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Ultimates #6 puts the team on its first full mission together, though things take a fateful turn when they come face-to-face with the Ultimate Iron Fist, who also just so happens to be another Ultimate character we've already met.
With the team's first big fight stacked against almost impossible odds, not everyone makes it out unscathed - and the implications of what happens in Ultimates #6 could shape everything that comes next in the new Ultimate Universe.
Spoilers ahead for Ultimates #6
Ultimates #6 by writer Deniz Camp, artist Juan Frigeri, color artist Federico Blee, and letterer Travis Lanham opens with nearly the full team of Tony Stark/Iron Lad, Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor, Sif, Jim Hammond/Human Torch, Wasp, Giant-Man, and She-Hulk all set out to bust open what their intelligence has indicated is a prison for superhumans, who they believe may join them in their coming fight against the Maker.
Only Reed Richards/Doom stays behind to monitor the mission - and it's a good thing he does, as it's actually a trap set by none other than Bruce Banner/Hulk, one of the Maker's chief lieutenants. Rather than breaking into a prison, the Ultimates have actually passed through a portal that takes them to Banner's headquarters of K'un-Lun, the home of the Iron Fist. And as it turns out, Hulk himself is now the bearer of that mantle and its accompanying power.
Displaying a strange, zen-like calm, Banner first attempts to get the Ultimates to join him for "tea," which he later reveals is actually intended to poison them with the intent of avoiding a fight. But a fight is unavoidable, as She-Hulk doesn't hesitate to attack her hated nemesis, who poisoned her home island with Gamma radiation.
In fact, Banner's manipulation of Gamma has extended to the Ultimate versions of Iron Fist's allies the Immortal Weapons, who are warped into Gamma-mutates in the new Ultimate Universe. There's Fat Cobra, Decay's Beautiful Daughter, Prince of Meltdowns, Brother Uranium #235, Bride of Nine-Worldbreakers, and Crane Mother of the Bomb, collectively known as the Immortal Weapons of the Hulk.
They decimate the Ultimates in the fight, with She-Hulk losing a hand, Wasp getting swallowed by Fat Cobra - though she bursts out of him by returning to full-size, killing him - and worst of all, the Hulk crushes Iron Lad in his armor.
As Doom finally manages to track down the Ultimates in K'un-Lun after initially losing contact, he teleports them all away at the last second. But it might just be too late for one of the Ultimates, as Iron Lad is apparently dead thanks to the devastating attack by Hulk.
With the leader of the Ultimates now apparently dead, that could be the one casualty that might change the course of the entire fight against the Maker, who is currently stuck in stasis for a few more months.
The upcoming Ultimate Universe: One Year In #1 one-shot will shed some light on what comes next, but with Iron lad apparently down for the count, and the Ultimates reeling from having to fight just one of the Maker's lieutenants, it's not looking great for the heroes.
The story continues in Ultimates #7 on December 4.
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