Sunday, August 2, 2020

Joke. Fine. Underestimate us. We've fought invasions and monsters, vampires and clones. And we've always won. We will destroy you, Reed. That's the thing about us. You're right. We are stupid, Reed. We're too stupid to know we're beaten. So we never give [up.]

-- Tony Stark

[show]

History

The Ultimates are an elite group of superhumans created when the President of the United States approved a new defense budget to combat the growing risk of the U.S. being attacked by supervillains. General Nicholas Fury was chosen as the liaison between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the new group. He often acted as the group's leader.

The first members were Hank Pym (Giant-Man), his wife Janet (Wasp), and Tony Stark (Iron Man). Bruce Banner was made the new science director, attempting to duplicate the super soldier serum. Finding the body of Captain America, they examined it hoping to at least gain a sample of the serum; instead, Steve Rogers was revived. They also found a strange man claiming to be the Norse thunder god. Thor agreed to join the team, but only if the President would triple the funds allocated to environmental issues in the budget.

The team later enter their first mission in battling an enraged Hulk in New York City, and successfully subdued him. Later the former members of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver joined in the ranks of the Ultimates along with Black Widow. The team found themselves in humanity's old war against the alien race, the Chitauri, in which they successfully save the Earth and the Solar System from a Chitauri super-bomb. After the defeat of the Chitauri, the Ultimates are immediately praised as heroes to the world.

The Original Team

Superhuman War

Despite being declared as national celebrities following a year after the defeat of the Chitauri, the Ultimates had been serving the United States government as part of its "police" force in the War on Terror, thus alienating the entire international community, particularly in teaming up with the European Super-Soldier Initiative to invade a Middle Eastern nation suspected for possessing nuclear weapons. Furthermore, the super-soldier Reserves was created with the Ultimates, causing a sharp criticism for possibly violating superhuman test ban treaties. The team also suffered internal conflicts and problems: the alienation of Hank Pym, Janet's dissatisfied marital relationship with an "old" mind like Captain America, Bruce Banner's identity as the Hulk revealed to the public and was sentenced to be killed but only to then escape, and Thor being labeled as a insane person and then imprisoned by his own teammates.

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It is then revealed that the cause of the ruination of Hulk and Thor was due to a traitor among the Ultimates, the Black Widow, who infiltrated and betrayed the group in order to leave the American nation open to attack from the Liberators. In doing so to further cripple the Ultimates from within, Hawkeye's family was murdered and Captain America was framed for the crime. Immediately afterword, the Liberators quickly damaged the Triskelion, killed the Reserves and captured almost all of America's heroes and the Ultimates, save for the Wasp. Thanks to her ability to move undetected, the Ultimates were able to escape and counterattack against the Liberators.

After their battle with the Liberators, the Ultimates, having experienced that working with the U.S. government and its resulted upbringing was not worth fighting for, decided to leave S.H.I.E.L.D., and continued to work as a independent superhero team instead.

Death of the Scarlet Witch

Later the now-independent superhero team later gained new members including a more successful Valkyrie of the Defenders and Black Panther (who was revealed to be Steve Rogers). The team was manipulated and almost replaced by Hank Pym's Ultron robot which was obsessed with Scarlet Witch, who was killed by the machine out of jealousy. The Ultimates, with the help of Pym, Wolverine, and Ka-Zar stopped and destroyed Ultron but at the apparent cost of Quicksilver's life which shocked and angered his father Magneto. Unknown to all participating parties, Doctor Doom orchestrated the entire events for his own ambitions.

Ultimatum

Main article: Ultimatum (Event)

Enraged by the death of his son, Magneto dedicated himself to the utter annihilation of the human race, whilst being manipulated by Doctor Doom, a fact of which he was unaware. His genocidal quest resulted in the Ultimatum event, caused by Magneto's reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles. After New York City was engulfed by the Ultimatum Wave tsunami, many of the Ultimate members were separated from each other. Wasp was later discovered dead, her body partially devoured by Blob. In retaliation, Hank Pym bit off the cannibal's head. Captain America was thrown into a coma by the destructive tsunami and was on the verge of death, but his soul, along with Valkyrie's, was saved by Thor in the spirit world of the afterlife. However, the thunder god perished in his efforts against Hela's undead army.

