Ultimates

Reviewing the Ultimate Universe

While it's difficult to take any of the events of Secret Wars - that is, the destruction of Marvel's entire continuity - with any serious conviction until the series ends and we learn the new post-relaunch status quo, one thing that seems a pretty safe bet is that the Ultimate Universe experiment is finally, fifteen years after it began, coming to an end. Of course, we've been here at least twice before - both Ultimatum and Cataclysm were pitched as events that were going to bring things to an close - but it really does all feel rather more final this time, particularly with the confirmation that Miles Morales is going to join the regular Marvel U.

And so it seems as good a time as any to look back over the past decade-and-a-half of revamped, alternate-universe Marvel stories. And to do so in as much punishing detail as possible, by examining the merits of every single ongoing and mini series published under the imprint.

Fifteen year plan to introduce Miles Morales to the Marvel Universe finally reaches conclusion

So "Ultimatum" wasn't the end. And "Cataclysm" wasn't the end either. Turns out they were waiting for something even more literal: "The End" will be the end.

To be honest, if anything killed the Ultimate universe - aside from a lot of really, really bad comics by people who weren't Brian Michael Bendis - it was the movies. The MCU Avengers have made the Ultimates look as dated as they once made the original Avengers look. It's hard to say any of them will be missed, now. Especially Ultimate Cap. We hate that guy.

But if you're asking, we'd like to keep Gwen Stacy and Jessica Drew, in addition to Miles. And maybe Ganke, at a push.

Superhero Team Names That Just Make No Sense

It's not easy to come up with a good name for a superhero team when all of the good ones are taken (and by "all of the good ones" we basically mean the Justice League and the Avengers, and even they aren't that good). So we have some measure of sympathy for the teams who just have slightly rubbish or bland names. But there are bad names, and there are names that just don't seem to mean anything whatsoever - or worse, are flat out inaccurate in their description of the team. Here, then, is a rundown of our favourite pieces of nonsensical superhero business card fodder...