Writer Jonathan Hickman's new Ultimate Universe has officially launched. And while readers previously got some hints from Marvel about what's in store, with some particularly interesting news about the new Ultimate Spider-Man already being teased by the publisher.
Now, with Ultimate Universe #1, the stage has been fully set for the rise of Marvel's new take on its most famous alt-reality, and what has now been established offers even more insight into what we can expect from the new Ultimate line when it launches in January.
Here's what we learned.
Spoilers ahead for Ultimate Universe #1
Ultimate Universe #1 by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Stefano Caselli, color artist David Curiel, and letter Joe Caramagna drops some big bombshells about Earth-6160, and how the Maker manipulated its history to prevent the rise of many of its Variants of many of Marvel's biggest heroes.
As seen in Ultimate Invasion #1, when the Maker captures the spider that would have bitten Peter Parker as a teenager before it can bestow him with his vaunted spider-powers, he prevents Peter becoming Spider-Man. Likewise, as explained in Ultimate Universe #1, he prevented Thor from becoming king of Asgard, and ensured Loki would take the throne instead.
It turns out, the Maker has amassed a huge collection of items and objects that would have created literally hundreds of super-humans on Earth-6160 without his intervention - basically the entire super-human population of Earth-6160.
Instead, only a few super-humans have arisen under the direct design of the Maker, most of whom are part of his secret cabal of international heroes who manipulate world affairs in accordance with the Maker's goals.
Now, following the Maker being trapped in a time-stasis field along with The City, his personal floating headquarters, teen Tony Stark, Reed Richards (who is trapped in Doom-like armor), Thor, and Sif break into the vault where the Maker keeps all the super-human origins he prevented.
Though it seems at first they'll be able to get away clean, the Earth-6160 Captain Britain (one of the Maker's henchmen) arrives, stabbing Thor with his magic sword. Thor, critically wounded, uses the last of his strength to teleport his allies and the storage tanks away with the power of Mjolnir.
As Reed and Tony try to save Thor, Captain Britain returns to the Maker's other super-human minions, where they all resolve that to attack New York City using a secret Stark weapon satellite, blaming Tony and labeling him a terrorist.
At the last moment, just before the satellite launches a massive blast at the city, Tony and Reed hint at an unseen contingency plan to avert the disaster. But the Maker's minions' plan still appears successful, the blast seems to level several blocks, with thousands of people believed dead as a result - including Norman Osborn and May Parker, among many others.
However, despite their apparent contingency plan going unseen, it's somewhat hinted that Reed, Tony, Thor, Sif, and the people of the city actually managed to somehow escape, leaving only a smoking crater behind.
Oddly, that's not unlike the current mainstream Fantastic Four run, where the Baxter Building and its inhabitants, as well as everyone who was in a certain radius, were teleported into a pocket universe by Reed Richards in order to save them from an alien invasion.
Still, that said, it remains to be seen how or if the Earth-6160 Reed, Tony, and the rest will make it out of there, though it has also been heavily implied that Tony Stark is also the Earth-6160 Kang, so we're guessing that unseen contingency plan may have come through after all.
We're also assuming that at least the superhero origins will survive, since the Earth-6160 Spider-Man will apparently be an adult Peter Parker who is married to Mary Jane Watson with two kids when he gets his powers thanks to the Maker diverting the spider when he was a teenager.
We'll find out more when Ultimate Spider-Man #1 kicks off the new Ultimate Comics line in January.
Stay up to date on all the new Spider-Man comics Marvel has planned for release.
