Comic Book / The Ultimates (2015)

Ultimate Problems Require Ultimate Solutions.^note Clockwise: Black Panther, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, America Chavez, and Captain Marvel. Behind them: GALACTUS, DEVOURER OF WORLDS.

The ultimate superteam comes together to find and fix problems beyond the limits of the infinite! From cosmic forces lurking on Earth to what waits on the outside of the omniverse – the impossible is where they start!

The Ultimates (collected in trade as The Ultimates: Omniversal) is an Avengers team book published by Marvel Comics as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch in November 2015, following the massive Secret Wars event earlier that year. It is written by Al Ewing, with a team of artists launched by Kenneth Rocafort.

In the wake of planetary incursions, the Wakandan government has assembled a team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes to tackle cosmic threats in the Marvel Universe: Black Panther, Captain Marvel ^note also heading her own planetary peacekeeping force, Alpha Flight, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, and America Chavez. Together, they protect the multiverse and fight those who pose harm to it — starting with Galactus.

After an initial volume of twelve issues, Ultimates was relaunched as The Ultimates², with Travel Foreman replacing Rocafort as Ewing's regular artist.

Related In Name Only to the original Ultimates, who were The Avengers of Earth-1610.

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The Ultimates contains examples of the following tropes:

General Tropes

• The Ace: The whole team is composed of these, they're currently the strongest known team in the Marvel canon, even the Squadron Supreme is wary of facing them head on.
• Affectionate Nickname: Carol starts calling America "Mac".
• Alternate Company Equivalent: A few fans have suggested the team is one for the Justice League of America, as its core members all seem to evoke the core team - Blue Marvel to Superman, Black Panther to Batman, America Chavez to Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel to Green Lantern, and Spectrum to Flash - and their purpose is also similar to the classic Justice League motivation.
• Arc Number: 8, which was established in Secret Wars, returns.
• Arc Words:
  • "The Cage".
  • "Everything Lives."
  • "The One Who is One" "And More."
• Big Bad: Eventually revealed to be The First Firmament, an embodiement of the First Cosmos, who jailed the Eternity in order to return to his full potential.
• Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: Order and Chaos both try to violently impose Status Quo Is God on Galactus. They (particularly Order) only get worse in the second volume...
• Chekhov's Gun: The fact that the universe has been destroyed and recreated, with the current iteration being the seventh or eighth, becomes important during Squared. Since the First Firmament comes all the way from the First Cosmos.
• Cosmic Horror Reveal: The initial issues are the team dealing with high concepts. Then, Anti-Man returns, bringing with him the information that all reality is caged and Eternity is a prison of something.
• Cross Through: The team shows up in Contest of Champions (2015), incidentally also written by Ewing.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A chain of these, starting with Master Order and Lord Chaos get beaten down by Galactus the Lifebringer. During the trial of Galactus, Master Order and Lord Chaos bristle at Living Tribunal's declaration of Galactus's innocence. So they took a page out of what Galactus just did and kill the Tribunal with a single blast. Logos and the Death Celestials get jumped by the Eternity Watch, the Never Queen's new host of Celestials and the Tiger God (who's been fused with the Black Panther). Finally the First Firmanent gets beaten down by the Ultimate Ultimates - the previous Eternities that have crossed back from death.
  • Blue Marvel gets to knock out the Ultimate Hulk with a single punch.
• The Dreaded: Even though he is an entity of cosmic importance, and just as powerful as that implies, Galactus is still utterly terrified of Owen Reece, the Molecule Man.
• Eldritch Location: The Neutral Zone, the last point before the edge of all existence. Home to eldritch abominations and predatory concepts, and completely hostile to any living thing that enters. The team needs to super-boost their quinjet just to survive a few minutes out there.
  • And beyond that is the nothingness, a completely dark space which is even more hostile. The quintjet breaks apart in a matter of seconds, and according to Galactus even he couldn't survive there very long.
• Enigmatic Minion: Phil Voght. While the people he works for are arrogant jerkwads of the highest order, Voght himself is calm and measured. Exactly what he's up to, if he's even up to anything in particular, isn't clear. In issue 12, he's even remorseful about prompting the president to shut down the Ultimates. By issue 5 of Squared, it turns out... he didn't want the job, and hates having to make the decisions he's making, serving as an unwitting pawn of the actual villain.
• Motive Decay:
  • During the Civil War II issues, Adam points out that despite their team mission being to deal with impossible problems, they're spending the event serving as little more than a "SWAT team". Carol insists it's not, that they're still working on solving problems.
  • T'Challa gives this as his reason for turning against Carol during Civil War II, since the Ultimates were founded to fight cosmic threats, and she had them serving as "just another" super-team.
