# Ultimates

The Ultimates is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and created by writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch, which first started publication from The Ultimates #1 (cover date March 2002), as part of the company's Ultimate Marvel imprint. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running Avengers comic-book franchise, centering around a task-force of super-humans and special agents organized by the U.S. government to combat growing threats to the world. The tale chronicles their progress as they bond and slowly learn to work together, despite their differing natures and personalities.

## Publication history

The first volume of the Ultimates, written by Millar and illustrated by Hitch, was published in limited series format and ran for thirteen issues with production delays from January 30, 2002 until March 31, 2004. Hitch described the alternative-reality reimagining as one where, "You have to approach it as though nothing has happened before and tell the story fresh from the start.... We had to get to the core of who these people were and build outwards, so Cap [Captain America] was a soldier, Thor is either a nut case or a messiah ... Banner [the Hulk] an insecure genius, and [superspy Nick] Fury the king of cool".
A second series, also by Millar and Hitch, was released as Ultimates 2 and ran 13 issues from Dec. 2004 to May 2007. The series had originally been slated for April 2004, but was resolicited to stockpile enough issues for a monthly release. It ran into similar production delays, however, due to Millar's struggles with Crohn's Disease and involvement writing Civil War, as well as the artists' need to keep busy with other work in the meantime.
In a 2004 interview, Millar outlined the difference between the Ultimates and the Avengers: "The idea behind The Avengers is that the Marvel Universe's biggest players all get together and fight all the biggest supervillains they can't defeat individually, whereas Ultimates 2 is an exploration of what happens when a bunch of ordinary people are turned into super-soldiers and being groomed to fight the real-life war on terror."
This was followed by the one-shot Ultimate Saga (Nov. 2007), a condensed retelling, by writers C. B. Cebulski and Mindy Owens and artist Travis Charest, of the events of Ultimates and Ultimates 2. A third series, Ultimates 3 (Dec 2007 – Sept 2008) was written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Joe Madureira.
Mark Millar returned to the Ultimates with a series of shorter miniseries, beginning in 2009 with Ultimate Comics: Avengers, which ran from August 2009 until July 2011.
The Earth-6160 version of the Ultimates began its own comic series on June 5, 2024.

## Plot
### The Ultimates

General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. establishes a strike force of government-sponsored superhumans which includes Steve Rogers (Captain America); scientist couple Henry and Janet Pym (Giant-Man and the Wasp); Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Tony Stark (Iron Man). Together, they are based at the S.H.I.E.L.D facility the Triskelion. When Banner injects himself with the super-soldier serum and goes on a bloody rampage as the Hulk, he is eventually stopped by the other superhumans with the aid of Thor. The team then join forces with the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and agents Hawkeye and Black Widow against the alien shape-shifters the Chitauri, who are defeated.

### The Ultimates 2

A year later public opinion has turned against the team when it is discovered that Bruce Banner is in fact the Hulk and was responsible for hundreds of deaths. The team is undermined further when Thor is accused of being an escaped mental patient and is incarcerated. This is the doing of his brother Loki, who also facilitates the creation of a new team of anti-American multi-nationals called the "Liberators". With the aid of the Black Widow – who betrays the team to the Liberators – the Ultimates are captured, but eventually escape and battle the Liberators to the death. With the aid of Asgardian warriors, the Ultimates defeat both Loki and the Liberators. Seeing how having the Ultimates working with the United States government "policing" the world would produce similar results to their battle against the Liberators, the team decided to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and to continue to work as an independent team instead.

### The Ultimates 3

Hank Pym is under house arrest at Ultimates Mansion. One of Pym's Ultron robots drugs him and leaks a sex tape of Stark and the Black Widow to the internet. These distract from the robot's fatal shooting of the Scarlet Witch. Magneto abducts Wanda's corpse and retreats to the Savage Land, where he is confronted by the Ultimates. Pym and Wasp discover the truth about the Ultron robot, which has adopted the identity of Yellowjacket and uses the Ultimates' DNA to create a series of android duplicates. Although the true Ultimates destroy their android counterparts and Yellowjacket, Quicksilver is apparently killed by Hawkeye. The Wasp then invites Pym to return to the Ultimates, and he accepts. The mastermind behind the robot's plot is revealed to be Doctor Doom.

