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

1. Ultimatum

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!