Jonathan Hickman reveals Marvel’s Ultimate Universe wasn’t originally supposed to end

[u/wendigo72]

https://aiptcomics.com/2026/10/05/jonathan-hickman-marvel-ultimate-universe-2/

Summary: Like everyone could guess, Hickman was gonna leave the book and another writer was planned to jump on after #24 issues But marvel changed their minds. Marvel now sees value in making trade paper bags be 24 issues to be prestige-format books instead of numbered volumes

[u/Authorigas]

The decisions over at the House of Ideas at an executive level continue to baffle me. I know they have good books right now, and I hope Midnight will be good. But stuff like this is just...baffling.

[u/ZealousidealHyena102 → u/Authorigas]

It honestly feels like if a Marvel comic isn't sell unrealistic number expectations to Marvel eyes, then Marvel is gonna cancel it no matter how good the quality may be.

[u/Capable-Education724 → u/ZealousidealHyena102]

The old SquareEnix “It only sold a couple million copies?!” method.

[u/charcharmunro → u/ZealousidealHyena102]

Imperial was such a baffling backdown SO quick, because I guess Imperial didn't sell infinite copies so fuck the Cosmic side of Marvel I guess.

[u/ZealousidealHyena102 → u/charcharmunro]

I'm still bum that canned Kwannon Psylocke solo run getting canned because hot damn, it was very good and Alyssa Wong really gets Kwannon and the recent Ghostlocke one shot was very good. Marvel also needs to do a better job of promoting their stuff too.

[u/MetalJrock → u/Authorigas]

Thankfully they banished the last guy to Japan and Hickman’s had only good things to say about Wacker.

[u/TheBeeFromNature → u/MetalJrock]

Has this sub forgotten what happened the last time we looked at a Wacker and went "that's my guy" ?

[u/Christy_Christmas → u/TheBeeFromNature]

We? What do you mean “we”? Nintendo “we”?

I ain’t even heard of no Tough Guys. You put a Tough Guys in front of me, I wouldn’t recognize it. That’s all Matt, man.

[u/UFOLoche → u/TheBeeFromNature]

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who immediately thought that.

[u/tacocatisonfire → u/TheBeeFromNature]

What did he do?

[u/Bizarre_RNS_Radio → u/tacocatisonfire]

All you need to know is that this is not Matt’s Guy.

[u/Diem-Robo → u/Bizarre_RNS_Radio]

He's having no part of it, even

[u/moonmeh → u/Bizarre_RNS_Radio]

god bless

[u/ContraryPython → u/MetalJrock]

Too bad Brevoort and Lowe are still employed.

[u/Capable-Education724 → u/Authorigas]

If the combination of what’s been officially said and rumours from reliable sources (like the ones that broke Hickman was meant to just pass the book off to somebody else originally ages ago) are true, a lot of it is pressure from above (Disney) to Mickey Mousify (i.e. make everyone important into the static character archetype) a lot of the Marvel cast and to ensure profit margins stay above a certain level.

Like, a big reason they moved Marvel Comics HQ from NYC to Cali is to make everything cheaper & so the Disney brass assigned to keep an eye on them can do so more easily.

A few writers that have written for Marvel since the buyout have said there’s been a few times where editorial felt like the Sword of Damocles was hanging over the entirety of Marvel Comics’ heads.

As an aside, it’s also why Marvel Comics’ pay (for their writers and artists) has notoriously gotten worse compared to DC since the buyout (as opposed to only slightly worse than DC’s like it largely always was in the past).

[u/Beidah → u/Authorigas]

I know they have good books right now

Don't tell Marvel that, or they'll cancel those ones too.

[u/TheArtistFKAMinty]

It was an interesting experiment, I guess. The "time progresses in real time with each issue being a month apart" thing hurt it more and more as it went on.

On paper, I don't actually mind the idea of an intentionally short-lived, self-contained shared universe that you could very feasibly read all of, but it's pretty clear Marvel did a piss poor job communicating that to its creatives.

[u/Capable-Education724 → u/TheArtistFKAMinty]

Yeah, if Marvel had been honest with everyone going in I think at least some of the books would’ve stuck the landing more as opposed to the awkward but okay landings we got. Specifically Peach and Hickman I’m thinking of.

Which to their credit, their pivots into an ending were better than some of the others that kinda scrambled around like a chicken with its head cut off.

[u/browncharliebrown → u/Capable-Education724]

I mean they had a year. Also they pivoted they were honest at time 

[u/MirrorMan68 → u/Capable-Education724]

I mean, Hickman still ended Ultimate Spider-Man like someone else was going to pick it back up even though he knew the Ultimate line was ended (I know it's not technically over, but you get what I mean). That's not Marvel's fault.

[u/DarthButtz → u/TheArtistFKAMinty]

Once interesting stuff started happening off screen and issues spent a chunk of time talking about those events the whole "real time" aspect fell apart.

There's doing a gimmick then there's actually telling a fucking story, and half the time Ultimate just felt like it wasn't interested in that.

[u/MirrorMan68 → u/DarthButtz]

I don't think the real time gimmick is entirely to blame for stuff like that. Ultimate X-Men barely pays lip service to the gimmick most of the time and it still has stuff happen off-screen. Why does Natsu--one of the main characters--have her arc happen offscreen, while the streamer girl get a dedicated page or two to her subplot every other issue? I don't give a fuck about the streamer! I wanna know what's going on with Natsu!

And I like Ultimate X-Men a lot too. I have one volume left and it's been really great. But I don't think the authors not always knowing what to show or prioritize is always because of the real time gimmick.

[u/jitterscaffeine]

Seems like there's been a bunch of stories like these. Comic editorial just hamstringing books to "preserve the format" or whatever.

