Ultimate Universe #1 sets up the rise of "hundreds" of new Ultimate Marvel heroes

01.11.2023 - 22:01 / gamesradar.com / Joe Caramagna / Tony Stark / Reed Richards / New

Writer Jonathan Hickman's new Ultimate Universe has officially launched. And while readers previously got some hints from Marvel about what's in store, with some particularly interesting news about the new Ultimate Spider-Man already being teased by the publisher. 

Now, with Ultimate Universe #1, the stage has been fully set for the rise of the Marvel's new take on its most famous alt-reality, and what has now been established offers even more insight into what we can expect from the new Ultimate line when it launches in January. 

Here's what we learned.

Ultimate Universe #1 by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Stefano Caselli, color artist David Curiel, and letter Joe Caramagna drops some big bombshells about Earth-6160, and how the Maker manipulated its history to prevent the rise of many of its Variants of many of Marvel's biggest heroes.

As seen in Ultimate Invasion #1, when the Maker captures the spider that would have bitten Peter Parker as a teenager before it can bestow him with his vaunted spider-powers, he prevents Peter becoming Spider-Man. Likewise, as explained in Ultimate Universe #1, he prevented Thor from becoming king of Asgard, and ensured Loki would take the throne instead.

It turns out, the Maker has amassed a huge collection of items and objects that would have created literally hundreds of super-humans on Earth-6160 without his intervention - basically the entire super-human population of Earth-6160.

Instead, only a few super-humans have arisen under the direct design of the Maker, most of whom are part of his secret cabal of international heroes who manipulate world affairs in accordance with the Maker's goals.

Now, following the Maker being trapped in a time-stasis field along with The City, his personal floating headquarters, teen Tony Stark, Reed Richards (who is trapped in Doom-like armor), Thor, and Sif break into the vault where the Maker keeps all the super-human origins he prevented. 

Though it seems at first they'll be able to get away clean, the Earth-6160 Captain Britain (one of the Maker's henchmen) arrives, stabbing Thor with his magic sword. Thor, critically wounded, uses the last of his strength to teleport his allies and the storage tanks away with the power of Mjolnir.

As Reed and Tony try to save Thor, Captain Britain returns to the Maker's other super-human minions, where they all resolve that to attack New York City using a secret Stark weapon satellite, blaming Tony and labeling him a terrorist.

At the last moment, just before the satellite launches a massive  blast at the city, Tony and Reed hint at an unseen contingency plan to avert the disaster. But the Maker's minions' plan still appears successful, the blast seems to level several blocks, with thousands