Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This is a special editorial by Andrew Goletz, and does a nice job of laying out what may be in store for the House Of Ideas.
So lissssen up.
The Ultimatization of Marvel
A Melodrama in Several Parts
-by Andrew Goletz
For the past couple weeks, the rumored Ultimatization of Marvel’s entire comic line has been building steam and with each ‘no comment’ from Marvel editorial, credibility. Fans have once again been going crazy with speculation when all we have is a rumor from one side and no statement from the other.
For the next couple weeks (or less if I have the time), I’m going to be looking at the issue of Ultimatizing Marvel. Is it a good idea? A bad one? Is it even true?
One could argue that it is another marketing ploy designed to increase attention to Marvel for the real project they’re working on. Does anyone remember the rumor a couple years back that Marvel would be telling a story about Uncle Ben having molested Peter as a child? After a few weeks of fan insanity, Marvel’s Editor in Chief claimed responsibility for the rumor (as people were guessing what the big controversial story Marvel would be publishing). The controversial story was later revealed as ‘Origin’, the true story of Wolverine’s history that became the best selling Marvel comic of 2001.
I’ve tried to wrap my brain around this one for a while. Is the Ultimatization idea true? For a look at the original rumor/story, go here. In a nutshell, the rumors stems from the idea that Marvel’s investors think an entire Ultimate line would sell better, and be more appealing to new readers and movie studios. So is this a cheap marketing tool, a rumor and nothing more or the exposing of what could be the biggest comic book story of the last 40 years?
The following are some of the arguments and theories that have been made regarding the Ultimatization story, along with comments from yours truly.
* The reason that the Ultimate titles sell so well is that because Marvel has kept the line small, therefore an entire Ultimate Marvel line of 30-40 titles would sell similarly to how they are now. But then again, there is the ‘new reader’ gambit. No one has yet gone out and polled every reader of the Ultimate comics to find out where they’re coming from. Are they people who’ve never read a comic before? Old readers returning to the fold? Whoever they are, these people are buying the Ultimate titles. And even if these are just the same comic fans from the 90s who’ve come back; it’s still a mild success. What these sales numbers don’t include are the thousands and thousands of copies of the Ultimate books that are being sold or given away at places other than comic stores, which is a huge success. If Toys R Us or Wal-Mart is more willing to order Ultimate Hulk instead of Incredible Hulk and the result will be 500,000 copies of this book being read as opposed to 70,000, it seems like a no-brainer. We don’t know who the creative teams would be on the Ultimate books, but they do have one big plus in their favor (not counting the new #1s) and that is that lack of continuity and back history. Nothing is more troublesome for a new comic reader than stepping into issue 300 of a title (no matter how good it is or what a great jumping on point the story is). They know something has gone before and that they’ve missed it. It’s like walking into a rock concert during the second half of the show…a waste of time. With an Ultimate comic book, they’re being exposed to the same new ideas and fresh starts as everyone else.
* It could be seen as backpedaling on the part of Marvel, who have always claimed that the line would be minimal. Although they have also mentioned that if it was needed due to mainstream exposure from film and other means, an Ultimate title for Daredevil or Hulk wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. When you consider that Punisher, Iron Fist, Submariner and Ghost Rider are all in active development there could conceivably be as many as 10 Ultimate titles by 2004 (more if you count the forthcoming Ultimate Adventures and rumored Fantastic Four. And as a publisher, how feasible is it to have a dozen or more comics catered to new readers that presumably selling 100k or more and also still publish the ‘original’ versions of these titles that sell half as many copies?
* Another potential rumor kill is the exclusive contracts of several top name creators like Kevin Smith and J Michael Stracynzki and the Spider-Man titles creative changes. Kevin Smith moves on to Amazing Spider-Man while JMS gets a brand new Spider-Man book early next year along with Paul Jenkins, whose Peter Parker is ending only to be replaced with another new Spider-book in 2003. Would there be so much hype about these projects if they’re all eventually to be wiped out by an ‘Ultimatization’? And Spider-Man is just one of many books to be in this mix. You have X-Force becoming X-Statics, Cable becoming Soldier X, the Thunderbolts revamp, etc. Why go through the trouble of giving these books new leases on life if in another year, everything becomes an Ultimate title? Someone suggested that the creative signings and decisions on these comics were made before the decision to go Ultimate, but it seems like a bit of a coincidence. It’s a good excuse, but how realistic is it?
