Comic Book Resources

Bit daft. They’re still Marvel comics, featuring Marvel comics characters after all.

And judging from the USMv2 promo image, they’re not even changing the cover design to any significant extent.

Uhg, I have a headache.

Maybe they are going to start having some original characters on it? That’s about the only reason I could think to change the name of the line (well, other than some publicity stunt)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you…TOP COW-LITE!!!!

Hilarious. I remember having the impression when the line was launched that it was to give writers like Bendis and Millar a playground where they didn’t have to worry about 40 plus years of backstory. Now they’re pretty much rebooting things.

I think the problem now is more that no one can tell that they’re a separate line from reading them. Maybe if it had been more of a Tangent Universe/Earth-2 kind of thing, but that would have taken the fun out of it for most of the creators involved.

In any case, I expect little if any turnaround in sales. Ultimate will exist in some form or other for as long as Quesada has his current job, but its time in the sun is over.

Damned Jedi Mind Tricks.

Loved a good deal of Millar’s initial run on Ultimate X-men, and of course his take on the Ultimates. But once creators madly started ‘ultimatizing’ every single character in the Marvel U, it got old quick. Particularly when the X-book start recreating all of the worst ideas of the original.

The initial concept was good enough, but not if you’re just going to rehash old storylines.

The real reason for the relaunch is because Marvel has said they will only charge 3.99 for “new” titles.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you…TOP COW-LITE!!!!”

And now, for something completely different: DIET IMAGE!!!!

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I’m surprised Marvel has enough self-restraint to keep it to the Ultimate line.

I was expecting them to re-title everything and that i would have to end up buying stuff called Marvel Thor, Marvel Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel War of Kings…

The real reason for the relaunch is because Marvel has said they will only charge 3.99 for “new” titles.

Sooo perfect. You just won this thread a million percent.

Well, I was away from Marvel for some years and I didn’t know what the Ultimate line meant until I researched online. So, it isn’t a bad stretch to say that it is probably very confusing to noobies. I, for one, thought Ultimate meant “the best” or something like that.

If only we could get those great Ultimate characters without all their Ultimate baggage…

Ultimate actually means “last.” So apparently, the past nine years everyone’s really been reading “The Penultimate Spider-Man.”

@Matt – But there are original characters in the Ultimate universe! Like the Forever People-wannabes from UFF, or Geldoff. And, of course, the Sensational Character Finds of 2002, Hawk-Owl and Woody!

I’m starting to think this reboot means they hope people will finally stop asking about Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk.

Seriously, the reason the Ultimate line was initially successful was because Marvel took all of their current creators whose name recognition alone was enough to float a series and put them in the same corner. At one point, you had

Millar/Hitch on Ultimates

Warren Ellis on Fantastic Four

Brian K. Vaughn on Ultimate X-men

Bendis on Spider-Man

There is no trick to this. If Marvel wants to see the Ultimate line do this again, get Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Ed Brubaker, and Matt Fraction to each take a series.

Anything else is Spider-Man Chapter One with a new hat on.

It beats putting “new” in front of all the titles.

It could be a trademark thing. They had to start a line called “ultimate” or anyone could call a book “Ultimate [name of hero’”

Andrew-TLA: Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk is done. You can order issues 4 & 5 in this month’s Diamond catalog.

@Dave

Neither Millar or Bendis were considered big names when they came to the Ultimate line. They had some buzz about them with Authority and Torso (respectively), but I don’t think many people initially picked up the titles on name-recognition.

Will this make it easier for me to ignore them completely?

Really? It’s a different line? That explains so much. To think, all that time wasted on working out where in Marvel continuity the Ultimate titles fitted.

(Can I just point out that that was sarcasm before everyone jumps on me)

Ultimate Marvel is a victim of its own success. The mood and tone established in those books have so permeated 616 Marvel that there’s no storytelling difference anymore. Rebooting, rebranding, whatever it is makes sense because the alternative is the death of the imprint, just like Marvel Knights stopped making sense once Quesada became EiC.

I’m personally glad Ultimate comics will continue to exist, if Marvel’s only alternative is ‘Dark Reign.’

@Michael– You almost made me spit my drink out with laughter. Well-played, sir, well-played.

I’m surprised they didn’t rebrand it “New Ultimates”

It beats putting “new” in front of all the titles.

I’m surprised they didn’t rebrand it “New Ultimates”

Uh…I’m pretty sure Loeb’s writing a book called New Ultimates, not to be confused with Millar’s mini-event title, Ultimate Avengers.

@Lawrence-

Fair point.

Still, I’d argue that they were two indy-ish guys whose names were coming up a lot in the trade presses and were receiving almost universally positive reviews (I know it’s mindboggling to think of a time when Bendis got nearly all positive reviews, given the level of internet pissing and moaning now, but yeah, there it was. Perils of fame and all that.) and Wizard was hailing the Authority as something like the greatest fight book in twenty years. I think often, with guys like that, the buzz comibined with a jump to the mainstream is often the excuse many need to finally check them out. So maybe a modern version would be more like turning the Ultimate U. over to Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Kieron Gillen and Brian Wood, but I think the sales results would be similar.

i’m not sure that i don’t think that it’s not that dumb

THAT MADE NO SENSE

As Dave points out, if the want to really be seen as “Ultimate” comics, then they should ALL be brilliant…

GET the big name writers (the ones known for coming up with new and innovative ideas, NOT the Jeph Loebs…)
The artists should suit the mood of the comic and be able to meet deadlines (or if they are known to be slow, solicit their arc well in advance and rotate them with another similar artist.)

Ultimates vol.3, for example, dropped the ball not just from having Jeph Loeb take over the writing (turning it into Avengers 616-X-rated) but I also really don’t think Joe Mad’s artwork suited the book as a follow-on to the first two volumes…

I know JoeMad has this huge fanbase that will buy whatever has his name on it, but having him replace Bryan Hitch seemed like a slap in the face. A big manga-lovin’ slap in the weirdly-distorted, angular, plastic-looking face.

(Of course, it’s easier to buy all of a given artist’s work when he’s drawn about eight full issues in the last 15 years or so, I guess.)