Ultimate Marvel is an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring re-imagined and updated versions of the company's most popular superhero characters, including Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, Thor, Daredevil, the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. The characters have new origins, freeing them from the sometimes convoluted back-histories of the original versions which were thought to turn off new readers unfamiliar with their extensive histories. Note an alternate universe special issue of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe in 2005 designated "Ultimate Marvel Universe" as Earth-1610.

History

Life on this Earth began to develop 200 million years ago. Within fifty million years, it had rapidly evolved into the plethora of taxa that exist today, being ruled by dinosaurs similar to those of the real-life late Cretaceous period 150 million years ago.[1] Owing to the drastic differences between the evolution of life between the real world and Earth-1610, it is unclear exactly when the dinosaurs became extinct and when humans first evolved.

More than 10,000 years ago, Atlantis and Lemuria existed as the most advanced civilizations known on ancient Earth and waged war against each other.

This war annihilated the two empires, leaving some survivors such as the criminal Namor. The Inhumans also existed at the time and remained hidden from human society in their city Attilan in the Himalayas until the present.

In the 20th century, the alien species known as the Chitauri, who had previously visited Earth in 1777, attempted their conquest of Earth. In 1904, an alien android known as the Vision landed on Earth to prepare the human race for the coming of the planet eater known as Gah Lak Tus. Due to a malfunction, the Vision's ship crashed landed in the Russian territory of Tunguska, creating the Tunguska Event, and was kept in a secret military bunker by the Soviet government. Years later in 1920, the Chitauri infiltrated German politics and set into motion events that eventually lead to World War Two. The Chitauri supplied Nazi Germany with advanced weapon technologies. The Allies became aware of this alien threat and were determined to stop it.

By this time, the United States government, under President Franklin Roosevelt, sought to create super-soldiers in the war effort. Two soldiers, Nicholas Fury and Canadian James Howlett were captured and experimented on for this project. Howlett was sent to and tested on in a remote facility that would later be known as the Weapon X facility while Fury was sent to New York to join other African-American test subjects for an experiment known as Project Rebirth.[2]

Fury was the first successful super soldier that came out of Project Rebirth. Afterwards he used his inhuman strength to break out of the facility and free the other test subjects. At the Weapon X facility, while trying to create their own super soldier, the Canadian government accidentally created a new mutated genome. That genome would soon spread around the world and create a new species of super-humans known as Mutants.[2]

With the success of Nicholas Fury, Project Rebirth finally chose a young and weak boy by the name of Steven Rogers, who became Captain America.[3] By 1945, Captain America was part of an operation assaulting a Nazi missile complex in Iceland, which held a hydrogen-nuclear missile and was was targeted at the American mainland. Captain America sabotaged the missile while it was taking off, and was sent into a 60-year coma in suspended animation after the destruction of the missile plunged him into the arctic sea.

Years later, Erik Lensherr, the mutant child of two scientists that worked for Weapon X, freed Mutant Zero a.k.a. Wolverine (James Howlett), and killed his mother and other Weapon X agents for what they had done to mutants. Erik left and sought out another fellow mutant, Charles Xavier. Erik proposed that they start a brotherhood formed by mutants to protect their own kind and create new lives away from the reach of mankind. Charles was later convinced by Erik's plan and the two then left their human wives and began gathering other mutants from around the world.[5] As they traveled across an unknown land, Charles, Erik, and his children Wanda and Pietro crash-landed in the Savage Land where they meet a clan of humans. Among them were the young Ka-Zar and Shanna. Charles and Erik found this strange land ideal to their purposes and the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy established a secret settlement in the Savage Land. Months later, Charles grew disillusioned with the settlement as Erik grew increasingly more radical and tyrannical, and after Charles failed to lead an uprising against Erik, he attempted to flee but was stabbed by him in the spine with a metal spike. This left Charles paralyzed, but he still managed to escape the island. Weeks later, Ka-Zar and Shanna's tribes were slaughtered by Erik, now calling himself Magneto, in order to make the Savage Land a place for mutants only.

