5 Biggest Mistakes Ultimate Marvel Made (& 5 Things It Got Right)

Videos by ComicBook.com

The new Ultimate Universe is better than the old, but that’s not a high bar to clear. Looking back to its beginning, there are some great things the books did, but there’s also a lot of mistakes. These are the line’s five biggest mistakes, as well as five things that Ultimate Marvel did right, showing the rise and fall of the line.

10) Mistakes: Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Ultimate Invasion, the story that set up the new Ultimate Universe, teased Miles Morales, a resident of the former Ultimate Universe, coming over at some point. Readers would have to wait until 2025 to see that play out in Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursions, by Cody Ziglar, Deniz Camp, and Jonas Scharf. This story was basically a travelogue through the Ultimate Universe, as Miles tries to find his sister, who accidentally ended up on Earth-6160 because a gift the Maker gave him. This book was basically meaningless. Ziglar didn’t have the chops to make it work, and every issue was worse than the one before it, even with Camp along for the ride. Scharf’s art was cool, but this one was DOA.

9) Did Right: The First Year

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

In 2024, the Ultimate books were firing on all cylinders. Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimate Black Panther kicked off the line rather well, with the USM and UXM being the standard bearers and sales leaders, with fans were praising them every chance they got. Ultimate Black Panther didn’t do as well in sales, but was still praised by the people who read it. Add in The Ultimates premiering in the summer of 2024 and Ultimate Universe: One Year In, and you have an amazing first year that fans look back on fondly.

8) Mistake: The Second Year of Ultimate Spider-Man

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

The first year of Ultimate Spider-Man was awesome, and it ended on one of the best cliffhangers of the 2020s. And then the second year happened. Peter and his family stopped being focused on nearly as much and it became the Green Goblin and Mysterio show, as Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy started their war against Kingpin’s Sinister Six. Richard Parker as Venom and his relationship with Black Cat was awesome, but the second year of the book dropped the ball. Fans wanted more of the Parkers and they basically got the opposite. The book went from the best cliffhanger in years to becoming the one of the biggest fumbles ever.

7) Did Right: Ultimate Universe: One Year In Was Hype

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

The first year of the Ultimate Universe was outstanding, and it ended amazingly with Ultimate Universe: One Year In, by Deniz Camp, Chris Condon, Jonas Scharf, and Alessandro Cappuccio. This story is the best Nick Fury tale in ages, chronicling his position in HAND, the SHIELD equivalent of the Ultimate Universe, and him making a fateful decision which leads to one of the most shocking Ultimate moments. The book ended with a tease for Ultimate Wolverine, exciting readers for that book and what was coming down the pipe. It was the definition of hype and made fans all the more excited for the next year of Ultimate books.

6) Mistake: Ultimate Wolverine Was Too Basic

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Ultimate Wolverine, by Chris Condon, Alessandro Cappuccio, Derek Lins, and Domenico Carbone, is one of the biggest disappointments of the new Ultimate Universe. The art was consistently fantastic, but the writing was the most basic Wolverine story ever. Logan was captured by the Eurasian Republic and made into their Winter Soldier, and fans were hoping for a book that focused on that. Instead, we got what amounted to a Weapon X redux, with him getting de-programmed and joining the fight against the Eurasian Republic. The first six issues were great, but everything since has been bland and predictable, carried by its awesome art. Marvel dropped the ball with Wolverine in 2025, and this book was a huge part of that.

5) Did Right: Married Peter Parker and Mary Jane

Image Courtesy of Marvel COmics

“One More Day” destroyed Spider-Man’s marriage in 2007, and readers have been complaining about it ever since. Fans were shocked when it was announced that Peter Parker and Mary Jane would be married in the new Ultimate Spider-Man, mostly because Marvel has made it known that they hate the marriage. While the book definitely dropped the ball with the couple as time went on, much like it did with nearly everything involving Peter in the book’s second year, it was awesome to get to see a mature, married Peter and Mary Jane. The book outsold Amazing Spider-Man because of the marriage, and it would be nice if Marvel realized that the fans love this relationship.

4) Mistake: Keeping Most of the Maker Story in The Ultimates

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Ultimate Invasion set up the Maker’s creation of Earth-6160 and set the ticking clock of his return in two years. Ultimate Universe #1 expanded on this, but that was the end of the main Maker plot until The Ultimates premiered. The book was the epicenter of that part of the Ultimate Universe, but there’s a problem with that. If you missed Ultimate Invasion (which was easy, since it was an extremely expensive comic and rather under-ordered by all but the biggest comic stories), and only read Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Black Panther or Ultimate Wolverine, you would know nothing about the main plot. This was a rather big mistake, because anyone that didn’t read The Ultimates and picked up Ultimate Endgame would be kind of confused about how the Maker became so powerful.

3) Did Right: The Ultimates‘ Politics

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Deniz Camp has become a superstar, with his works on The Ultimates bringing him to the eyes of more readers than ever. Camp is a great superhero/sci-fi writer, but what really makes his works so awesome are his politics. The Ultimates is a superhero book about a world under the control of a madman, and it takes real world political issues and puts them on the page. The book is explicitly leftist, and its politics helped it stand out in a time when leftist thought is almost outlawed. It took what would otherwise be a good superhero team book and made into something special.

2) Mistake: Ending It

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Marvel’s announcement of the Ultimate Universe’s end was a huge shock. While the books hadn’t been as good in the second year as they were in the first, fans still enjoyed them and were excited to see how this world developed. When the ending was announced, you could feel fans’ opinion on the Ultimate Universe change. Readers weren’t happy about the second year, but they figured that things would get better after Ultimate Endgame. Taking that away made them less liable to put up with the mistakes that were being made, and has taken a line that fans loved and made it into a massive disappointment.

1) Did Right: Ultimate X-Men Was the Most Unique Marvel Comic in Years

Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

X-Men fans are not eating well. Marvel has dropped the ball with their mutant books, but there was one bright spot. Ultimate X-Men was a perfect mutant comic, from Japanese writer/artist Peach Momoko. This book took the idea of teenage mutants, dropped them into Japan, and then poured in a heaping helping of horror manga goodness. This slow burn story was insanely good, giving its fans the best mutant comic they could ask for. Everything about it was awesome (except the ending, which was merely good and left on a cliffhanger that hopefully gets paid off in Ultimate Endgame), and it will go down as the best part of the new Ultimate line.

What do you think about Ultimate Marvel? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!