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Ah, The Ultimate Universe, where the only heroic characters in the world are called or connected to Spider-Man.

Before I start this, keep in mind that this is only my opinion on The Ultimate Universe as a whole and I welcome those who disagree to explain why they don't agree with my points. This is not an attack on people who like the entirety of this universe and don't use this demotivational poster as a reason to hate The Ultimate Universe. ... Take a shot every time I've typed Ultimate Universe in this description. I triple dare ya.

Yeah, I have mentioned that I have been a massive fan of Ultimate Spider-Man in the past... and that praise is exclusive ONLY for Ultimate Spider-Man since most of the rest of The Ultimate Universe is either crap or straight up garbage. Except for Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand and Ultimate End. Those two are the only other exceptions.

Anyway, here's the origin of The Ultimate Universe. In The 90's, Marvel was facing financial problems with their comics so they sold most of their characters to other studios in the hopes of getting back on track. They even tried rebooting The Marvel Universe in Heroes Reborn but that was crap so they started from scratch by bringing in Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley to kickstart a new universe without prior continuity in the form of Ultimate Spider-Man. It was a hit and that convinced Marvel to bring in more titles to the lineup like Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and The Ultimates. I probably got that summary wrong but, eh, what can you do.

Ultimate Spider-Man = The reinvention of Spider-Man for modern times that's almost perfect... except for the forced romance with Shadowcat.
Ultimate X-Men = A rip off of the first two X-Men movies that take a cool concept and makes some questionable decisions with the characters.
The Ultimates = A series that never really stuck with me due to all of the most hopeful heroes in The Marvel Comics Universe being turned into amoral, selfish jackasses or horny cannibals or just straight up foreshadowing for that crappy Garth Ennis comic that got turned into Amazon's ssupposedly best superhero series (Invincible is better than The Boys, change my mind).
Ultimate Fantastic Four = ... Okay, to be honest, I've never read this one due to my lack of interest in The FF until the two overhated Tim Story movies came out.

And then there's the miniseries and crossover with the edgier take on Squadron Supreme but nobody cared about those.

However, The Ultimate Universe's success would slowly start dying thanks to the edgefest that was Ultimatum, where nearly everyone dies for shock value and treated to stuff like The Blob eating Wasp's corpse. I'm not even kidding about that example as it's the main image of Ultimatum's Nightmare Fuel page on TV Tropes and is the main thing people remember about that awful comic. Ultimatum was so terrible and hated that Jeph Loeb left Marvel Comics to be the head of Marvel Television for better (Agents Of SHIELD, The Avengers EMH, Daredevil, and Avengers Assemble) and for worse (Iron Fist, Spider-Man 2017, and Hulk & The Agents Of SMASH).

This lead to a sorta redemption for The Ultimate Universe that lasted until Peter Parker was killed off in what is my favourite Spider-Man comic of all time and paved the way for Bendis to introduce Miles Morales in the comics (which would inspire several adaptations of the character), Jonathan Hickman to deliver what could be seen as the best run on The Ultimates, and culminate in Cataclysm, which is The Ultimate Universe's best event comic by a long shot. The Ultimate Universe lasted a bit longer with three comic titles until Marvel killed it in the first issue of Hickman's Secret Wars... or did they? Yeah, they're bringing this universe back slowly by teasing it's return a lot before the release of Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Invasion and the relaunch of the entire brand later this year.

TFS Shenron: Can't wait to hear how you fuck it up.

Now, my thoughts on The Ultimate Universe in general. Aside from a few character designs and concepts, The Ultimate Universe is a mess (and not in a good way) and it's a good example of how not to reboot a universe into a world that reflects the negative side of humanity most of the time. Superheroes are meant to represent the best of us and inspire us to be better than what we are but The Ultimate Universe only exists to remind us of what we are capable of if we stray from our path towards a brighter future. I'm glad that Ultimate Spider-Man exists but the rest of The Ultimate Universe can just burn.

So yeah, The Ultimate Universe. It had neat ideas and character designs but you're better off sticking with the actually good universes in Marvel's multiverse like 616, Mangaverse, or the now slightly controversial MCU.

