Prelude To Ultimate Status

There is, and shall always be, one single Marvel Universe.

Marvel Comics has tried to create multiple universes, not unlike their Distinguished Competitors, beginning in the late 70s, when their fanbase grew a decade older and wanted to get different titles. They licensed franchises like Conan, G.I. Joe, and Transformers and virtually put them in their own universes. These titles were the precursor to both the Epic and Star Comics line, which published titles they don't directly own, although Epic and Star did have some original titles that they did own. Some of their licensed products like ROM and Micronauts, however, ended up as a part of core Marvel Universe. When Marvel launched the New Universe in the mid-80s, the world didn't exactly flock to those titles. When the only memory of a comic book universe is the destruction of Pittburgh, that's when you know that you have a bomb on your hands.

Marvel's next high=profile universe launch was 2099. The 2099 universe was basically a futuristic version of the current Marvel Universe with heroes (and villians) that you are familiar with reintroduced and revamped with little to no connection with the original characters. You have Spider-Man, X-Men, Punisher, and Doom 2099. Fantastic Four 2099? Um, I'll get back to you on that. The original titles included Ravage and X-Nation. The novelity of 2099 was short-lived and it only stayed around for a couple of years. About seven years after the end of 2099, M2, another short-lived futuristic Marvel Universe was introduced.

The most controversial purchase former Ron Perleman had made (aside from buying Topps and Upper Deck) was the purchase of Malibu Comics. Ten years ago, Malibu launched the Ultraverse, a comic company with a strong continuity, great artists, and great writers with a little of the Marvel 70s spirit in the energy of the publications. In 1995, Marvel bought Malibu Comics lock, stock, and barrel for one reason (hint: it wasn't the Ultraverse). Marvel basically bought Malibu for its computer coloring unit. Sure, some readers expected Malibu to become "Marvel West," but alas, it didn't happen, and despite pathetic revamps to blend the Ultraverse and the Marvel Universes into one, the Ultraverse, in the end, died.

A couple of years later, Marvel leased out four of their fabled franchises (i.e. the main ones that weren't X-related nor Spider-Man oriented) to Wildstorm Entertainment and Extreme Studios in an endeavor called Heroes Reborn. Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld relaunched Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man, and The Avengers in a pocket universe that was set up in the X-Men storyline Onslaught. The Heroes Reborn experiment was the direct precursor of Marvel Knights. Marvel Knights was built from the ashes of Event Comics, which Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palimotti left behind, to bring new life to older properties, not unlike Heroes Reborn. Black Widow, The Inhumans, Punisher, and Daredevil were all relaunched under the watchful eyes of the New York Knights. Unlike the Heroes Reborn titles, the Marvel Knights titles were definitely in the core Marvel Universe, so continuity between the two divisions were connected, although that wasn't always the case in the first year.

The success of the Marvel Knights titles led to the restructuring of the Marvel Universe, using the great writing and artistry of their creators and moderning them up for the readers. Captain America became more aggressive and a little angry, Peter Parker became a teacher, Bruce Banner once again became a wanderer, X-Force became a suicide squad of sorts, and the Xavier Institute invested in a leather company (okay, that's not true, but they are wearing a lot more leather these days). In the meantime, Marvel wanted to reintroduce their franchises to younger audiences as well as modernize classic franchises for those readers who only experiences with the characters were the theatrical versions of their heroes. They wanted to recreate Marvel 1963 without having a backlog of events that happened decades ago. By using a group of popular writers like Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar as well as popular artists like Mark Bagley and the Kubert brothers and Marvel executive Bill Jemas (an entertainment marketing executive writing comics . . . go figure) making his plotting debut, Marvel was going to either come off as saviors of the industry or the destroyers of Marvel Comics as we know it.

In the fall of 2000, the Ultimate Age of Marvel Comics began, and it changed the comics industry, for better and for worse.