Home Columns Classic Comic Compendium Classic Comic Compendium: ULTIMATE INVASION launched the new universe

Classic Comic Compendium: ULTIMATE INVASION launched the new universe

And started the Ultimate comics line we have now.

05/26/2025 11:00 am

The purpose of an alternate universe can be rough, sometimes tough to define, especially after a length of time. It can shift, drift, and seemingly lose that purpose along the way. The original Ultimate Universe was ostensibly launched to bring in new and lapsed readers without the baggage of decades of continuity. Though what exactly that meant in execution, as I’ve stated before in these dives into the line, is debatable.

Regardless of that execution, as the line got older, it developed its own years of continuity. Its own potential barriers for new readers to jump on. Even if it was a shorter timeframe and increasingly there were wikis and forums available to fill people in on what they’d missed. An in-universe solution, though, to characters getting long in the tooth was to implement a number of catastrophic events that radically changed the world and once again give new readers a new starting point.

Each time the Ultimate universe faced a devastated end, then picked up the pieces afterwards going off in new directions, radically different both from what had happened before in the line itself and further deviation away from the mainline 616 Marvel Universe. Mostly. Arguably up until the death of Peter Parker and introduction of Mile Morales, Ultimate Spider-Man often shrugged off the destruction in New York City and the annihilation of New Jersey. Though it all changed and came to a final conclusion with Secret Wars and Ultimate End. The Ultimate Universe was finally gone.

“You’re the smartest man in the universe, Reed, and now there’s an evil version of you loose in the world.”

And then, after almost eight years of laying fallow, Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Alex Sinclair, and VC’s Joe Caramagna took a swing at creating a brand new Ultimate Universe in Ultimate Invasion. Though it’s not the Earth-1610 universe, it’s something new.

Towards the end of the original Ultimate universe, the Maker had discovered the mainline universe, hung out with the Cabal and Thanos, went through the Secret Wars, and revealed that the half-assed redemption he was going through was half-assed because he was faking it. And got involved in a whole load of nefarious stuff with Knull and such. I wholly recommend reading through Jonathan Hickman’s run on Avengers and the Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, & Co.’s Venom for the brilliance of the Maker’s villainy yourself. Then he was imprisoned setting the stage for this story and his break-out. It’s interesting in how it deals with him side-stepping the 616’s heroes and setting up a brand new reality, a better reality in his eyes, where superheroes have been essentially sidelined from existing.

As one of the architects of the original Ultimates, it’s fitting that Bryan Hitch would be involved here at the genesis of a new Ultimate Universe. His artwork, with Andrew Currie providing finished inks, is detailed, crisp, and as clean-lined as you’d expect. On many pages, it’s a tighter, closer, more claustrophobic bit of action. although there are numerous, gorgeous double-page spread where things really kick off. There’s a bit of the widescreen feeling to the original book, but the differences are enough to give this story a familiar, but different feel.

Alex Sinclair’s colours are interesting here. The first chapter, set in the main Marvel universe, has almost entirely colour washes. It’s only when the universe shifts that a broader colour palette is introduced. I’m not sure if it was intentional (especially since single colour washes are again used in later sequences), but it gives an impression of the new universe being more real. And we get another delineation in Joe Caramagna’s letters of all caps and mixed case letters between the 616 and new 6160 universes. There’s also a really nice handwriting font used for a closing letter of Howard Stark to Tony.

“I think you should fight them.”

Ultimate Invasion from Hickman, Hitch, Currie, Sinclair, and Caramagna put a final nail in the coffin of the original Ultimate Universe, but also served as the catalyst for a brand new one. It left Miles Morales behind in the main Marvel Universe and spotlit a new universe designed by the Maker. A new universe where all of the potential of superheroes were suppressed and a cabal of villains (some which may surprise you) reigned over the world. Until some folks decide not to play by the rules.

Unlike the previous incarnation of the Ultimate Universe, the new one potentially has a hard out. There’s a sword of Damocles hanging over it when the City reopens. Who or what may emerge when the 18 months are up is anyone’s guess, an existential threat that apparently only a few in-universe are aware of and worried about. It gives an interesting time frame for the events of the universe’s series to occur and sets up the possibility again for major change. And that time is coming really soon.