Early in 2011, we published a feature exploring the current state of Marvel's Ultimate Universe. At the time, the Ultimate imprint was gearing up for the “Death of Spider-Man” crossover and the eventual line-wide relaunch that would follow. We took a look at the quality of the books, their potential for growth, the creators involved, and other elements in order to determine how well the Ultimate Universe was holding up 10 years after its debut.
Flash forward to the present, and the Ultimate Universe is undergoing another transformation. 2012 has seen the first crossover between the regular Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe in Spider-Men. Captain America was just elected President of the United States in The Ultimates. The entire country remains in shambles following the “Divided We Stand” storyline.
As the various books begin moving towards a new, unpredictable future, we're once again taking a look at the state of the Ultimate Universe. What's being done right? What's missing? Is the Ultimate Universe still relevant? Read on for our thoughts.
Two challenges have cropped up over the years, however. One is that Marvel's editors and writers have grown much more adept at streamlining their core universe titles and telling clean, accessible stories despite this long and sometimes convoluted character history. Books like Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force and Mark Waid's Daredevil build directly on years' worth of storylines, yet they're easily approachable for new readers. The Ultimate Universe is no longer necessarily any more accessible than the regular Marvel Universe is.
The other problem is that, despite only being around for 12 years, the Ultimate Universe has developed a somewhat muddy continuity of its own. In the case of major events like the creation of Hulk, the death of Peter Parker's parents, and the general nature of Asgard, stories have conflicted with and contradicted each other. Plot points like Nick Fury being a test subject for Project: Rebirth were introduced and then seemingly abandoned. Considering the limited number of books being published in the Ultimate line, it's difficult to see why these problems have to arise.
Luckily, the Ultimate writers and editors seem to have renewed the emphasis on accessibility and clean continuity. The aftermath of “The Death of Spider-Man” saw a line-wide relaunch of the Ultimate books. This meant new #1 issues, new directions for each book, and in the case of Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, an entirely new main character. The recent “Divided We Stand” storyline offered another fresh jumping-on point for readers, only one year after the relaunch occurred.
One area Marvel might want to focus on, however, is the way they name and number these books. For example, in recent years, Ultimate Spider-Man was canceled, relaunched as Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, reverted to the original numbering, was canceled again, and was relaunched again as Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man Vol. 2. The fact that there's a completely separate Ultimate Spider-Man comic that ties into the animated series only further complicates matters. It can be needlessly confusing for new readers to figure out the difference between one book and another. What's the difference between The Ultimates, Ultimate Comics: New Ultimates, and Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates? Perhaps the time has come to adopt a new naming scheme that allows for a little more distinction between titles.
That aside, new readers should have no trouble diving right into the Ultimate Universe as it is today and moving forward. So if accessibility is no longer and advantage limited to Marvel's Ultimate books, at least they maintain that quality.
Part of this emphasis on realism has involved rethinking the powers and origins of various characters. The goal isn't so much to eliminate the more esoteric qualities of the Marvel Universe, but to re-imagine and re-contextualize them to work in this streamlined, modern setting. Many characters are now byproducts of genetic engineering, with the global arms race to develop newer and better super-soldiers serving as a continual driving force. The emphasis on science fiction over fantasy is one of the hallmarks of the Ultimate Universe.
This is something the imprint has often lost sight of in the past. Particularly in books like Ultimate Fantastic Four, writers began introducing characters like Thanos that weren't significantly altered from the original versions and different necessarily jibe with the tone of the Ultimate Universe. Likewise, stories like Ultimate Power and Mark Millar's Marvel Zombies material that involved inter-dimensional crossovers stuck out like a sore thumb. While the imprint had improved in this regard at the time of our first State of the Ultimate Universe feature, there were still problems. Millar's Ultimate Comics Avengers tackled the supernatural side of the Ultimate Universe through characters like Blade and Ghost Rider, once again Ultimatizing characters without updating them in any real, tangible way.
