Comic Book / Ultimate Universe (2023)

"Good artists copy."
"Great artists steal."

During the events of Ultimate Invasion, a new Marvel Universe was created: Earth-6160, or, as it is known Out-of-Universe, the Ultimate Universe. Taking name and inspiration from the revolutionary 2000s imprint Ultimate Marvel, it focuses on all-new versions of the familiar faces of the Marvel Universe, with some radical changes. It's spearheaded by Ultimate Invasion's writer Jonathan Hickman, who also worked on the previous Ultimate Universe.

After Ultimate Invasion, the line was kick-started by an one-shot called simply called Ultimate Universe, which released on November 1, 2023. It was written by Hickman and drawn by Stefano Caselli.

Ultimate Universe (2023) titles include:

• Ultimate Invasion. Written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Bryan Hitch.
• Ultimate Universe. Written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Stefano Caselli.
• Ultimate Spider-Man. Written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Marco Checchetto.
• Ultimate Black Panther. Written by Bryan Hill and drawn by Stefano Caselli.
• Ultimate X-Men. Written and drawn by Peach Momoko.
• The Ultimates. Written by Deniz Camp and drawn by Juan Frigeri.

The universe and its eponymous one-shot contain examples of:

• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Illuminati run the world in the Maker's stead after he's sealed away inside the City.
• Captain Geographic: Played with. Earth-6160 has a Captain Britain, a French man named Henri Dugarry, who operates through the whole of Europe.
• Composite Character:
  • In general, Earth-6160 has visual cues and the general militaristic and tactical aesthetics of Earth-1610, but most of the characters retain their origin stories from Earth-616, such as Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider instead of a genetically engineered one and Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk due to a gamma bomb detonation rather than an unstable super soldier serum.
  • The Tony Stark of Earth-6160 is Iron Lad rather than Iron Man, and his future self is Kang the Conqueror. Maybe.
  • The Reed Richards of Earth-6160 is Doctor Doom instead of Mr. Fantastic.
• Evil Power Vacuum: With the Maker sealed within The City, his council have taken to tightening their grip on the world for their own gains.
• False Flag Operation: The Illuminati launch a terrorist attack on New York City, framing Tony Stark.
• Fictional Earth: The Maker's actions mean that Earth-6160 is a very different Earth from ours, with completely different nations and cultures that have drifted far from what we'd recognize since 1963.
• The First Superheroes: This comic portrays a Marvel elseworld where most superheroes straight-up do not exist thanks to an alternate universe counterpart of Reed Richards (calling himself the Maker) interfering with the timeline. Peter Parker never gets bitten by the radioactive spider, the rest of the Fantastic Four are murdered out of spite, Tony Stark is framed for a major terrorist attack that the Maker precipitated. One of the first super-heroes to appear in this continuity is Spider-Man, having been gifted the radioactive spider from a future version of Tony Stark.
  • Interestingly, some of the Maker's shadow council include people who are superheroes in the main universe but they still retain their costumes, powers and names, such as Hulk, Colossus & Captain Britain.
• Great Offscreen War: Howard Stark mentions current and previous conflicts in Earth-6160, the "Eastern conflict", the "event in the Pacific", and the "winter Apocalypse." He then learns that all these conflicts are staged by the world leaders to keep the public distracted.
• Human Popsicle: Like always, Captain America was found frozen in ice, having been preserved from the 1940s.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite the Maker's efforts to prevent most of the usual heroes coming into play, some things just still happen. Bruce Banner still becomes the Hulk, Mutants still exist, a Stark becomes an Iron Man... more suspiciously, despite there being no Captain America ever, the army of time travellers has Captains in their ranks. It turns out there is a Captain America in this universe, and he's even still frozen in the Arctic... but nobody in the modern world knows who he is. Why this is so continues to be a mystery.
  • Despite the world being under the control of the Maker and his various unions, Wakanda is still hidden and independent.
  • Peter Parker still manages to fall in love with Mary Jane Watson despite the major change in trajectory his life should've taken.
• Like Reality, Unless Noted: Defied. Maker's manipulation of Earth-6160's society destroys any notion of it being "the world outside your window" as the mainstream Marvel Universe and even original Ultimate Universe were often described, pushing it into a full-blown Alternate History and Fictional Earth that embraces all the implications of superheroes existing with no regard for resembling our world.
• Mythology Gag: Wouldn't be the first time a teenaged Tony Stark suited up. It also wouldn't be the first time this was prompted by the meddling of Kang.
• Never Was This Universe: While the Maker extensively meddled with this universe's history, there are still implications that this world already had some minor differences from 616. For instance, Peter Parker's parents were alive until he was fifteen instead of orphaning him at a young age, and Liz Allen appears to be Peter's science geek peer instead of an Alpha Bitch.
• Point of Divergence: Thanks to the Maker's interference, the history of Earth-6160 has radically shifted from 1963 onwards, changing from a Close-Enough Timeline to a place where the Maker can play God as he sees fit without worrying about superheroes being a potential Spanner in the Works. Resultantly, it's an Alternate History that bears little resemblance to the mainstream Marvel Universe:
  • The Maker prevents Peter Parker from being bitten by the spider, thus preventing the creation of Spider-Man and by extension any of the heroes who followed on from or were inspired by him.
  • Loki pulled off a successful coup with the Maker's help and is now the King of Asgard with Thor kneeling before him. The Bifrost Bridge is also destroyed, preventing Asgard from ever interfering with human affairs.
  • The Fantastic Four never get empowered by cosmic rays thanks to the Maker delaying their rocket launch. He also decides to murder Johnny, Sue, and Ben out of pure spite.
  • Howard Stark and Obadiah Stane essentially become the Iron Man and War Machine of this world but are still primarily industrialists and war profiteers rather than genuine crime fighters.
  • Bruce Banner still becomes the Hulk but is nudged into seeking spiritual enlightenment to deal with his rage, resulting in Bruce making a name for himself as a world-renowned Warrior Monk with a flock of loyal followers instead of living in infamy as a Psychopathic Man Child of mass destruction.
  • The Harada (Silver Samurai) and Yoshida (Sunfire) families have united to form a powerful alliance that possesses great influence over the entire Asia-Pacific region. Illyana and Piotr Rasputin also seem to have become equally powerful oligarchs with their family boasting a reputation of being The Dreaded.
  • Both Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne are listed as inactive in the Maker's records, with Reed now in possession of their "Pym Generator".
  • Dr. Strange is listed as a captive in the Maker's records, with Reed in possession of the Eye of Agamotto.
  • Much to the Maker's own confusion, Earth-6160 never had a Super Soldier program, and therefore never had a Captain America at all. Even he can't figure out what became of that world's Steve Rogers. Tony and Doom manage to find him frozen in the Arctic, but nobody knows who he is, raising even further questions. However, Reed was able to confirm (or cause) the death of Earth-6160's Bucky Barnes and destroyed Jim Hammond (the original Human Torch).
• Significant Reference Date: The Maker began making changes to the world starting from 1963, which in Real Life history is the year where many Marvel characters like Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Nick Fury, and Doctor Strange first debuted. A bit more importantly, it's the year The Avengers first assembled.
• Running Both Sides: The leaders of the Earth-6160 power blocs are all in league with the Maker, and take turns to play the villain as a Genghis Gambit to keep the world's population distracted.
• Recycled Title: It shares the same name as the universe of Ultimate Marvel, as it takes a lot of inspiration from it, including some costume designs.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The entire goal of the main heroes, who realize that the Maker had meddled with their universe, robbing it of its heroes, and are seeking to undo the damage.

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