Ultimate Marvel General and Reading Order

[Grayson]

Hey is it worth it to read the Ultimate universe from the beginning?

[Shawn739]

On the other, I understand why Cap is so militant and angry seeing as how Millar really explores his life being taken from him.

That's what makes Cap hard to hate. He needs something to believe in still and his Country is all he has. He tries so hard not to think of his past.

[NerdyDJ]

Hey is it worth it to read the Ultimate universe from the beginning?

Yes! The earlier books were the best

[Wolverine12]

Hey is it worth it to read the Ultimate universe from the beginning?

110% yes, absolutely do it.

[Grayson]

I'm going to attempt to read everything in UU in order. Wasn't it plawsky working on a list for that?

[Rok]

I'm going to attempt to read everything in UU in order. Wasn't it plawsky working on a list for that?

It's on the first page of this thread. I would recommend pre-ultimatum spider-man, Miller, Bendis and BKV X-men, Miller & Ellis F4, Miller's ultimates and Ellis' Gah-Lak-Tus mini.

IF you get hooked then read the rest, if you have read post-DoSM x-men/ultimates then it might be a good idea to read "ultimate comics: X"

[Spiderx3000]

Just read the first Ultimates hardcover by Millar.
Now I know it gets a lot of praise from you guys but there's a few things that kind bothered me:
All the references they had about who would play who were kinda lame. Those celebrities they named off might've been popular in the early 2000's but I for one had never heard of any of them.
I hated how Banner pretty much let everyone walk all over them and how he was nothing but puppet for their amusement.
Didn't really like how Cap went out of his way to beat Hank up who was already down. I think in general everyone on the team just came off like cocky assholes.
Felt the main villain was a bit underwhelming too.
Enjoyable read, but I really couldn't sympathize with any of the characters.

So you've never heard of Robert Downey Jr who's starred as Iron Man in four movies?

[Xavier]

So, I passed by like a month or two go saying I'd been reading the Ultimate Universe but then exams and the end of the semester caught up and, though I kept on reading, I didn't give myself much time to come here and talk about my experiences. But now I'm free so I thought I'd come back to the forum and talk about my Ultimate Experience =P It's a long post because it's been a long story.

So I guess I shall start with my impressions on Ultimate Spider-man, which is the ultimate flagship on consistently good writing. All the way from the Clone Saga to the death of Peter Parker, it was way better than I expected. Even during Ultimatum, the best story was Spider-man's. When the Amazing Friends arcs came, I was happy to be able to read about my two favorite mutants (Bobby and Kitty) interacting with my favorite super hero. The Death of Spider-man, I liked it conceptually, and I appreciate what it did to the Universe, but the story seemed too random, too coincidental to my liking. Still the ending was great and USM as a whole must be one of the best comic books there are.

Ultimate Fantastic Four wasn't that good, unfortunately. And it's strange because I like the characters but all the second half of the original run seemed unimportant, it didn't feel like something special. The best of the story was everything related to the Cube, but even that arc didn't live up to my expectations. During Ultimatum, the adventure of Sue and Ben was cool but I would've liked that everyone was more involved with the whole wave thing and the fight against Magneto. But it was still good. The downside was the unjustified break up of Sue and Reed's relationship, in which Sue was a total bitch and earned my eternal hatred. She gave Reed the first push to become the Maker by not appreciating the fact that he was too busy saving the whole world and that he trusted his best friend to help her because he knew he'd be able to. Still, I loved how they used this and it ended on the whole Maker and the City thing, which is absolutely great. Reed makes an awesome villain.

The X-Men was my second favorite book during the original Ultimate run. I still don't get why did they bring Jean back after she left to be the Phoenix or what was the reason to reboot everything that happened during the Cable/Bishop arcs. It would've been interesting to see how the big changes on the cast and on the world played out. But it didn't happen and ultimately it didn't matter because two thirds of the cast died during Ultimatum. If I had written back then when I read it I would've been outraged about that, about killing off Angel and Beast (again) and Dazzler and Nightcrawler and all of Emma Frost's students and Legion and Betsy and EVERYONE. But it all paid off. It really did. First on Ultimate Spider-man with Kitty and Bobby's story and then during Ultimate X, but I finally fully appreciated it on Ultimate Comics X-Men. The story of Kitty Pryde, first the leader of the insurrection and then the leader of the Mutant Nation has been one of my favorite stories on the Ultimate Universe. It's not without its faults, like pretty much everything else in life, but it's fresh, it's novel, it's different, it's got great characters and great moments and it feels like you're reading something important, like you're reading something that really matters on the universe. I loved the take on mutants after Ultimatum and Ultimate Comics X-Men is the full realization of that. But more on that later.

Finally, the Ultimates. Ultimates 3 has been largely the worst story I've read on the Ultimate Universe, or at least the one I've liked the least (though to be fair, I skipped over the non-canonical Ultimate Iron Man as well as Ultimate Adventures and Ultimate Vision so I don't know if any of them is worse). It's not only awfully convoluted and dense (there's too much happening at the same time so nothing feels like it's been treated properly), but it's also too dramatic for my liking (and the drawing style didn't help). I also despise the fact that they killed Scarlet Witch. I loved seeing Pietro and Wanda as part of the Ultimates, trying to prove that they were different than Magneto and that they were willing to coexist with all of the humans. I wanted to see what did it lead to, but then Wanda dies, Pietro runs back to his daddy and Magneto stupidly decides that it was all the fault of the human race and that he needs to teach them a lesson. I see how it led to Ultimatum, but I definitely don't like it as a standalone story.

