Summer 2015. “Secret Wars.” “Civil War.” “Age of Ultron” vs “Marvel Zombies.” “Years of Future Past.” “Planet Hulk.” “Armor Wars.” “House of M.” “Infinity Gauntlet.” “Old Man Logan.” “Inhumans: Attilan Rising.”
And today? “Ultimate Universe: The End,” via CBR and illustrated by Mark Bagley.
CBR points out that this cover is similar(ish) to the cover for Marvel’s “Contest of Champions,” though I’d also point out that as long as we’re speculating about alternate reality things, “The End” was a line of alternate reality Marvel comics that showed how certain storylines pertaining to prominent characters could eventually wrap-up — including Thanos destroying the entire Marvel Universe, I might add.
(I’d also point out the use of the old Ultimate logo, which is not currently in use on any of the Ultimate comics and that’s probably a bit telling.)
But, look — we’ve been down this road before. Just do a search for “Ultimate Universe” or “Cataclysm” on this site and you’ll find a bunch of posts predicting the death of the Ultimate Universe (which was “Cataclysm”) and a relaunch (which was “All-New Ultimates,” “Miles Morales: Spider-Man” and “Ultimate FF”); in fact, I even referenced that there was another recurring rumor that the Ultimate Universe was coming to an end of sorts (again) in an article yesterday. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that the Ultimate Universe is either dying tomorrow or being reborn the day after.
So generally speaking, while the Ultimate Universe could be put out to pasture at this point, this teaser is probably more of the same. The Ultimate Universe was essentially the proto-New 52 and perhaps even the proto-Marvel MCU, and if anything it proved why linewide reboots don’t work before Marvel showed it doesn’t need an alternate reality to create synergy between their comics and films. And while Marvel keeps trying to breathe life into the Ultimate Universe, one immediate cancellation, one impending cancellation and a zillion “Why don’t they just put Miles in the regular 616?” comments on forums later, it appears we’re back to the fourth “death” of the Ultimate Marvel U.
Does Marvel need the Marvel U? Not really; it only needs Miles Morales. With a “Spider-Gwen” ongoing on the way, they clearly don’t need a whole universe to justify Mile’s existence — they just need Mile to have his own book.
Still. You never know. Who’s in for a fifth relaunch?
Marvel has yet to reveal what these all are, but even with a zillion more events they can re-create I imagine it’ll be announced soon. In the meantime, we’ll just keep posting the single images because we know you love them. Feel free to continue speculating what these are all about in the comments as inspiration finds you.
