It’s the end of the world for Marvel’s Ultimate universe, but it’s a beginning, too.
It’s the end of the world for Marvel’s Ultimate universe, but it’s a beginning, too.
Fourteen years after its creation by Marvel Entertainment as a modern, grittier and contemporary take on Marvel’s characters, the publisher is pushing forward with new efforts to reinvigorate its universe where the dead remain so and disaster, discord and — ultimately — redemption and rebirth are among the events that keep readers coming back issue after issue.
What it means for characters such as Miles Morales; members of the FF (Future Foundation, not Fantastic Four); and the All-New Ultimates, including the new Black Widow (she used to be Spider-Woman), Kitty Pryde, Bombshell and Cloak and Dagger, will unfold beginning in April as the events of the soon-to-end “Cataclysm” miniseries runs its course.
Writer Brian Michael Bendis is tight-lipped about the end but said this week it ends with great cost.
“They’re able to win the day, but at great sacrifice, a sacrifice that is so huge that it changes the entire landscape,” said Bendis. “It creates a place that demands a fresh start from everyone who surveys it.”
The move is part of Marvel Entertainment’s relaunching of its Ultimate universe that starts in April under the banner Ultimate Marvel NOW!
Editor-in-chief Axel Alonso called it the opportunity to tear down the existing universe to make it better.
“Once again, we’re destroying something and building something new, but there’s an end game in sight,” he said of the move, noting that Marvel’s so-called Ultimate universe has always been noted by readers, writers and artists and editors for its “elasticity” and experimentation.
“We created the line to take chances,” he said.
“Dead is dead,” he added, so don’t expect any miraculous resurrections. “The long and short of it is this: The Ultimate (universe) benefits from a good, old kick in the butt.”