After Captain America awoke from his coma, the Ultimates then arrived at the Triskelion to stop a horde of Jamie Madrox's duplicates, acting as suicide bombers, from damaging the facility. Hank Pym gathered all the Madroxs in his giant form and brought them out to sea, where he allowed himself to be blown up with them. Captain America later ordered the remaining Ultimates to gather any remaining heroes to battle Magneto, who wielded Thor's hammer at his citadel. Together with members of the X-Men, the Ultimates fought against Magneto until he was killed by Cyclops. After this the Ultimates and the other heroes destroyed Magneto's citadel.

After the events of Ultimatum, the Ultimates received an influx of new members and were renamed the New Ultimates.

New Ultimates

Main article: New Ultimates (Earth-1610)

The New Ultimates' first show of heroics was on a night eight months after Magneto's attack, when Iron Man was with Hawkeye, discussing the changes after Ultimatum. Tony made it very clear that he had lost practically everything because of Ultimatum. Suddenly, the Defenders, a teenage wannabe superhero team arrived, but this time as villains, possessing actual superpowers. As the rest of team came to aid Iron Man and Hawkeye in the fight, the Defenders left with what they came for: Mjolnir. This allowed Loki to teleport back to Earth to resume his chaos. Carol Danvers revealed to Tony that she had one of the Defenders, Hellstorm, working undercover.

At the same time, Captain America went to talk with Valkyrie about the Defenders. He demanded that Valkyrie leave the team, because he was aware that she knew more about the Defenders than any of the other team members. He feared that she was a traitor, like Black Widow. She went on to escape by throwing herself through a window. Later Hawkeye discovered that Tony and Carol were in a relationship when he spotted them having sexual relations. After that, the Enchantress manipulated Zarda, Carol Danvers, and Valkyrie to fight against the other members of the team. In this event Iron man´s armor was destroyed, Hawkeye was shot, and Captain America´s shield was destroyed.

Hawkeye, Captain America, and Iron Man were later seen captured by Loki's hordes. It was then revealed that Danvers was never under the direct control of the Enchantress, as she had night vision contact lenses, which brought her to her senses. She freed Hawkeye, which led to the rest of the team escaping as well when the Black Panther freed Captain America and Shanna and Ka-Zar break out Iron Man. Zarda and Valkyrie remained under Loki's magical control. Later on, the other members of the New Ultimates led an assault on Loki, in which Hawkeye killed Amora, freeing Zarda and Valkyrie of Loki's influence. Valkyrie attacks Loki, only to be killed by him. This then leads to Thor being able to leave the afterlife, vowing that blood shall be spilled because of his brother's actions. After defeating Zarda, Thor started attacking the rest of the New Ultimates in rage.

Eventually after a combined assault by the entire team and the use of Iron Man's Hulkbuster Armour, Thor was subdued. Loki attempted to kill Thor, but Valkyrie returned from the after-life and murdered Loki. She requested Thor to stay and defend Earth.

Avengers vs. New Ultimates

Looking to stop the kidnapping of an experimental super-soldier, the New Ultimates were sent to apprehend Nick Fury, who was acting as leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s black ops kill squad "The Avengers", and was believed to be responsible for smuggling super-soldiers. However, the investigation became more complicated when Tyrone Cash, who also has been selling S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets, testified that he was allegedly working for Carol Danvers, who was believed by Fury to be the one behind the weapons sale. This pits the two teams against each other in New York, and in the chaos of the fight the Punisher accidentally shot Spider-Man. The Avengers are eventually defeated, but Gregory Stark, who has become acting Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after Carol Danvers was hit by a car, was in fact responsible for pitting the Ultimates and Avengers against each other, and smuggling the super-soldiers for pro-democratic rebels in rogue states, in order to create his vision of a new world order.

The New Ultimates and the Avengers teamed up and faced Gregory and his forces, in which Iron Man disabled Gregory's nanotech with a EMP, thus allowing Thor to fatally fry him with a lighting bolt. In the aftermath, Fury returned as director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Fury's back

Reinstatement

The Ultimates were reinstated as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s primary task force with Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman as its core roster and Nick Fury leading.[1]

Reed Richards, having gone apparently insane and calling himself the Maker, returned to Earth and founded an organization called the Children of Tomorrow, a group of evolved humans with the aim of dominating the world, building their base called the Dome. In the Dome's interior time passes at an accelerated rate compared to the outside world. Over 900 years have been and gone inside the Dome, so their inhabitants evolved to perfect super-humans.