[u/jockeyman → u/jitterscaffeine]

They will continue to insist on their incredibly stupid ideas, no matter how hard and how often reality tells them their ideas are stupid 

[u/Polygonalfish]

Man, I wish Ultimate X-Men didn't feel like it just kinda stopped

[u/Capable-Education724 → u/Polygonalfish]

Yeah, as much as I actually enjoyed all of the new Ultimate line to varying degrees…the loss of UXM was the roughest. It was so good.

[u/dope_danny]

Wait.

Marvel Editorial being complete fucking idiots? shocking.

I am shocked. How is such a thing possible?

[u/Verwind2]

Looking at a story and saying "This is a good stopping point, I think we should end it here" isn't bad.

But they should have told the writers that beforehand.

[u/jockeyman → u/Verwind2]

The end of Ultimates and the line as a whole is like a car crash with how rushed and jumbled it was.

[u/ContraryPython → u/jockeyman]

It was so bad that it allowed DC to start curbstomping Marvel for the first time in decades.

[u/BrianShogunFR-U]

Marvel wasting their creators time/effort? Say it ain't so.

[u/2073040]

Marvel Editorial really saw Peter and MJ having a happy and stable marriage and decided to cancel the entire universe in response.

[u/wendigo72 → u/2073040]

Not the first time, remember renew your vows?

[u/SuperUnhappyman]

i dont know whats happening but all i do know is now jed mackay and ryan north both just "start" a new run (moon knight and fantastic four respectively) after a few issues than continue into higher and higher numbers like al ewing doing immortal thor. could this play into a smaller number format compared to the 24 issue format?

i honestly dont know.

[u/GhostFishHead]

Of course.

[u/Spiral-Force]

You don’t say

[u/MetalJrock]

So who do we trust? Hickman or Camp? Cause Camp said USM was never getting a new team after 24 if the universe continued post-Endgame and he was the only one in the office pitching ways to keep the universe going.

[u/wendigo72 → u/MetalJrock]

Others have said Camp was the only writer that would stay on after issue #24, everyone else was leaving and making way for new creative teams

Edit: other people, not article

[u/MetalJrock → u/wendigo72]

Camp said that every book was ending with their teams after #24 and he was pitching a new wave of books to replace them like Guardians and Hawkeye.

Momoko even sided with him on that which makes this even weirder.

[u/wendigo72 → u/MetalJrock]

I looked up that article where Camp said that, he claimed it was all “very vague” at the time and he was just pitching stuff out

I don’t see how it can’t be both. Really sounds like marvel just screwed up communicating with any of the creatives on this

[u/MetalJrock → u/wendigo72]

It sounds like no one communicated if the two heads of the universe had very different ideas on what the universe post-Endgame was gonna look like.

[u/Capable-Education724 → u/MetalJrock]

I like Camp’s work but he’s very much a “good soldier” (as in, a good soldier follows orders) for Marvel. Hickman knows he has nothing to lose by speaking the truth, cause whether Marvel likes it or not (and by all accounts, they don’t) Hickman is a brand unto himself for comic book readers much like Bendis was.

[u/MetalJrock → u/Capable-Education724]

I think it’s less him being a good soldier and more him being relieved he doesn’t have to lead a whole ass universe.

[u/Theproton → u/Capable-Education724]

I mean Camp just signed a DC exclusive deal so I dont think he has too much reason to brown nose Marvel.

[u/Capable-Education724 → u/Theproton]

He did when he hadn’t signed that deal though and he was being considered to take over ASM, like he was when he towed the company line months ago.

[u/Bluefootedtpeack2]

Did imperial end and if so did hickman say it wouldve been better but x?

[u/MetalJrock → u/Bluefootedtpeack2]

It ended bit that wasn’t a pet project like Ultimate. He just wanted to write some cosmic issues and wiped his hands of it after.

[u/wendigo72 → u/Bluefootedtpeack2]

Hickman isn’t saying here that he would’ve went on longer. He was always gonna leave at issue #24 but clearly as seen in comics themselves there was an intention for other writers to continue after him

[u/Pome1515 → u/Bluefootedtpeack2]

Welcome to the post line collapse of Hickman. Its never his fault and everything you didn't like was actually editorial muzzling him. He did the same in Avengers, Krakoa, GODS etc.

[u/Bluefootedtpeack2 → u/Pome1515]

Yeah its definitely a pattern

[u/Pome1515 → u/Bluefootedtpeack2]

Likewise we're getting a flurry of interview and press releases about how he was fucked over and wasn't able to tell the ending of Krakoa, how he resigned so he could tell stories that he is passionate about etc.

This reada like he's known his rep took a hit and hes trying to salvage itm

[u/wendigo72 → u/Pome1515]

It’s pretty obvious from just reading the comics Hickman didn’t get what he wanted to do with krakoa. Like what, do you think he was lying when he said he wanted it to end to move on to something else but marvel was reluctant to do so?

It’s plainly obvious with how inferno was written that’s the case. Even here, he’s not arguing that marvel stopped him from doing more spider-man. Just that he was under the impression it was gonna continue under a different writer which the ending to his spider-man run makes that pretty obvious too

Fans have been asking him about his krakoa plans that were scrapped for many years now. It’s only recent he’s actually confirmed what everyone else already knew

[u/bigstupidjellyfish]

He also said he was gonna leave but he heard the #WackAttack was coming in to right the ship so he had to stick around and lock in.

[u/Cooper_555]

Well... yeah. That's the deal with big western comics in general. Nothing is allowed to end.

[u/extralie → u/Cooper_555]

That's the opposite of what this is about...