### New Ultimates

The Ultimate Defenders, suddenly with superpowers, steal Thor's hammer from Valkyrie. Hela agrees to release Thor in exchange for a son. Loki arrives in Central Park with an army of monsters.

### Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates

Writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić relaunched the Ultimates with a different lineup consisting of Nick Fury, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Woman and others.

### All-New Ultimates

Following the conclusion of the miniseries Cataclysm and under the Ultimate Marvel NOW! banner, coinciding with the Marvel Universe All-New Marvel NOW! launch, writer Michel Fiffe and artist Amilcar Pinna brought together a new team, including Spider-Man, the new Black Widow who was formerly Spider-Woman, Kitty Pryde, Bombshell, and Cloak and Dagger. The book ran for 12 issues.
All-New Ultimates has been collected in two trade paperbacks; Volume One is titled Power for Power, collecting issues #1–6; while Volume Two is titled No Gods, No Masters, collecting issues #7-#12.

### Return

When the Maker collaborated with the High Evolutionary to destroy the Superflow that kept the different universes separate in order to merge them into one reality, the Ultimates members Captain America, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp, and Hulk were revived where they were to help Eternity fight the First Firmament. When Earth-616's version of the Ultimates arrived on Counter-Earth to confront Maker about his actions, he ordered the Earth-1610 Ultimates to attack. As both versions of Ultimates concluded that there is no reason to fight each other, Maker killed the Earth-1610 Captain America for disobeying his orders. Upon Maker being defeated, both Ultimates helped Eternity to defeat the First Firmament. Afterwards, the Earth-1610 Ultimates left to pursue Maker.
The Ultimates are later seen on Earth-1610 when it is recreated.

## Other versions
### Earth-616

As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, the Prime earth version of the Ultimates make their debut where they deal with cosmic threats before they can affect Earth.

