Home Columns Classic Comic Compendium Classic Comic Compendium: ULTIMATE DOOMSDAY helped solidify one of Marvel’s greatest villains

Classic Comic Compendium: ULTIMATE DOOMSDAY helped solidify one of Marvel’s greatest villains

Meet...The Maker.

d. emerson eddy

05/05/2025 11:00 am

I don’t think it’s controversial to say that originally the Ultimate Universe was a success.

Whether to your taste or not, Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men attracted new readers and reinvigorated an interest in comics among many. You can argue that the approach to updating old stories or just outright telling an alternate universe story with familiar characters could be confusing at times, but by and large the stories tended to be entertaining.

And later books like The Ultimates proved to be foundational in how the Marvel Cinematic Universe coalesced. There’s no denying the influence of that book on the movies. (Even if I personally don’t tend to like the series. The art is great, but I find all of the characters to be rather horrible jerks with some questionable actions. I get that this is also probably part of the appeal to many.)

Yet, as the years went on, the Ultimate Universe in the eyes of some became just another alternate universe. Although I think many of the creators who continued working on the series were telling good stories, and the quality on Ultimate Spider-Man specifically never dipped, I think some questioned its purpose. And so they shook up the universe in a devastating way, giving rise to what’s considered one of the worst comics ever published by Marvel.

This isn’t about that. I wouldn’t do that to you. Probably. I don’t think the original Ultimate Universe ever managed to fully recover from that series, but it did still produce some good tales. And multiple more endings, as it continued to diverge from the main 616 universe.

“We are at war with a hidden enemy. The attacks are alien and/or biological in nature.”

Ultimate Doomsday by Brian Michael Bendis, Rafa Sandoval, Roger Bonet, Jordi Tarragona, Matthew Wilson, Joe Caramagna, and Clayton Cowles picks up some of the pieces after the devastation of Magneto destroying New York, of Reed Richards’ implication in destroying the Supreme Power universe, of Jessica Drew’s problem with Roxxon, the fallout of the Fantastic Four falling apart, and even some of the stuff spinning out of the Gah Lak Tus trilogy.

The story was originally published as three separate mini-series—Ultimate Enemy, Ultimate Mystery, and Ultimate Doom—but it’s really one big story. It starts as mysterious attacks begin occurring at various locations, appearances by unknown aliens, and explosions. It largely follows two parallel tracks as Spider-Man and Spider-Woman investigate the Roxxon angle and SHIELD, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm follow the broader attacks. It’s a good deal of people yelling at one another, some heavy Bendis dialogue quirks with the Roxxon Brain Trust, and explosions.

And those explosions look great. It’s interesting seeing Rafa Sandoval’s art here at this stage compared to his more recent work in Absolute Superman. There’s a greater simplicity here to his linework, similar a bit to Stuart Immonen although with more angularity and exaggeration in some faces, and shading and contour left to open shapes. With both Roger Bonet and Jordi Tarragona (on the final issue) maintaining a smooth line to the inks, and Matthew Wilson bringing out that texture and contour with his colours. There’s also a nice glow to the series of bright fluorescent colours for the explosions and powers usage.

This is also one of the few books, outside of the first year or so of the Ultimate Universe, when they hadn’t made the decision on style yet, that doesn’t use mixed case. Joe Caramagna’s letters here are in all caps.

“He’s more Doctor Doom than Doctor Doom was…and Doctor Doom was pretty good at being Doctor Doom.”

Regardless of what you think of the Ultimate Universe as a whole, or even of this story specifically, I do think that Ultimate Doomsday by Bendis, Sandoval, Bonet, Tarragona, Wilson, and Cowles accomplished one major thing: it solidified the creation of one of the biggest, most dangerous villains anywhere in the Marvel Universe.

Although not named as The Maker yet, all of the pain and heartbreak, all of the accusations and death, all of the bad decisions made by Reed Richards came to a head here. And he finally broke. Setting the stage for the horrors of what an emotionally immature, functionally immortal, super-genius of an evil version of one of the brightest heroes could be. Who still thinks he’s doing good and trying to save the world.