• The Earth-Prime Theory: After Secret Wars (2015), 616 became the "Prime Earth". According to the Maker in The Ultimates 2, this means it's the "hub" the rest of the Multiverse revolves around. As a result the laws of reality are more flexible: science and magic are interchangeable, and higher levels of existence can be accessed more easily.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Extremely idealistic. The Ultimates mandate is to solve problems rather than resort immediately to violence, the only exception is for Thanos, and they indeed succeed in solving the problems of Galactus and the Infinaut, which were otherwise world-enders. Incarnations of abstract concepts and other cosmic beings are portrayed not as Above Good and Evil, but often as understandable individuals and in some cases have true personhood with standard comic-book morality. The Ultimates are able to make allies of previous opponents such as Anti-Man, the Troubleshooters and the original Ultimates team. Finally, the Living Tribunal gives hints that the balance of this new universe is set to be slanted more towards good, rather than shoehorning in a pure neutral morality, and the One Above All is the narrator of the final book, and he approves of how this universe is coming along.
• Super Cell Reception: America shares Loki's cell reception boosting spell. As an interdimensional kicker of butts she certainly can use it.
• Super Team: A bunch of high end ones appear in this series. The weakest of these are the original Ultimates, then there's Troubleshooters who are strong enough to give a decent fight to the Ultimates. Next in strength are the Ultimates (2015). Then we get into the real cosmic level with the Eternity Watch: who are made of new Cosmic Entities Ego-Prime, Galactus the Lifebringer, Psi-hawk and the Infinaut and exaggerated with the Ultimate Ultimates, who are the previous Eternities.
• Token Human: Black Panther, who while not quite a regular human is close enough in a team consisting of cosmic weight class heroes like Blue Marvel and Spectrum.
• Token White: Every member of the team is a person of color (most have African ancestry, and Ms. America is Latina), except for Captain Marvel, who is a white woman.
• Twin Switch: An odd case. Eternity, the personification of space, died and resurrected but instead of becoming a new Eternity remained superficially the same as the Eighth Cosmos in the line of succession. His sister counterpart Infinity, the personification of time, takes his place as the Seventh incarnation he once was.
• Two Girls to a Team: Inverted — the core team stands as three women and two men.

The Ultimates

• All According to Plan: Issue 8 ends with Thanos imprisoned, having been beaten down by several heroes after failing to claim the Iso-8 cube. All he does is smile and declare "your move".
• All-Loving Hero: Kevin Brashear, who manages to calm his father's rage at Conner Sims down by stating this.
  Adam: Galactus is a force of universal importance-
  Kevin: Yes. Just like everyone else. It all has meaning, dad. Every action. Every life. It all has meaning. Yours, too.
• All Your Powers Combined: After Master Order and Lord Chaos kill the Living Tribunal, they decide to combine their powers to become an even more powerful Cosmic Entity, Logos
• Back from the Dead: In issue 5, the team breaching into the outside of the omniverse is enough to draw Thanos' spirit back to the land of the living, after his de-spinification back in Secret Wars.
• Badass Boast: In the first issue, the Secretary-General voices concerns that the new partnership between America and Wakanda might extend to the military arena. Black Panther assures him that they are only sharing knowledge - and besides, "America would only slow us down."
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: The Blue Marvel is polite enough to ask Captain Marvel if she can. The answer is yes.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • When Monica looks at America Chavez while her perception is lightspeed, Chavez still looks like she's moving in slow motion. As Monica notes, she should look like a statue.
  • Due the way time-travel works, it's meant to be impossible to change your own timeline. Doctor Doom has technology that works around that, called the "Doomlock".
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Galactus takes the thought of the Ultimates showing up to try and kill him with annoyed resignation. When they tell him they're there to help him, he's offended.
  Galactus: I am the death of worlds. As you are to the ant, so am I to you. I am not a problem to be solved.
• Break the Haughty: Commander M'Korr of the Shi'ar Monitoring Station Sharra IV spends all of his page-time being a smug, slimy weasel, hoping to take over Earth just to try and increase his own political standing. A few seconds in the company of the newly-returned Thanos of Titan turn him into a cowering mess.
• Call-Back:
  • In issue 6, Galactus defends his "evolution" by reciting the frequently-mentioned prophecy he would one day "give more to the universe than he has taken".
  • Toward the end of issue 8, Monica grouses that she always reminds everyone of how she used to be a great leader (a la Nextwave), while mentioning she couldn't prevent Thanos killing Jim Rhodes.
• The Cameo: A flashback in issue 4 shows Ares and the Sentry among those fighting an out of control Anti-Man.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • The Triskelion has made the transition to regular Marvel, and still serves at the Ultimates' base (along with doing double-duty as Alpha Flight's base, and the new Wakandan embassy).
