Ultimate Marvel is the publisher’s greatest success in the last few years. Staring with Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimate Black Panther, this new publishing line spun out of Ultimate Invasion, with the Maker creating his own universe. The books grabbed attention right away, and since then we’ve gotten The Ultimates, Ultimate Wolverine, and Ultimate Hawkeye. While the books weren’t able to keep their hold on the top of the sale charts, there is an excitement and energy to the line, with many fans saying that it is their favorite thing about modern Marvel. Readers expected that the publisher would keep it going forever, like the original Ultimate Universe, but it was recently announced that the line would end.
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The Ultimate books were a cut above the rest, and fans have mixed feeling on the ending of the line. On the one hand, Marvel ending a story instead of dragging it out is a step in the right direction. On the other, fans want them to continue. Honestly, it wouldn’t be that hard to keep the books going. Here are four easy things that would allow Marvel to continue the Ultimate Universe.
4) The Maker Is a Servant of a Greater Power
The Maker survived the end of Earth-1610 and created a new universe where he could be in charge of everything. This makes sense for the character, as he’s now Marvel’s ultimate evil mastermind, but what if there was more to the whole thing? The Maker is a super-genius, but he shouldn’t have been able to do most of what he did without a power upgrade of some sort or without someone greater than him giving him the ability to do so.
Maybe the Maker is a servant of someone else, a universal power that created the Origin Boxes and gifted them to him. Upon his defeat, the heroes realize that who the heroes thought was the ultimage evil was just a herald of something else. Maybe the Beyonders come back, maybe the Builders come back, maybe he’s the servant of an evil version of Eternity or something. Relaunch the books with all-new creative teams (all of these ideas will do that, by the by) and set them on a quest to find out who the Maker is serving.
3) The Maker Survives the Final Battle and Returns Later
So, Ultimate Endgame sees the various heroes of the Ultimate Universe band together, and they are able to defeat the Maker. However, the villain gets away, leaving the heroes to recreate an all-new world, one where the threat of the evil Reed Richards is no longer present but always there in the background. Seems like it’s over, right? Well, let’s say a year from the end of the books, Marvel announces a return of the characters, in all-new books with all-new creative teams. The books pick up with a world where the heroes are fighting to make things better, and mostly succeeding, and then suddenly things start to regress. The books build and build, until it’s revealed that the Maker is still around and has a new plan to get back his universe.
2) Remake the Universe Without the Maker Using an Origin Box
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion saw Miles Morales make a trip into the 6160 universe to save his younger sister, who had gotten her hands on the card the Maker gave Miles so the hero could travel to the new universe. The series ended with the reveal of something called an Origin Box, which seems to be one of the keys to how the Maker made his universe. So, let’s say that Ultimate Endgame has the heroes defeat and destroy the villain, and they find his Origin Box. They use the Box to recreate the universe, removing the Maker and his worst actions from the timeline. All of the events in the books still would have happened the way they did, but without the influence of the villainous super-genius. A few months later, reboot with new creators (although Marvel could probably get Peach Momoko and Deniz Camp to stay around), and profit.
1) Just Relaunch the Universe
This is honestly the simplest solution to the problem. Ultimate Endgame ends with the defeat of the Maker; the villain is gone, and the books just continue. The heroes celebrate their victory, but still have to work to fix the world, and we can get all new adventures with these characters. Start introducing more classic Marvel concepts, and just do a new version of the old Ultimate Universe, one that doesn’t have an endpoint. Bring in an all-new creative team, and give readers what they want: a continuation of the universe they like. Nothing really changes, except for the creators, and we get to see more of the characters we grew to love. Sure, it would be kind of annoying for Marvel to have announced the end and then just continue it, but I doubt too many fans would be that annoyed.
Do you think the Ultimate Universe should end? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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