1)I can see the Hulk comparison, but Norman as an evil bastard still existed, if I recall he masterminded the whole Ultimate Six fiasco. It's just a different take.
2.) I don't really see the Magneto/Octopus thing. They're ambitions were totally different. Magneto has the whole racism/mutantism thing while Ock had a standard revenge story.
3.) I LOVED joke Kraven. The Shocker was hilarious too, because really, when was Shocker EVER threatening after his 60's stuff? Plus Kraven became more powerful during Ultimate Six.
4) I agree with Rhino, though that may be simply because he's nowhere near popular enough to really explore too much in Ultimate.
5) Venom actually has BETTER origon in Ultimate in my opinion. I think it the relationship between Eddie and Peter more complex, in a good way, I mean in the comics the hatred really seems stupid now. I mean it's more Venom the symbiote's hate than Eddies at a certain point. In Ultimate Eddie has a valid, in his mind, reason that you could understand in a way for hating Peter. I mean it was his fatehr's work, and Peter wanted to destroy it !
I mean, Ultimate wasen't perfect, Carnage killing Gwen really pissed me off, mainly because the idea of MJ being 616 Gwen and Gwen taking MJ's 616 place was SO perfect it kinda disappointed me it was never used.
I agree that Spec is great, but it's not as amazing as Ultimate in my opinion, or the 80's Spider stuff.