Due to the actions of Fantastic Four villain Dr. Doom (who manipulated the deaths of the Scarlet Witch, and the conflict between the Brotherhood of Mutants and the Ultimates)[17], Magneto vengefully executed his plan in exterminating humanity through shifting the poles of the Earth, causing global natural disasters upon the world, leaving only he and his followers to survive. In the wake of Magneto's fury, millions of people died including many of Earth's superhuman heroes and villains alike. Anti-Mutant sentiment was exacerbated in America and with the majority of their members dead, the X-Men disbanded after their leader Cyclops was killed in an assassination orchestrated by the Brotherhood, now lead by Magneto's son Quicksilver. Mutants began to be arrested and shipped off to internment camps.

Shortly after the funeral of Peter Parker, a new Spider-Man, by the name of Miles Morales, had surfaced, causing confusion among the citizens of New York as to how Spider-Man is alive when word of his demise was all over the news.[30]

Miles fights Electro, paralyzing him long enough for Nick Fury to shoot and kill him. [31] He then received Fury's blessing in taking up Peter Parker's mantle, and was given his own Spider-Man suit.

A new model of Sentinels, called Nimrod Model Sentinels, were deployed to hunt and capture, or kill, mutants who refused to turn themselves in. News hit the media that mutants were in fact the result of Super-Soldier testing funded by the American Government in Canada, and not the result of evolution. This caused riots to break out.

Having found a way to escape from the N-Zone, Reed Richards returned to Earth. Bringing together a group of highly intelligent individuals, he began his experiment. Creating the Dome, a research facility in its own time-bubble, Reed and his Children of Tomorrow began their experiments, seeking to push the limits of science.

In the S.E.A.R., scientists managed to uncover a way to create the next generation of superhumans. Releasing a virus that prevented mutants from being born in the outside world in an attempt to cripple the rest of the world's superhuman population, the SEAR began creating superhumans termed only The People en masse.

SHIELD would now be faced with disaster on three fronts. Tensions between Argentina and Uruguay escalated to the point of all out war, and the Argentines used Stark technology supplied to them by the Kratos Club to destroy the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo in a nuclear blast. At the same time, the People, the new superhumans of the SEAR revolted against their government, who requested SHIELD aid. The government was toppled extremely rapidly, and SHIELD failed to respond. Furthermore, they lost their mutant operatives lead by Karen Grant to the new nation of Tian, which offered safe haven to mutants and superpowers to any who desired them. At the same time, Reed Richards' Children of Tomorrow took their experiment to the next stage. Inside their Dome, one thousand years had now passed, leaving them enormously technologically superior to the rest of the world. They expanded to the next level, creating "The City", a supercity covering much of Central Europe, resulting in the destruction of the nations and humans already living there. SHIELD and the EDI both failed to stop this, resulting in the destruction of Asgard, leaving Thor mortal once again.

The United States was faced with conflict within as well, as mutants revolted in their internment camps, and anti-mutant militias such as the one lead by William Stryker gained increased power. After being killed by Kitty Pryde, Stryker's consciousness possessed the American Nimrod Sentinel fleet, and began outright slaughtering mutants. The fleet took over the Southwestern states of the USA, and the President was forced to abandon them, leaving them to Sentinel control. With threats on all fronts, the President launched the entire nuclear arsenal onto the City, but managed only to destroy 20% of it. In response, Reed Richards, now calling himself the Maker, launched an attack on Washington DC, destroying it and assassinating the President. Nick Fury and SHIELD sought an alliance with Tian against the City, and after the Maker killed one of the People, Tian launched an attack. The City was defeated from within however, as the Children of Tomorrow renounced the Maker, and turned him over to US custody.

The collapse of the United States continued however. With central control waning and the Southwest lost, Texas and the West Coast also seceded from the union. Nick Fury was also once again dismissed from SHIELD and continued to operate on his own.

