Turns out, Marvel is not kidding about that whole Ultimate Endgame thing, as the publisher has just announced at New York Comic Con‘s retailer day that the Ultimate Universe will end in April of 2026.
Currently, the best-selling comic book line comprises five(ish) titles: Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Wolverine, and The Ultimates. In addition, they’re wrapping up the crossover book Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion as well as launching a one-shot Ultimate Universe: Two Years In, in December. This all leads to the December 31 publication of Ultimate Endgame #1, which will run five issues — and presumably bring about the destruction of the current Ultimate Universe.
Written by Deniz Camp with art by Terry Dodson and Jonas Scharf, Ultimate Endgame brings The Maker — the evil Reed Richards first introduced in the original Ultimate Universe line — back to attack the united (?) heroes of the new Ultimate Universe. While they’ve had two years to prepare for his arrival, he’s had thousands of years inside a time bubble, which, given he wrecked the whole universe the first time, killing heroes and tweaking their origins, they’re in for the fight of their lives.
We’ve also known for a while that Ultimate Spider-Man was coming to end with December’s issue #24, and a quickly retracted statement from Ultimate X-Men script adapter Zack Davisson indicated that title would do the same. Given the ongoing countdown in all of the books — they’re presented in “real time,” month by month — it only makes sense that this miniseries would bring the current line to a close.
…I say current line because we all know how this works, right? The Ultimate Universe is a best-seller for Marvel. While the publisher doesn’t share sales stats, from independent sources we can gather than the Ultimate titles, particularly in collected form, are regularly outselling the mainline books (and the same holds true for DC and their Absolute Universe line). While it’s nice in theory to think that Marvel would wrap up the two plus year story of the Ultimate Universe cleanly so that it could live on forever in satisfying fashion on bookshelves for years to come… Come on, man.
While we’re talking about April, 2026, which is a ways away, there’s every chance that even if the Ultimate Universe will end next year, a new Ultimate Universe, or line of comics will rise to take its place, likely with new creators. The advantage there is Marvel gets to continue their best-sellers, while also creating a breaking point that allows those previous stories to exist in trade editions, while also keeping the monthly sales going.
But that’s just speculation. Maybe they really are ending the Ultimate Universe next year, wiping their hands of it, and will revisit it again in another 20 years, for another fresh take. Either way, this is sure to be a big topic of conversation throughout the New York Comic Con weekend and beyond.
This news was first reported by Bleeding Cool.
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