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Ultimate End #1

May 2015
Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley

Ultimate End #1 cover

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Ultimate End #1 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4.5 stars
The issue begins with a 2-page spread symbolising the clash of heroes from the Marvel and Ultimate Universes in Secret Wars #1, with the Ultimate U Punisher training his gunsights on them all. That's all we see of the end of the Ultimate Universe (and the Marvel 1 too). The rest of the issue is set in Battleworld Manhattan, which is an amalgamation of the city from both universes. It is also '3 weeks ago', though 3 weeks before what we don't know - certainly not 3 weeks before the end of the multiverse in the preceding bit.

The Marvel U Spider-Man is swinging through the city, with what appears to be an unexplained spacewarp off to 1 side. He comes across the 5 members of the Ultimate Serpent Squad (Anaconda, Asp, Black Mamba, Death Adder and Princess Python) robbing a Hydra base. Suddenly some of the All-New (or Young) Ultimates come to his aid - Black Widow, Bombshell, Cloak and Dagger. And the villains fall.

Spidey questions Black Widow (Jessica Drew, previously the Ultimate Spider-Woman) about something she said last time they met, that she was a clone of him. She confirms it (actually it is the original Ultimate Spider-Man she was cloned from, but he was Peter Parker too). She adds that she knows his real identity. In fact they all do (but that's because Ultimate Peter Parker died and was unmasked). This worries him a lot.

Spider-Man has to leave for a meeting of heroes from both universes. The Young Ultimates are miffed about not being invited.

Ultimate Nick Fury called the meeting in the Triskelion Ultimate HQ. Present from the Marvel U are Black Widow, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Storm, while the Ultimates are only represented by Hawkeye, Iron Man and Thing in his glowing purple form.

Marvel Iron Man no longer seems to be Superior, and is disgusted by Ultimate Tony Stark's drinking. And he also blames UTS for the situation they're in.

Then Spider-Man arrives complaining about U people knowing his secret id. He gets confirmation that everybody in the Ultimate U knows it. And telepath Emma Frost puts her hand up too. Spidey accidentally says "Peter Parker" during his rant, and Hulk points out that now the rest of the room knows who he is.

Scarlet Witch changes the subject - she thinks Fury is working for Dr Doom and leading them into a trap. Fury nudges them back onto the topic of what Stark did. UTS admits that Ultimate Amadeus Cho was investigating a dimensional tear for SHIELD. SHIELD wanted to close it down, but Cho persuaded Stark to let him keep it open. However before they could do anything there was an explosion of white light and the hole closed. But not before the Marvel TS came through.

Fury wants to skip the blame game and just work on getting people back to their own universe. There's disagreement over which lot are in the wrong universe. Spidey wonders if there's anywhere to return to, and Hulk suggests this might be the only universe left. But no-one seems to want to believe that.

They agree to work together, and the Marvel contingent leave the Triskelion by quinjet. But both sides believe the others don't trust them and each side plans to work alone. UTS intends to try to convince MTS to cooperate.

Ultimate Hawkeye reminds his bunch how they were worried about Doom finding out what had happened. Because a bunch of Thors, Doom's enforcers, has turned up:- Beta Ray Bill, Thor Girl, Frog Thor, the Destroyer as Thor, Groot as Thor, and a couple of generic Marvel Thors who may be more distinguishable next issue.


 

Review / Commentaries


Ultimate End #1 Review by (May 31, 2015)
This is not the final days of the Ultimate Universe, but I should have expected that because the solicitations list it under Battleworld not Last Days. Instead we have some UU and Marvel U characters trying to fix a problem which seems to be different from the Battleworld/end of the multiverse situation. The 1 person mentioned in the blurb, Miles Morales, is definitely not here. MU and UU characters are distinguished by upper case and mixed case speech bubbles. (That's how I know it's the Ultimate Punisher at the beginning.)The same technique was used in Secret Wars #1. These 5 female baddies *are* the Ultimate Serpent Squad, debuting in Ultimate Power #1. In the Marvel U all 5 were part of the much bigger Serpent Society, but all except Asp were in 1 or other of the preceding Serpent Squads, and Asp was with Black Mamba in the later BAD Girls Inc. The Young Ultimates debuted in Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man #3. They got their own series in All-New Ultimates. The Jessica Drew Black Widow was originally Ultimate Spider-Woman in lots of issues starting with Ultimate Spider-Man #98. She changed her id in ANU#1, and met the Marvel U Spider-Man during the Spider-Verse event. The flashback about the dimensional rift is a replay of 1 in All-New X-Men #31. There it caused the young versions of the original X-Men to visit the Ultimate U for a while (but not in Amadeus Cho's lab). This is the 1st time we've seen that it brought the Marvel U Tony Stark across as well.

Be that as it may, what's going on?! The gang here know they're on Battleworld but they seem to blame their situation on the rift. Whereas we know it's because of the death of the multiverse, which New Avengers #33 revealed was due to the existence of the Molecule Man. Also the Marvel U characters don't seem to synch completely with their pre-Battleworld activity. In particular the MU Tony Stark isn't Superior in armour or attitude. It's possible that he will get reverted to his pre-Axis self in the delayed last issue of Superior Iron Man, but this would clash with his definitely Superior appearances in the last issues of Avengers and New Avengers that led up to Secret Wars. But I'm giving this a good score because I *like* being confused. As long as I get deconfused later.


> Ultimate End comic book info and issue index

Elektra

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Mark Bagley
Scott Hanna
Justin Ponsor
Mark Bagley (Cover Penciler)
Andrew Hennessy (Cover Inker)
Nolan Woodard (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Black Widow
Black Widow

(Natasha Romanoff)
Cyclops
Cyclops

(Scott Summers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clinton Barton)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Storm
Storm

(Ororo Munroe)
Thing
Thing

(Ben Grimm)
Plus: Asp.

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