Mutants

Within the Ultimate Universe, Mothervine was an aggressive biotech enhancement tailored to engineer mutant childbirths. It was fabricated by H.E.L.L. industries. Through a chain of fertility health care clinics using able or expectant mothers to carry unborn children to full term as test subjects for the weaponization of mutation. Highly aggressive programmable Homo superior power activation triggered via voice command, the process created latent mutant sleeper agents able to turn into strategic WMDs upon passphrase initiation.[1]

Once triggered the intended Mothervine active power would not cease until they had fulfilled their programmed target parameter or until the triggered host was terminated. During his days as a government agent, Logan was tasked with a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation to ascertain an exact understanding of Project: Mothervine and root out its functioning before terminating any existing information on the drug itself. Unfortunately he was beaten to the punch by rival agent and former lover, Magda Lensherr, who unbeknownst to him was both carrying the purest strain of the experimental pharmaceutical, as well as pregnant with their unborn son.

This son grew up to carry the very same strain his mother injected herself with, in an absolute concentrated state. Some years later, as Jimmy came of age after his parents' supposed demise, a fellow mutant named Black Box keyed in on a signal emitted by the holographic memento left to Hudson by his late father, carrying the sensitive information about a location where detailed schematics and composition information on the Mothervine project formula was kept for over a decade.[3]

Quicksilver later found out the truth of Mothervine and hatched a plan to revitalize the dwindling mutant population, seeking out his half-brother while also clipping anyone else related to the clean-up of sensitive Mothervine intel before it was all permanently erased. Pietro hoped to use Jimmy's blood as a means to mass produce the Mothervine to restart the mutant race, as well as Box's ability to store and communicate with the leftover Mothervine data stored within his mind.

X-Men

Charles Xavier befriended the mutant known as Erik Lehnsherr, who was to become the mutant terrorist known as Magneto. Eric and Charles bonded over their dreams for the new mutant race. Together, they founded The Brotherhood of Mutants in San Francisco, a place where persecuted mutants could find refuge. A year later, they discovered the Savage Land, a forgotten jungle in the Indian Ocean. In this lost tropical world, Xavier and Magneto built a home for the growing mutant population.
Xavier managed to escape and returned to the United States, where he established his Institute for Gifted Children in Westchester, New York, using his ancestral mansion as a secret base to train his X-Men to use their powers for the benefit of both man and mutantkind. The initially shy and aloof Scott Summers, whose eyes could emit concussive blasts, was the boy scout-like X-Men field leader. Telepathic/telekinetic Jean Grey was outgoing and foxy, but also a very responsible young woman and became the unofficial second-in-command behind Cyclops. Xavier soon expanded the team to include Beast, Storm, and Colossus.
Xavier was seemingly killed by the time traveling mutant Cable. However, Cable did not actually kill Xavier, but transported his unconscious body with him back to the future to keep under mental block until his questions could be answered. He healed Xavier's spine and replaced his legs and prepared him for the coming of Apocalypse. Xavier tried fighting Apocalypse and failed. He was barely saved when Jean merged with the Phoenix and defeated the powerful mutant. But she pointed out to Xavier that because of him, he set the mutant cause back by a hundred years. She expected him to start over. She reversed time to the point where the attack never happened. He went to Muir Island to recuperate.

Ultimatum
As a result of his meddling with Magneto's attempts to punish humanity, Charles was killed: his neck snapped by Magneto. After the events of Ultimatum, only Jean Grey, Rogue, Storm, Colossus, Kitty, and Iceman were left alive.

Utopia
After a Nimrod mutant massacre, it was given to the Mutant Resistance a portion of land were to start from zero.[5] They called it Utopia, and managed to make of it a oasis with the help of a sentient seed developed by Blackheat.

Even after a conflict among their own and the useless efforts of the US Army to stop them, the new mutant nation stood strong. When Jean Grey, the new mistress of Tian, failed to convince Kitty Pryde to join her mutant nation, the former X-Woman declared war on Utopia

X-Men Members

Professor X Charles Francis Xavier Deceased	Cyclops Scott Summers Deceased	Phoenix Jean Grey Refugee	Colossus Peter Rasputin	The Beast Hank McCoy Deceased

Iceman Bobby Drake	Storm Ororo Munroe	Nightcrawler Kurt Wagner Deceased	Angel Warren Worthington III Deceased	Rogue Anna Marie

