Is Marvel Really Ending Its Ultimate Universe?

By Nick Tylwalk | Oct 26, 2014

When it first started in 2000, Marvel’s Ultimate Universe was a bold experiment in how to reimagine its characters without the constraints imposed by decades worth of continuity. Not only was it a fresh approach, but Marvel almost always had top notch talent working on the line, and while it eventually also got tangled up in its own inconsistencies, Ultimate Marvel was certainly worth the effort.

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But let’s be honest: the Ultimate Universe is running on fumes at this point. Despite multiple attempts to relaunch and slightly rebrand, it barely moves the needle with comics readers. The Ultimates, such an influential book last decade, is now a shadow of its former self as All-New Ultimates. There haven’t been any X-Men books in the line for a while, and the only compelling solo character is Miles Morales.

With that in mind, it’s hardly surprising that many fans and journalists have been predicting that whatever Marvel has planned for 2015 will include the death of the Ultimate Universe. Those suspicions appeared to be confirmed on Friday when Marvel released its latest Summer 2015 event teaser, which you can see right here:

That image makes it appear the Ultimate Universe is being eclipsed, suggesting that it could be two worlds coming together like the Incursions taking place in Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers books. If there is an end in store, it could fit in naturally with stories that are already underway — or the new version of Secret Wars, which is expected to be the unifying force between all of the teasers we’ve seen this month.

Here’s the thing, though: Marvel has released a bunch of one-shots or limited series in the past that were all subtitled The End (for the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Punisher, the X-Men and Marvel Comics as a whole, just to name a few), and they only portrayed possible endings for those characters. Marvel could be pulling a similar move here, but capitalizing on the fact that so many people expect that this could really be wrapping up the story of Ultimate Marvel.

That would be a sneaky but savvy move. We’ll add this to our list of Summer 2015 teasers while we file this one away for when the weather turns warm next year.

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