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Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

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Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Old 10-24-14, 12:45 PM
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Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

After Ultimatum. After Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand. Marvel is bringing the Ultimate Universe to an end... again. Maybe.



The End of the ULTIMATE Marvel Universe - Summer 2015

Is this The End for Marvel's Ultimate Universe? That's what the newest Summer 2015 teaser from Marvel Comics.

Premiered over on CBR, the teaser features a Who's Who of the Ultimate Universe, including characters from the new (and recently canceled) Future Foundation, which was dealing with New Avengers-style incursions from other worlds, Miles Morales the Ultimate Spider-Man, and the seemingly recently deceased Cloak and Dagger (oops, did no one tell Mark Bagley?). Every person in the image is looking out at the reader, and there's some lovely Kirby Krackle at the bottom.

The Ultimate Universe has been heavily involved in everything that Secret Wars, Marvel's 12-issue "mega-event" is supposed to be dealing with. There are, of course, alternate reality incursions: both the direct world-shattering ones seen in Ultimate FF, and the ones that Miles Morales has dealt with repeatedly, in the pages of Spider-Men, All-New X-Men, and the upcoming Spider-Verse. There's been time-travel. There was that little thing with the 616 regular Marvel Universe Galactus coming to visit...

So, could this really be the end of the universe that launched the Marvel careers of Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis? The writing has seemingly been on the wall for awhile. After all, as of February, there will be only one comic book even being published in that universe, Miles Morales's solo book, as January sees the end of New Ultimates. With all the time he's spent with 616 characters, it would be fairly easy to acclimate him, merging him into the main universe.

As worlds die, who from alternate universes will survive?

Previous 'Summer 2015' teasers have included call backs to Civil War , Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies , X-Men: Years of Future Past , Planet Hulk , Armor Wars , House of M , Infinity Gauntlet and Old Man Logan, and the new story Inhumans: Attilan Rising
Old 10-24-14, 12:46 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

I maybe recognize half of those characters.
Old 10-24-14, 02:29 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Zzzzzzzzz
Old 10-25-14, 12:58 AM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

How are the Ultimate Line's sales? I don't follow it anymore and it seems a testing ground these days for Marvel's more radical ideas.
Old 10-25-14, 03:40 AM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

It's down to one title now - Ultimate Spider-Man. The rest have been cancelled because of poor sales. There's been speculation for awhile that Miles would jump over to the 616 universe and the Ultimate Universe would go bye-bye in a Crisis-like even. Now that they've announced Secret Wars, it sounds likely.
Old 10-25-14, 06:09 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Seems like the Ultimate Universe has been limping on its last leg for about ten years.

It's always been kind of a weird thing. Despite a lot of hype and early initial interest, Marvel never really seemed into it. They started out with USM and UXM, but never really seriously attempted to expand it beyond that. UFF and "Ultimates" were miniseries, and never really felt fully integrated into the ultimate universe. And why they weren't called Ultimate Avengers is beyond me.
Old 10-25-14, 06:23 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Originally Posted by PhantomStranger
How are the Ultimate Line's sales? I don't follow it anymore and it seems a testing ground these days for Marvel's more radical ideas.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...4/2014-08.html

That's the August 2014 sales data.

Ultimate Spider-Man was ranked #59 with 34,000 sold.
All New Ultimates was ranked #133 with 16,000 sold.
Ultimate FF was ranked #183 with 10,000 sold.


Originally Posted by Josh-da-man
Seems like the Ultimate Universe has been limping on its last leg for about ten years.

It's always been kind of a weird thing. Despite a lot of hype and early initial interest, Marvel never really seemed into it. They started out with USM and UXM, but never really seriously attempted to expand it beyond that. UFF and "Ultimates" were miniseries, and never really felt fully integrated into the ultimate universe. And why they weren't called Ultimate Avengers is beyond me.
Only Ultimates was a miniseries. Ultimate FF was an ongoing series. It ran for like 60 or 80 issues.
Old 10-25-14, 07:09 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Originally Posted by taffer
Only Ultimates was a miniseries. Ultimate FF was an ongoing series. It ran for like 60 or 80 issues.
Just looked it up and you are correct.

I was under the impression that it ran for twelve or so issues by Warren Ellis, then became that Ultimate Galactus trilogy.
Old 10-26-14, 04:08 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

The Ultimate universe seems to have been very influential on the MCU. But I think Marvel and movie/TV audiences have gotten comfortable with the idea that not everything has to be a literal translation of classic 616 comics and that changes for film are necessary and don't need to be justified by the fact that "oh it's from the Ultimate universe so it's okay."
Old 10-27-14, 09:57 AM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Originally Posted by taffer
Only Ultimates was a miniseries. Ultimate FF was an ongoing series. It ran for like 60 or 80 issues.
Yep. 60 issues. I actually liked that series a lot.
Old 10-27-14, 08:27 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

The Ultimate FF was good? I wasn't really wowed by it at the start of it.
Old 10-30-14, 11:30 AM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

The Ultimate line had a couple good runs, but ultimately*, it was forgettable filler.

*heh.
Old 10-30-14, 12:24 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

I wouldn't exactly call it filler. They did some radical things that they would never have done to the 616 universe, which I think just turned off some fans anyway. They had a problem, because I'm still not sure what the Ultimate line was supposed to be. If it was supposed to be just a parallel universe where familiar things happened in slightlly different ways, and everyone is younger, than what's the point when you have the normal Marvel Universe? If it was supposed to be a jumping on point for new readers, it failed when it started getting bogged down in it's own continuity. If it was supposed to be something for younger kids, as I initially thought with Ultimate Spidey, well they veered far away from that very early on in the other titles.

