‘Ultimates’ Writer Says Earth-6160 Never Meant For Early End – Just ‘Black Panther’, ‘Spider-Man’, And ‘X-Men’
In attempting to temper an admittedly emotional discourse, Ultimates writer Deniz Camp has confirmed that although Earth-6160 was never meant to meet such a quick and absolute conclusion, the Black Panther, Spider-Man, and X-Men creative teams always planned to exit their respective books following The Maker’s upcoming Endgame return.
Easily the most exciting and gripping story to come out of Marvel Comics in recent memory, the reborn Ultimate universe’s sunsetting was first announced at the recent New York Comic Con 2025, whereat the publisher headlined their comic book presence with the declaration that “The Ultimate universe comes to an end” in April 2025, the same scheduled release month for Ultimate Endgame Vol. 1‘s final issue.
Coming as a genuine surprise to fans, especially in light of the line’s current momentum and quality, their shock was only set to be exacerbated by Marvel Entertainment president Dan Buckley’s subsequent revelation to Popverse‘s Graeme McMillan that the decision to permanently say good-bye to Earth-6160 was made not by any of its original architects, either Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Hill, Peach Momoko, or Camp, but rather by the executive himself.
‘We were at one of those creative retreats and I was sitting next to Hickman, we’re just talking, and he’s like, ‘Well, we’re finishing our stories, then you could do that.’ I said, ‘No, you’re done.’
‘I was by myself with Jon, Jonathan’s looking at me, he goes, ‘What do you mean we’re done?’ I said, ‘We’re shutting it down.’ He goes, ‘Why are we shutting it down?’ I said, ‘It’s the end, right?’
“There’s a lot of story being told here. You’ll be able to take this journey — take the beginning, the middle, and the end — and digest it for years to come and be able to pass it on to people and say, ‘This is the experiment, this type of storytelling, we’re allowed to do this.’
‘We’re not going to do this with the Marvel Universe. This is more about a group of creators getting together and saying, ‘This is what I see as a story, we want to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.'”
With Buckley’s words understandably coming across to fans as apparent confirmation that Hickman’s acclaimed direction for a popular Marvel Comics line had, for the second time after the mainline X-Men’s Krakoa Saga, been tossed aside for no good reason, fans quickly began to sour on the Ultimate universe’s second chance at life.
Enter Camp, who on the morning of October 17th took to his personal Twitter account to try and ease the temperature by giving his own personal insights into the entire situation:
“It’s true that the original plan was not to ‘end’ the universe. A lot of my run is setting up characters I hoped would go on past me, I think I’ve made that clear and obvious.
“John was ending his [Ultimate Spider-Man] run at 24, that was always the case. He was done. Peach and Bryan were both ending their stories when The Maker got out as well. That was their decision. (according to what I’ve been told/my interactions with them)
“(And it makes sense. Think about it – Peach is writing and drawing every issue for 24 issues. That’s insane. She works like 20 hours a day on that book, no joke. She’s the hero of the line. She deserves a break, if she wants one).
“Wolverine was only meant to be 12; then it got extended to 16. The other creators were offered more issues to run alongside Endgame, but they declined (I saw that happen). The only person who planned on continuing was me.
“Initially, still very early, those books were going to end as those creators left, and Ultimates would have continued and new books launched (I was pushing for Hawkeye, Guardians was discussed, etc). This was all very vague.
“But then, Wil Moss came to me and said, hey, I think we’re going to end it. End it end it. This was a long time ago, at least a year before now I think, but I’d have to check.
“Not because the books are ‘too woke’ (if it were that, they’d interfere with the writing of it, which they haven’t) or because the main line is jealous (this is silly, money is money to them), but because everything seemed to be coming to a natural conclusion.
“They felt that they had something special with the universe as it was, consistent creative visions that told their stories and had a clear beginning, middle and end. An accessible, creator-forward reimagination of the Marvel Universe. A version of the neverendingstory that ended.
“And that the purity of that vision, they though/think, could pay dividends for a long time after, if it didn’t overstay the welcome, dilute it, or fumble the ending.
“Yes, I had plans for stuff coming after, continuing this world, and part of me was bummed about that, but in my heart I think I knew that they’d be ‘lesser’. Moreover, for me, the Ultimate Universe has been a place for TRYING new things in comics. Radical things.
“Whether it’s the real time pacing, or the radical interventions of marvel characters, or the formal play that have characterized my run, that’s what excited me about the Ultimate Universe. Excites me still.
“And this – really, truly ending the universe on a high note, having it be this contained thing, giving a story an END – that’s radical for big 2 comics! It’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, has never been done on this scale by Marvel or DC. That is exciting to me.
Bringing his lengthy thread to a close, Camp ultimately declared, “I hope it is exciting to you! But I don’t mean to tell anyone how to feel about any of this. And I don’t want to speak for anyone. Perhaps I’ve been misinformed, or feelings have changed – I don’t know. But this is how it is from my perspective.”
Set to cap off 2025 with a Maker-provided bang, Ultimate End Vol. 1 #1 hits shelves on December 31st.