The EUSS attacked the Dome with Captain Britain, Captain Spain and Captain France along with Thor. The heroes were subdued by the Children and some of them killed, draining their powers. After examining Thor, Richards sent the Children for the source of power of Thor, leading them to attacking Asgard. After killing every Asgardian God, the Children drained the power of Yggdrasil, leaving Thor powerless. After Iron Man rescued Thor, he provided Odinson with a upgraded version of his Super-Soldier armor, with which Thor teleported to the Dome in search of vengeance. There, he rescued Captain Britain, but was defeated by the Children, and Reed Richards, and was released on condition of delivering a message.

Fury tried to take down the Children using his full armament, but failed to destroy Richards' Dome. Days later the Falcon went in to do recon, where he was surprised by Richards, who explained his plans to Falcon.

After S.H.I.E.L.D. convinced Zorn and the Hulk to attack the Children (but the latter persuaded the two to help them), the Maker deployed an anti-matter attack on Washington, D.C., killing the President, his Cabinet and the members of Congress.[2] Only the Secretary of Energy survived, and he became the next President and activated the Winter Protocols. These "Protocols" forced the Ultimates to be handed over to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. Only Tony Stark and Thor managed to escape. Tony contacted the new President to make a plan against the Children, in which Stark was provided as a prisoner for the Children to seal a pact of peace.

When Richards was about to vivisect Stark, Tony's self-conscious technology interfacer brain tumor named Anthony convinced the City to rebel against the Maker, because of his master's counter-evolutionary acts of war, and allowed Anthony to create a giant Iron Man Armor and use it against Richards, to become the new leader of the Children. Richards defended himself using a Giant-Man serum on the Hulk, but he was finally defeated by Susan Storm and was handed over to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Divided We Fall, United We Stand

The Ultimates fought numerous rebels who tried to take over numerous states in the wake of the Nimrod invasion, with the return of Captain America to the team. After disarming the New Republic of Texas and making it part of the United States once more, the Ultimates continued to protect innocents from attacks by rebels, particularly the paramilitary group called Hydra.

Hydra, led by Modi, Thor's lost son, attacked Project Pegasus in Wyoming with the ultimate objective of conquering the country. Along with numerous allies and S.H.I.E.L.D., the Ultimates managed to defeat Hydra and Modi, who had to be killed by Thor, and reunited the shattered country.

Ultimates Disassembled

During a meeting, in which Susan Storm informed S.H.I.E.L.D. about the Infinity Gems she and Thor had been gathering, the mysterious Kang freed both Hulk and Reed Richards from the Triskelion, stole the Gems and formed from them and Quicksilver the Dark Ultimates. The Ultimates barely escaped, but Captain America decided to be left behind in order to stop the villains, although he was defeated.[3]

While Reed Richards was remolding the world to his shape, Thor faced the Hulk and was defeated, and Hawkeye unsuccessfully tried to rescue Captain America, only to be defeated by Kang. Stark started working, in one of his secret warehouses, on a way to stop Richards, Anthony unsuccessfully tried to remove an encrypted code from Stark's armors, and Tony created a gauntlet to control the Power Gem. Stark was attacked by Quicksilver, who came to collect the latest discovery of the Dark Ultimates, that one of the remaining gems was inside Tony Stark's brain.[4] The Maker performed a surgery on Stark's brain while his H.E.R.B.I.E. Trons were trying to reach the Earth's core in order to acquire the final gem. Richards finally got the penultimate gem, and left Tony Stark to die.[5] Fortunately, Stark's consciousness was revealed to have survived electronically, and he managed to hack a H.E.R.B.I.E. Tron in order to use it to free the captive Ultimates from the Negative Zone.[6]

The Ultimates finally confronted an out-numbered Reed Richards along with the Howling Commandos, but the Maker's cavalry arrived in the form of Kang wielding the final gem, who also revealed herself as being the Susan Storm from a near future.[7] During a furious battle against Richards and his Ultimates, Stark managed to acquire the Infinity Gems and depower the Maker. Tony first used the gems to revive his corpse and transfer his consciousness back to his body. When he was about to face Richards, an immense flux of energy echoed through time and space and the Gems were destroyed. Kang stated that what she tried to prevent just happened, and she left stating she would try to go back further in time.

