By the relaunch of the Ultimate universe in the last year or so, the goal of the Ultimate line had shifted from being a 'modern' version of the main universe not hampered by continuity into being a universe that explored a bunch of very different, very what-if scenarios for more than a couple issues at a time. I really enjoy what they've done with it, too - the government is in shambles, the Fantastic Four are disassembled and we more or less get to see an evil Reed Richards, the X-Men are all either dead or in hiding (admittedly, that's pretty common, but at least they actually seem to have killed off Wolverine and Cyclops for now), etc.
The new Spider-Man works pretty well here. Marvel 2099 line aside, this is the longest look I can think of into a reality where the original Spider-Man is dead (or one where everyone knows who he is/was), and we get a completely new take on who and what Spider-Man is. The new character has potential; he doesn't act entirely like a black Peter Parker and he's got a different set of powers that won't be forgotten and ignored a few issues later. Sure, Peter's going to come back eventually; my guess for the eventual excuse is that SHIELD took him, hid him away for safe recuperation and let the world think he was dead to take the pressure off; it'd actually explain why they were so open to a new Spider-Man stepping in. But until that happens and Miles gets relegated to Ultimate Scarlet Spider, I'm interested in seeing where they go with this.
