman/Spencer stuff, but what do I know?