At New York Comic Con, Marvel Comics confirmed that the Ultimate Universe will end next year with the Ultimate Endgame event. While fans initially rolled their eyes and braced themselves for another relaunch, it has since been confirmed that this is the end of the popular line.
Marvel Comics President Dan Buckley recently reflected on the news. Ultimate Spider-Man scribe Jonathan Hickman, suggesting it was a surprise to the architect behind this universe (and to the writer responsible for presenting a Peter Parker who has finally grown up).
The publisher reportedly decided to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end, even though many fans are convinced that Hickman had the rug pulled out from under him. NOW, Ultimates Writer Deniz Camp took to social media (via Bleeding Cool) to clear things up.
“This is not fake news, but it is a sensationalist headline that misses a lot of nuance,” he shared. “It implies that people are being deported, which I don’t think is the case (from everything I’ve heard/talked to). [Hickman] I just didn’t think Marvel would be bold enough to do that. [He’s] I’m very supportive and excited about it, I’m sure.”
Camp added: “It is true that the original plan was not to “end” the universe. A big part of my journey is creating characters that I hoped would be beyond me. I think I made that clear and obvious. BUT. John finished his race at 24; this has always been the case. He was finished. Fishing [Momoko] and Bryan [Edward Hill] were both in the process of ending their story when the Creator also came out. It was their decision.”
Explaining that the idea was for each title to only last 24 issues, he said Ultimate Wolverine was planned in 12 parts but was expanded to 16. Even with that, Ultimate Black Panther, Ultimate Spider-ManAnd Ultimate X-Men In conclusion, Camp confirmed that he hopes to continue writing Ultimates.
“The Ultimates would have continued and new books would have been started (I was pushing for Hawkeye, Guardians was discussed, etc.). It was all very vague. But then Wil Moss came to me and said, ‘Hey, I think we’re going to end it. explained the writer. “It was a long time ago, at least a year ago I think, but I’ll have to check.”
“Not because the books are ‘too woke’ (if that were the case they would interfere with the writing, which they don’t) or because the main lead is jealous (that’s stupid, money is money to them), but because everything seemed to come to a natural conclusion.”
It’s not the worst idea in the world to end the Ultimate Universe when everything is going well. The original line suffered from dragging on too long and ended up relying on shocking and largely unpopular events to maintain readers’ interest. When Earth 1610 ended, it was more of a relief than anything else.
Marvel Comics will likely revisit the Ultimate Universe somewhere down the line, albeit in a different form (especially since DC Comics’ Absolute Universe line is doing big sales numbers).
Stay tuned for updates on the Ultimate Universe and Ultimate Endgame as we have them.