There were also a few mini-series during this lapse. Ultimate Origins was my favorite for what it did to the Universe with the mutants' reveal, but it lasted way too long for what it had to give. The Fantastic Four + X-Men Annuals were good enough, but not spectacular. The Captain America and Hulk annuals, as well as Ultimate Human were quite good, I liked them all, though I can't say the same about Ultimate Power, of which I can't yet see what was its relevance and all the fuss. Aaaand Zarda never EVER did anything important during her stay on the Ultimate Universe. The most interesting thing she did was with the Hulk and I don't think it counts... And afterwards no one seemed to remember what they had done with Nick Fury. The only good thing about it is that it gave us the chance to see Carol Danvers (one of my favorite Ultimate characters) trying to be the director of SHIELD, which led to interesting Spider-man and Ultimates events.

Finally, Ultimatum as a whole. It's not a good story, I think pretty much everyone agrees on that, and the gore was unjustified. Magneto's breakdown was stupid, Wolverine's death was even more stupid and for some reason no one seemed to care about Hank Pym's Jocasta Project even though it seemed to be able to revive dead people. But I like that it changed the Ultimate Universe. It led to the opportunity to do new stories, to introduce new characters and it futher separated the whole Universe from 616 earth, making it more interesting for me.

This was especially easy to see during the Ultimates stories that came following Ultimatum. The first two Ultimate Avengers series were great. Fury trying to get all of his power back, Hawkeye being as awesome as ever and a great new character in Monica Chang. It was a shame the rest of the Avengers pretty much died during the third series, but I never really got to care about them so I didn't really mind it. And the Ultimates stories with Captain America, Thor and Iron Man, as well as an inconsequential additional cast that disappeared by the end of its run, were good too.

The Ultimate Doomsday Trilogy had its ups and its downs. The best part of it was its villain, but it was another story way too long for what it had to give.

After the Death of Spider-man (and the end of the divided Avengers/Ultimates arcs) came Miles Morales. I'm not that far into his story (issue 22 was the last one I read) but I'm not convinced about him yet. I enjoy the idea of a new Spider-man with new stories to tell and new problems Peter never faced, but it hasn't happened yet. I still feel that we're in his origin story, that he isn't established as Spider-man yet. And it's taking an awful long time.

The best thing of the post-Death of Spider-man story was the Divided We Fall crossover. That's what I like to see in the Ultimate Universe: The world in chaos and the few heroes left trying to make sense of everything and trying to save everyone. I loved Reed's story and the City's betrayal, I liked the resolution of that problem, I even liked Miles trying desperately to be a part of it despite how everyone dismissed him. But the best part of it was X-Men. As I said before, during this time, X-Men is for me the better series. It's exciting, it's unpredictable and I love its characters. It's definitely the one I've been enjoying the most, even though Spider-man and the Ultimates are also good.

Oh, and I loved the bit about President Cap. I want to see how it ends.

So, being about to start the "One Year Later", I definitely like what they've done with the Post-Ultimatum Ultimate Universe. There could've been fewer deaths of good characters, but at the end most of them are important and they weight on the whole story. And I like that. I like to read something different than your usual Marvel stories, and the Ultimate Universe provides that. I expect to catch up on the series printing right now by next week but we'll see. For now it's been a real pleasure to read these stories and to care about most of these characters.

[MykeHavoc]

The image of Jameson behind glass, beneath the water, witnessing peter diving in and rescuing people, along with his inner dialogue is one of the most powerful and satisfying things I've ever read in comics. Its almost worth having ultimatum happen so we could have that moment.

[titansupes]

Hey guys, just wanted to know if it was worth me getting the second and third UXM Ultimate Collections if I can't get my hands on the first and fourth?

[MykeHavoc]

Just get the original trades of volume 1, 2, 7 and 8. That's what I have, and the Ultimate collections volume 2 and 3. That gives you all the issues up to when BKV took over the title.

[Kurolegacy]

You know the thought has occurred to me that Wood left Ultimate X-Men having never explained just what was up with Jean having seemingly regained the power of the Phoenix. It kept flaring up between Natural Resources and Word War X yet no explanation was ever given and we have no X-Book.

[kyleion]

I stopped reading Ultimate Marvel for awhile but finally caught up to where Ultimate Marvel is now and I must say that so far from what I've read I do like what's happened. I like how Reed became a bad guy the maker, all because of what magneto did during Ultimatum its like Reed Richards finally snapped and lost it. I liked the Cataclysm event especially with Ultimate Thor using technology to simulate god like powers that he use to have after Reed Richards - the Maker killed all the asgardian gods except Thor. I must admit that i like this new combined version of Galactus that's a merged version of 616 Galactus with Gah Lak Tus from the Ultimate Universe. At the End of Cataclysm thor pushed Galactus into the negative zone where I'm guessing they still are there, I hope they bring Galactus and Thor back in the I like the characters in the Ultimate universe more than the main 616 universe so far. Course I'm surprised that they haven't given Ultimate Thor and Ultimate Iron man there own on going series like there counterpart.

[Grayson]

So what exactly is Ultimate Marvel team up about? Is this the series the Ultimate Spider-Man (cartoon) is based off of?

[MykeHavoc]

Its just Spidey teaming up with various characters. As far as I can tell, ultimate Spidey show is based on the comic of the same name, but geared towards an even if younger audience.