History ComicBook / Ultimatum

The earlier arc ''Ultimates 3'' killed the sons of Magneto, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, and left Magneto ambitioning vengueance. For this, he altered the earth's axis with his powers, which caused natural disasters around the world. A flash flood reaches New York, and many heroes are killed by it. Some members of the Brotherhood of Mutants wreak havok among the survivors, and Magneto kills Charles Xavier himself. The surviving heroes eventually band toguether and follow Magneto to his floating fortress. After another fight, Magneto is finally killed. Many characters, both heroes and villains, died in the story; either during the flash flood or the subsequent fights.

** The first reactio of Pym and Hawkeye after the flood is to search for the Wasp, who was with them before it. For a brief moment [[HopeSpot it seems that Hawkeye found her]], but when we turn the page, the Blob is eating her corpse. That scene became the SignatureScene of the whole comic, more than the covers, and modern readers should have seen it coming.

* BittersweetEnding: At the end of the story [[spoiler:Earth's axis have been fixed and Magneto, the BigBad of the Ultimate universe, is finally dead; but various heroes are dead, the X-Men (what's left of them) and Fantastic Four disband, Quicksilver is working for a mysterious evil individual, and Mutants are even more discriminated against than they previously were.]]

* ContinuitySnarl: It seems that Loeb forgot a small detail: that European dictator in a suit or armor is called Victor Van Damme, not "Doom".

* {{Gorn}}: The comic is infamous for this: Blob devouring [[spoiler:Wasp's]] ripped guts, [[spoiler:Hank Pym]] getting blown up by suicide bomber Multiple Man, complete with flying guts and a skeleton being incinerated, [[spoiler:Doctor Strange]] getting squeezed by his own cape until his head graphically explodes, etc.

* ImAHumanitarian: When ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} finds [[spoiler:Wasp]]'s body, it's had a chunk bitten out of it by The Blob, who comments that it "{{tastes like chicken}}".

* LateArrivalSpoiler: In the first issue it is unclear who started the disaster. Magneto is revealed by the end. Nowadays, that's common knowledge.

* MoodWhiplash: We go from the truly awesome moment of Cap and Thor fighting the hordes of the undead to the nauseating scene of [[spoiler:the Blob cannibalizing the Wasp]].

* TastesLikeChicken: The Blob says this exact line [[spoiler:when he's eating the Wasp.]]

* IdiotBall: Among the more glaring examples, the final issue has the X-Men going along with the U.S. government declaring mutants completely illegal, along with Jean and Rogue doing nothing to help Storm and Colossus when they're arrested.

* BittersweetEnding: At the end of the story [[spoiler:Earth's axis have been fixed and Magneto, the BigBad of the Ultimate univer, is finally dead; but various heroes are dead, the X-Men (what's left of them) and Fantastic Four disband, Quicksilver is working for a mysterious evil individual, and Mutants are even more discriminated against than they previously were.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Various heroes are dead, the X-Men (what's left of them) and Fantastic Four disband, Quicksilver is working for a mysterious evil individual, and Mutants are even more discriminated against than they previously were.]]

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Reed is fully aware of the things that Van Damme did, including his part in all this, but his moral code does not allow him to kill him. So he blames himself that he's partially responsible, because his unwillingness o kill caused all this. He confided all this with Ben, who then took it to himself to do what Reed did not dare to do, and kill Van Damme.

** [[spoiler:Spider-Man manages to survive his near-death experience, presumably because Bendis didn't want him killed off.]]
** [[spoiler:Valkyrie and Captain America too, being resurrected by Thor's sacrifice.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: The violence in this series is cranked to an all-time high, and nobody comes out of the catastrophe unchanged.

The series, however, was not followed by a relaunch as initially planned. The ongoing titles were rearranged (Ultimate FF and X-Men closed, and new titles were released: Ultimate X, Ultimate Avengers, New Ultimates, etc), but ''Ultimatum'' was still canon and the books were set in the aftermath of the destructive flood.

* BloodierAndGorier: The series features dismemberment, people visibly exploding on panel, and in one known case, the Blob visibly eating the Wasp and Yellowjacket responding by biting the Blob's head off.

* BloodierAndGorier: The series features dismemberment, people visibly exploding on panel, and in one imfamous case, the Blob visibly eating the Wasp and Yellowjacket responding by biting the Blob's head off.

* BloodierAndGorier: The series features dismemberment, people visibly exploding on panel, and in one imfamous case, the Blob visably eating the Wasp.

* AnyoneCanDie: And we mean '''ANYONE'''. Although it turned out that DeathIsCheap in a handful of cases, most of the characters that died in this miniseries were permanently put down for the count. [[http://marvel.wikia.com/Ultimatum Here's a full list of deaths.]]
** Apparently, the initial thought was that ''Ultimatum'' would serve as a reboot for the entire Ultimates universe. It turned out to not be the case, so the universe had to deal with the aftermath.

[[caption-width-right:288:[[NothingIsTheSameAnymore Trust us, this is pretty accurate in describing what this event did to the Ultimate Universe.]]]]

->''I don’t think anything quite sums it up like the fact that ''Ultimatum'' is a comic that doesn’t have an ultimatum in it. Like the series itself, it’s just something that someone thought sounded cool, and the more you think about it, the worse it gets.''
-->--'''Chris Sims''', [[http://comicsalliance.com/worst-of-the-worst-ultimatum/ "Worst of the Worst"]]

It started off as a simple task. The ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, originally created to appeal to new readers [[AdaptationDistillation without fear of years]] of BackStory or {{Retcon}}, had begun to stagnate. Sales had lowered and some series, such as ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' and ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour'', had fallen into SeasonalRot. So the powers behind Marvel came up with a plan to renew reader interest by means of a CrisisCrossover, a WhamEpisode which would bring all the characters of the Ultimate Marvel universe and shake up the status quo to make a new jumping on point for new readers, written by Creator/JephLoeb.

It starts with ComicBook/{{Magneto}} swearing to avenge his children's deaths at the hands of the Ultimates, and he uses his powers to flood New York and cause catastrophic natural disasters around the world. And then, well, [[FromBadToWorse things pretty much go downhill from there]]. The series lasted for 5 issues (January - September, 2009).

* SequelHook: After Dr. Strange's death, someone shows up, takes his corpse and dissapears in a flash of light. But we never got to know who was that, or what happened to the corpse.

* WhoDares: Who dares cause a flash-freezing in Latveria?

* GuilliganCut: Cyclops warns people that, if the law is sanctioned, mutants will be haunted and shot on sight. Right then and there, he's shot.