MARVEL 616 Will Wage War Against ULTIMATE UNIVERSE

While I’m usually eager to poke fun at Marvel Comics for their trite, mind numbing events, even I’m slightly impressed by this latest bit of news. According to Bleeding Cool (who’ve been on quite a rumor run over the past few days), Axel Alonso and crew plan to pit Marvel’s main 616 Universe against the Ultimate version. Imagine it… Classic Cap versus Slightly Racist Cap, Classic Hulk vs Gray Rapey Hulk, Classic Thor vs Druggy Hippie Thor… I could go on like this all day.

Not leaving much room for mystery, the news leak claims this massive event will be the end of the Ultimate Universe. While that would effectively wash away the horrors of Ultimatum and Ultimate Comics: Avengers (Vampire Captain America, ’nuff said), we’d be missing out on some great new stories from Miles Morales, who’s essentially the last good thing about the UU.

Marvel tested the dimension hopping waters in a previous cross over tale, Ultimate Power, which pit the rebooted Squadron Supreme against The Ultimates. It was a bit of an anomaly at the time (before the recent surge of yearly events), but even though it falls into the familiar tropes of these spectacles, it’s definitely worth a read.  I wonder how much of the upcoming 616 vs Ultimate U will be influenced by that story?

Hyperion knocks the fuck out of Ultimate Thing

We probably shouldn’t forget to mention SPIDER-MEN, the first crossover between the two universes.  Teaming classic Peter Parker with Miles Morales, writer Brian Michael Bendis had the duo pummel Mysterio into submission, allowing the Ultimates to throw him in super villain jail.  We know the scribe has confirmed a sequel in the works, could it be 616 vs Ultimates?

I remember the early years of the Ultimate line, when Mark Milllar was at the helm of X-Men and Bendis controlled the fate of a young Peter Parker. Marvel intended the new line to be an easy to read, inviting series of comics, and it achieved that goal, but like an old Russian war vet attending Alcoholic’s Anonymous for the first time in 4 years, it’s fallen off the wagon.  Hard.  Like 3 bottles of liquor before noon and a Jeph Loeb Hulk run, hard.

If this will, in fact, bring about the end of the Ultimate line, I won’t be too upset.  Like I’ve said, besides, Miles Morales, there’s not much to love about it.

 Although, I have to admit, I do miss how badass this guy used to be…

SOURCE: BC