### Ultimate Universe

During the "Ultimate Invasion" storyline, Maker traveled to Earth-6160 and remade it into his own image. After Iron Man sacrificed himself to seal himself, Maker, and Kang the Conqueror inside The City at Latveria, Tony Stark and Reed Richards work to undo the Maker's work, with Tony placing the Immortus Engine into his armor and taking up the name of Iron Lad. They later find Captain America frozen in ice. With Richards having taken up the alias of Doom, he and Tony raid an Asgardian prison where they free Thor while his warden Sif is transported as well. She agrees to help as they raid a repository in Latveria so that they can restore the stolen lives of those whose origins Maker had thwarted. They only run off with a few items due to a attack by Henri Duggary. The rest of the Maker's Council conducts a false flag attack on Stark Tower which kills thousands, framing Tony and his group as terrorists.
Operating covertly in a Stark/Stane satellite called "The Triskelion" after being sent six months into the future, Tony states they have 18 months before The City opens. Using the Immortus Engine, they can operate in the past, present, and future. Tony plans on starting a resistance network against the Council by trying to recreate Earth-616's heroes. After calculations in modifying the Engine, Doom states they could build their resistance movement six months in the past and have their army overnight in the future. During their work, Iron Lad oversees Captain America's awakening from his coma and explains about the changed political status quo, while Thor still heals from his wounds. A week later, Rogers advises Stark and Doom that they need to start a revolution on the ground. Iron Lad then tries sending "origin-machines" back in time. Only a few take them as some of them are either intercepted or have declined. Tony states that they'll have to do it another way. They start by recruiting exterminators Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne. Just then, they are attacked by Duggary, the new ruler of the East Coast, his Black Crusade, and his army of giants. As the group fights Henri's forces, Janet becomes Wasp. Hank soon becomes Giant-Man and steps on some of the Black Crusade. The news mentions their battle as Hank's footprint is heavily discussed online. Stark states that the Ultimates are here and are going to leave a mark.
Iron Lad, Captain America, and Doom later raid a facility called "Damage Control" which contains different items belonging to deceased heroes as well as the corpses of many. Examples include the broken body of a robot, the corpse of the "Infant King of Attilan", a taxidermy of a man and his pet Smilodon from the Savage Land, fragments of an unknown costume, and the metallic skeleton of Weapon X. While they are attacked by agents of H.A.N.D, the Maker's secret police, Captain America and Iron Lad manage to free Human Torch from his casing, welcoming him to the Ultimates.
On July 4th, Iron Lad, Captain America, Giant-Man, and Wasp arrive at the White House. Earlier that day, Steve Rogers views a holo-program from Howard Stark's files on the history of the former United States of America as it shows how Maker altered the Earth's timeline since 1963, starting with him establishing The City and meeting John F. Kennedy. Back in the present, the Ultimates fight their way past H.A.N.D. agents. They enter the Oval Office where they confront a man in an Iron Man armor named "Midas". Iron Lad identifies it as his father's first armor, which Midas says was gained when the Stark/Stane' assets were up for grabs. Midas tries to make a deal with the team as Rogers state their intentions are to save America. Midas states that his vision of America is wider as he considers commerce is what truly represents the nation itself. They fight until Iron Lad blows a hole to the basement. They find a woman trapped in a machine that is feeding off of her cosmic radiation. Midas claims she fell from the future and that her energy is highly valuable. With Giant-Man and Wasp unconscious and Iron Lad's armor in power saving mode, Captain America fights against a ranting and rambling Midas. Wasp regains consciousness and takes the opportunity to shoot the machine, freeing the woman as Rogers gives Midas a neck injury. Midas claims that if they take her, part of the American electrical grid will fail. In a flashback during July 1st, Steve learns from Tony that he has been through the entire holographic program, learning the history of decades in a few days. Back in the present, Captain America carries the woman, asking if she remembers her name. She says her name is America as the Ultimates walk away from a burning White House.
Later, at an island in the South Pacific, Iron Lad, Thor, and Sif, find gamma-irradiated lizards as they are confronted by one of them while exploring. After almost killing a humanoid, they are confronted by a She-Hulk. She introduces herself as Lejori Zakaria who is the protector of the island and its people. Iron Lad states that they didn't come to fight and just wanted to talk. Lejori then calms down the gamma-irradiated humanoid as it regresses to a human baby as she talks about how Bruce Banner left her fellow islanders to live in the fallout after the "Banner-Ulam Gamma Bomb" was tested nearby. When Tony asks if there are others like her, Lejori takes them to her village and shows off the mutated islanders who aren't like her. She asks Iron Lad to fix their island before she can fully join the fight against Banner and the Council. Meanwhile, Hulk is shown watching this from a hidden camera feed as he declares the Ultimates as intruders on his land. He gives the orders to assemble the Immortal Weapons as the Ultimates are "making him angry".
Later at the Triskelion, Iron Lad briefs Captain America on recent attacks to Roxxon facilities where survivors have stated seeing flying arrows that are of Stark/Stane's design. Noting that the person who was supposed to be Hawkeye rejected the offer, someone has obtained the Hawkeye equipment. Tony sends Captain America to confront them since he's swamped with the Gamma Island reclamation and Human Torch's repairs and the other members are busy. At Roxxon Refinery 15, Hawkeye is confronted by Captain America who identifies them as a Native American named Charli Ramsey. Hawkeye goes on the attack using different arrows on Rogers while claiming that Roxxon does whatever they want and anyone who stands up to them gets arrested. During the fight, armed soldiers arrive, which Hawkeye states are part of Roxxon's "Cleanup Crew", a team of mercenaries who secure mining operations and that put down the "Savage Land Revolt" in the 70s. After defeating them, Hawkeye agrees to join the Ultimates. Meanwhile, With Emmanuel da Costa infuriated that they harmed Roxxon which is part of his profile, Hulk calms him down while stating that he had time to study their strengths and weaknesses. When Emmanuel asks what he would propose, Hulk states that he's going to kill them once and for all.