They put some of their best creators on it at varying times and I don't think the sales ever really spiked (besides perhaps Ultimates). Hardcore readers will always prefer the "real" universe and stuff that has stakes in that universe. This is partly why DC had to go whole hog into the New 52, if they kept both in parallel no way the new universe would have found any legs.
Old 10-30-14, 12:30 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Originally Posted by fujishig
I wouldn't exactly call it filler. They did some radical things that they would never have done to the 616 universe
That's why I said it had a couple good runs - duh.
Old 10-30-14, 02:58 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

I wanted to dismiss it but Ultimate Spider-Man had a very good run in the beginning. I kind of gave up on it when I stopped paying much attention to Marvel Comics in general.
Old 01-20-15, 05:51 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Ultimate Marvel is officially confirmed to be dead. Today Marvel officially announced that May's Secret Wars event will see the merging of the 616 and Ultimate universes. In addition, some other unnamed universes will also be merged. The new continuity will be called "Battleworld." There is no word yet if this is going to be a full-on reboot, but the whole merging of universes sounds a lot like Marvel's version of Crisis on Infinite Earths...
Old 01-20-15, 06:10 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/20/786...arvel-universe

I'm only a casual fan off and on, and occasionally read the big Marvel events. I think i'll tune in for this.
Old 01-20-15, 06:13 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

I don't know why, but they really really love trolling Spider-man fans for some reason:

As an example, Alonso said that this could be a great place for long-dead characters to return. "If we wanted to resurrect Gwen Stacy, this would be the place to do it," he said, referencing the Spider-Man love interest who died in a notorious scene way back in the '70s.
Unless he's just talking about Spider-gwen.
Old 01-20-15, 11:19 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Anyone see the cover for Secret Wars #2? All the Thors are on the cover. It's like Spider-Verse but with Thor.

Also from today's press conference, #1 will be a big book and #2 will be even bigger. "Like a phonebook." Knowing the way Hickman can fill a book, I'm not surprised. Wonder if we're talking $5.99 and $9.99 books?

#0 is available on FCBD. The Avengers/Attack on Titan crossover will also be in #0.
Old 01-21-15, 12:07 AM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Here's a map of "Battleworld" that I saw posted on Comic Book Resources. There are some clues there as to some of the universes that are getting merged in.

Spoilered for size.
Spoiler:

Old 01-21-15, 02:44 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Not everything from the Secret Wars/Battleworld stuff will be the new continuity going forward.

I suspect Marvel is going to pick and choose things to help align a single main-published universe to have more synergy with the film universe.

So for example, they can use this event to get rid of Nick Fury, Jr. and White Nick Fury and just replace him with the Samuel L. Jackson Nick Fury of the Ultimate Universe.

And they'll probably bring Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales into the prime universe and we'll have even more redundant Spider-Characters. They'll probably use this event as an opportunity to reboot Peter Parker into whatever version they want - maybe restore the marriage with Mary Jane or go the complete opposite direction and making him closer to a teen/early 20-something.

I for one don't care about this at all. I've never been into big crossover events. I'll see what the new status quo is after and hope that it hasn't disrupted the characters/titles/creative teams I follow. This is like a perfect place to jump off of titles and just focus on reading independent stuff over at Image, etc.
Old 01-21-15, 03:00 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Originally Posted by kodave
I for one don't care about this at all. I've never been into big crossover events. I'll see what the new status quo is after and hope that it hasn't disrupted the characters/titles/creative teams I follow. This is like a perfect place to jump off of titles and just focus on reading independent stuff over at Image, etc.
While this isn't as drastic (or last minute) a change as the new 52, that's exactly how I felt about DC's reboot. But if it creates a cleaner Marvel Universe that is easier for new readers to follow, I'm all for it (even if I won't be buying it monthly).
Old 01-21-15, 03:53 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

I too suspect this is being done to align the comics more with the Cinematic Universe. It makes me wonder what will happen with properties that Marvel doesn't own the movie rights such as Fantastic Four and X-Men. Marvel has already been heavily promoting the Inhumans in place of the mutants, and they even retconned Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to not being the biological children of Magneto. I wonder if the FF and mutants will still exist in the Marvel reboot.
Old 01-21-15, 04:57 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Wasn't the rumor that FF was ending? Seems drastic but who knows? Certainly they'll keep Spidey around, and I doubt they kill X-men.
Old 01-21-15, 05:05 PM
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Re: Marvel's Ultimate Universe Ends.... Again

Originally Posted by fujishig
Wasn't the rumor that FF was ending? Seems drastic but who knows? Certainly they'll keep Spidey around, and I doubt they kill X-men.
Yeah, FF is rumored to be ending. I don't think FF sells well in the first place, so I don't think that will be a particularly big loss for them.

I don't mean to say that they are going to kill the X-Men. Wolverine especially is too much of a cash-cow. I just mean they may get rid of "mutants" and replace them with Inhumans. The X-Men will become Inhumans. Isn't "Uncanny Inhumans" the title of an upcoming new series?

I suspect that's what they are planning to do with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in the Cinematic Universe is to make them Inhumans. That will probably carry over to the comics too. Wolverine and other X-Men may become Inhumans in the comics too, depending on how much of a reboot this actually will be and how much they plan on changing the comics to match the movies.

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