| "Ultimate Marvel" thematic stories | |
|---|---|
 Cover to The Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates. | |
| Publication information | |
| Schedule | Varied |
| Title(s) | List of publications |
| Formats | Varied |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 2000–2015 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | |
| Penciller(s) | |
| Editor(s) | Joe Quesada |
Ultimate Marvel, later known as Ultimate Comics, was an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and modernized versions of the company's superhero characters from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, later known as the Ultimate Universe. Those characters include Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Ultimates (the Ultimate Marvel Universe counterpart of the Avengers), the Fantastic Four, and others. The imprint was launched in 2000 with the publication of the series Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men in 2001, followed by The Ultimates and Ultimate Fantastic Four in 2002 and 2004 respectively providing new origin stories for the characters. The reality of Ultimate Marvel is designated as Earth-1610 as part of the Marvel Comics Multiverse.
The Ultimate Universe, as a part of a large-scale reboot of the All-New, All-Different Marvel Multiverse, ended at the conclusion of the 2015 "Secret Wars" storyline, when select characters from the Ultimate Universe moved to the mainstream universe.[1] However, writer Brian Michael Bendis established at the end of the 2017 miniseries Spider-Men II that the universe and its superheroes still exist.[2]
Between June and September 2023, Marvel published the Ultimate Invasion miniseries written by Jonathan Hickman with art by The Ultimates co-creator Bryan Hitch. The events of the miniseries culminated in the establishment of a rebooted Ultimate Universe designated as Earth-6160, which serves as the setting for a relaunched series of books under the Ultimate Marvel banner, which began with the eponymous Ultimate Universe #1 in November 2023. The new Ultimate imprint also encompasses new versions of Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, and The Ultimates, as well as a standalone Ultimate Black Panther story.
- ^ "The MARVEL UNIVERSE Is Ending". Newsarama.com. 2015-01-20. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
- ^ Glass, Joe (December 27, 2017). "A Major Unexpected Return in Today's Spider-Men II #5". Bleeding Cool.