Later, Iron Lad has cracked the Overnet used by Maker's Council and has brought the entire team (minus Doom) to a Damage Control location that supposedly contains a dozen super-powered prisoners that they plan to rescue before their execution. When they enter it, they instead find themselves in another dimension, with Hulk inside as he offers them tea. She-Hulk then attacks Hulk for what he did to her island as he uses his Iron Fist move on her. Meanwhile, Doom is told by the Triskelion's A.I. that it has lost contact with everyone. Hulk reveals to the team that they are on K'un-L'un and that he rules all of the seven Capital Cities of Heaven. His Immortal Weapons (consisting of Bride of Nine World-Breakers, Crane Mother of the Bomb, Decay's Beautiful Daughter, Fat Cobra, Prince of Meltdowns, and Uranium Brother #235) then arrive as they take gamma injections. The Ultimates then fight them and Hulk. Meanwhile, Doom finally locates the Ultimates after doing a search across Avalon, Asgard, and Hel. Fat Cobra then swallows a smaller Wasp, but she grows enough to kill him and then collapses in Giant-Man's arms. Hulk uses his Gigatron Vice Grip on Iron Lad to defeat him. She-Hulk then lunges towards Hulk, but he breaks her right hand off. Doom manages to teleport everyone out at the last minute. As he checks on everyone, She-Hulk regenerates her right hand and claims that Iron Lad is dead.
While incognito on the streets, Steve Rogers and Jim Hammond talk about how the Ultimates have been blamed for everything. Jim mentions that the rest of the team are looking at Steve for leadership after what happened to Tony. Both reminisce about their time during World War II, later seeing the news about the Stark Tower Memorial overseen by Father Matthew Murdock. Hank and Janet attend the event. At Oscorp Defense, Hawkeye destroys a weapons supply while it's shipped off to the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. In Guatemala, America Chavez protects a pro-democracy demonstration by melting the police officers' armors. Thor and Sif are at Yggdrasil where Sif mentions that she told Doom that they could sow chaos in the Nine Realms, spread discontent, raise an army, and give All-Father Loki a taste of his medicine. Considering a Asgardian Rebellion, Sif asks Thor where they should start. On the Triskelion, Doom convinces She-Hulk to lay low to protect both her people and the Ultimates, stating he can tap into Hulk's surveillance system to keep an eye on her village. Tony is shown in a machine on life support, as Doom oversees his recovery.
As Captain America, Giant-Man, Wasp, Human Torch, America Chavez, She-Hulk, and Hawkeye are doing some time-traveling, Doom is speaking through a robot that is assisting them. They end up coming upon a crash-landed ship containing an alien woman who recognized America as she doesn't remember them. They brought up events she helped in like defeating the Ultron Division, fighting the 24th Celestial Host when it judged the Milky Way as unworthy, and turning the Negative Zone into the Positive Zone. The alien introduces herself as the Guardians of the Galaxy from the 61th Century. When the Ultimates start to get concern, the female alien introduces herself as Captain Marvel and introduces her teammates Star-Lord: Master of the Solar System, Ultimate Nullifier who once shot Mephisto through the Heart with an O-Bullet, and Cosmo Starstalker who stayed behind when other dogs ascended to a higher lifeform as the Ultimates fight them. Cosmo detects that America's mind was cut open many times enough that her "past is amputated". As Cosmo shows the Ultimates the day when they fell, Star-Lord speaks to Doom's robot noting that he is not the Doom they are familiar with and that he will be responsible for the loss of a trillion lives. Captain Marvel then shares her memories with America where they used to be lovers in the 61st Century where it is in a post-imperialistic time. Though there are 250,000 Guardians protecting a lot of planets, one group of them fell victim to the Unmaker. The Guardians of the Galaxy boarded a time ship to escape their unraveling time and ended up encountering an army outside of time led by Kang the Conqueror. They fought against them while Captain Universe, Star Brand, Molecule Boy, Giraud the Phoenix, Gary: Wielder of the Infinty Gauntlet maintained the integrity of their ship. When the Hero-Star of Tranta went supernova, it slew the descendants of Hulk who lived on Planet Hulk as they flew their ship into whatever reality has replaced their future. A lot of people died upon impact where Captain Marvel landed in the Stone Age which took her awhile to build a time ship to locate her teammates. After that story, Captain Marvel figured that America landing in this time period broke the Unmaker's barrier as she plans to find a way to break the barrier and undo the Unmaker's work and save everyone. As America still doesn't have her own memories and claims that Maker will be out of The City in 10 months, Captain Marvel states that the Ultimates will still lose against Maker. Before the Guardians of the Galaxy leave, Captain Marvel gives America temporal flare that will signal them. As the Guardians of the Galaxy leave to find their displaced members, Doom looks over a recuperating Tony Stark.
One of Tony Stark's "origin machine" success stories occurred in 2024 at Seagate Prison when one of those boxes showed up in front of inmate Luke Cage. While he was able to use his abilities to form a gang and overthrow the prison system, Luke was visited by Iron Lad who welcomes him to the Ultimates. Luke tells Iron Lad that he can help him out from within the prison system until everyone is freed. When in Gordium Correctional Facility, Luke befriends fellow inmate Danny Rand. As the guards later plan to have the firing squad shoot Luke Cage for planning a possible prison escape, the bullets don't harm him as he leads a prison riot that enters its third day. With that broadcast on the news, She-Hulk speaks to Tony in his healing chamber mentioning about the pain that she has. While noting that she has to get back to her people, she advises Tony not to give up the fight. After She-Hulk walks away, Tony's eyes open.

