The Ultimates is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and created by writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch, which first started publication from The Ultimates #1 (cover date March 2002), as part of the company's Ultimate Marvel imprint.
Publication history
The first volume of the
Ultimates, written by Millar and illustrated by Hitch, was published in limited series format and ran for thirteen issues with production delays from January 30, 2002
until March 31, 2004.
Hitch described the alternative-reality reimagining as one where, "You have to approach it as though nothing has happened before and tell the story fresh from the start.... We had to get to the core of who these people were and build outwards, so Cap Captain was a soldier, Thor is either a
insanity or a
messiah ... Banner the an insecure genius, and superspy Fury the king of cool".
A second series, also by Millar and Hitch, was released as Ultimates 2 and ran 13 issues from Dec. 2004 to May 2007.
In a 2004 interview, Millar outlined the difference between the Ultimates and the Avengers: "The idea behind The Avengers is that the Marvel Universe's biggest players all get together and fight all the biggest supervillains they can't defeat individually, whereas Ultimates 2 is an exploration of what happens when a bunch of ordinary people are turned into super-soldiers and being groomed to fight the real-life war on terror."
This was followed by the one-shot Ultimate Saga (Nov. 2007), a condensed retelling, by writers C. B. Cebulski and Mindy Owens and artist Travis Charest, of the events of Ultimates and Ultimates 2. A third series, Ultimates 3 (Dec 2007 – Sept 2008) was written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Joe Madureira.[McMillan, Graeme. "Ultimate planning.", Newsarama, June 26, 2006]
Mark Millar returned to the Ultimates with a series of shorter miniseries, beginning in 2009 with , which ran from August 2009 until July 2011.
The Earth-6160 version of the Ultimates began its own comic series on June 5, 2024.
Plot
The Ultimates
General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. establishes a strike force of government-sponsored superhumans which includes Steve Rogers (Captain America); scientist couple Henry and Janet Pym (Giant-Man and the Wasp); Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Tony Stark (Iron Man). Together, they are based at the S.H.I.E.L.D facility the Triskelion. When Banner injects himself with the super-soldier serum and goes on a bloody rampage as the Hulk, he is eventually stopped by the other superhumans with the aid of Thor. The team then join forces with the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and agents Hawkeye and Black Widow against the alien shape-shifters the
Chitauri, who are defeated.
[ The Ultimates #1–13 (March 2002 – April 2004)]
The Ultimates 2
A year later public opinion has turned against the team when it is discovered that Bruce Banner is in fact the Hulk and was responsible for hundreds of deaths. The team is undermined further when Thor is accused of being an escaped mental patient and is incarcerated. This is the doing of his brother Loki, who also facilitates the creation of a new team of anti-American multi-nationals called the "Liberators". With the aid of the Black Widow – who betrays the team to the Liberators – the Ultimates are captured, but eventually escape and battle the Liberators to the death. With the aid of Asgardian warriors, the Ultimates defeat both Loki and the Liberators. Seeing how having the Ultimates working with the United States government "policing" the world would produce similar results to their battle against the Liberators, the team decided to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and to continue to work as an independent team instead.
The Ultimates 3
Hank Pym is under house arrest at Ultimates Mansion. One of Pym's Ultron robots drugs him and leaks a sex tape of Stark and the Black Widow to the internet. These distract from the robot's fatal shooting of the Scarlet Witch. Magneto abducts Wanda's corpse and retreats to the
Savage Land, where he is confronted by the Ultimates. Pym and Wasp discover the truth about the Ultron robot, which has adopted the identity of Yellowjacket and uses the Ultimates'
DNA to create a series of android duplicates. Although the true Ultimates destroy their android counterparts and Yellowjacket, Quicksilver is apparently killed by Hawkeye. The Wasp then invites Pym to return to the Ultimates, and he accepts. The mastermind behind the robot's plot is revealed to be Doctor Doom.
New Ultimates
The Ultimate Defenders, suddenly with superpowers, steal Thor's hammer from Valkyrie. Hela agrees to release Thor in exchange for a son. Loki arrives in
Central Park with an army of monsters.
Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates
Writer
Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić relaunched the Ultimates with a different lineup consisting of Nick Fury, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Woman and others.
[Manning, Shaun. "Marvel Announces "Ultimate Comics: Ultimates", Comic Book Resources, May 2, 2011][Kaye, Edward. "Marvel Announces Jonathan Hickman on Ultimate Comics: Ultimates in August!", Hypergeek, May 3, 2011]
All-New Ultimates
Following the conclusion of the miniseries
Cataclysm and under the Ultimate Marvel NOW! banner, coinciding with the
Marvel Universe All-New Marvel NOW! launch, writer
Michel Fiffe and artist Amilcar Pinna brought together a new team, including
Miles Morales, the new Black Widow who was formerly Spider-Woman, Kitty Pryde, Bombshell, and Cloak and Dagger.
The book ran for 12 issues.
All-New Ultimates has been collected in two trade paperbacks; Volume One is titled Power for Power, collecting issues #1–6; while Volume Two is titled No Gods, No Masters, collecting issues #7-#12.
Return
When the Maker collaborated with the High Evolutionary to destroy the Superflow that kept the different universes separate in order to merge them into one reality, the Ultimates members Captain America, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp, and Hulk were revived where they were to help Eternity fight the First Firmament.