  • Issue 8 introduces one Philip Nolan Voght. Apparently he comes with a version of the Troubleshooters, too. Issue 9 introduces one of them, an alternate version of Psi-Force's Ty Jessup, and Kathy Ling appears in issue 10.
  • Issue 12 rounds them out with Simon Rodstvow, Dionne Mcquaid, and John Tensen.
• Cassandra Truth: No matter how often Connor Sims mentions the cage around existence, no-one, regardless of experience or career in the inexplicable, sees it as anything more than severe delusion. Issue 7 shows that something is apparently making sure it never sinks in. And in issue 9, Thanos reveals he believes him.
• Chairman of the Brawl: How does America announce she's run out of patience with Carol's "predictive justice" stance? Hitting her in the face with a chair.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • T'Challa translocates himself to Galactus's ship in issue 2, experiencing the big guy's origins. Ultimates ² reveals it's had some knock-on effects.
  • In issue #5 Galactus shows the team a vision of time from a non-linear viewpoint. It later turns out that it's also had some side-effects, to the extent of glimpsing the Cosmic Jailer.
• Comic-Book Time: Galactus gives the team an in-universe explanation for this in issue 5, although he privately notes that he was heavily simplifying it for their sake. While the present is always moving, certain events can become caught in its "gravity", and end up constantly trailing just a few years behind it. Monica is rather disturbed, as this means their own past is changing as well.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In issue #1:
    • It's acknowledged that something happened eight months ago that people have a hard time remembering.
    • Iso-8 from the new Contest of Champions (2015) comic is mentioned.
    • Related to that, Doctor Brashear calls it Neutronium, which he was mentioned to have studied throughout Ewing's run of Mighty Avengers (which explains why he's able to give an in-depth explanation of its properties here).
    • Blue Marvel voices his disapproval of his son's choice to join da Costa on some island.
  • In issue 2, a flashback to Galactus' origins has Galen naming his universe the sixth cosmos. Over in Ewing's run on New Avengers, the villain Mor-i-duun is said to come from the fifth.
  • In issue 3, Blue Marvel summarises some of the Marvel universe's recent and not-so-recent abuses of time travel: the X-Men living long-term with their own past selves, King Loki coming from the future to try and change his own past, The Thing replacing Blackbeard, Two-Gun Kid riding a futuristic motorcycle, and the "Age of Ultron".
  • The Doomlock was a plot point of Peter David's run on X-Factor.
  • And to get to the Neutral Zone, the team travels through the Superflow, which has been restored after it's destruction in Jonathan Hickman's run of Avengers.
  • During Galactus' lecture on time, he shows glimpses of Cable, Bishop, Deathlok, and the Avengers from the future of Ultron Forever.
  • In issue 7, when Carol dwells on the various Bad Futures that Galactus showed them, there are brief glimpses of Age of Ultron, King Thor, and the Days of Future Past timelines.
  • Issue 7 reminds the audience that the Shi'ar, as ever, are incredibly twitchy about the Phoenix Force. Carol just snarks that it hasn't shown up again, otherwise there'd be a missing redhead.
• Crapsack World: In issue 12, America shows Carol a world where Ulysses gained his powers immediately after Infinity. There, Doctor Doom seized him, and used him to create a fascist world patrolled by legions of Doombots, where anyone predicted to cause a disaster or crime is "disappeared". While there, the two cause enough disruption to give the local resistance a boost.
• Crazy-Prepared: T'Challa, as is standard. He developed technologies capable of fighting Connor Sims. When he gets the chance to use them, though, Connor's been given a power-boost by Galactus, and they don't work.
• Dance Battler: Of sorts. America Chavez fixes a hole in reality by dancing. This effectively is her interview for the Ultimates and she passes easily.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • This is their aim (among other things). In comic acknowledged in this exchange with the new Giant Man when he asked if he can join a mission:
    Blue Marvel: "Have you ever fought a Cthulhu?"
    Giant Man: "Uh... Not yet..."
    Blue Marvel: "When you do — give us a call."
  • The team's first mission is to try and cure Galactus of his hunger. They actually manage to do this, using the very machine that he was "born" from.
  • In issue 6, Galactus metaphorically punches out Master Order (which is represented by his actually punching him), followed by his brother.
• Even More Omnipotent: When Galactus uses his powers to prevent the Ultimates from discovering These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, Eternity (the embodiment of the universe itself) appears and tells Galactus that he's meddling in things not meant for him to know, either.
• Everyone Has Standards: During a meeting of shadowy government officials who don't like or trust any of the Ultimates, one of them is speaking, only to be interrupted by another making an incredibly un-PC remark about how the team "looks like a Benetton ad"^note (You know, the "united colors" thing). The guy sitting next to him essentially tells him to not say anything again.
