Nearly 25 years ago, Marvel launched an alternative line of superhero comics with lots of familiar names and faces, but a whole new set of origins, with the Ultimate Universe.
These were heroes and villains not born in the early 60s and slowly evolved over decades to fit the era they were depicted. Spider-Man was a young teen again. The Avengers didn’t exist, but the Ultimates gave us an edgier, more real world analogue, led by a Nick Fury that suspiciously looked like Samuel L Jackson long before he was ever cast for an Iron Man movie post-credits scene.
The X-Men weren’t born that way; They were created. And when Peter Parker died more than 100 issues into a run by the longest uninterrupted comics writer and artist team in comics history (Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley), who took up the webs? The now fan-favorite Miles Morales became the defacto Spider-Man and changed Marvel forever. But what set the Ultimate Universe apart was that the characters were not burdened with 50+ years of continuity, unlike their predecessors and ANYTHING became possible for these versions of the characters we know and love.
It could have tanked hard and could have just been something to easily forget. Sure, not every book broke sales records, but the concept of the Ultimate Universe was created to give new readers a jumping on point and old school readers a new look at old concepts that felt way too safe. So when the Marvel Studios movies and TV series started drawing eyes to the Marvel heroes, having two universes of stories became a bit confusing. One had to go. And as realities started to collide, the Ultimate Universe collapsed, leaving everyone and everything destroyed, except for the extremely popular Miles Morales Spider-Man (he got to jump over to the 616) and the villain that was born out of that universe’s destruction, an immensely intelligent and powerful Reed Richards, now known as the Maker.
About two or so years ago, after flitting about the edges of the Marvel Universe proper, the Maker made his move and brought back a new Ultimate Universe re-made in his image, erasing the origins and existences of any hero who could stop him. But the Ultimates have found a way around that and are fighting as the Maker finally arrives to take back his creation. Of course, that also means that the end is near once again for the Ultimate Universe.
Ultimate Endgame is a limited series that wraps up the various conflicts and brings our heroes face to fake with the ultimate villain (‘natch) as each of their individual series come to an end (Ultimate Spider-Man, Black Panther, X-Men, Ultimates, and more) in early 2026. Here’s a peek at what to expect:
Ultimate Endgame #1 with a number of variant covers, including a limited series of exclusive blind bag options hit stores on the last day of 2025, December 31.