## Sales and reception

Overall, the Ultimates series has been generally well received by critics and readers, with the first two volumes being praised for the surprisingly mature themes and concepts, the more humanly flawed and layered characterizations of the original Avengers members, Millar's storytelling and writing, Hitch's photo-realistic and cinematic-styled artwork, the modernized, grittier and realistic, yet simultaneously engaging and intriguing re-imagining of the classic Avengers mythos and the political relevance of the first two volumes, while criticism was leveled at the unnecessarily adult-oriented, shallow attempt at maturity and the overly cynical tone and direction of the series, with the third volume: The Ultimates 3 being met with a mostly negative reception, compared to the positive response received by the first two volumes, for the aforementioned reasons. The first volume of Ultimates #1 ranked fourth among the top 300 comics sold for February 2002, based on Diamond Publisher's indexes, with the next three issues ranked second, second, and third, respectively.
Popmatters.com praised Mark Millar's writing in the opening eight issues, stating the writer "is able to walk a very fine line of keeping the story measured yet entertaining". Comics Bulletin, in a review of the "Homeland Security" story arc, states the artwork is "visual magnificence" yet is concerned about the dark writing of the characters stripped of their "super-heroic nobility" and was "disheartened by the book’s tone and cynicism". Shakingthrough.net gave "Homeland Security" a 4.2 out of 5.0 stating it is an "engaging read, filled with intriguing and amusing modern takes on classic Marvel characters" whilst praising Bryan Hitch's artwork by saying it is "amazing, gorgeous artwork, which continues to set the standard for cinematic photo-realism."
Ultimates 2 #1 ranked second among the top 300 comics sold for December 2004, with the next three issues ranked second, fourth and sixth, respectively.
Reviewing Ultimates 2, Curledup.com praised Millar's writing of the classic heroes and the "inclusion of current-day politics" improves the storyline. Comics Bulletin reviewed the final issue #13 but found it anticlimactic with the issue degenerating to a "slug fest". The artwork was praised with the reviewer stating that Bryan Hitch's "artwork has definitely been one of the main elements that will make this series memorable." Den of Geek praised the artwork, with "Bryan Hitch doing some of the best work of his career", but was critical of Millar's writing stating it had "no substance".
Ultimates 3 #1 ranked first in December 2007's Top 300 comics with preorder sales of 131,401, Issue #2 ranked number seven with 105,070 preorders. Issue three ranked better than its predecessor, falling at number five, but had a smaller number of preorders, totaling at 97,210.
Reviewing Ultimates 3, IGN called the book a "reasonably decent experience" although the issue "falters on its own merits", only to later state while reviewing the third issue that "Behind the theatrics and swagger, there's just nothing there to draw me in. These are the characters that I used to enjoy in name only, hollow shells of what they used to be." Alvaro's Comic Boards' review was even harsher, remarking that Ultimates 3 "has somehow managed to entirely miss what made the Ultimates something other than alternative universe Avengers" and adding "this was the worst comic I've read all year".
2011's Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates received highly positive reactions upon its debut. Chad Nevett from Comic Book Resources wrote that "the comic is exciting and sets up a large story that, right now, seems like it could easily end with the destruction of the team. A first issue that starts with its foot on the gas is exactly what’s called for", while IGN gave the first issue 8/10.

