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This article contains major spoilers for Ultimate Spider-Man Incursion #5

Now that we know that Marvel's Ultimate Universe line is definitely, for sure ending, the internet is abuzz with all the major things happening in the line of the same name. Not that there was ever a time when major things weren't happening in the new Ultimate Universe, but still, it seems like the next few months will be even more major than those. Case in point, Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #5, which dropped October 22, and may just have been the most consequential Miles Morales comic since the character was absorbed into the mainstream Marvel Universe back in 2016.

We're going to tell you exactly what we mean by that, but first - there's no way you haven't seen all the spoiler warnings in this piece, right? I'm counting three above this exact paragraph, not to mention the one you are currently reading. You get that that means you can't be mad at us if you read this before reading the issue in question, yes?

I'll take your silence as an affirmative.

Alright, spoiler warnings aside (that's FIVE now!), Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #5 is the explosive finale of a comic miniseries that plunges Miles Morales AKA Spider-Man into the Ultimate Universe... that is, the current Ultimate Universe, and not the (now abandoned) version that he was originally created in. In this issue, our hero has one last shot to both escape the Ultimate Universe created by the Maker, and save his baby sister in the process - but during the course of this already high-stakes battle, something entirely unexpected happens to the lead of Sony's cinematic Spider-Verse saga: his memories are restored.

And no, I'm not just talking about his memories of the main Marvel Universe, into which he was shifted form his original universe at the end of 2015's Secret Wars miniseries. I'm talking about all of his memories, as in, the memories he has from the original Marvel Ultimate Universe, complete with the first version of his origin, interacting with the first incarnation of the Ultimates, and everything that happened during Secret Wars, to boot. That means everything that the original version of the character experienced has now been fully worked into Miles's consciousness, and perhaps even more important than that, it means he is one of only two currently existing Marvel characters who has memories of the Marvel mainstream universe (616), the original Ultimate Universe (1610), and the currently-running Ultimate Universe (6160).

And who's the other character, you ask? That would be The Maker, AKA the big bad behind the current Ultimate Universe and the original Reed Richards from the first Ultimate Universe. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing that is going to get brushed under the carpet anytime soon, especially considering the other big change for Miles that happens in the issue.

As if it wasn't enough that Miles now recalls living in three different realities, he returned from the 6160 reality with something new: Origin Boxes, devices that contain catalysts to create new versions of familiar Marvel heroes as seen in earlier Ultimate comics in the last two years. (This one isn't a spoiler: Marvel announced it was happening in September 2026.) 

Between his memory upgrade and the power at his fingertips with each Origin Box, Miles Morales just got a pretty big upgrade in terms of how important he might be to the future of Marvel Comics. While we won't completely spoil the ending of Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion for you - there's more going on in the issue than we've shared! - we hardly think it's a spoiler at all to say this shared quality puts Miles on a whole different level in the sprawling Marvel Multiverse.

Ultimate Spider-Man Incursion #5 is in comic shops now.

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's...

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Just watch out for that radioactive blood.