[ Ultimates 2 Vol. #9] When Earth-616's version of the Ultimates arrived on Counter-Earth to confront Maker about his actions, he ordered the Earth-1610 Ultimates to attack. As both versions of Ultimates concluded that there is no reason to fight each other, Maker killed the Earth-1610 Captain America for disobeying his orders. Upon Maker being defeated, both Ultimates helped Eternity to defeat the First Firmament. Afterwards, the Earth-1610 Ultimates left to pursue Maker.
[ Ultimates 2 #100. Marvel Comics.]
The Ultimates are later seen on Earth-1610 when it is recreated.[ Spider-Men II #5. Marvel Comics.]
Other versions
Earth-616
As part of the
All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, the Prime earth version of the Ultimates make their debut where they deal with cosmic threats before they can affect Earth.
Ultimate Universe
When Maker traveled to Earth-6160 and remade it into his own image during the "Ultimate Invasion" storyline, the Ultimates were later formed to take the world back from him and his council.
[ Ultimate Invasion #1-4. Marvel Comics.][ Ultimate Universe #1. Marvel Comics.]
Sales and reception
Overall, the
Ultimates series has been generally well received by critics and readers, with the first two volumes being praised for the surprisingly mature themes and concepts, the more humanly flawed and layered characterizations of the original
Avengers members, Millar's storytelling and writing, Hitch's photo-realistic and cinematic-styled artwork, the modernized, grittier and realistic, yet simultaneously engaging and intriguing re-imagining of the classic
Avengers mythos and the political relevance of the first two volumes, while criticism was leveled at the unnecessarily adult-oriented, shallow attempt at maturity and the overly cynical tone and direction of the series, with the third volume:
The Ultimates 3 being met with a mostly negative reception, compared to the positive response received by the first two volumes, for the aforementioned reasons. The first volume of
Ultimates #1 ranked fourth among the top 300 comics sold for February 2002, based on Diamond Publisher's indexes,
with the next three issues ranked second,
second,
and third,
respectively.
Popmatters.com praised Mark Millar's writing in the opening eight issues, stating the writer "is able to walk a very fine line of keeping the story measured yet entertaining".
Ultimates 2 #1 ranked second among the top 300 comics sold for December 2004,
Reviewing Ultimates 2, Curledup.com praised Millar's writing of the classic heroes and the "inclusion of current-day politics" improves the storyline.
Ultimates 3 #1 ranked first in December 2007's Top 300 comics with preorder sales of 131,401,
Reviewing Ultimates 3, IGN called the book a "reasonably decent experience" although the issue "falters on its own merits",
2011's Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates received highly positive reactions upon its debut. Chad Nevett from Comic Book Resources wrote that "the comic is exciting and sets up a large story that, right now, seems like it could easily end with the destruction of the team. A first issue that starts with its foot on the gas is exactly what’s called for",[ The Ultimates #1. Comic Book Resources. Retrieved on 2011-09-28.] while IGN gave the first issue 8/10.[ Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #1 Review. IGN. Retrieved on 2011-09-28.]
Collected editions
| +
! Title
! Material collected
! Published date
! ISBN |
| The Ultimates Vol. 1: Super-Human | Ultimates #1–6 | April 2006 | |
| The Ultimates Vol. 2: Homeland Security | Ultimates #7-13 | April 2006 | |
| The Ultimates: Ultimate Collection | Ultimates #1–13 | October 2004 | |
| The Ultimates 2 Vol. 1: Gods and Monsters | Ultimates 2 #1–6 | September 2006 | |
| The Ultimates 2 Vol. 2: Grand Theft America | Ultimates 2 #7–13 | January 2007 | |
| The Ultimate Annuals Vol. 1 | The Ultimates Annual #1, Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #1, Ultimate X-Men Annual #1, Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 | February 2006 | |
| The Ultimate Annuals Vol. 2 | The Ultimates Annual #2, Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #2, Ultimate X-Men Annual #2, Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #2 | February 2007 | |
| The Ultimates 2: Ultimate Collection | Ultimates 2 #1–13, Ultimates Annual #1 | December 2007 | |
| The Ultimates Omnibus | Ultimates #1–13, Ultimates 2 #1–13, Ultimates Annual #1 | June 2009 | |
| The Ultimates 3: Who Killed the Scarlet Witch? | Ultimates 3 #1–5 | May 2009 | |
In other media
Marvel Cinematic Universe
-
Numerous aspects and elements of the Ultimates were utilized for the look and storyline of The Avengers.
-
Aspects of were inspired by the Ultimate Marvel Comics.
Animation
-
The Ultimates have been the basis for Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2.
-
The Ultimates appear in a self-titled episode of Avengers Assemble as Super-Adaptoid-esque duplicates of the Avengers.
Video games
-
The Ultimates are alluded in Ultimate Spider-Man. A number of posters depicting The Triskelion are seen announcing a movie called The Ultimates.
-
Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury have their Ultimate universe costumes in .
-
The Ultimates appears at the end of after Spider-Man battling the Green Goblin in the final level.
-
Iron Man and Thor have unlockable skins based on their Ultimate universe costumes in the videogame Marvel's Avengers.
Novels
Two novels based on the Ultimates have been released:
|
| Tomorrow Men | () | Michael Jan Friedman |
| The Ultimates: Against All Enemies | () | Alexander C. Irvine |
See also
-
The Ultimates (comic book)
-
The Ultimates 2
-
List of Ultimates members
-
Ultimate Nick Fury
-
Tomorrow Men
-
Avengers (comics)
External links
