by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief
Did you read Ultimate Marvel from 2000-2015? Did you read Ultimate Spider-Man? Ultimate Fantastic Four? The Ultimates? Ultimate End? Secret Wars (3) (2015)? Do you remember how The Maker (the evil Ultimate Reed Richards) emigrated to the regular 616 Marvel universe and was seen in books like Infamous Iron Man and New Avengers? Have you been enjoying Miles Morales: Spider-Man? Did you catch that Free Comic Book Day Spider-Man/Venom this year? You may still need to catch up on a couple things before you read Ultimate Invasion this week. This series is slated to run 4 issues before leading into an all new Ultimate Universe #1.
Marvel’s Ultimate Universe was destroyed in Ultimate End eight years ago, but now the ultimate Ultimate villain (The Maker, not Brian Michael Bendis) has broken free of his prison (Damage Control quarantine, not DC Comics) to restore his universe (Marvel-1610, not Icon, Jinxworld, or Marvel Max).
Official Synopsis of Ultimate Invasion #1:
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE BEGINS! Superstar creators Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch team up! The Illuminati must form once again to stop the Maker from his plans to destroy – or perhaps rebuild – the universe, with Miles Morales at the center of it all! Bryan’s work on THE ULTIMATES helped redefine super hero comics for the 2000s – wait until you see what he and Jonathan have in store for this decade! Including new data pages by Jonathan Hickman – plus exclusive behind-the-scenes material on the world-building that has gone into this project!
Creative Team:
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artists: Bryan Hitch and Andrew Currie
Colorists: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover: Bryan Hitch & Alex Sinclair
Variant Covers: John Tyler Christopher; Russell Dauterman; Bryan Hitch & Alex Sinclair; Ron Lim & Israel Silva; Ed McGuinness & Laura Martin; Peach Momoko; Sara Pichelli & Matthew Wilson
After the shocking dark realism of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s The Ultimates, how do Hickman and Hitch approach Ultimate Invasion? Just as we should have expected, pretty much the same. Ultimate Invasion #1 is dark, gritty, smart, action-packed, and horrifying. From the jump, we’re back on our heels trying to learn what exactly is going on and how our heroes can possibly defeat The Maker (again, evil!Reed, not Bendis). Can Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Black Panther, Professor X, Namor, and Black Bolt team up as The Illuminati again and together both determine The Maker’s plan and stop it before it’s too late?
Without spoiling anything, we know who we’re dealing with regarding Ultimate Reed, but omfg 616 Reed gets DARK in this. “Teen+” is pretty serious here.
“Good artists copy; great artists steal” was ‘stolen’ by the creators for chapter titles and certainly hints at some of the goings-on therein, but I wonder what more will be stolen by our modern TS Eliot and contemporary Picasso for this heady new series that promises to restart a comic book universe that many of us miss very much. I wonder if they’re also pointing to Steve Jobs, another icon attributed for quoting along these lines. The Maker, indeed.
The Epilogue of this issue slaps us right in the feels, as The Maker unmakes something quite important, maybe critical. Good job at reminding us to hate and fear him after several pages of politeness.
I wasn’t sure I wanted 1610 back after all these years. We got to keep Miles, so what more did we need? I think we’re about to find out.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives Ultimate Invasion #1 4/5 alternate universes.
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