Unknown to them, the flux of energy had brought a powerful being known as Galactus from another universe to this one, and it started approaching Earth.[8]

Cataclysm

When Galactus finally arrived to Earth, he appeared in New Jersey and destroyed it. After S.H.I.E.L.D.'s aircraft failed to destroy the entity, the Ultimates were called to deal with the situation. They were easily overpowered by him as Iron Man performed some readings on Galactus' energy signature and discovered it wasn't from this universe.[9]

Iron Man discovered the entity came from the same universe a Peter Parker temporarily came from months ago, Earth-616. The Ultimates decided to use a portal recovered from a visitor from Earth-616 to go there and ask for help to their Reed Richards, as suggested by the visitor. Before they could decide who would go, Reed Richards appeared and recommended to put their differences aside and let him go, as he could access to the other Richards' files in case he wasn't available to help them at the moment.[10] The Ultimates let Richards go, with the condition of being accompanied by Miles Morales. Both heroes managed to arrive to Earth-616, extract the information needed and return.[11]

After accidentally revealing themselves to Galactus, the cosmic being started approaching the Triskelion. To give S.H.I.E.L.D. the time necessary to move away, Steve used a jet to fly near Galactus and distract him. Captain America directed the jet towards Galactus' face and was last seen abandoning it before it crashed, however his fate remain unknown.[12] The plan to defeat was carried out with the help of Kitty Pryde, using Hank Pym's serum she would grow to a giant size and use her phasing powers to destroy Galactus' Elemental Converter as Reed Richards activated a portal to the Negative Zone where Galactus was exiled. However, Thor was also left stranded in the Negative Zone as he had to push Galactus in order for the cosmic entity to enter to the portal against its will, but the Earth was ultimately saved.[13]

In the wake of the near-destruction of Earth, and finding himself without Thor or Captain America, Stark decided to disband the Ultimates. But Spider-Woman and other young heroes continued the legacy of this team in the form of the Young Ultimates.[14]

Return

Following the destruction of the entirety of Earth-1610,[15] the original members of the Ultimates (Captain America, Giant-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, and Wasp) were brought back to life by the Maker when he rewrote the Multiverse in order to merge all realities into one to help Eternity fight the First Firmament.[16] When the Ultimates from the Prime Earth arrived on Counter-Earth and confronted him for his actions, which were actually giving the First Firmament the upper hand against Eternity, the Maker ordered his Ultimates to attack them. Eventually, the members of both teams realized they shouldn't be fighting each other and confronted the Maker, who proceeded to kill Captain America for disobeying his commands. After defeating the Maker, the teams worked together to help Eternity gain the strength to finally defeat the First Firmament. Following that, the remaining members of the Ultimates decided to travel the Multiverse to hunt down the Maker.[17]

Since then, Earth-1610 had been returned in its entirety. The Ultimates, or at least a portion of them, returned to their native universe. They were seen assisting Spider-Man apprehend the Green Goblin.[18]

Paraphernalia

Weapons: Each teammates' arsenal

Notes

The Ultimates are styled after Wildstorm's The Authority, in which the series was created by Bryan Hitch with Warren Ellis, and Mark Millar wrote the later half of the series following after Ellis' run.

Trivia

The Ultimates are Earth 1610's equivalent of the Avengers (Earth 616).
Ultimates and Ultimates 2 writer Mark Millar has claimed Marvel initially had no interest in bringing the Avengers to the Ultimate Universe, regarding the team as a dead franchise. Because of this, when Millar vouched for an adaptation of the Avengers into the Ultimate line, they were called "Ultimates" instead.[19] However, then-Avengers writer Kurt Busiek has stated it was him who asked Marvel not to call the book "Ultimate Avengers," since doing so would carry the connotation the new book was "the cool new thing" and an "improvement on that old uncool existing book."[20]
Ultimates and Ultimates 2 served as the prime inspiration/influence on the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the Avengers (Earth-199999).

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