• False Reassurance: On seeing Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.'s Iso-room, Carol asks them not to tell her if she's looking at another cosmic cube. Dr. Brashear (not that one - his daughter), tells her it isn't. Yet.
• Foreshadowing: During the Civil War II tie-in, Monica laments that she could have ended Thanos by turning herself into light and shooting directly into Thanos's eye and frying his brain. Later on, she attempts the maneuver to stop America, only for it to fail due to her portal ability. When it came down to a rematch with Thanos, Thanos merely grins and asks how she likes it in the existential black pit that is his mind. Thanos proceeds to flatten Blue Marvel using Monica's hardlight form as a laser blast.
• Good Costume Switch: After evolving into his intended form, Galactus' appearance changes from blue and purple to gold and white.
• Hard Light: In issue 3, Monica confesses to Carol that her pure light form now feels like less effort than the alternative. She's starting to wonder if her human shape is just an incredibly sophisticated, light-based replica of one at this point.
• Headbutting Heroes: This is most prominent on the team between T'challa and Adam, though their shared dedication towards getting the job done overrides their extensive political differences. And then Civil War II happens, putting the team at odds with one another.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Issue #5 reveals that America Chavez hates her own weakness, which she covers up through aloofness and an inflated ego.
• In Spite of a Nail: America notes that in her travels across the multiverse, she's learnt the fate of Galactus' incubation machine, and it tends to usually crash-land on the same planet and be found by someone "nine times out of ten".
• It's All My Fault: America and Monica both blame themselves for James Rhodes' death.
• It's Personal: Adam Brashear is furious at seeing Anti-Man alive, since the last time they met, his former friend killed Adam's wife Candace.
• Kill Him Already!: Black Panther advocates this solution for Anti-Man. Blue Marvel is deeply offended at the idea of allowing the head of a foreign nation to execute an imprisoned American citizen without any due process.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Galactus lectures the Ultimates on the nature of time, noting how the past can change as well as the future, he directly addresses Adam Brashear, who was introduced via Retcon.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: During issue 10, Voght speculates America Chavez may be holding back. At the end of the issue, it turns out he may be right, since she manages to beat up Carol, and teleports Monica into another universe.
• Lies to Children: The essential gist of what Galactus tells the team in issue 5, so they won't keep their present course.
• Literal Metaphor: Galactus becoming the Lifebringer is a metaphorical blow to Master Order's love of the status quo. Since at their level combat is metaphor, this manifests as him actually punching Order in the face.
• Manipulative Bastard: Thanos uses his telepathic powers to manipulate Connor into busting himself out, knowing the act will free Thanos in the process. He doesn't care about Eternity or the Jailer, or Connor, he just wants to do what he wants.
• May–December Romance: Blue Marvel/Spectrum. In universe, he was a super since the Korean war (so he's at least in his seventies), she isn't anchored to any real world event so thanks to Comicbook Time maybe in her thirties. In the meta sense Monica first appeared in the 80s while Adam was retconned into the universe in 2009. No matter how we count this is a couple with a huge age difference.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Both by Anti-Man and Adam - the former when he starts getting his memories back and realises that he killed someone (Candace, Adam's wife, in fact), and when Thanos takes control of him and overclocks his powers to break him out of Project PEGASUS, and the latter when it's revealed that the signature helmet Adam built for Anti-Man to help him cope with his visions actually ended up amplifying them and driving him nuts.
• Mythology Gag: The flashback to Galen becoming Galactus greatly resembles that of the Fantastic Four, right down to having four people in a cockpit being bombarded by cosmic rays.
• Named Like My Name: The comic feels the need to point out that the Punishers have no relation to Frank Castle except for being just as aggressive and hard to kill.
• Negative Space Wedgie: The rift America seals in the preview would apparently have been potentially capable of wiping out an entire galaxy.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The team breaching the outer edge of the omniverse is what convinces Thanos to return, and cause the events that kick off Civil War II.
  • Meanwhile, Galactus's lecture on time is implied to play a part in Carol's behaviour during the same event.
• Oh, Crap!: T'Challa, in issue 10, when Connor's powers manage to take out the Triskellion's generators, which, among other things are keeping Thanos imprisoned.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Henry Gyrich, jerkwad par excellence of the Marvel Universe, is actually sorry to tell Carol the Ultimates are finished in issue 12, and is astoundingly pleasant and reserved while doing it (though he does make a few jerkish remarks while he's there, but barely any of them are directed at Carol).
• Place Beyond Time: In issue 3, Blue Marvel takes stock of how many different ways people have been screwing with time recently, and decides the only way they can even assess the damage is to go outside time and space as they understand it.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Galactus gets one against Master Order in issue 6.
  Master Order: We can force you to resume your role. We were always your superiors in the cosmic hierarchy, after all.
