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The Ultimate Universe (Earth 1610) at its conception was fairly successful in its first few years for Marvel back in the early 2000’s. It simplified many of Marvel’s ideas from when they first started publishing their universe by modernizing some characters and their stories for new readers who might have felt intimated by the decades long catalogue of stories. Some of these changes were well received enough that a few years later the MCU would actually adapt them for their films. Sadly the Ultimate Universe did not stay viable for long though, as a pillar of its creation would be one of its ultimate downfalls.
Now almost 11 years later though a new Ultimate Universe has been born. One kickstarted by the talented Jonathan Hickman and seems to be quite different from the main 616 universe and the Ultimate Universe of old. This new Ultimate Universe’s designation is Earth-6160 and started in Ultimate Invasion (2023) and Ultimate Universe (2023) with no prior reading material being needed. The ground work was being laid by Donny Cates for a while and due to some unfortunate circumstances it had prevented him from furthering his image of what this new universe can be. Hickman however has now opened the door for this new universe so that others can help expand, explore, experiment and fill out this new Marvel universe. So hopefully Cates can come in one day to write for the universe. At the moment it has been announced by Marvel that Ultimate Spider-Man (releasing on: January 10th) will be written by Jonathan Hickman, Ultimate Black Panther (releasing on: February 7th) will be written by Bryan Hill and Ultimate X-Men (releasing on: March 6th) will be illustrated and written by Peach Momoko.
Ultimate Spider-Man – Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artist: Marco Checkhetto
With Hickman writing Spider-Man it should be interesting to see how much further he might expand on the universe in this book while still focusing on the wall-crawler since he is known to do a fair bit of world building in most of his Marvel books. The book is focusing on an older Peter Parker who gains his spider abilities later in life when he is already married to Mary Jane with two kids. Usually a story about a married Spider-Man is told with a Peter Parker who has had his powers since he was a teenager and the kids also have powers, so to have a Peter Parker that breaks that mold should make for very fascinating stories. Spider-Man tales are famous for the fact that Peter can’t have it all and that the responsibility of being Spider-Man is what gets in the way of Peter Parker’s life, so to now have a family dynamic and multiple other possibilities involving a change to the standard Spider-Man status quo sounds highly enticing. Is Uncle Ben still alive since Peter didn’t get bit as a kid? Is Gwen Stacy alive since there was no Spider-Man for Norman Osborn to emotionally scar? What villains will he fight since he lives in a world where The Maker prevented so many heroes and possibly villains from being born?
Ultimate Black Panther – Writer: Bryan Hill Artist: Stefano Caselli
Ultimate Black Panther writer, Bryan Hill is no stranger to writing for Marvel, he’s currently writing Blade and wrote the Killmonger (2018) series. Based off those two series it peaks the interest for what he can bring to the table, but what draws the most attention to this series is what has been helped established in Ultimate Invasion. Based off the cover and synopsis for issue #1 it seems that the series will see Black Panther taking on the duo of Moon Knight. The idea of having Moon Knight be a duo of avatars for both Khonshu and Ra is a unique idea that has not been seen in other interpretations in the Moon Knight mythos, so that alone is quite different from other Moon Knight stories. The first arc at least will see them wanting to expand their influence in Africa and thus put them at odds with Wakanda and the Black Panther. As the Moon Knight duo was one of the members of the prior power in this new universe it will be fascinating to see if they grow to become the hero that is known in other universes or if they will continue to be an antagonist for the heroes of this world after they take on the Ultimate Black Panther. In this world it also seems as though Wakanda had never revealed themselves to the rest of the world, nor does the Black Panther seem to be known to this world’s collective power. While the conflict is what’s most intriguing, the potential that comes about from that conflict is what draws the most interest with this new version of Black Panther and Moon Knight. Will Wakanda become known to the rest of the Ultimate Universe? Will Black Panther join Thor, Iron Lad (Tony Stark), Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Doctor Doom (Reed Richards)?
Ultimate X-Men – Writer/Artist: Peach Momoko
Ultimate X-Men marks the first time in Marvel’s history where a woman/POC is the writer for a main title X-Men series. Not exactly the main 616 X-Men title, but it is the main X-Men title for a new universe that holds great potential for further expansion. From reading Momoko’s work on Demon Days and her recent Star Wars: Visions one-shot she is a very talented writer and the fact that she is pulling double duty by illustrating as well bodes for some very beautiful pieces of visual story telling. There is a beauty in comics when the writer is also able to illustrate their story since they are far more aware of the story they are trying to tell and can provide very serene character moments with just the art and no words. Which is something that can be expected from Momoko. They’re a creative who allows their art to do more of the talking than her actual words. There is little known about this universe’s X-Men since the only mutants seen are the Rasputins and the Yoshida Clan. From the descriptions given, the X-Men series will take place in East Asia and will explore new takes on mutant-kind in this universe, as well as new takes on some classic characters. The most enticing piece of information known so far is that mutants will be tied to folklore, legends and magic which bodes well since the two prominent mutant groups shown so far are Asian and Slavic. Those two cultures carry centuries of culturally significant stories that can be as enticing as any X-Men story told since their conception, so long as the right writers are put behind the titles who have a respect for the cultures and groups then it will allows for an amazing new take on mutants. Mark Millar was one of the architectures behind the creation of the Ultimate Universe and is quite infamous for his form of writing and story telling. While he has created some excellent stories, he is known to have many edgy ideas that sometime do not service any deeper forms of story telling. With such a style in mind Millar would help create the Ultimate Universe with such a philosophy at the forefront for this world’s version of the Avengers (AKA: the Ultimates). This desire to have edgier and more hardcore interpretations of characters was at first a fun gimmick, but would not allow for longevity due to a lack of nuance and understanding of the characters; having them commit actions purely for shock value with that lack of nuance and having no room for growth beyond this status quo of shock value over quality is what inevitably helped seal the fait of this universe. Having the likes of Captain America be a conservative soldier who would not question his superiors got stale, making Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch commit incest as their implied father Wolverine watched and having numerous counts of cannibalism was effective for shocking readers to get them to talk about the books. However, that did not lend itself well to having readers commit to the stories that were going on since there was a lack of quality in the story. By the end of the universe’s existence little to none was worth salvaging so when Secret Wars came by Marvel took just a few characters and moved on from the rubble of the world of the Ultimates.
