Ultimate Comics Line Being Relaunched In April By Marvel

Marvel Comics will be relaunching its entire Ultimate Comics line following the events of the current Cataclysm event. The relaunch will come under the banner of Ultimate Marvel NOW! and the publisher sees it as an opportunity to reinvent the line in a way they could only get away with in the Ultimate Universe. Speaking to the Associated Press, Editor-in-Chielf Axel Alonso had this  to say:

"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."

Rumors have been ciculating for months about Marvel potentially ending the publication of their Ultimate line entirely, perhaps even shuffling certain popular charcters, like Ultimate Comics Spider-Man's Miles Morales, into the main Marvel Universe. It seems Marvel has chosen a different path however, and writer Brian Michael Bendis, speaking to AP, hinted that this evolution of the Ultimate Universe will have lasting effects on its heroic residents.

"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."

Three titles have been announced so far for Ultimate Marvel NOW! Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez wll continue telling Miles Morales' tale in Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man. Writer Michael Fiffe and artist Amilcar Pinna will launch All-New Ultimates, starring the young heroes of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, including Miles Morales, and the Ultimate versions of Kitty Pryde, Cloak and Dagger, Bombshell, and Black Widow. Ultimate FF will be written by Joshua Hale Fialkov with art from Mario Guevara, featuring the Ultimate Universe's version of the Future Foundation, including Susan Storm, Tony Stark and at least one other character the Fialkov referred to as "a psychopath." Ultimate Marvel NOW! is set to launch in April 2014.