## Collected editions

| Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
| The Ultimates Vol. 1: Super-Human | Ultimates #1–6 | April 2006 | 978-0785109600 |
| The Ultimates Vol. 2: Homeland Security | Ultimates #7-13 | April 2006 | 978-0785110781 |
| The Ultimates: Ultimate Collection | Ultimates #1–13 | October 2004 | 978-0785110828 |
| The Ultimates 2 Vol. 1: Gods and Monsters | Ultimates 2 #1–6 | September 2006 | 978-0785110934 |
| The Ultimates 2 Vol. 2: Grand Theft America | Ultimates 2 #7–13 | January 2007 | 978-0785117902 |
| The Ultimate Annuals Vol. 1 | The Ultimates Annual #1, Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #1, Ultimate X-Men Annual #1, Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 | February 2006 | 978-0785120353 |
| The Ultimate Annuals Vol. 2 | The Ultimates Annual #2, Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #2, Ultimate X-Men Annual #2, Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #2 | February 2007 | 978-0785123712 |
| The Ultimates 2: Ultimate Collection | Ultimates 2 #1–13, Ultimates Annual #1 | December 2007 | 978-0785121381 |
| The Ultimates Omnibus | Ultimates #1–13, Ultimates 2 #1–13, Ultimates Annual #1 | June 2009 | 978-0785137801 |
| The Ultimates 3: Who Killed the Scarlet Witch? | Ultimates 3 #1–5 | May 2009 | 978-0785122692 |

## In other media
### Marvel Cinematic Universe

* Numerous aspects and elements of the Ultimates were utilized for the look and storyline of The Avengers.
* It has been indicated that aspects of Avengers: Age of Ultron were also inspired by the Ultimate Marvel Comics.

### Animation

* The Ultimates have been the basis for Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2.
* The Ultimates appear in a self-titled episode of Avengers Assemble as Adaptoid-esque duplicates of the Avengers.

### Video games

* The Ultimates are alluded in Ultimate Spider-Man. A number of posters depicting The Triskelion are seen announcing a movie called The Ultimates.
* Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury have their Ultimate universe costumes in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
* The Ultimates appears at the end of Spider-Man: Battle for New York after Spider-Man battling the Green Goblin in the final level.
* Iron Man and Thor have unlockable skins based on their Ultimate universe costumes in the videogame Marvel's Avengers.

### Novels

Two novels based on the Ultimates have been released:
| Tomorrow Men | (ISBN 1-4165-1065-6) | Michael Jan Friedman |
| The Ultimates: Against All Enemies | (ISBN 1-4165-1071-0) | Alexander C. Irvine |