So I've recently gotten over the hump of Ultimatum and finally caught up with the Ultimate Universe - I'm actually really enjoying it. Anyone else caught up?

If not, I'm basically about to ruin the whole story.. so I suggest you don't scroll down. I'm talking like.. revelations within the past couple months potentially

I feel like, although Ultimatum was a bad read, it actually sort of helped to really distance the Universe from 616, which I think is a really good thing. I feel like the writers have suddenly realised just how much more freedom they have in these comics with the characters involved. Reed Richards turning into basically the main bad guy is pretty awesome, especially how badly he's messing everyone up at the minute. I'm really interested to see what they do with him. They've started adding a lot of new characters as well, some of them really interesting. I wonder if they'll ever port any back to the 616 universe and give them alternates there. Like Gregory Stark or Miles Morales.

I am loving the new Spider-Man, and I was genuinely upset when Peter Parker died - but that's a good thing. Proper emotional investment. Whenever someone dies in the Ultimate Universe, it's like "Oh, shit. They really could actually be dead." It's a bit annoying that they signposted his death so much before it actually happened. I know it's a marketing thing but still.. it would be nice if it snuck up on you a bit.

Gotta say, still not feeling the X-Men so much. Magneto appears to have survived... although I'm thinking that might be one of Wanda's tricks again. She seems really mean in this. Problem is the X-Men characters left are really pretty lame, all the good ones died. Wolverine's son is pretty boring, Jean Grey is.. like under some other weird identity, Liz Allan is just the female Human Torch and the guy with wings is really unoriginal.

Kitty Pryde's good, but she's basically a supporting Spider-Man character now.. although it'll be interesting to see where she ends up after Pete's death. They certainly seemed to have moved more across to the X-Men now... but then there are gonna be two human torches, since he's kinda gone with them.

The Ultimates is pretty good, and Ultimate Hawkeye has really grown on me throughout the series. The thing that annoys me about older comics is that they are really unimaginitive with people's powers sometimes, whereas Ultimate Hawkeye has so many applications for his awesome vision and shooting. Smashing reinforced glass from 6 feet away with a pen. Sweet. Or how in the 60s and 70s Quicksilver would just roll himself into a ball and bounce around impotently, but now they've got him traversing continents in nanoseconds and appearing sitting down in rooms in the middle of a conversation.

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I stopped reading at Ultimatum. The Reed thing sounds really interesting, makes me want to pick up some issues and start reading again.

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Damn you Kez. I was making such good progress on the order, clearing 15 books a day, and now I am back on the ultimate bandwagon. Just read 10 issues, and after the all the crap horror novels its like an oasis in a desert. Damn the quality writing.

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Haha, yeah I know what you mean. Still, it won't hold you up for very long. I demolished the entire run from Ultimatum to present in about three days. I have now read every single comic set in the Ultimate Universe... and it's not enough. =P

The new USM comic is really very good. Also, not sure if you've heard but 616-Spider-Man is crossing over into the Ultimate Universe for a miniseries called "Spider-Men" which has just started. I read the first issue and it looks like it could be pretty good.

In case you're interested.. this is the order I read post-Ultimatum. It worked pretty well:

Ultimate Comics: Armor Wars
Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #1-6 - The World According to Peter Parker
Ultimate Comics: Avengers - The Next Generation
Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #7-8 - Crossroad
Ultimate Comics: Avengers 2 - Crime & Punishment
Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #9-14 - Chameleons
Ultimate Comics: Doomsday
-Ultimate Comics: Enemy
-Ultimate Comics: Mystery
-Ultimate Comics: Doom
Ultimate Comics: Captain America
Ultimate Comics: New Ultimates
Ultimate Comics: Thor (This one can kinda go anywhere... it's set quite a long time before Ultimatum)
Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #15, #150-155 - Death of Spider-man Prelude
Ultimate Comics: Avengers 3 - Blade vs. the Avengers (This is almost certainly the worst series since Ultimatum.. but mercifully quite short)

DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN

-Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #156-160
-Ultimate Comics: Avengers vs New Ultimates

Ultimate Comics: Fallout

POST DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN

Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #1-5 - Who is Miles Morales?
Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates #1-4 - The Republic is Burning
Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye
Ultimate Comics: X-Men #1-6
Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates #5-6 - The World
Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #6-12
Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates #7-12 - Two Cities, Two Worlds
Ultimate Comics: X-Men #7-12

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Thanks for the reading order. I've read everything up to Ultimatum. Then I read Ultimate Armor Wars, Avengers, and Thor. It is great stuff. I'm not sure I like the idea of 616 and 1610 crossing over though

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'The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.'- Steven Erikson

Richard Reed turns into a bad guy? Hmm, that evolution would be interesting to see. Even though you've posted a lot of spoilers, I'm tempted to go pick some issues up so I can see how they happen.

I thought that Fallout #1 was a particularly moving comic book. Fantastic send off for Ultimate Parker..

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Do not bore me with such trite cliches. For I have you in my clutches, and should I choose, I could snuff out your insignificant lives in an instant.

I've read through Avengers 2 and I have to say, this is better than pre ultimatum. The writers have finally taken the creative freedom they have and used it. I think someone else mentioned thi, as well. I mean, this doesn't have to mirror 616 at all so why should it. Run with the freedom. This is great.

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'The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.'- Steven Erikson

Yeah, the Death of Spider-Man was pretty well handled. I wasn't sure about the whole thing with Thor in Ultimate Fallout, though. They just kinda wedged that in randomly. Like they suddenly realised they had started writing stories with Asgard on Earth and hadn't actually put it there yet, so decided to just throw it into Fallout.

To be fair the post-Ultimatum universe is actually quite an interesting place. Ultimatum was like a forest-fire. Horrific, unbearable carnage while it's going on, but afterwards leaving clear and fertile land for fresh ideas to spring into life. Or something.

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The list of the order to read the arcs in is missing Ultimate X where Jimmy Hudson and all the rest get an introduction.



I just finished that comic and it was incredible. I was especially touched by the little girl who tells Aunt May that she was saved by Spider-Man from a fire when she was younger. I have never really felt that much of a blow from the death a comic character before. It just never seemed like it was too big of a deal (it never is in comics, they all come back), but this one seemed huge to me. I am genuinely sad to see Ultimate Peter Parker depart.

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'The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.'- Steven Erikson