Description
Ah, The Ultimate Universe, where the only heroic characters in the world are called or connected to Spider-Man.

Before I start this, keep in mind that this is only my opinion on The Ultimate Universe as a whole and I welcome those who disagree to explain why they don't agree with my points. This is not an attack on people who like the entirety of this universe and don't use this demotivational poster as a reason to hate The Ultimate Universe. ... Take a shot every time I've typed Ultimate Universe in this description. I triple dare ya.

Yeah, I have mentioned that I have been a massive fan of Ultimate Spider-Man in the past... and that praise is exclusive ONLY for Ultimate Spider-Man since most of the rest of The Ultimate Universe is either crap or straight up garbage. Except for Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand and Ultimate End. Those two are the only other exceptions.

Anyway, here's the origin of The Ultimate Universe. In The 90's, Marvel was facing financial problems with their comics so they sold most of their characters to other studios in the hopes of getting back on track. They even tried rebooting The Marvel Universe in Heroes Reborn but that was crap so they started from scratch by bringing in Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley to kickstart a new universe without prior continuity in the form of Ultimate Spider-Man. It was a hit and that convinced Marvel to bring in more titles to the lineup like Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and The Ultimates. I probably got that summary wrong but, eh, what can you do.

Ultimate Spider-Man = The reinvention of Spider-Man for modern times that's almost perfect... except for the forced romance with Shadowcat.
Ultimate X-Men = A rip off of the first two X-Men movies that take a cool concept and makes some questionable decisions with the characters.
The Ultimates = A series that never really stuck with me due to all of the most hopeful heroes in The Marvel Comics Universe being turned into amoral, selfish jackasses or horny cannibals or just straight up foreshadowing for that crappy Garth Ennis comic that got turned into Amazon's ssupposedly best superhero series (Invincible is better than The Boys, change my mind).
Ultimate Fantastic Four = ... Okay, to be honest, I've never read this one due to my lack of interest in The FF until the two overhated Tim Story movies came out.

And then there's the miniseries and crossover with the edgier take on Squadron Supreme but nobody cared about those.

However, The Ultimate Universe's success would slowly start dying thanks to the edgefest that was Ultimatum, where nearly everyone dies for shock value and treated to stuff like The Blob eating Wasp's corpse. I'm not even kidding about that example as it's the main image of Ultimatum's Nightmare Fuel page on TV Tropes and is the main thing people remember about that awful comic. Ultimatum was so terrible and hated that Jeph Loeb left Marvel Comics to be the head of Marvel Television for better (Agents Of SHIELD, The Avengers EMH, Daredevil, and Avengers Assemble) and for worse (Iron Fist, Spider-Man 2017, and Hulk & The Agents Of SMASH).

This lead to a sorta redemption for The Ultimate Universe that lasted until Peter Parker was killed off in what is my favourite Spider-Man comic of all time and paved the way for Bendis to introduce Miles Morales in the comics (which would inspire several adaptations of the character), Jonathan Hickman to deliver what could be seen as the best run on The Ultimates, and culminate in Cataclysm, which is The Ultimate Universe's best event comic by a long shot. The Ultimate Universe lasted a bit longer with three comic titles until Marvel killed it in the first issue of Hickman's Secret Wars... or did they? Yeah, they're bringing this universe back slowly by teasing it's return a lot before the release of Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Invasion and the relaunch of the entire brand later this year.

TFS Shenron: Can't wait to hear how you fuck it up.

Now, my thoughts on The Ultimate Universe in general. Aside from a few character designs and concepts, The Ultimate Universe is a mess (and not in a good way) and it's a good example of how not to reboot a universe into a world that reflects the negative side of humanity most of the time. Superheroes are meant to represent the best of us and inspire us to be better than what we are but The Ultimate Universe only exists to remind us of what we are capable of if we stray from our path towards a brighter future. I'm glad that Ultimate Spider-Man exists but the rest of The Ultimate Universe can just burn.

So yeah, The Ultimate Universe. It had neat ideas and character designs but you're better off sticking with the actually good universes in Marvel's multiverse like 616, Mangaverse, or the now slightly controversial MCU.