HOME | DD

Description
For those who don’t know, Ultimate Marvel was a imprint of comic books that ran from 2000 to 2015. It was meant to serve as a way to introduce the iconic characters of Marvel Comics for a new generation, while also updating/changing them for the 21st century and compressing the 60 years of history they had under their belts at the time.

And how did it do….?

To be honest, not that good.

The biggest problems/complaints towards this universe are the following three.

1. The changes
2. The portrayal of the characters
3. The tone

The tone of this universe was mostly somewhat cynical and edgy. I’m all for dark moments, but this universe I feel like kinda went overboard with that, especially later on. This edginess usually steered into the try-hard territory, often feeling like it was only done for the sake of it rather than being actually interesting to the story. Also didn’t help with the fact that most of the runs in this universe were trying to be deconstructions of the superhero genre and also trying be more grounded and realistic. First off, the whole deconstruction doesn’t really fit for what this universe was trying to do. Second off, I really don’t know why they were trying to make this universe more grounded and realistic. Having grounded moments and elements is definitely nice, but the Marvel universe has generally been known from being a weird and wild place. It’s one of the elements people love about Marvel. Aliens, sorcery, demons, mythological beings, alternate dimensions, hidden civilizations, sub-species of humans with special powers, supernatural creatures, lost worlds, and as Lord Farquaad would say….

“And so on and so forth….”

While these elements were still around the Ultimate Universe, they were heavily toned down when compared to the mainline universe.

That’s just kinda lame….

As for the characters, this universe is generally known by Marvel fans as one where nearly everyone is an asshole. I’m all for flawed characters, all characters should be flawed in a way, but you still need to give them redeeming qualities. In this universe, damn near everyone (except for Spider-Man and most of the characters associated with him) is ridiculously flawed with little to no redeeming qualities.

Honestly, this universe has some of the worst iterations of the Marvel characters of all time. And the fact that this was done for a universe that was suppose to introduce these characters to a new generation is pretty questionable. It’s even more so since many of the characters are suppose to be….ya know….heroes.

As for the changes, the Ultimate universe had their fair share of changes to differentiate itself from the mainline universe. Some were cool and interesting, most were questionable and borderline idiotic.

I’m about go ahead and share with you just some of the worst and questionable elements of the Ultimate Marvel universe that I can think of off the top of my head.

P.S.: This is gonna contain some pretty heavy shit.

.The aforementioned toning down of supernatural or extraterrestrial elements

.Flash Thompson doesn’t develop here whatsoever and is also a racist towards mutants (an aspect I don’t think his mainline counterpart ever had)

.Captain America is something of a xenophobe

.The Hulk is actually an actual monster with little to no humanity, who is also a cannibal and rapist

.Betty Ross is bitch who frequently puts down and belittles Bruce, and is also attracted to the Hulk, despite his disgusting and terrifying tendencies. She’s also becomes the She-Hulk of this universe…

.Ant-Man is an actual wife beater who nearly kills Wasp while she’s small by sicing ants on her

.Wasp frequently flirts with Captain America, despite the fact that she’s married

.Black Widow is actually a double agent for Russia who betrays the Ultimates (this universe’s version of the Avengers) and murders Hawkeye’s family

.Professor Xavier saw his own son David as more of a pet, ala Omni-Man

.Red Skull is the son of Captain America

.Wolverine is literal pedophile as while in the body of Peter Parker, he planned to have sex with Mary Jane Watson, who by the way, is 15 years old

.Continuing with Wolverine, he also attempts to kill (well, more like leave him for dead) Cyclops in order to have Jean Grey to himself

.Nightcrawler is homophobic and turns into stalker for Dazzler

.Sabertooth gets retractable claws just like Wolverine

.Black Panther is more of a easily jealous hothead who rushes into things, who’s also mute (after getting his throat mauled by a panther) and got experimented on by the Weapons X program, giving him superhuman physical prowess and the ability to grow small retractable claws from his knuckles

.The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are in an incestuous relationship with each other

.Continuing from the last statement, it’s heavily implied that Wolverine is their true father instead of Magneto and even spies on them through the bushes during them presumably having sex

.A sex tape between Iron Man and Black Widow gets leaked online

.ULTIMATUM

Yeah, the Ultimate Universe was a seriously fucked-up place.

Changes done seemingly just for the sake of it, an overall reliance on edginess and cynicism, and heavy bastardization of beloved characters.

