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In today's media landscape, it's hard to find someone who doesn't know the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spanning over a decade of films, Marvel has created one of the most profitable studios of all time. Though the entire origin of the MCU was established by one of Marvels most popular comic runs, The Ultimates. But how exactly did The Ultimates inspire the MCU?
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The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to fight the battles that we never could
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Today, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is inescapable. It's everywhere. Most people are familiar with the fact that these now-beloved characters are adaptations from long-running
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comic book properties. However, in 2008, when Iron Man first debuted on screen
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I'm just not the hero type. the idea of an interconnected universe, let alone major adaptations of, at the time
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D-listers like Thor, Cap, and The Avengers would have been unthinkable. However, that all changed because of one book, The Ultimates
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I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger initiative. The Ultimates, published in March of 2002, was a 13-issue miniseries written by Mark
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Miller and illustrated by Brian Hitch. A grounded, big-budget sci-fi story with the majestic execution of a Roland Emmerich film
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and razor-sharp dialogue barreled into comic book stores across the country and was an
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instant force to be reckoned with. the series was a part of the burgeoning new publishing line that the new head honchos of
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Marvel were pushing, out with the 616, in with the Ultimate Universe. Bill Jimis
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the former president of the Fleer Trading Card Company, had been handed the reins of Marvel
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Comics after the company was saved from bankruptcy at the 11th hour. And when Jimis and the freshly
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minted editor-in-chief Joe Quesada asked indie crime writer Brian Bendis to make an alternate
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universe continuity-free Spider-Man miniseries aimed at bringing in new readers, it exploded
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in popularity. The move turned into the longest-running Spider-Man series by one creative team
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ever, and literally created an entire pocket universe. There are multiple realities, Peter. This is Earth, Dimension 616
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I'm sorry, you're saying there's a multiverse? After the runaway success of what was eventually titled Ultimate Spider-Man
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Marvel went to young upstart Scottish writer Mark Miller to see if he had a take on an
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Ultimate version of the X-Men. He did. He basically combined the best of early years
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of the book with a sleek aesthetic of the Fox films You actually go outside in these things What would you prefer Yellow spandex Drawn by the Kubrick brothers this book marked hit number two
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for the rapidly developing imprint. So now Jimmus and Quesada had a branding play
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Expand these two experiments into an entire line of new reader-friendly titles that would reposition
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the floundering post-Speculator Crash company as a force to be reckoned with
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Only thing they could have never anticipated is that this single move would be the pivotal moment
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that would ostensibly guarantee the existence of the MCU. Instead of waiting for screenwriters and directors
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to decide how a comic character would look on screen, Miller and Hitch decided to make a movie on paper
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What this would manifest would be arguably the most important book of the next 20 years
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The work they would create would stylistically and narratively undergrid almost every decision
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that Marvel Studios would make. We went forward in time to see all the possible outcomes
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How many did we win? One. The Ultimates takes place in the contemporary world
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of 2002. It follows Nick Fury, drawn as Samuel L. Jackson, as he attempts to put together a team
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of superheroes in order to defend the Earth from extraterrestrial and domestic threats. And yes
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if you're wondering, this is exactly where the idea of Sam Jackson as Nick Fury comes from
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While on the press tour for The Ultimates, Miller himself pitched the book as Independence Day
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with superheroes. And in some ways, it's exactly that. And in others, it's so much more. Issue
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one of the Ultimates opens with a cinematic sequence that shows Cap during World War II
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leading a group of GIs against an Axis power secret hideout, vanquishing the enemy and being
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frozen in ice. It's hard to communicate just what a deviation this was from the comics of the day
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This opening sequence? This was something altogether new. The character that the Ultimates
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recontextualized the most at the time was Captain America. The book played up his brash and sardonic
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sense of humor, his superhuman abilities, and toned down the 616 version's Golden Boy Scout perception
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It made Cap cool in the most 2001 way possible All of these decisions especially Hitch Captain America costume designs filtered straight into the MCU Sure they chose to embrace a slightly more lighthearted characterization of Steve Rogers
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That is America's ass. But the idea of doing a period-piece World War II origin movie for Cap
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is basically just off the strength of the first issue of Ultimates
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His fighting style and his relationships with Tony and Thor are right from Ultimates
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Find the scepter. And for gosh sake, watch your language. In many ways, Steve Rogers is the POV character
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that we learn about this strange new world through. The book introduces us to Hank Pym, aka Giant Man
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Janet Van Dyne, aka Wasp, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor, all of which are contextualized
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in a manner that could easily be brought to the screen. Their origins are streamlined
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They're drawn in a near-photo-real style that mimics that of a camera
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And the narrative doesn't use captions, sound effects, or thought balloons. The book only uses narrative mechanics that could be used in a film
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OK, did you ever see this really old movie Aliens? And here's the craziest part
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After the successes of Ultimate Spidey and X-Men, however, Ultimates would become arguably the biggest comic yet for the Ultimate line
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Over the course of the 13 issues, we follow the Ultimates as they put together their team
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deal with a rampaging Hulk, and then are finally pitted against an invading alien force in a
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dazzling showdown unlike anything that had ever been put to the comics page previously
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Remember, this is 2002. The Avengers, at this time in the standard 616 universe
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featured classic four-colored versions of the characters that, believe it or not
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had been a middle-tier team for close to 30 years. Brian Hitch's version not only looked
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like they could be in a movie, they looked like they were the movie version. He was the artist
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who shaped the aesthetic more than any other sense. Yes, Jack Kirby created the Avengers
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but Hitch laid out the roadmap for how they and virtually every other character were to be adapted So what did Marvel do next They tried to do it again obviously Debuting in 2004 and concluding in 2007 Ultimates 2 did exactly what they needed it to do It was a
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shot in the arm of the Ultimate Universe and in the brand of Marvel as a whole. This time we follow
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the Ultimates as they go up against Loki, who takes over the US with a team of super-powered
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goons known as the Liberators. The biggest difference between the Ultimates Universe and
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the MCU is the handling of Thor. In the 616, he's a god who bonds with a human and fights for the
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oppressed as soon as he lifts the mighty hammer Mjolnir. In the Ultimates, it's unclear if he's
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a technologically empowered eco-terrorist with a cult following or an actual god. When it came
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time to adapt the god of thunder to the big screen, the powers that be didn't touch any of
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the alterations that Miller and Hitch had made. They just went straight for the foundation of Kirby
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and Lee. So is this how you normally look? More or less. It's a good look. When asked about the
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Ultimates being the roadmap for the MCU, Miller said, our first storyline was basically Independence
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Day with superheroes, Loki being the villain from our second book. Kevin Feige was a big fan of the
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books and told us it made him realize an Avengers movie could actually be a lot simpler than they
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thought. But that's not all where the influence of the Ultimates stops. Sam Jackson's Nick Fury
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showing up at the end of Iron Man straight from the Ultimates. In The Incredible Hulk, when they throw Bruce Banner
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from a helicopter in order to get him to change into the Hulk, right from the Ultimates
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Cap jumping out of the Quinjet and Winter Soldier without a parachute, directly from the Ultimates
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Before we get started, does anyone want to get out? But that's not at all where the influence of the Ultimates stops
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But those are the pedantic, literal adaptations from the Ultimates. It's really more the aesthetic, the feeling
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and the scope of the narrative that the MCU puts forth. It just is the ultimates
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Those two books provided the backbone of an entire multi-billion dollar industry
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They provided the jumping off point for how to faithfully and accurately adapt 60-year-old
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characters into the world of today
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