Ultimate Endgame's Deniz Camp Reveals How Marvel's Decision Led To A Better Ending For The Universe (Exclusive)

The Ultimate Universe has been one of Marvel’s Crown Jewels throughout 2025, and it’s heading to a grand finale in the anticipated series Ultimate Endgame. Ultimate Endgame will bring together all of the heroes and villains fans have been following along the way, including The Ultimates, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Black Panther, the X-Men, and more, and it’s set to be a truly epic clash. Bringing these various threads and characters together is writer Deniz Camp, and ComicBook had the chance to speak to Camp all about the Ultimate Universe heading to its end, if he had to change any future plans, and what he has planned for the Ultimates, Spider-Man, and the rest of the Ultimate crew

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To ask Camp to pick a favorite from his Ultimates team is just unfair, as he adores all of them at any given time. That said, there are elements of working with each character that stand out. “I didn’t put this spin on him, but I love working with Doom. I love working with Tony. I love Tony’s optimism. I love She-Hulk’s earnestness and dedication. I love that Hawkeye is still Hawkeye, even though, you know, everything about Hawkeye is different, but still Hawkeye, like still that archetype of a kind of brash, arrogant, you know, energetic character, but with all these different cultural associations,” Camp said.

“I love that I got to do that with all these different characters, and I said when I started, I wanted to create every character as though they were going to have a spinoff that could have launched, and that was always my goal,” Camp said. “So I tried to put as much as I could into them, and as a result, whether it worked for readers or not is something else, but for me, it just made me feel really invested in all of them and kind of rooting for them all. So I hope they’re okay by the end of this.”

Marvel’s Decision To End The Ultimate Universe Worked Out In The End For The Story

Camp previously revealed that he was surprised when Marvel decided to end the Ultimate Universe and close out the story, as he had definitely been planting some seeds that could be picked up later. Fortunately, Camp was always planning on having a major event at this point in the timeline, so it worked out pretty well.

“It was actually very natural because I was always planning on building to a big culmination at issue #18. When I first started, it’s not that we knew that it was going to be Ultimate Endgame, and we didn’t even know that it was going to be a miniseries, and I didn’t know that I would be writing it,” Camp said. “And there were all kinds of options on the table, whether the universe was going to continue afterwards, but we knew that The Maker was going to come out and that there was going to have to be some kind of a culmination. I thought there had to be a culmination of our books to resonate with that.”

“So my plan for the Ultimates was this first 18 issues leading up to issue #18 and a big uprising, and that’s always been my plan for The Ultimates for whatever was going to come after or whether it was going to continue or not,” Camp said. “So really, the only moving around was kind of in terms of maybe one or two things had to be wrapped up a little faster than they would have because I was seeding it in for the run afterwards or whatever, but it’s very, very minor.”

While a few changes were necessary as a result of the universe being brought to a close, it might have actually worked out in terms of creating a satisfying ending, as it cut any limitations from having to plot for future stories and creative teams.

“What it allowed us to do, all of us, I think, but I can only speak for myself, was to do what was right for the characters in the story and the story itself,” Camp said. “Like, what was most dramatic and felt most true and most natural for these characters and for the story and this world, instead of having to think about, well, what is my responsibility as a good steward, either for the characters, the next writer, or for myself, right? Like when you kill a character, for instance, or if you make them a traitor or whatever, you have to think, does that create more stories than it closes off?”

“That to me is always kind of my guiding star, whether I’m continuing with the book or somebody else is going to continue with the book. To be a good steward, to be a good creator, and a creative partner, I feel it’s incumbent upon me to make choices that lead to, at least in my mind, more story potential, more story possibilities for what comes after, rather than fewer,” Camp said. “Sometimes that means you can’t do the thing that’s kind of right for your story because you’re thinking about, well, this thing is going to continue on and what comes after. And I didn’t have to do that. I could let all these stories kind of end in whatever way they were going to end, whether it be death or quitting or turning to the other side or whatever, and so it just gave me a lot more freedom.”

Ultimate Endgame Finally Brings Everyone To The Party

One of the perks of helming a massive Ultimate Universe ending event is that you get to bring in all of the other characters from across the line. That includes characters like the X-Men, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and more, and Camp is staying true to what made those characters great in their own series.

“I get to take those characters and still do work that I think is true to that run. I think if you read Spider-Man #24 and then you read Ultimate Endgame #1, the stuff that we do with Spider-Man there, it’s still so central. His family is so central, and his care for the family is so central. That’s the focus. That’s the Spider-Man focus,” Camp said. “So trying to do that, to take that stuff and do new interesting things with it and maybe recombine it in different ways for this or whatever and doing new things, but respecting everything that came before.”

“Whereas my ultimate characters, the characters from Ultimates, they’re really getting, this is the end of the story that I’ve been telling for what will be over 30 issues now. So I’m really excited about both of those things, and I get, I’m very confident that I can land the stuff for my characters, and I just hope I do justice to all the great work that Peach and John and Bryan and Chris have done,” Camp said.

Ultimate Endgame #1 lands in comic stores on December 31, and you can find a preview of the issue above, as well as nine sketch covers from the Marvel Studios Visual Development team that will be randomly available through blind bags. You can find the official description below.

Ultimate Endgame #1 (of 5)
Written by DENIZ CAMP
Art by TERRY DODSON & JONAS SCHARF
Cover by MARK BROOKS
ENDGAME HAS ARRIVED! The moment that has been building since the beginning of the new Ultimate Universe! Spinning out of Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri’s ULTIMATES comes the culmination of ULTIMATE INVASION… Two (thousand) years have passed in the Ultimate Universe, but inside the City, the Maker has had thousands of years to prepare for his return! With the barrier around the City finally gone, heroes all across the Ultimate Universe must mobilize to defeat the Maker before it’s game over. For everyone. Meanwhile, the rest of the world wages World War III.

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