I Predicted Marvel’s Biggest Character Death Of 2024 (And I’m Thrilled They Didn’t Pull This Punch)

Warning! Major spoilers for Ultimates #6!

A few weeks ago, I predicted that Marvelwas going to kill off the Ultimate version of Iron Man, as a major turning point for its relaunched Ultimate Marvel line of titles – and I was right. I say this not to brag, though I certainly am pleased about it, but because I’m thrilled they followed through on this storyline.

The Ultimates #6 – written by Deniz Camp, with art by Juan Frigeri – finally brings its incarnation of the Avengers together fully for the first time to battle the Hulk, leading to the team’s first casualty: their leader, Tony Stark, known in this continuity as Iron Lad.

It wasn’t a “gut feeling” that made me think this would happen, or a lucky guess; rather, there was no better choice for a character death to take The Ultimates in an unexpected new direction, and I’m glad Marvel allowed the book’s creative team to go there.

The Ultimates #6 – Written By Deniz Camp; Art By Juan Frigeri; Color By Federico Blee; Lettering By Travis Lanham

First of all, I would bet that Ultimate Tony Stark’s death was likely plotted out well in advance of Jonathan Hickman’s 2023 Ultimate Invasion miniseries, which relaunched Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, nearly ten years after they had Hickman destroy the previous incarnation, more or less because it got too messy. The fun thing about Ultimate Marvel 2.0 is that it is telling an overarching story, in real time – so it seems unlikely to me that a major plot point like the death of the character who is arguably the story’s central protagonist wouldn’t be planned from the jump.

As I argued in my prediction piece, killing off any other member of the Ultimates would have furthered Tony Stark’s arc, but killing Stark furthers every character in the book’s arc. The Ultimates so far has been a story about an inexperienced leader putting together a team of inexperienced heroes. On an abstract storytelling level, having one of the recruits pay the price for their collective shortcomings makes the story more about the leader’s failure, and subsequent growth; the leader paying the price makes the story about the team.

Marvel Told Fans An Ultimate Would Fall – But Nobody Wanted To Believe It Would Be Tony Stark

The Ultimates #6 – Available Now From Marvel Comics

Of course, I didn’t predict Tony Stark’s death completely out of nowhere – Marvel announced the death in the advanced synopsis for Ultimates #6. Or rather, they teased a character death, as part of the hype for the end of the series’ first arc, giving fans months to parse the preceding issues for details and speculate about who it was going to be. I certainly wasn’t unique in figuring out that it was going to be Iron Lad, either, and the only reason more people didn’t make the same prediction is a matter of fandom.

That is, fans have favorite characters. They get attached to characters. They develop expectations for those characters. All of these things are precisely what make a death like Tony Stark’s in Ultimates #6 super impactful, but they also kept the majority of fans from seeing it coming. At times, fans might find it difficult to consider how their favorite character best fits into a story; instead, they tend to look at it in terms of how the story can best serve the character. In my opinion, this led fans to discount the possibility that the series would kill off Stark.

An Incredibly Brutal Scene

In Ultimates #6, Tony Stark leads his full team on its first mission – taking a wildly unprepared group into a confrontation with the Hulk, who in this world also wields the powers of Iron Fist. The action which dominates much of the issue is intense, culminating in Hulk grabbing Iron Lad in his massive hands and crushing him to death in his suit. What I really appreciate about how the moment is staged is that it is not a familiar heroic sacrifice for Stark, but rather a result of him being totally outmatched.

The dramatic effect of the death scene is great, but a writer like Deniz Camp could have, and would have, gotten that same effect out of killing off any member of the Ultimates. What made Tony Stark’s death was the wrench it throws into The Ultimates, promising a totally new paradigm for the series moving forward, after just one arc. Most superhero team books end their first arc with a victory, and the establishment of a status quo – but Camp’s Ultimates rejects that story beat, leaving a totally undefined narrative frontier ahead of him for the next arc.

What Exactly Does “Gamechanging” Mean For A Story, And Does Iron Lad’s Death Qualify?

The Ultimates #7 – Available December 4, 2024 From Marvel Comics

I admit that I probably overuse the word “gamechanging” when talking about major story beats, so I wanted to take a moment to dig deeper into what exactly that means. I certainly think Tony Stark’s death in Ultimates #6 qualifies, but I want to extrapolate why. “Gamechanging,” naturally, borrows from competition to talk about story – so what is something in a game, or a sport, that totally changes the complexion of a game when it happens? I think the best example to use is an interception in American football.

In football, one team will be making steady, incremental progress down the field in one direction – and then in a single moment, the ball is intercepted, and the action suddenly goes in the complete opposite direction. Tony Stark’s death in Ultimates #6 is like an interception; any progress they were making has been completely wiped out, and they have given up ground to their enemy. What’s more, Stark is not just their leader, but their benefactor, meaning the team’s resources and entire ability to function are in jeopardy.

My Next Prediction: Ultimates Has Set Up Its Version Of Doctor Doom As The Team’s New Leader

Is The Endgame Reed Richards Vs. Reed Richards?

I think I have a good sense of where Ultimates is going next, though it could certainly continue to surprise us – and I hope it does. Still, it seems fairly clear that Tony Stark’s death was, in part, necessary to make room for the Ultimate version of Doctor Doom to take center stage in the story, as the Ultimates’ next leader. Just as Iron Lad’s arc in the story so far led to his demise, Doom’s arc is seemingly designed for him to be the hero of the Ultimate Universe in the long run.

The primary antagonist of the Ultimate Universe is the Maker, an evil version of Reed Richards. Ultimate Doom is another version of Reed Richards, one who was tortured and disfigured by the Maker, in a cruel and inexplicable act of self-destruction. It seems as though the greatest narrative endpoint for both characters would be to confront one another in a spectacular face-off, which is personally something I absolutely want to happen. In my opinion, that is an awesome story, and while I hope it contains many more twists and turns on the way there, I hope that is the endgame.

Fans will naturally expect Captain America, Thor, She-Hulk, or even the original Human Torch to step into the leadership vacuum left by the death of Tony Stark, and so the choice of a Doctor Doom variant – even if he is, technically, OG Marvel hero Reed Richards – would in itself be a surprising, and satisfying swerve for The Ultimates. Meanwhile, whether the Ultimate version of Iron Manis gone for good from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, that is a question for another day entirely.

Ultimates #6 is available now from Marvel Comics.