8 Terrible Comic Book Events Marvel And DC Wish You'd Forget

by Ewan Paterson

1. Ultimatum

X-Men Magneto Ultimatum
Marvel Comics

When it launched in 2000, Marvel's Ultimate Universe was immediately hailed for giving the Marvel Universe - as it then existed - a modern makeover. Books like Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men found an audience not only because the new continuity was easy to get into, but also because they grounded Marvel's characters in a semi-realistic context. Brian Bendis' Spidey found a massive legacy with the introduction of Miles Morales, and Mark Millar's Ultimates reassembled The Avengers for a world then engulfed by a War on Terror.

The universe offered a smart, if not wholly cynical take on the classic Marvel canon, and then proceeded to lose that reputation almost instantly with the introduction of the third Ultimates book - written by Jeph Loeb - and, more infamously, Ultimatum.

Ultimatum, in no small way, exemplifies all the worst things about events. Characterisations of heroes and villains alike are skewed, characters die in gruesome ways for the sake of nothing but shock value, and worse still, Ultimatum takes these cliches and plunges them to gruesome levels. The Wasp dies, Blob (yes, that Blob) is found eating her corpse, and then Giant Man literally bites off his head in retaliation. Needless to say, the book's disturbing infatuation with cannibalising both fan favourite characters and the Ultimate Universe alike genuinely defies convention. It's that bad.

After its conclusion, Marvel's Ultimate imprint was effectively left on life support until it was eventually cancelled in 2015. So, in some ways, Ultimatum kind of worked, if its goal was - y'know - killing an entire universe and all.

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Are there any events out there that we missed? Any that you think are good? Let us know in the comments below!

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.