I feel the reason most of this happened was because many of writers either weren’t the most familiar with Marvel and their characters, had a writing style that really didn’t fit with what Marvel was going for, or just really didn’t care. And if this was the case, I could definitely believe that. Most famously, Mark Millar (who’s famous for his somewhat tryhard edgy style of writing) said that when he was brought on-board to write for Ultimate X-Men, he admitted that he was not really familiar with the team and said that his only form of reference was the 2000 film.

But despite the many flaws of this universe, there was some good to come out of it.

Ultimate Spider-Man was really the only good series in this universe.

The Ultimate Universe also gave us one of Marvel’s best recent heroes Miles Morales, as well one of their best recent villains The Maker.

And surprisingly enough, despite the universe being pretty awful, it actually helped influence some pretty good stuff.

The Ultimate Spider-Man video game, the Ultimate Avengers duology and the X-Men Legends video games were heavily inspired by the comics, though the latter two thankfully did away with the less-than pleasing elements.

Elements from the Ultimate Universe, particularly Nick Fury’s appearance, found its way into Marvel media during the late 2000s.

The Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon was inspired…..well, loosely inspired…by the comic run of the same name.

And most importantly of all, it would actually serve as the blueprint for….believe or not, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But other than that, the Ultimate Marvel universe is generally seen as a product of its time and a overly edgy, cynical, and overall miserable place. And other than Ultimate Spider-Man, it’s not looked back on very fondly.

But there has been some people who have expressed the idea for an all-out reboot of the Ultimate universe, and I’m all for that. I feel like Ultimate Marvel is the textbook definition of squandered potential. Ultimate Spider-Man is honestly what the other Ultimate runs should’ve been, a modern retelling of the characters that, despite a couple of changes, still stays true to the spirit of the original and shows us why we love these characters so much. The other Ultimate runs, especially the Ultimates, didn’t really do that.

Essentially, with this reboot, I think it should receive, as you can see from the meme, both the Broly Treatment and the Genesis Wave Treatment.

I’m pretty sure most of you known what the Broly Treatment is, but for those who don’t, I’ll give a description. It refers to the Dragon Ball character Broly. Broly made his debut all the way back in 1993 in a trilogy of movies that lasted to about 1994. After that, he wouldn’t really appear again. For a long time, Broly was regarded as one of the worst characters in the franchise. He was popular and well-known, but as a character, nobody really liked him, similar to characters like Scrappy Doo and Jar Jar Binks. He was nothing but a raging meathead with the dumbest motivation for being evil. I’m pretty sure anyone who knows Broly knows what I’m talking about but for those who don’t, here’s the reason why he’s evil.

He was startled by Goku’s crying when they were babies……

Yes, really…….

Everyone has already made fun of this plot point, including TeamFourStar in their abridged version of the movie.

Basically Abridged Vegeta summed Broly up perfectly.

“He’s a literal giant fucking baby!”

After about 24 years, Broly finally returned in a new movie, “Dragon Ball Super: Broly”, which rewritten the character and introduced him to mainline continuity. In the movie, Broly was not only a far superior character to his original incarnation, but an actual person. He talked to people, he had a softer side, he was three dimensional, and he had, as Shrek would say…..

“Layers!”

This movie showed us the idea that a bad character can be rewritten into something much better, and this is what the Ultimate Marvel reboot needs to follow. And besides, this wouldn’t really be a hard task. Since the original Ultimate Universe had set the standards for adapting the Marvel characters pretty fucking low, this wouldn’t really that much of a high bar to clear for anyone who has at least a good amount of knowledge of the Marvel Universe and doesn’t write like a teenage edge-lord.

As for the Genesis Wave Treatment, that refers to the Super Genesis Wave from the Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by Archie. In 2013, at the end of the 12-issue crossover event “Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide” a full-scale cosmic occurred known as the Super Genesis Wave, which rebooted the entire universe of the Archie Sonic comics, rewriting its history and lore as well. The reason for that was for two reasons.

1. The higher-ups at Archie and Sega wanted the comics to resemble the games more than they previously did.

2. Ken Penders

This is another thing that the Ultimate Marvel reboot needs, and it would make sense given the multiverse. A perfect way to restart the continuity, doing away with all the dumb mistakes and starting fresh from scratch, while also having an in-universe reason for it.

Well that’s all for now. I’m thinking about sharing my ideas for this Ultimate Marvel reboot sometime soon. Let me know what you guys think about an Ultimate Marvel reboot and the point I made with this meme and description.