  Galactus: Yes. You were.
• Psychic Nosebleed: America Chavez gets one - and references it by name - after straining her powers in the third issue.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Gladiator's question to Captain Marvel, after he learns what's happened with Galactus.
• Sanity Slippage: Connor Sims, also known as Anti-Man, saw something when he got his powers that eventually caused him to violently snap. It's the cage around the omniverse.
• Smug Super: Adam Brashear momentarily feels the desire to bask after helping Galactus attain his true nature. Carol suggests maybe holding off until they're sure everything's gone right.
• Status Quo Is God: Addressed, and even invoked almost entirely by name is issue 6, when Lord Chaos and Master Order address Galactus. They demand he return to how he used to be, even calling him a threat to the status quo. He defies them.
• Super Mode: Carol Danver's Binary form returns in issue #1. Well, sort of: she doesn't turn red and her outfit stays the same, but absorbing enough of Blue Marvel's energy causes her to "go Binary" and gives her more power than before.
• Tempting Fate: The recap page of issue 10 has Voght stating that Connor Sim's cage should be able to stop him escaping. It doesn't.
• Shout-Out: Molecule Man has a Mr. Blobby doll lying beside the couch in the pocket dimension he created.
• Theseus' Ship Paradox: Discussed between Molecule Man and Galactus in issue 6. Technically, the seventh omniverse died at the beginning of Secret Wars, and the current omniverse is now the eighth... but so much has remained the same, is it a new omniverse, or just the old one with a new coat of paint? And does that mean the rules have or can change?
• This Is Gonna Suck: T'Challa expresses this in his own way in a conversation with America, watching Carol arrest an apparently innocent woman.
• Time Crash: According to America, this is what happens to realities that mess with time-travel and try to un-create it.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Galactus' reversion at the hands of the Ultimates (and maybe his fusion with his Ultimate counterpart after Age of Ultron) has powered him up and finally removes his hunger. When Master Order and Lord Chaos try to reverse him by force, he overpowers them both.
  • Issue 12 ends with Galactus saving Connor Sims, and turning him into his new herald, complete with a power-boost and a boost to his sanity.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Carol, as a result of Civil War II, becomes increasingly rude and stand-offish towards everyone. It dies down once the event is over, but the damage is done.
• We Used to Be Friends: Doc Brashear and Anti-Man served in the military together, and were caught in the same lab accident. Adam designed his helmet to try and help him keep his sanity. Then, on one particular rampage, Connor accidentally killed Adam's wife...
• With Us or Against Us: During Issue 10, Carol starts going this way. She doesn't get beyond "or" before America smacks her with a chair.

The Ultimates 2

• Abusive Precursors: The First Firmament, which probably takes the cake precursor wise, being the first thing to ever exist, and wants to kill absolutely everything everywhere just for existing.
• All Your Powers Combined: Like the Psi-Force from their original series, the Troubleshooters can pool their Psi-Force powers together to summon Emmet in his Psi-Hawk form from it. Like the trope namer, they're all powerless for as long as he is manifested. He is powerful enough to confront cosmic beings and Tensen notes that he can actually be even more powerful.
• And I Must Scream: Issue 1 begins saying that Eternity is screaming, and no-one can hear it.
• Arc Welding: Issue 6 ties together elements from Matt Fraction's Defenders run, Kieron Gillen's Iron Man, and Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy.
• And the Adventure Continues: The series ends with the original Ultimates, minus Captain America who was disintegrated, traveling the multiverse to hunt the Maker(s).
• Ascended Extra: The First Firmament was mentioned in a casual throwaway in Marvel Boy, over a decade ago.
• Back from the Dead: The Maker resurrects the original Ultimates of Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Wasp, and Giant-Man. Unique is the fact they all remember their final dying moments and the baggage of knowing they died, slightly averting Death Is Cheap.
  • After everything's over, the Living Tribunal is resurrected, and prepares to have a talk with Master Order and Lord Chaos.
• Back for the Dead: Ultimate Captain America is brought back into existence by the Maker only to be disintegrated soon after by the him.
• Beyond the Impossible: Normally, it'd be just plain impossible for any being to launch an attack on The Living Tribunal. But since the rules of the omniverse are still in flux, Master Order and Lord Chaos decide there's enough leeway to try and kill him.
• Big Bad: The First Firmament, aka the first universe before Eternity existed.
• The Big Guy: On the Eternity Watch, Ego-Prime doesn't use flashy powers like the other members. He's just a planet with a body, vastly outsizing his already titanic sized friends and foes, and throws his weight around.
• Blatant Lies: While accusing Galactus in issue 2, Master Order claims he and Chaos were trying to reason with Galactus back during Ultimates issue 6. He leaves out the part where he and Chaos outright tried to force Galactus into changing back.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Eternity borrows a line from Galactus.