Luckily, the general trend of improvement has continued since then. The current Ultimate writers seem to have a firm grasp on how to present these characters in a grounded, believable context that speaks to what the Ultimate Universe is. There's a renewed focus on global superhuman conflicts and the genetic arms race. Political upheaval and shadowy corporate figures are more of a threat than costumed villains. Even the more outlandish concepts like Asgard and the Celestials are being handled in true Ultimate fashion.
It's not that these less realistic Marvel elements have no place in the Ultimate Universe. It's that this universe has a very specific tone and feel to it, and new characters need to be altered to accommodate that tone.
Though we certainly didn't think very highly of Ultimatum itself, the story did have the benefit of forcing the Ultimate writers to rethink their approach to the imprint. Ultimatum resulted in the deaths of Magneto, Professor Xavier, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Giant-Man, Wasp, Doctor Doom, and the majority of the male X-Men. With so many iconic characters out of the running, the writers were forced to think more creatively. The only options were to create new characters or evolve familiar ones into something new and different.
The writers have done both, albeit with more emphasis on the latter. We've seen a number of interesting new character dynamics crop up in the past two years. In Ultimate Spider-Man, Aunt May's household swelled after she adopted Gwen Stacy, Johnny Storm, and Bobby Drake. The mutant focus shifted away from Wolverine and the gang and to new X-Men offshoots led by Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde. Reed Richards effectively became the new Doctor Doom after a downward spiral of depression and self-pity.
And with the introduction of Miles Morales, Marvel finally made good on the need to introduce a significant, lasting, and completely new character to the Ultimate Universe. “The Death of Spider-Man” delivered on the straightforward promise in the title, killing off Peter Parker and paving the way for Miles to take over the mantle of Spider-Man. Ultimate Spider-Man was arguably the series least in need of an overhaul at the time, but even so, replacing Peter with Miles gave it an extra boost and further differentiated the teenaged Ultimate Spider-Man from his classic counterpart.
Marvel flirted with disaster this year by having these two versions of Spider-Man actually meet in the recently concluded mini-series Spider-Men. The announcement of that book caused many to flash back to Joe Quesada's comments during a panel at SDCC 2005. Then, Quesada brushed off the idea of a crossover between the regular and Ultimate universes, saying that would signify that Marvel “had officially run out of ideas.” Now, his stance has clearly changed. But proving that the actual story is all that really matters, Spider-Men was an enjoyable read that further grew Miles as a character and left the door open for more stories involving the two characters.
While there have been new characters created specifically for the Ultimate Universe in recent years, perhaps the biggest remaining flaw is that so many of them are merely replacements for pre-existing ones. Miles is a replacement Spider-Man. Jimmy Hudson is a replacement Wolverine. Monica Chang is a replacement Black Widow. The real challenge now is to create a wholly original character with no ties to another Marvel hero that can achieve the same popularity as someone like Miles Morales.
As various writers and editors have said in recent years, the focus in the Ultimate Universe is now to tell bolder stories that couldn't be done in the regular Marvel Universe. Certainly, Peter Parker and Wolverine would never be permanently killed off in the regular comics. Nor would Steve Rogers ever accept the office of President of the United States. So even if the focus remains largely on pre-existing Marvel characters over new ones, at least no one can accuse the Ultimate books of playing it safe anymore.
A lot has changed since then. While Bendis maintains what may prove to be a lifelong stranglehold on Ultimate Spider-Man, Millar and Loeb have moved onto other projects. Hickman, meanwhile, transitioned from Ultimate Thor to a new volume of The Ultimates and the companion Ultimate Hawkeye mini-series. Ultimate X-Men transitioned to Nick Spencer. There was a great deal of change on the visual side of things, too (Sara Pichelli on Ultimate Spider-Man, Paco Medina on Ultimate X-Men, Esad Ribic on The Ultimates, etc.). Finally the Ultimate Universe had the new blood it needed to grow.
