Draft:Ultimates (2024 team)

For the team in the original Ultimate Universe, see Ultimates. For the team in the mainstream Marvel continuity, see Ultimates (2015 team). For the comic book series of the same name, see The Ultimates (comic book) and Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates.

The Ultimates
Publication information
First appearance	Free Comic Book Day 2024: Ultimate Universe/Spider-Man #1 (May 2024)
Created by	Deniz Camp Juan Frigeri (based upon The Avengers by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)
In-story information
Base(s)	Triskelion (satellite)
Member(s)	Iron Lad (Tony Stark) Doom (Reed Richards) Thor Lady Sif Captain America Human Torch (Jim Hammond) Giant-Man Wasp America Chavez She-Hulk (Lejori Zakaria) Hawkeye (Charli Ramsey) Power Man

The Ultimates is a superhero team and a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running Avengers comic-book franchise and the Ultimates from the 2002 series of the same name.

This incarnation of the team is formed by the Tony Stark and the Reed Richards of the Earth-6160 as a network of individuals afflicted by the Maker who could be potential superheroes, by restoring to them the abilities they were meant to possess in the first place, thereby becoming the freedom fighters known to many as "The Ultimates".

Fictional team history

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.

Captain America leads Human Torch, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Hawkeye in raiding Castletown which is controlled by the Red Skull Gang where Captain America's old friend Namor is being held. They fight the Red Skull Gang led by Grand Skull and even fight John Walker who was enhanced by Tony Stark's Origin Box. They find Namor's body where it was revealed that he was killed in an uprising caused by Attuma who also killed his many wives, heirs, and allies as the ocean won't allow Namor's body to decompose. When the Red Skull Gang is defeated, Grand Skull got away and Namor was given a watery burial where his corpse can inspire the oppressed Atlanteans to rise up against Attuma. Captain America and Human Torch figured out that Grand Skull's voice modulator was destroyed and recognize his voice to be Bucky Barnes.

Meanwhile, Thor and Sif ally with the dwarves Eitri and Brokk. Using invisible cloaks that Eitri and Brokk made for them, Thor and Sif see the changes that All-Father Loki has done to all of Asgard. Meeting up with some rebels, Thor begins his part in starting a revolution in Asgard where he even enlisted Surtur to help out. Meanwhile, Iron Lad awakens and asks Doom about the image depicting Hulk having killed the Ultimates

The Ultimates meet to discuss the possible outcome where they were killed by Hulk as three different screens had Hank Pym, Hawkeye, and Luke Cage on them. Doom admits that he saved their lives, has not had any luck with Project 4, and has been avoiding a mistake that would uncreate him. As Iron Lad sympathizes Doom's claim even when a vision has everything going white when The City opens, Captain America states that they need to expand their network. Iron Lad starts to work on the plans for Ultimates 3.0 and asks who would like to go first. Unbeknownst to them, Wasp has been reporting to the Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury on the H.A.N.D. Cumulo-Carrier

Themes and motifs

Unlike their original iteration, who were amoral anti-heroes assembled as a task force by the United States government, and thus were primarily lackeys who fought state-designated enemies (and yet everyone idolize them in that world despite that they were extremely flawed), the Ultimates of the new Ultimate universe are the ideological opposite: A band of freedom fighters working to fight the systems that oppress and control their world, aiming to change the status quo set by authorities rather than enforce it. The team have faced with many odds that were caused by the Maker's alterations through time-travel and the authority of his council that had enforced it at the world for decades, those odds were similar to real-life problems such as the American trumpism and its human rights exploitation towards Latin-American people which are referenced in the second issue of the series where the heroes confront the corrupt businessman and the president of the North America Union (formerly known as the United States of America), Midas, who not only exploits America Chavez by using her cosmic power bestowed in her body as a power source for the entire country, but also behaves in a petty, racial offensive and power-hungry way, his admiration for colonizers like Hernán Cortés or Christopher Colombus makes him politically incorrect, precisely because for Midas, the atrocities that every colonizer committed to the indigenous people and the land itself in the name of making profit. The comic book, despite being its fictional narrative, it contains many meta-commentaries about real world-issues, the historic Pacific Proving Grounds are referenced in the third issue where Iron Lad, Thor and Sif visit Monster Island where its inhabitants and fauna, including Lejori Zakaria, where exposed to the Gamma-Radiation of Bruce Banner's bomb proving in the pacific islands, leaving most of the life mutated in various ways from mindless monsters to fatally ill beings. The Keystone Pipeline system that deploys small armies that exploit resources from Native American land is referenced in the fifth issue where Captain America confronts Charli Ramsey, a member of the Oglala Band of the Lakota Nation who discovered the discarded equipment of Clint Barton, one of the many would-be superheroes who Tony Stark failed to inspire into taking action. Charli Ramsey decided to take the mantle of Hawkeye for themselves to fight back against the corrupt Roxxon corporation (the people who are responsible of the repeated injustices dealt to Indigenous communities) and its allies. Private prisons and admninistrative trials are also referenced in the ninth issue where Luke Cage, was unfairly incarcerated at his fifteen that even his lawyer does not know the details, the character would suffer physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the guards, needless to say, after getting his powers from Tony, Luke decides that the unjust system can't be reformed. Thus, revolution must come to break it down, something he plans on doing repeatedly across different prisons one by one.

Reception

The characters have been praised by critics and comic book readers, some even consider the new iteration of the Ultimates better than the original one not only because they respect the original essence of their Earth-616 variants, but because for its radical reinvention of the Marvel mythos, political messaging, writing, and its development of the Ultimate Universe too.

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