Sound the Alarm: Marvel’s Original Ultimate Universe Is Preparing a Comeback

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The second iteration of Ultimate Marvel flourished over the course of the past year – but now the publisher has seemingly teased the possibility that it might throw an unexpected, if exciting, wrench into the mix, by somehow bringing back the original version of the Ultimate Universe, which was destroyed in Marvel canon.

Timeslide #1 – written by Steve Foxe, with art by Ivan Fiorelli –​​​​​​​ contains a literal list of upcoming milestone story events Marvel readers can expect in 2025, including foreshadowing of an “Ultimate Incursion.” While fans might have initially suspected this meant a crossover between the Ultimate and mainstream Marvel canon, another point in the issue suggests something different.

Toward the end of the issue, readers were given another glimpse of moments from across the Marvel Multiverse, which featured multiple versions of Wolverine, including the intriguing appearance of the iconic image of Logan from the original Ultimate X-Men #1 cover.

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Timeslide #1 –​​​​​​​ Written By Steve Foxe; Art By Ivan Fiorelli; Color By Frank D’Armata; Lettering By Joe Caramagna; Main Cover By Kael Ngu

As always when analyzing a comic book panel for future storyline potential, it is best to start with the simplest explanation, and spiral outward into speculation from there. It is possible that the appearance of the original Ultimate Wolverine in Timeslide #1 is simply a cameo, a visual shout-out to an unforgettable Marvel comic cover. With that in mind, Marvel has become increasingly skilled at burying hints to gestating story arcs in moments like this, and given that Timeslide as a whole is largely devoted to establishing upcoming stories, it is fair to suspect there’s something more to this appearance.

Marvel has only just introduced the Ultimate Universe 2.0‘s version of Wolverine, with the debut of his own solo series imminent – and it is worth noting that the new incarnation of the character also has a single-frame appearance in the issue, just a few pages prior to his predecessor’s panel. This, along with the teaser earlier in the issue for “Ultimate Incursion” has led many readers to immediately suspect that the original Ultimate timeline might be making a comeback, which would significantly alter the trajectory of the current Ultimate continuity, should the two interact.

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Timeslide #1 – Variant Covers By Betsy Cola, Mike Del Mundo, Francesco Mobili, & More

An oft-forgotten aspect of the Marvel Multiverse is the fact that it is infinite. At times, fans consider the Multiverse as if it is comprised only by those timelines that have been depicted on the page; in truth, however, the Multiverse contains all possible variants on those existing timelines. In other words, while the Ultimate Universe that readers followed for fifteen years might have been destroyed in 2015’s Secret Wars event, but there are still limitless nearly-identical versions of this timeline that still conceivably exist.

The premise of the current Ultimate Universe, in fact, is that the villainous Maker, an escapee from the original timeline, subverted the flow of events in another version of the timeline, in order to re-create the world at his whim. So, Marvel’s subtle suggestion that the two could co-exist, and perhaps full-on interact, has quickly become a source of major anticipation for fans of the publisher, as just one of many exciting storylines coming up in the next year – with the possibility of a confrontation between two versions of Ultimate Marvel’s Wolverine at the forefront of fans’ minds.

Timeslide #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.

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