Havok Alex Summers Deceased	Polaris Lorna Dane Deceased	Blackheath ???	Warpath James Proudstar	Shadowcat Katherine Pryde

Wolverine James Howlett Deceased	Mach II Nomi Blume	Micromax ???	Magma Amara Aguilla	Wolverine James Hudson

Mutant Zero	Headmistress Emma Frost Deceased	Link Shola Insoki	Psylocke Elizabeth Braddock	Firestar Elizabeth Allan

Gambit Remi LeBeau Deceased	Husk Paige Guthrie Deceased	Amp	Guardian

Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy

Eight years ago, Erik Lensherr and Charles Xavier shared a dream - a dream to create a safe haven for mutants. Three years later they started to build a complex in a remote jungle situated in Antarctica called The Savage Land.

Two years after that Lensherr's - now known as Magneto - and Xavier's opinions about the futures of man and mutantkind differed so drastically that their ideological disputes turned to violence. Magneto used his mutant powers to throw a metal pole at Xavier, hitting Xavier in the spine, permanently crippling him. Three weeks after the clash the newly-formed Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy made its first terrorist attack, its target was the Pentagon. The Savage Land Complex became the Brotherhood's first headquarters.

Magneto's sent his elite assassin Logan to infiltrate the X-Men and assassinate Professor Xavier. He was accepted into their ranks, and quickly seduced Jean Grey in order to further entrench himself within the team. However, Wolverine accidentally fell in love with Jean, and was devastated when she left him upon discovering his connection to the Brotherhood. Scott was heartbroken. Cyclops and Xavier had planned to send Cyclops to infiltrate Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy, and Jean and Wolverine's affair provided a convenient excuse for Scott's departure. During his time with the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy, Magneto considered Scott a potential heir and urged him to pursue a relationship with the Scarlet Witch.

American authorities located the Savage Land and launched a massive Sentinel attack, but Magneto used his powers to reprogram them, leading them back to assault Washington. Scott warned Xavier of Magneto's plan to destroy Washington, D.C. with a fleet of reprogrammed Sentinels. While the Sentinels decimated the capital, Magneto dragged the President naked on to the White House lawn. The X-Men intervened, and Magneto was defeated when his son Pietro, convinced that genocide was going too far, removed his helmet, leaving him vulnerable to Xavier's powers. Xavier claimed to have killed Magneto, but had instead secretly brainwashed him, hoping to rehabilitate him.

The Brotherhood participated in the rescue of the X-Men from Weapon X. Though offered a place on the X-Men, former Weapon X captives Rogue and Juggernaut joined the Brotherhood.

Many members of the Brotherhood, including Magneto, perished during or following the events of Ultimatum, leaving Sabretooth and Mystique the only known survivors, led by a vengeful Quicksilver.

Brotherhood Members

Magneto Erik Magnus Lensherr	Quicksilver Pietro Lensherr Refugee	Blob Fred J. Dukes	Toad Mortimer Toynbee	Sabretooth Creed Howlett

Lorelei	Mastermind Jason Wyngarde	Mystique Raven Darkholme	Pyro St. John Allerdyce	Blob Theodore Allan

