Not that that was the only time an alternate reality reboot was greeted with suspicion by comics fans. When the Ultimate Universe was announced by Marvel in 2000, many readers began to panic. Were these updated, new takes on some of the company's best-loved characters eventually going to replace the "originals"? It turned out they had nothing to worry about, and that for once the editors weren't pulling the wool over their eyes when they insisted that the Ultimate and main Marvel Universes would never cross. Except for that one time with the two Spider-Men. Having dodged that bullet, the Ultimate line still had plenty of controversies to contend with. The Ultimates, the grim 'n' gritty update of the Avengers, introduced such unsavoury plot elements as a lust-crazed Hulk, twincest between Scarlet Witch and her brother Quicksilver, a plot involving a leaked sex tape of Iron Man and the Black Widow...actually, most of it was based around bonking. The Ultimate Adventures miniseries stirred up a bit of a scandal with its barely-concealed Batman and Robin parody, who were quietly swept under the rug and never mentioned again. Strangely, nobody got their knickers in a twist over Orson Scott Card penning the Ultimate Iron Man series in the same way they (rightly) did over his mooted contributions to a Superman comic, but that was okay, because Marvel would have their hands full once they reached the end of the Cataclysm event. Following a series of catastrophic events many heroes lost their lives, including one Peter Parker...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