  Eternity: To me... to me - MY ULTIMATES!
• Breaking the Fellowship: After Civil War II, the team has split up, with T'Challa refusing to even acknowledge Carol's presence. The first issue revolves around Galactus sending Anti-Man to gather them all back together again.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • The Infininaut returns in issue 7 as part of the Eternity Watch.
  • Issue 8 has T'Challa going to seek out the Panther God, patron deity of the White Tigers, which has returned, just as Ava Del Toro said it would.
  • Issue 10 (or 100) features the long awaited return of the original Ultimates.
  • Kevin Brashear returns to give his father a good old fashioned What the Hell, Hero?
  • In issue 6, Molecule Man invites Galactus around for a nice chat.
• Call-Back:
  • Master Order is still sore about Galactus punching him in the face.
  • The Shaper of Worlds is revealed to have died from his part in the Silver Surfer tie-in to Secret Wars.
  • America offhandedly confirms that she knows all about the events of Secret Wars too, where everyone else only vaguely remembers, and notes only that it's a "long story".
  • In issue 3, Master Order quotes Julia of Norwich ("All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."), much as another meddlesome influence did back in Loki: Agent of Asgard.
  • Jim Tensen's philosophy revolves around a war between spring and winter. The original version of Justice appeared to be a character in a mystical land called the "Land of Spring". In issue 5, America says this association is pretty common for many other Justices.
  • Issue 4 reveals some Celestials hid from the Beyonders' mass-murder spree during Hickman's Avengers.
  • Issue 6 reveals what sent the Celestial Destructor to Earth at the start of Civil War II, the First Firmament.
  • Just before Adam and Monica start their Fusion Dance, Adam repeats his line about photons (they're their own anti-particle) he said back to Monica when they first met in Mighty Avengers (2013).
  • Issue 7 has Galactus form a team called Eternity Watch. The Infinity Watch was a short-lived team of cosmic Marvel characters formed in the 90s.
  • In issue 9, the Maker once again mentions how the laws of physics back in his home universe were a little less dramatic.
  • The Maker makes some changes to reality, summons some allies, and asks if his work was cool or uncool. Ultimate Captain America replies "Cool, doctor Richards. Definitely cool". Ultimate Cap had a similar scene with George Bush in the first Ultimates arc.
  • Issue 100 has a callback to the infamous "this "A" doesn't stand for France" line, when Ultimate Cap repeats it. America is not amused.
  • Issue 100 begins with narration from the One Above All, which includes the claim that His only weapon "is love", something Uatu once remarked to Galactus decades ago.
  Uatu: All-powerful? There is only one that deserves that name, and his only weapon... is love.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • Issue 6 introduces Emmett Proudhawk, albeit posthumously, slightly.
  • Issue 9 brings in The Ultimates versions of Captain America, Iron Man, Giant Man, Wasp, and the Hulk.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Owen Reece's room outside everything returns in issue 7. Galactus goes there to recover his strength, but Owen himself is nowhere to be seen.
  • The shade of the Shaper of Worlds' rant in issue 1 has him mention a mysterious "them", on "the farthest shore". In issue 100, we learn what he saw: The previous incarnations of Eternity, still very much alive.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: While the Maker brings back the original Ultimates, he doesn't bring back Ult Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver.
• Clark Kenting: Squared #1 begins with T'Challa doing this when he meets Carol at a diner, pretending to be an ordinary guy on an internet date. Carol even addresses him as "Clark Kent". She also adds that his American accent is creepy due to being so flawless.
• Composite Character: Kathy Ling is shown using the Spitfire Powered Armor, thus making her a combination of Psi-Force's Kathy and Jenny Swenson, the user the of armor in Spitfire and the Troubleshooters.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In issue 5, America mentions meeting other Justices before, and that they're usually called Jim, John or Jenny. The original Justice was called John Tensen.
  • In issue 6, the First Firmament names the Death Celestials "aspirants" and "astro-gods". The Aspirants were mentioned in Kieron Gillen's Iron Man to have previously fought a horrific war against the Celestials, and the Astro-Gods were noted in Marvel Boy to be from "the first firmament", and powered by acts of genocide. Ewing leaves no stone unturned. Also of note, in Iron Man it was noted another name for Aspirants was "tyrant". Since they serve the omnicidal first universe, whom the Celestials rebelled against, now we know why.
  • The Celestials introducing death to existence and subsequently creating the multiverse to contain the now rogue entities responsible for it is a plot point introduced back in X-treme X-men. Here it is mentioned by the First Firmament and one of the reasons it pushed for their extinction out of spite.
  • In the alternate universe Earth X, Captain Mar-Vell went off to find the original universe from which all others sprang and which the Celestials broke, which he presumed to be the true Heaven. Here we discover that the sentience of that universe was the First Firmament, which suggests it was Mar-Vell who woke it up.
