It has been eight years since Secret Wars #1 marked the death of Marvel Comics’ “Ultimate universe” a.k.a. Earth-1610 after a 16-year run of comics which reinvigorated the superhero genre at the start of the 21st century. This week Ultimate Invasion #1 from Jonathan Hickman, the writer who wrote the epilogue of the Ultimate universe, and Bryan Hitch, the artist who defined a new blockbuster style in the pages of Ultimates, prepares readers for a new chapter in the Ultimate line.
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It’s to the event’s credit that this introductory issue never reads like an unnecessary continuation, even as it returns to the well of a concept that had run its course and was largely ignored before being officially concluded. Instead, it builds upon Hickman’s strengths structuring the first issue, which plays like prologue, as a follow up to the writer’s celebrated work on Fantastic Four, New Avengers, and Secret Wars. The story centers on Reed Richards, the center of all three series, and his genocidal, Ultimate counterpart Maker as the former pursues the latter following a prison break. Despite the distance from its source material, readers familiar with these overlapping sagas will certainly recognize it as a natural continuation.
The issue is divided into three extended sequences divided by various title and data pages in Hickman’s familiar style. The opening sequence introduces readers to a heist in motion as four masked figures prepare to assault a secret compound in Manhattan. This action plays like Heat meets The Fifth Element as efficient professionals utilize sci-fi weaponry to quickly move towards their goal. It is the most innervating set of pages in Ultimate Invasion #1, providing Hitch an opportunity to remind readers what made his work a definitive facet of comics in the early 2000s. Wide panels and precise transitions create a very quick read that propels readers forward into the next stage of a thrilling heist sequence. It also offers Hitch an opportunity to engage in some revolting body horror that casts a sense of foreboding about whatever is set to arrive in the wake of Maker’s release.
The rest of the issue is devoted to paying out the consequences of this critical moment within the context of the broader Marvel universe, or Earth-616. A reassembled Illuminati reminds readers how much has changed in the wake of Secret Wars and provides a sense of this threat’s enormity, even as Reed and T’Challa remain the only two members with much to say. This is where the issue builds anticipation for what comes and its most exciting element is an understated interaction between Maker and the only other Ultimate survivor, Miles Morales.ย
Otherwise, it plays as hype for a premise that isn’t quite revealed by the issue’s end. The epilogue and its eye-widening title page suggest, alongside Marvel Comics’ overenthusiastic marketing department, what’s still to come. But it’s unclear exactly what it means for Maker to return the Ultimate universe and what it might mean for Earth-616. Reed’s final words in the issue provide sufficient weight to guarantee readers return, if the promise of seeing so many long-absent characters (or, at the very least, character designs) in Ultimate Invasion #2 were not enough. The conflict between these two Reeds begun in Secret Wars appears every bit as potent as that celebrated event.
Regardless of one’s feelings about the Ultimate universe or its upcoming return, Ultimate Invasion #1 makes the case for itself not by promising future series but offering one that is immediately relevant. Hickman’s sharp dialogue, big ideas, and continuing themes from across Marvel Comics present the event as the natural next step building upon decades of stories. Hitch’s artwork builds a bridge to the past in Ultimates while proving itself every bit as compelling in engrossing action sequences and some surprisingly subtle moments. There’s a thrum of excitement around this prologue that promises another saga possessing a multiversal scale and, much more importantly earning it. Wherever Ultimate Invasion is set to lead, Marvel readers can rest assured that it’s leading to something as big and exciting as the past it builds upon.
Published by Marvel Comics
On June 21, 2023
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Bryan Hitch and Andrew Currie
Colors by Alex Sinclair
Letters by Joe Caramagna
Cover byย Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair
