Marvel ComicsEver since this new reader-friendly spin-off of the regular Marvel Universe started, fans have been worried that one day it might replace the "real" continuity, flushing fifty years of stories down the drain with it. That never came to pass, and the editors frequently had to come out and announce that not only would it not happen, but the two separate universes would remain just that. They certainly lied on that second point, since the Peter Parker of Earth-616 ended up meeting the Miles Morales of Earth-1610 in the 2012 miniseries Spider-Men, which looks to finally get its follow-up soon in writer Brian Michael Bendis's All New X-Men. Bendis teased that his Ultimate Spider-Man would, somehow, be turning up in the regular Marvel Universe later this year, which not only sent fans into a tizzy but seemed to confirm all of their worst fears. Ironically, readers were eventually won over to the fresh, exciting take on their favourite characters that the Ultimate comics line offered, but since their launch in the early noughties it's Marvel who seem to have grown disenchanted with it. A couple of big events saw the majority of this alternate world's heroes killed off (including Peter Parker, leaving the Spider-Man mantle to Miles), and looking ahead at the previews for comics due out in the next few months, fans are getting worried that the Ultimate universe is going to get wiped out entirely. The entire line got relaunched and rebranded earlier this year and, whilst the quality of the comics - especially All-New Ultimates, which has become a glorious eighties-inspired Warriors thing - has remained high, sales have continued to decline. Amidst this and the renewed interest in their normal titles, plus the biggest character running off to the 616, we think there's a good chance that SDCC could herald the death rattle of Ultimate Marvel. Likelihood: Medium. There's lots of evidence pointing to why they would, but the hints that they will are a little more circumstantial.