  • During issue 9, America briefly punches open a hole to the dimension Cyclops' eyebeams come from to kill one of the Chitauri carriers.
  • As Ultimate Giant Man starts remembering his death, the panel shows the scene from Ultimatum.
• Control Freak: The is what the First Firmanent is, at is core-it hates everything ever influenced by the Celestials because they disagreed with its designs.
• The Corruption: At the end of issue 4, Galactus tries telling whatever's left of Master Order and Lord Chaos they have something inside them, but they're in no mood to listen.
  • They're revealed to have been corrupted by the First Firmament, the first cosmos.
• The Corrupter: The First Firmament corrupts Order and Chaos, who in turn corrupt Galactus, as part of its plan to kill Eternity. The first issue mentions it's also been leeching energy, joy and hope from all existence.
  Narration: And behind the personification of all that is, just out of sight. Something else takes hideous form. And laughs. Reaching. And touches. And leeches. Leeching energy. Leeching joy. Leeching hope. The forces that bring life together weaken and corrode. War and horror spread across space and time like a slow poison. Strength weakens. Bad becomes worse. The balance trembles, reading to fall.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Issue 4 has Adam Brashear preparing to fight whatever Rodstvow actually is. Come issue 5, Rodstvow returns dragging a battered Brashear with it.
• Decomposite Character: Justice is introduced to the main universe but here is name James Tensen and gets his powers from the Psi-Force. Starbrand and Nightmask establishes that Justice as a part of a chosen White Event quartet also exists, but in the two occurrences we know of one was kept from existing.
• Deuteragonist: Galactus of all people becomes an "ally" of sorts to the team as repayment for helping him evolve to his "full potential" earlier than scheduled.
• The Dragon: possibly Rodstvow for the First Firmament. Or else he is just The Heavy.
• The Earth-Prime Theory: The Maker's plan hinges on the 616 universe being the central hub of the new multiverse, meaning he can affect change across all of Eternity through there.
• Eldritch Abomination: Rodstvow's true form appears to be a large, faceless blob thing, which the captions describe as "beyond naming". America only refers to him as "it".
• Evil Counterpart: Rodstvow for America. He has an orange, inverted versions of her star portals, but is cold-blooded and ruthless. Voght admits he finds him completely terrifying. In issue 4, he suggests he comes from a dystopian counterpart to America's utopian reality.
• Fantastic Racism: The First Firmanent hates everything except its own loyal creations for "abandoning" it.
• Foreshadowing: During Voght's monologue at the beginning of issue 5, as he recounts the incident on Mt. Wundagore, he says he and Tensen "never mentioned Emmet". Anyone familiar with The New Universe might recognise the name, and in issue 6, Emmet returns as the Psi-Hawk.
• Fusion Dance:
  • At the end of issue 3, Order and Chaos eat the Inbetweener, then merge into an entity called "Logos", a hideous mess of heads and limbs.
  • In Issue 6, Monica Rambeau and Adam Brashear merger together, using Monica's Spectrum powers with Adam's strength. Carol also lends support by generating light for Monica to absorb, increasing her power.
  • In issue 10 (100), T'Challa uses the powers of the Tiger God to escape being confined on Earth, due to Hydra's planetary shield, to fight on the cosmic plane.
• Gender Bender: Eternity, while being an anthropomorphic representation of the multiverse, is usually viewed as male, at least one previous version was female.
• The Ghost: At the climax of issue 100, all the previous iterations of Eternity appear, save number four, who is still... elsewhere, prophesied to return eventually.
• God-Eating: The aforementioned Fusion Dance between Order, Chaos and the In-Betweener? It's achieved by the cosmic beings eating each other.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While the First Firmament was revealed as the Big Bad over all, it was also revealed as the Man Behind the Man for the Celestial attack at the start of Civil War II. Also, it's heavily implied that the Firmament's corruption of all existence caused the tensions that kick-started the whole event.
• Handwave: At the end of Civil War II, Eternity appeared and took Ulysses away to become a cosmic being. However, as revealed, the Celestial Destructor was sent by the First Firmament at the start of the event, with Eternity already in chains. How could Eternity Deus ex Machina Ulysses away if Eternity was currently imprisoned? As Ewing explains in the letter's page of issue 5, while the Multiversal Eternity is chained, the smaller fragments of himself can appear unchanged, "if he wishes".
• Heroic Sacrifice: In issue 6, Connor Sims gives his life to break Galactus free of Logos' corruption.
• Horror Hunger: The corrupted Galactus, per Rodstvow, has a hunger greater than he ever had as the Devourer, and will eventually compel him to start eating existence itself. Fortunately, this doesn't last long enough to happen.
