Marvel Teases Major New Ultimate Universe Crossover (But It’s Too Soon)

Timeslide #1, by Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli, continues Marvel’s trend of the last few years with the Timeless one-shots, teasing the next year of Marvel stories. The book goes so far as to list off major events that may happen and one of them is “Ultimate Incursion,” which seems to be teasing a major crossover for the nascent Ultimate line. The current Ultimate Universe is an all-around success story, giving Marvel multiple new top-selling books — Ultimate Spider-Man has been beating perennial chart toppers The Amazing Spider-Man and Batman — and intriguing readers with a completely new universe.

Ultimate Marvel is coming into its second year with a lot of momentum, and new books like Ultimate Wolverine are looking to build off that. However, as hot as the new Ultimate line is, it’s definitely not the right time to throw a crossover into the books. Marvel’s event cycle hasn’t been considered stellar for a long time and dropping the new Ultimate Universe into it isn’t the answer.

Ultimate Marvel Needs More Chance to Grow

The new Ultimate Universe is a world that is stacked against the heroes. The Maker, the Reed Richards of the original Ultimate Universe, took control of an alternate Earth and made sure that the heroes who had been his foes never got a chance to get started. Earth-6160 is a world controlled by the Maker and his Council, a group of familiar superhumans controlling entire continents. The Ultimate books have been showing more and more how this world works, building a unique new superhero universe.

For example, Ultimate X-Men has been a slow burn, taking the concept of mutants and bringing it to new places. Ultimate X-Men takes place in Japan, which is known as Hi No Kuni, the “Land of Fire,” and is under the control of Japanese mutant Sunfire. The first year of the book has slowly built up the mutant community of Hi No Kuni, and has barely gotten into the nitty gritty of the country’s government. There is still so much more the book needs to explore about its character and setting.

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Ultimate Spider-Man is an amazing comic, but it’s not exactly very Spider-Man-heavy yet. Instead, the book has dug into how New York City is being run and what it means to the wider Ultimate Universe. Some of readers’ favorite issues have been the ones where J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Parker work on breaking a story critical of the world’s power structure. Harry Osborn, the Green Goblin of this universe, and OsCorp are related to the corruption at the center of the Ultimate Universe, giving his alliance with Spider-Man a dark tinge. The book’s drama is all tied up in these mysteries.

The Ultimates and Ultimate Black Panther are similarly still building their own stories. The Ultimate Guardians of the Galaxy are about to make their debut in The Ultimates, bringing in the cosmic corners of the new Ultimate Universe. Ultimate Wolverine is a new take on the Winter Soldier and has fans excited to see more of Earth-6160’s mutant population. There is a lot of excitement around the line and a big crossover is the perfect way to cool off fans.

Events often give a bump in sales, but the Ultimate books are already at the apex of their powers. They don’t really need a bump in sales at all and a crossover event could actually hurt the books. What makes each Ultimate book so popular is how unique they are. Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates, and Ultimate Black Panther aren’t tonally similar at all, and seeing them cross over wouldn’t feel right. Each of them is in the midst of great stories, and slowing those stories down for the usual Marvel event shenanigans isn’t a great idea.

Ultimate Marvel Needs to Be Different From the Main Line

“Ultimate Incursion” definitely sounds intriguing, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Marvel introduced the concept of “Incursions” over a decade ago, destructive multiversal events that saw Earths literally colliding with each other. “Ultimate Incursion” could refer to a new round of Incursions or could see Earth-6160 and Earth-616 cross over in some way. The upcoming debut of the Ultimate Guardians of the Galaxy could be set up for this new story, and will certainly be done well at the very least. None of that means this is the right time for “Ultimate Incursion.” However, the biggest problem with an Ultimate Universe crossover event is that it shows that the Ultimate Universe isn’t all that different from the regular Marvel Universe.

The current Ultimate Universe isn’t doing what the original did. The original Ultimate Universe remade Marvel for then-contemporary times. The new Ultimate Universe isn’t trying at all to be a retelling of familiar tales. It’s breaking all of the rules of the Marvel Universe to tell bold new stories with classic concepts. These books live and die on their world-building. Once more of the world-building is done, a crossover between the Ultimate books would be stellar. At this point, it’s a needless cash-in that reeks of Marvel’s business-as-usual approach to storytelling. The Ultimate Universe’s current success comes because it’s not the Marvel Universe readers are used to. A crossover event would prove that it’s much more in line with its predecessor universes.