It's been interesting but very much looking back at the early 2000s whenever it's the movies shows places we remember as kids video games and books you name it but there's one universe that Marvel reimagined before that was a realistic take on the characters which was Spider-Man Iron Man X men Fantastic Four Avengers you name it before it went downhill.
The Universe was written by different writers so let's begin this topic shall we.
Background
In the late 1990s, the US comic book industry had declining sales. Annual combined sales from all publishers, which had been close to a billion dollars in 1993, had declined to 270 million. The bubble that held comic books as valuable collectible items burst. In addition, the poor reception of the Batman & Robin film cast doubts on the prospects of any other comic book cinematic adaption. Marvel Comics went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, many notable artists left the company, and their rival, DC Comics, topped them in sales.Marvel Comics realized that they need to do something and decided to do heroes reborn and spider man chapter one as a fresh start for a potential universe but they didn't work out instead they had to figure out another idea Brain Michael Benids was approach to write and decided to do his work on Spider Man after Quesada hired him from his indie comic books he thought of teenager heroes, most of the characters were often adults or teenagers the younger adult audience had changed when the release of the matrix. Although X men and Spider-Man are teenagers cause most the heroes were adults and begin discussing the idea with the writers on board.
Ultimate Marvel Beginnings
While the imprint of the story of being made Bill James and discussing it with Wizard Magazine and discussing what could be the problem that the readers over the fact it was gonna be seen as a reboot and they know who the characters are instead they decided to try on Ultimate Spider Man and how he start his career as a teenager. They would later try the other characters too. It was than that Brian Michael Bendis was hired by Quesada who did a modern setting for Spider Man and did a narration style he thought of a rewrite on Amazing Fantasy #15 comic (the debut of Spider-Man), in a modern setting. Bendis preferred to avoid that writing style completely. Instead, he changed the narration style, so that it resembled a TV series more than a classic superhero comic book. There were no thought bubbles or long expositions, and the first issue did not feature any superhero costume. The art was created by Mark Bagley, known for his work on Spider-Man and Venom stories in the 1990s. The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four
Golden Age
With the success of Ultimate Spider-Man comics this allow marvel to do their take on Avengers X Men Fantastic four between 2001 and 2004 Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar would write Ultimate X men Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimates. They were really at the peak of the ultmate universe didn't need to worry about earth 616 this was the take that would re-imagine the characters and tell their own stories. But Mark had some issues with x men lore mainly he wasn't familiar with it which i don't blame him. Fantastic Four were re-imagined as teenagers and the avengers were call the ultimates. Iron man was a alcholic Captain America has a rash soldierly personality, Hulk was written as a murderous and cannibalistic monster that kills hundreds of civilians, and Thor was ambiguously introduced as either an actual Norse god (as in the main comics) or a man with stolen weapons and a psychiatric disorder. Nick Fury, originally a caucasian character in the Marvel-616 Universe, was modeled after the actor Samuel L. Jackson, and the new design eventually overshadowed the original one, being incorporated into the mainstream Marvel-616 universe and all new media adaptions of the characters. Brian would fixed the clone saga with issue 107 after fans backlash towards the 90s clone saga wasn't received he would write the symbiote arc that took inspirations from earth 616 symbiote storyline and have eddie brock and peter parker know each other when their dads work together before the plane crash. Daredevil Dr Strange and other characters were brought in and their backstories were different than before. It seems that between 2002-2007 was the golden age of ultimate marvel imagine that today not just that ultimate spider man was enjoying a success in comic book sales and this is where things took it's fate.
Fall
Unfortuntely things don't lasted longer behind the scenes at Marvel things weren't too good as Jeph Loep was hired after Bill Jemas was fired and ultimate iron man was received but wasn't really received and instead retcon and this is where the universe was changed ultimates 3 and ultimatum were published between 2008 and 2009 where the event took the worse and killed off the characters oh it also have scarlet witch and quicksilver in a relationship creepy. Now if you don't want to read this feel free to do so but if you want to stay and here more than by oh means. But if ultimates 3 got any weirder and badder scarlet witch is killed by a ultron andriod and the sex scandal between iron man and black widow that was distracting the ultimates. Magneto enraged by his daughter's death leaves to savage land and gets confronted by the utlimates. Hank pym under house areest however hank and his wife would discover the truth on ultron robot that has carried on the idenitiy of yellowjacket and use their teammates dna that duplicates use, hawkeye kills quicksilver and the plot was created none other than Doctor Doom. Yeah this plot was so bad that even the readers wonder why this was neccesary well if you happen to hear this or not, bill jemes was fired in 2004 millar and hitch left ultimate marvel and they decided to create a event that would be a final blow to the universe. If that's not bad enough ultimatum was where everything fall apart and if your favorite character survived or not than prepare for what's coming next, ultimatum kill off it's characters that was angel nightcrawler cyclops polaris emma frost wolverine magneto blob dr strange toad daredevil moon knight beast you name it all of those characters that the ultimate universe were all gone and the mutant gene wasn't born that the mutants would have instead a super soldier project that didn't work and quicksilver happens to be alive.
This was a disaster for Ultimate Marvel and ultimate spider man managed to do well in sales but sadly the universe wasn't really same after 2009 the universe was relaunched in to Ultimate Comics but never really capture the golden age of ultimate marvel line as Spider man in this universe would be killed off and replace by miles morales and the universe was rarely around before it's end in 2015 call secret wars.
Legacy
To be honest when looking back at Ultimate Marvel it really seem like that they had some much potential and creating their own storytelling and didn't need to worry about retcons nor how earth 616 contiunity. I recall reading their comics around 2008-2009 this was around Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum but never got to read it after hearing how bad it is even ign highlight it that you heard before, i readed ultimate spider man comics they were part of my childhood and would readed them during my second year at high school it was after ultimatum and death of spider man comic. After secret wars in 2015 show the universe was over but still existed i thought that was the end of it both comics were mention in a top 10 worst marvel comics list which i recall watching back in september 2015, it would have been in that in 2018 i watch owen likes comics videos on the universe how it's rise and fall. They live through the golden age and seeing it gotten worse and ultimate spider man trying to live on and reaching 150 and peter parker dying until he was reveal to be alive. But they would be a inspiration towards the marvel cinematic universe their characters and storyline would be in marvel's shows and movies with their recent comic out maybe it could come back to it's golden age.
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