Marvel continues the roll out of its all-new, all-different Ultimate Universe with the reveal of a brand-new Ultimates series, previously hinted as being part of this year’s Free Comic Book Day special from Marvel.
The new series will be written by Deniz Camp, and drawn by Juan Frigeri, and it will continue the development of this new Ultimate Universe, which saw its superhero emergence forestalled by the villainous Maker (the Reed Richards of the original Ultimate Universe), but now Tony Stark, going by the name Iron Lad, is intent on bringing back superheroes to this Marvel Universe. He already made sure that Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider over in Ultimate Spider-Man (by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto, and now he is set to build up the Ultimates with even more restored superheroes.
As seen in Ultimate Universe #1 (by Hickman and Stefano Caselli), Tony Stark (a teenager in this universe) and a group of heroes began to try to fight against the Maker’s Council, the sadistic underlings of the Maker, who have tried to maintain the Maker’s control over Earth in his absence. Those same heroes form the basis for the lineup for this new Ultimates, namely Tony Stark (Iron Lad), Captain America, Thor (who was almost fatally wounded in Ultimate Universe #1), Sif, and Doctor Doom (who is Reed Richards in this universe).
However, since Tony Stark is going around trying to fix all of Maker’s manipulations, there is room for a number of other heroes, and the cover of the issue seems to suggest that, at the very least, Giant-Man and the Wasp are also members of this new team.
In Marvel’s press release about the new series, Camp noted, “The new Ultimates line is the most exciting super hero comics event in years, and it’s humbling to be a part of it!” Camp shared. “We are reinventing these classic characters and archetypes to be as surprising and vital as when they were first introduced. Our Ultimates is an evolution not just of the Avengers, but of the whole super hero team concept; from the grand and operatic to the small and personal, THE ULTIMATES will feel like no Avengers or Ultimates comic ever before! That’s our ambition, anyway; tune in to find out if we succeed.“
He added, “On a personal note, my first big break in comics was winning the Millarworld talent competition, so there is a strange, sweet symmetry to taking on the title Mark and Bryan pioneered 20+ years ago. We’re doing everything we can to live up to the ‘Ultimates’ name, and the high bar set by Jonathan, Marco [Checchetto], and all the Ultimate creative teams so far!”