• Just Following Orders: Rodstvow tries this before Galactus eats it.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: On seeing Doctor Brashear effortlessly take out Ultimate Hulk in one punch, Ultimate Iron Man asks if they couldn't just talk things out.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The First Firmament is imprisoned in the very chains he used on Eternity, and dragged off by his children.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: T'Challa's comments about Carol's treatment of the Ultimates in issue 1 sounds suspiciously like a commentary on the Ultimates' treatment during Civil War II itself (where despite supposedly being cosmic-level bruisers, they tended to just hang around in the background or serve as muscle).
• Meaningful Echo:
  • The shade of the Shaper of Worlds uses an inverted version of the Arc Words of Jonathan Hickman's Avengers - "Nothing dies" - alongside Galactus's own catchphrase of "everything lives", stating that if everything lives, then nothing ever dies. And that's allowed something nasty to survive.
  • Anti-Man's final words are a repeat of what Galactus said to him when he made Connor his new herald.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When saying she thinks Voght might be suspicious, Carol calls him "Voight", the name of his original New Universe incarnation.
  • At the end of issue 8, someone asks "cool or uncool", getting response of "definitely cool" from Ultimate Captain America, mirroring the final page of the original Ultimates issue 3.
  • The fourth incarnation of Eternity is said to be "the True Believer", who is on a "journey into mystery".
  • The fifth incarnation of Eternity is described as the "Weaver of Illusions of change". Illusions of change was part of Marvel's house philosophy in the 70s.
  • The sixth incarnation of Eternity is described as the inventor of the "junction to anywhere", which was a phrase coined back in volume one of the Fantastic Four when Reed first explored the Negative Zone.
• New Season, New Name: As part of Marvel NOW! (2016), the book was relaunched as The Ultimates². Furthermore, the title itself is a Mythology Gag to The Ultimates 2, which was the second volume of its original namesake.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The First Firmament's goal is to destroy Eternity, and by extension the multiverse, which it hates, and compress everything into one. Said one being itself.
• Order Reborn: Of a sort. In the past there was the Infinity Watch, who's task was to protect the Infinity Stones. Galactus gathers a new group of individuals called the "Eternity Watch", whose job ostensibly is to protect Eternity. The members are the Infininaut, the Shaper of Worlds, the Psi-Hawk, Ego (now called Ego-Prime) and Galactus.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The Living Tribunal confronts Galactus about his nature as the lifebringer, and decides... that what was no longer applies, and with no precedent set down, he shouldn't be forced back into his old role.
• Replacement Scrappy: In-Universe. The Ultimates break up at the end of the first volume, and the US government creates a new team to do that job. Galactus, however, will have nothing of that. When he needs the Ultimates, he will have the original team, breakup or not, and flat out ignore the new one.
• The Reveal: Issue 5 finally shows the Cosmic Jailer. They're called the First Firmament, the living embodiment of the First Cosmos. And they want to destroy the multiverse.
• Sanity Slippage: Issue 3 makes it clear Master Order has gone right off the deep end.
• Slasher Smile: Master Order, in issue 3. Just before he and Chaos eat the In-Betweener.
• Smug Snake: The Maker, once again, being too arrogant and overconfident to realize he's being manipulated by the First Firmament.
• This Cannot Be!: The First Firmament has this reaction when the other aspects of Eternity return to bind him.
• Took a Level in Badass: Ego the Living Planet, while no pushover before, has seemingly evolved thanks to Galactus' help to become Ego-Prime. Essentially instead of just being a planetary sized floating head, he has grown a full body with the planet acting as his head.
• Unwitting Pawn:
  • Master Order and Lord Chaos are one for the Cosmic Jailer, who's egging them on. As it turns out, so is Voght.
  • The Maker, unsurprisingly, is once again too arrogant and overconfident to realize he's just doing exactly what the First Firmament wants.
• Villainous Breakdown: The First Firmament goes into big and little nos when Eternity breaks free from his grasp.
• Walking Spoiler: Ultimates 2 #10 will be renumbered as Ultimates #100, in line with the "Marvel Legacy" brand (all the previous volumes are added and counted as one, to generate the new number). Any discussion about who appears in this issue (and in the end of #9) can become this trope very easily. Though the cover already kind of spoils it.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Maker is back and reveals to have been tasked by the Molecule Man to evolve everything. Based on his previous evolution experiments, it remains to be seen how "well-intentioned" he actually is.
• Worf Had the Flu: Issue 7 has America try to recruit Galactus for help disabling the planetary shield set up over Earth to keep the Ultimates out. While Galactus could most likely take it down any other time, since he's recovering from Logos' attack, he can't help. Even if he could lend a hand, The Secret Empire is just another symptom from The First Firmament's actions.

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