Lady Deathstrike

Animal Evolutionaries

Prosimian	Kathleen	Orb Weaver	Saluki	Sumatran

Trivia

Several storylines across the Ultimate titles have involved the genetic arms race and the commonly held belief that the next world war will be fought with genetically altered soldiers. There was an international test-ban treaty concerning development of super-soldiers, but many countries still maintain undercover genetic projects, such as the abandoned Russian super-soldier project seen in Ultimate Nightmare, the Weapon X Project utilizing brainwashed Mutants, and the U.S. development of a replacement for Captain America seen in Ultimates Annual #1. This treaty has apparently been amended or done away with entirely (or ignored) as of Ultimates Vol. 2, as the European Union is shown in that series developing and publicly testing superhuman "Captains" for their individual nations; the United States too has made public use of supplemental teams of "Giant Men" and other super-powered or mechanically enhanced operatives aside from the Ultimates.
Nick Fury has been authorized by the President of the United States to create and enforce laws that regulate genetic modification, the most notable of which is that it is illegal to deliberately alter a human being's genetic makeup without government sanction (Presumably this extends to superhumans sanctioned in allied nations, as opposed to, say, Kraven the Hunter, who left the country to gain superhuman powers, but was arrested upon returning to the U.S.). The mutants in Ultimate X-Men are frequently drawn into the escalating conflict due to their involuntary but highly public status as genetic anomalies.
The characters in this line exist outside of the regular Earth-616 continuity of the Marvel Universe and therefore do not interact with their original version counterparts. Marvel once hinted that a crossover was planned between the two worlds. This crossover was to have occurred in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 (July 2005), although it turned out that this was a bit of sly misdirection on Marvel's part, as the continuity that they crossed over into in the issue was not that of Earth-616, but a similar one taken over by zombies. Since then, Joe Quesada has reiterated his earlier claim that the two universes will not cross over as that would signify that Marvel had "officially run out of ideas". However, the Spider-Men arc-story shows an official cross-over. Although, no characters met his direct counterpart. The Hunger storyline, by comparison, is the first crossover between the universes in which a counterpart meets another, with Galactus-616 meeting Gah Lak Tus from Earth-1610.
In the Ultimate imprint's first few years of existence, some readers speculated that its great popularity might prompt Marvel to declare the Ultimate universe the "official" Marvel universe, replacing the traditional continuity. However, the strength of the Ultimate imprint has diminished over time and the line was eventually cancelled during Secret Wars (2015 Event).
Writers noted for their work in the line include Brian Michael Bendis, Brian K. Vaughan, and Mark Millar. Former president Bill Jemas and Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada were also deeply involved in the creation of the line. Grant Morrison was involved in the conception of the imprint, but did not write any titles for it; he seemed to have been most involved in the creation of Ultimate Fantastic Four and was at one point set to write the series, but his departure from Marvel and exclusive contract with DC Comics made this impossible.
With the fact that Ultimate Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis has kept it aware that since Ultimate Spider-Man started, it has been only an estimated year and a half since it started, placing the timeline from 2001-2002. However, the timeline is looking disarrayed with New Ultimates appearing 8 months after Ultimatum, Ultimate Avengers appearing 3 weeks after Ultimatum, and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man takes place six months after Ultimatum. The timeline is looking even more disarrayed now in Ultimate Enemy, with several problems: Johnny Storm has black hair in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Bobby Drake has his head shaved, and Peter Parker cut his hair. Ultimate Enemy features Johnny Storm with blonde hair, Bobby Drake with uncut hair, and Peter with his full length of hair he previously had. Plus, there is a hint that refers to the New Ultimates mission against Loki and the Asgardian Trolls, which takes place 8 months after Ultimatum. This means that the New Ultimates mission has been foretold two months in advance. And considering the multiple times events are referred as happening weeks, months or even years ago results in lots more than a year and half, the continuity is just completely disarrayed.
- Another example is Ultimate Avengers 3, which states that the Liberators Invasion storyline took place 2 years prior, however, Spider-Man was captured and taken to Washington during this storyline. Ultimate Spider-Man comics give an imprecise timeline but Peter Parker was active as Spider-Man for around one year from the age of 15 to 16 and was still active as of Ultimate Avengers 3 making these dates incompatible and impossible.
One of the problems the popularity of this universe has brought is the confusion of new readers or people who aren't knowledgeable about comics who confuse events in the Earth-616 universe with Earth-1610 and vice versa, such as the Death of Spider-Man storyline. Because it was widely reported by the media, many people believed that it was Peter Parker of Earth-616 who died, instead of the Peter Parker from Earth-1610, or people writing in a mainstream Marvel character's page on Wikipedia a story about his or hers Ultimate counterpart as it was theirs, like what happened to Cyclops.
The Ultimate Universe has, as inspiration, numerous character designs and backstories from the Spider-Man and X-Men films and eventually served as inspiration for some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and 2015's Fantastic Four film's character designs and backstories.

X-Men Ultimate Earth

Contents

History

Mutants