Since the dawn of Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe, one thing has been abundantly clear: when the clock runs down on the two years The Maker, the evil Reed Richards, is trapped inside a prison called The City, he’s gonna absolutely wreck the people who put him in there. Only when the event finally happens in Ultimate Endgame #1, there’s a huge twist. Spoilers past this point but The Maker hasn’t been trapped in The City… He is The City. Starship could never.
While there’s presumably a lot more to come on this front as the five-issue series leading to the end of the Ultimate Universe continues, the first chunk of the issue concerns various members of the Ultimates Network rising up against the Maker’s Council and H.A.N.D. in order to retake as much of the world they can before The Maker escapes. They know because time moves differently inside the bubble that The Maker has had thousands of years to plan his revenge, with only — maybe — Tony Stark’s father, Howard Stark, on hand to stop him (he was the one who trapped The Maker in the bubble, with himself, back in Ultimate Invasion).
Except when it’s finally time, the bubble only briefly opens, then closes down on the minimal strike-force that’s assembled in Latveria to face The Maker: Iron Lad, America Chavez, Doom, and Spider-Man. That cuts Iron Lad off from the network, which gives H.A.N.D. time to blow up The Triskelion, the satellite that is coordinating the Ultimates Network, and turns the tide in the favor of the bad guys. Yuh-oh!
We get more on that plot point in this week’s The Ultimates #19 (so read that one second), but the point here is what’s going inside The City. Yes, there are heavily evolved shock troops who are prepared to take out everything Iron Lad and Spider-Man can dish out. But it’s only with the intervention of a surprising new character, Death’s Head, that they’re saved. They’re then taken to a cackling old man named Immortus who Tony assumes is his father, fighting back against The Maker.
That’s when we get the reveal. There’s a massive tree-like structure in the center of The City, and Immortus explains that is The Maker. He’s turned himself into a network that controls the entire City, with snaking vines covering every inch of the place. How and why is TBD, but it’s pretty clear that The Maker’s plan wasn’t simple revenge. His goal has always been control, and a need to remake the world to his liking. Perhaps he found that if he became the world he could get that control he wants. Which is weirdly also the plot of Age of Revelation over on Marvel’s X-Men line, so hopefully they’re not going for the same thing.
So no, The Maker doesn’t have a vast army of supervillains ready to attack. Nor is he marching out of the bubble to waste every hero personally. Instead, he’s got something else in mind. Like so many Marvel characters before him, he has decided to become a tree.
There’s one other big question, though…
Who Is Immortus?
As mentioned, we meet Immortus, who Tony immediately assume is his father, Howard, having survived somehow for thousands of years. In the mainline comics, Immortus is the future version of Kang the Conqueror, and we’ve already seen Kang effectively beat back The Maker in Ultimate Invasion.
While we’ve never been told who Kang is, it’s strongly implied given the similar armor and the fact that he talks reverentially about Howard Stark that Kang is Tony. And in The Ultimates #8, Star-Lord comes from the future and explains that Kang is either Tony or Doom (who, it should be noted, is this universe’s version of Reed Richards).
Given we’ve got time travel involved, I’m going to throw out a theory here: Immortus is Tony, and Doom is Kang. One would expect the two characters to be one and the same, but given how Tony is rushing to “my dad is alive!” but also has been running time loops of his own throughout The Ultimates (as has Doom), there’s every chance he’ll be shocked to learn that he has been trapped in a loop in The City this whole time. In fact, The Maker’s whole thing was an attempt to travel back in time to fix what he considers his mistakes — so perhaps he already did that, trapping Tony inside The Bubble with him. That also clears the way (potentially) for Doom to be Kang, in a twist.
Am I right? Way off? We’ve got four months to go until Ultimate Endgame — and the Ultimate Universe — is done for good, so stay tuned.
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