We’ve seen further upheaval since then. Again, Bendis remains on board Ultimate Spider-Man and will probably remain writing the series until the universe collapses into heat death. But Hickman and Ribic made a somewhat abrupt departure from The Ultimates earlier this year. Nick Spencer left Ultimate X-Men after only 12 issues. This required Marvel to bring in a new set of writers who could pick up where the old ones left off. Relative newcomer Sam Humphries began scripting issues of The Ultimates based on Hickman’s plots before taking over completely. Meanwhile, Brian Wood made Ultimate X-Men a centerpiece of his return to superhero comics.
Generally, these transitions were handled well, and the books are no worse off because of it. Certainly, Ultimate X-Men’s review scores have trended higher since Wood took over this past summer. However, Marvel sent its readers a slightly mixed message with these creative team changes. In the case of Hickman and Ribic leaving Ultimates, the reason given was that both creators had upcoming projects that took precedence over the current one. We now know that Hickman was beginning work on his ambitious, biweekly Avengers series (due in December), while Ribic shifted to Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder series (due in November).
One possibility is that Marvel simply doesn't consider the Ultimate Universe as high a priority as it once did. Given the current sales figures, one can't necessarily blame them. There seems to be a trend in recent years of Marvel consolidating its top talent (the so-called Marvel Architects) on their biggest and best-selling franchises. The writers chosen for the Ultimate books now seem to be more of the up-and-coming type (Humphries, Ultimate Iron Man's Nate Edmonson) or relative superhero outsiders like Wood. Does Marvel not want its top-selling writers working on mid-selling books anymore? Or is it that the Ultimate editors feel these outsider writers are better able to realize the potential of an unpredictable universe where anything can happen?
At the end of the day, the stories themselves are what matter, and the talent pool working in the Ultimate Universe are delivering quality stories. The question is how stable the creative teams will be over the long term. If Humphries rises to further prominence with his Uncanny X-Force relaunch, will Marvel choose to shift him to more 616 Marvel work too? Marvel could always do more to reassure Ultimate readers that they remain firmly committed to the imprint and that they won’t sacrifice the quality of these books for the benefit of their better-selling series.
The two biggest driving forces in the Ultimate line for the foreseeable future will be Miles Morales and Captain America's election. In the case of the former, readers seem to be responding well to Miles as the new Spider-Man. But the character still has a long way to go in terms of learning the ropes of the job, contending with the various villains and allies from Peter Parker's world, and establishing his own, distinct legacy in the Ultimate Universe.
With Cap, meanwhile, it's difficult to say where this new direction will take the character. This is, after all, a man who once infamously said, “Do you think this 'A' on my forehead stands for France?”. He may be a hero, but does he have the mettle to be President? Can he maintain his role as a superhero given his new responsibilities? And will we see the current political state of Ultimate America continue, where the country is divided into various warring factions?
The current “three ongoing books plus the occasional mini-series” approach may no longer be adequate. As it stands currently, there are certain segments of the Ultimate Universe that are being overlooked. Where Spencer was dividing his Ultimate X-Men run along three fronts (Kitty's X-Men, Jean Grey's X-Men, and the mutants being held in government captivity), Wood has narrowed his focus mainly to Kitty's faction. Likewise, Humphries has yet to deal with the Heavenly Cities of Tian or the sinister cabal of businessmen introduced in Hickman's issues. And the Fantastic Four, once considered the “fourth pillar” of the Ultimate Universe, have only enjoyed sporadic roles since the team and their book dissolved post-Ultimatum.
With the three core books seemingly in good hands now, we'd like to see Marvel grow the Ultimate line a bit. This could involve simply converting the Ultimates into a biweekly book with a wider global focus, or the creation of a fourth ongoing series to deal more directly with S.H.I.E.L.D. and some of the international conflicts still raging. This would allow underused characters like Spider-Woman, Sue Storm and Ben Grimm, and others more room to shine.
But the simple fact that we're campaigning for more Ultimate titles is definitely a good sign. There was a point where many argued the line should shrink down to nothing but Ultimate Spider-Man. Instead, the past year has shown us that there's plenty of life and purpose left in the Ultimate Universe.
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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