Description
For those who don’t know, Ultimate Marvel was a imprint of comic books that ran from 2000 to 2015. It was meant to serve as a way to introduce the iconic characters of Marvel Comics for a new generation, while also updating/changing them for the 21st century and compressing the 60 years of history they had under their belts at the time.

And how did it do….?

To be honest, not that good.

The biggest problems/complaints towards this universe are the following three.

1. The changes
2. The portrayal of the characters
3. The tone

The tone of this universe was mostly somewhat cynical and edgy. I’m all for dark moments, but this universe I feel like kinda went overboard with that, especially later on. This edginess usually steered into the try-hard territory, often feeling like it was only done for the sake of it rather than being actually interesting to the story. Also didn’t help with the fact that most of the runs in this universe were trying to be deconstructions of the superhero genre and also trying be more grounded and realistic. First off, the whole deconstruction doesn’t really fit for what this universe was trying to do. Second off, I really don’t know why they were trying to make this universe more grounded and realistic. Having grounded moments and elements is definitely nice, but the Marvel universe has generally been known from being a weird and wild place. It’s one of the elements people love about Marvel. Aliens, sorcery, demons, mythological beings, alternate dimensions, hidden civilizations, sub-species of humans with special powers, supernatural creatures, lost worlds, and as Lord Farquaad would say….

“And so on and so forth….”

While these elements were still around the Ultimate Universe, they were heavily toned down when compared to the mainline universe.

That’s just kinda lame….

As for the characters, this universe is generally known by Marvel fans as one where nearly everyone is an asshole. I’m all for flawed characters, all characters should be flawed in a way, but you still need to give them redeeming qualities. In this universe, damn near everyone (except for Spider-Man and most of the characters associated with him) is ridiculously flawed with little to no redeeming qualities.

Honestly, this universe has some of the worst iterations of the Marvel characters of all time. And the fact that this was done for a universe that was suppose to introduce these characters to a new generation is pretty questionable. It’s even more so since many of the characters are suppose to be….ya know….heroes.

As for the changes, the Ultimate universe had their fair share of changes to differentiate itself from the mainline universe. Some were cool and interesting, most were questionable and borderline idiotic.

I’m about go ahead and share with you just some of the worst and questionable elements of the Ultimate Marvel universe that I can think of off the top of my head.

P.S.: This is gonna contain some pretty heavy shit.

.The aforementioned toning down of supernatural or extraterrestrial elements

.Flash Thompson doesn’t develop here whatsoever and is also a racist towards mutants (an aspect I don’t think his mainline counterpart ever had)

.Captain America is something of a xenophobe

.The Hulk is actually an actual monster with little to no humanity, who is also a cannibal and rapist

.Betty Ross is bitch who frequently puts down and belittles Bruce, and is also attracted to the Hulk, despite his disgusting and terrifying tendencies. She’s also becomes the She-Hulk of this universe…

.Ant-Man is an actual wife beater who nearly kills Wasp while she’s small by sicing ants on her

.Wasp frequently flirts with Captain America, despite the fact that she’s married

.Black Widow is actually a double agent for Russia who betrays the Ultimates (this universe’s version of the Avengers) and murders Hawkeye’s family

.Professor Xavier saw his own son David as more of a pet, ala Omni-Man

.Red Skull is the son of Captain America

.Wolverine is literal pedophile as while in the body of Peter Parker, he planned to have sex with Mary Jane Watson, who by the way, is 15 years old

.Continuing with Wolverine, he also attempts to kill (well, more like leave him for dead) Cyclops in order to have Jean Grey to himself

.Nightcrawler is homophobic and turns into stalker for Dazzler

.Sabertooth gets retractable claws just like Wolverine

.Black Panther is more of a easily jealous hothead who rushes into things, who’s also mute (after getting his throat mauled by a panther) and got experimented on by the Weapons X program, giving him superhuman physical prowess and the ability to grow small retractable claws from his knuckles

.The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are in an incestuous relationship with each other

.Continuing from the last statement, it’s heavily implied that Wolverine is their true father instead of Magneto and even spies on them through the bushes during them presumably having sex

.A sex tape between Iron Man and Black Widow gets leaked online

.ULTIMATUM

Yeah, the Ultimate Universe was a seriously fucked-up place.

Changes done seemingly just for the sake of it, an overall reliance on edginess and cynicism, and heavy bastardization of beloved characters.

