Another rumor has surfaced from the Marvel Creative Summit that occurred last week. The first mentioned the possibility of the House of Ideas killing off fan favorite X-Man and Avenger Wolverine in 2014 and potentially replacing him with his son, Daken. Now, the second rumor also involves a death, but not just of one character. In fact, it’s the death of a whole universe.
According to Bleeding Cool, Marvel is planning another crossover between their Ultimates Universe and their main continuity, which is labeled as Earth-616. Last summer, Peter Parker met his Ultimate counterpart, Miles Morales, in ‘Spider-Men’, and in 2014, not only will these characters meet the other versions of themselves, but this event would result in the end of the Marvel imprint started by Bill Jemas who set out to create a new jumping on point for new readers that wasn’t bogged down by years of continuity with fresh takes on classic characters.
The original report didn’t contain any comments on the matter from Marvel, but Brian Michael Bendis, who was very instrumental in the Ultimates Universe’s rise to prominence, responded to the rumors on his Tumblr page, where he frequently answers questions about his work and things in general. According to him, there’s no end in sight for the Ultimates:
“I am happy to report that we are cooking a couple of interesting projects with the ultimate universe along the lines. Ultimate doomsday was a project very close to my heart.
I am also happy to report that the ultimate universe is in healthy shape and not going away anytime soon, contrary to some irresponsible reporting out there today.”
I have a hunch that Bendis wouldn’t say that they’re ending the Ultimate Universe if that’s what they were doing anyway, but something from the Bleeding Cool report stands out. They said “the whole event may lead to the end of the Ultimate Universe, in print published form at least…”. Maybe Bendis is right by saying that the universe isn’t going away, but rather it’s switching to a digital only format.
An Avengers vs. Ultimates storyline might be interesting, but I don’t know if it should result in the end of the Ultimates Universe considering that it offers an alternative Marvel experience that many fans find appealing. What do you think about this rumor? Do you think that Marvel should kill off the Ultimates? Would you miss the imprint if it were eliminated? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
