The Ultimate Universe Finale Page That Removed Steve Ditko's Name

Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, Stan Lee | Tagged: amazing spider-man, steve ditko, ultimate

The Ultimate Universe Finale Page That Removed Steve Ditko's Name

The Marvel Comics Ultimate Universe Finale Page that removed Steve Ditko's name

Published Sun, 05 Jul 2026 09:57:10 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Ultimate Universe Finale’s published page appears to remove Steve Ditko’s name from a background school sign.
• The change spotlights Steve Ditko’s fraught history with Marvel despite his key role in shaping Spider-Man.
• Steve Ditko helped define Spider-Man’s mask, web-shooters, wall-crawling style and visual identity.
• Marvel is also celebrating Steve Ditko with Amazing Spider-Man #1000 variant covers tied to the milestone issue.

This is a black and white unlettered page from Ultimate Universe Finale, the comic book series that brought the Ultimate Universe to its conclusion. And it is next to the coloured, finally published page. But in addition to adding the lettering, it also removed some of it. Here are the two pages.

And here is a zoomed-in comparison of the lettering on the school in the background.

No longer the Steve Ditko school, it seems. Steve Ditko is, of course, the late co-creator of Spider-Man and his relationship with Marvel Comics was, at the least, fractious. It was Steve Ditko who decided on the costume with a then-very-rare full-face mask to hide Peter Parker's youth and identity, web-shooters as mechanical devices, not organic, his agile, spider-like movement and "wall-crawling" aesthetic and an anxious, visual style to match Peter Parker's personal struggles. Eventually though, he and Stan Lee stopped speaking directly, communicating through intermediaries, and Steve quit. But they are still using his art on a variant cover of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #1000…

• AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1000 STEVE DITKO VARIANT
• AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1000 STEVE DITKO BLACK AND WHITE VARIANT[1:50]
• AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36 (LGY #1000)
  JOE KELLY, NOAH HAWLEY, FRANK MILLER, DAN SLOTT,
  J.M. DEMATTEIS & BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS & MORE! (W)
  PEPE LARRAZ, PATRICK GLEASON, PEACH MOMOKO, MARCOS MARTIN,
  JOHN ROMITA JR., STUART IMMONEN & MORE! (A)
  THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN AMAZING SPIDER-HISTORY!
  Spider-Man faces his greatest fear and his most frightening new villain in decades…RAVAGE! Plus, some of the greatest creative minds on Earth honor one thousand issues of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN! NOAH HAWLEY (Alien: Earth, Fargo, LEGION) makes his comic book debut, Frank Miller and Peach Momoko collaborate for the first time, Stuart Immonen and Brian Michael Bendis return to Spider-Man together, and some of the best ASM creators return to the title!
  104 PGS./Rated T …$9.99

And while we haven't seen it yet, here's the 1:1000 Steve Ditko variant from Amazing Spider-Man #800 to be going on with…

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