I feel the reason most of this happened was because many of writers either weren’t the most familiar with Marvel and their characters, had a writing style that really didn’t fit with what Marvel was going for, or just really didn’t care. And if this was the case, I could definitely believe that. Most famously, Mark Millar (who’s famous for his somewhat tryhard edgy style of writing) said that when he was brought on-board to write for Ultimate X-Men, he admitted that he was not really familiar with the team and said that his only form of reference was the 2000 film.

But despite the many flaws of this universe, there was some good to come out of it.

Ultimate Spider-Man was really the only good series in this universe.

The Ultimate Universe also gave us one of Marvel’s best recent heroes Miles Morales, as well one of their best recent villains The Maker.

And surprisingly enough, despite the universe being pretty awful, it actually helped influence some pretty good stuff.

The Ultimate Spider-Man video game, the Ultimate Avengers duology and the X-Men Legends video games were heavily inspired by the comics, though the latter two thankfully did away with the less-than pleasing elements.

Elements from the Ultimate Universe, particularly Nick Fury’s appearance, found its way into Marvel media during the late 2000s.

The Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon was inspired…..well, loosely inspired…by the comic run of the same name.

And most importantly of all, it would actually serve as the blueprint for….believe or not, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But other than that, the Ultimate Marvel universe is generally seen as a product of its time and a overly edgy, cynical, and overall miserable place. And other than Ultimate Spider-Man, it’s not looked back on very fondly.

But there has been some people who have expressed the idea for an all-out reboot of the Ultimate universe, and I’m all for that. I feel like Ultimate Marvel is the textbook definition of squandered potential. Ultimate Spider-Man is honestly what the other Ultimate runs should’ve been, a modern retelling of the characters that, despite a couple of changes, still stays true to the spirit of the original and shows us why we love these characters so much. The other Ultimate runs, especially the Ultimates, didn’t really do that.

Essentially, with this reboot, I think it should receive, as you can see from the meme, both the Broly Treatment and the Genesis Wave Treatment.

I’m pretty sure most of you known what the Broly Treatment is, but for those who don’t, I’ll give a description. It refers to the Dragon Ball character Broly. Broly made his debut all the way back in 1993 in a trilogy of movies that lasted to about 1994. After that, he wouldn’t really appear again. For a long time, Broly was regarded as one of the worst characters in the franchise. He was popular and well-known, but as a character, nobody really liked him, similar to characters like Scrappy Doo and Jar Jar Binks. He was nothing but a raging meathead with the dumbest motivation for being evil. I’m pretty sure anyone who knows Broly knows what I’m talking about but for those who don’t, here’s the reason why he’s evil.

He was startled by Goku’s crying when they were babies……

Yes, really…….

Everyone has already made fun of this plot point, including TeamFourStar in their abridged version of the movie.

Basically Abridged Vegeta summed Broly up perfectly.

“He’s a literal giant fucking baby!”

After about 24 years, Broly finally returned in a new movie, “Dragon Ball Super: Broly”, which rewritten the character and introduced him to mainline continuity. In the movie, Broly was not only a far superior character to his original incarnation, but an actual person. He talked to people, he had a softer side, he was three dimensional, and he had, as Shrek would say…..

“Layers!”

This movie showed us the idea that a bad character can be rewritten into something much better, and this is what the Ultimate Marvel reboot needs to follow. And besides, this wouldn’t really be a hard task. Since the original Ultimate Universe had set the standards for adapting the Marvel characters pretty fucking low, this wouldn’t really that much of a high bar to clear for anyone who has at least a good amount of knowledge of the Marvel Universe and doesn’t write like a teenage edge-lord.

As for the Genesis Wave Treatment, that refers to the Super Genesis Wave from the Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by Archie. In 2013, at the end of the 12-issue crossover event “Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide” a full-scale cosmic occurred known as the Super Genesis Wave, which rebooted the entire universe of the Archie Sonic comics, rewriting its history and lore as well. The reason for that was for two reasons.

1. The higher-ups at Archie and Sega wanted the comics to resemble the games more than they previously did.

2. Ken Penders

This is another thing that the Ultimate Marvel reboot needs, and it would make sense given the multiverse. A perfect way to restart the continuity, doing away with all the dumb mistakes and starting fresh from scratch, while also having an in-universe reason for it.

Well that’s all for now. I’m thinking about sharing my ideas for this Ultimate Marvel reboot sometime soon. Let me know what you guys think about an Ultimate Marvel reboot and the point I made with this meme and description.