* The Bendis mystery. Brian Michael Bendis is rumored to be involved with something big. Most frequenters of his online forum have speculated on the mysterious project to be everything from a new comic to film and television projects. Now attention has turned to the idea that he is organizing the massive Ultimatization project. I doubt this one. Many of Brian’s previous projects like Fortune and Glory, Jinx and Torso have piqued the interest of Hollywood and now that he’s had some involvement in the animated Spider-Man show for MTV, I’d wager that his big project has nothing to do with comics. Besides, one would assume that a project this large in scope would require more than one writer’s efforts and you would think that this would play out similarly to Origin with Marvel editorial playing as big a piece in the Ultimatization as the writers.
* JLA/Avengers. One of pieces that helped fuel this whole rumor was that some changes needed to be made to the DC/Marvel crossover to reflect the Ultimatization. If anything, this one seems like it was thrown out by someone at DC to have a little fun. If this Ultimatization were to occur, it probably wouldn’t happen until next year at the earliest and most of the concepts for these characters couldn’t be determined yet. That would put the JLA/Avengers project into an ungodly delay surely would have DC coming out so they wouldn’t be assigned blame for this one.
* The Conspiracy Theory. No one’s made a secret about the idea that in the Ultimate Universe, there is something going on behind the scenes. As far back as Ultimate Spider-Man #1, Norman Osborn was seen talking to a mysterious superior about the project that would result in Peter Parker gaining powers. Every now and then, things would pop up in the books (usually with Nick Fury involved), which would give more credence to the idea that there is a mysterious mastermind or organization behind all of these characters in the Ultimate Universe gaining powers. Ultimate X-Men #25 seems to the issue to look out for, with other theories marking December as the month where the conspiracy is revealed. With the Ultimate titles having their own internal mystery, tied into their own neat package of books, it would seem that adding another 30 titles would undermine the importance of this big event.
* Stuart Moore leaving Marvel. One of the more popular conspiracy theories making the rounds has Stuart leaving Moore not just to pursue his writing career, but that he was not pleased with the new direction his books would have to take in light of the Ultimatization project. As far as I can tell, there’s been nothing to support this theory outside of the compulsion of a few online to tie every event into another. Some of the latest rumors call for an epic story to be written featuring Galactus, The Beyonder and a host of other cosmic entities that would result in the Marvel Universe being Ultimatized. This one seems like chunks of another rumor coming in to make this one look stronger. About a year ago, when Jim Shooter has seemingly returned to Marvel, a lot of rumors were being bandied about that a possible Secret Wars 3 type story could make its way into the publishing plans.
* Neil Gaiman’s big project. We know he’s doing a mini-series for Marvel and that’s about the extent of how much anyone really knows. Even the title is up for speculation. Originally thought to be one of the big project of 2003, this one seems to have been delayed a bit. Perhaps it’s to tie into the Ultimatization of Marvel? Who better to be trusted to bridge the two Universes together than one of the most acclaimed writers in the industry?
* Marvel’s ‘The End’ series. By now everyone knows that The Hulk: The End is only one part of what is conceived to be a multitude of similar projects, reuniting Marvel characters and the creative teams best associated with them to tell their ‘final’ story. Speculation has it that these aren’t just imaginary tales and could end up being the final word on the original versions of these characters. The truth is, ‘The End’ concept has been around for a while and has been in the planning and execution stages long before any rumors began about Ultimatizing the entire line. That said, there really isn’t anything that could prevent Marvel from adjusting their plans and deciding to make the ‘The End’ real.
* A GrayHaven writer thought that perhaps this rumor had a glint of truth in it and that perhaps this would all be for a grand 5th week event in which the current creative teams would get a chance to Ultimatize the characters. If it didn’t work, then no harm done. If the reception was positive, then perhaps…
So what’s the story here?
Ultimatizing the entire line is certainly within the realm of possibility. This is an industry that killed Superman and replaced Spider-Man with a Clone. True, restarting an entire line is a bit gutsier (or stupider, depending on your POV) than dealing with one character but DC had their Crisis several years back and have rebooted their characters a few times over with great success. Ultimatizing the entire line of Marvel Comics may seem a bit more extreme on the outset, but it isn’t, really. At worst, the only ones who would be upset are maybe a fourth of the current readers, and that number is generous. And when you’re talking about upsetting a few thousand fans to potentially reach hundreds of thousands of new ones, well, it’s not going to be a hard decision to make.
At this point, I don’t believe the Ultimatization is happening, at least not in the way we understand. Take the clues and rumors as you like and do your own investigating, but things seem a bit ‘staged’ at this point. I’m inclined to think that what this is really leading to is the announcement of a ‘5th week event’ in which the entire Marvel Universe is Ultimatized…for a week.
That would be too bad; because I think Ultimatizing the entire Marvel Comics line is an absolutely brilliant idea.
And I’m going to tell you why…next time.
Ohhhhh... what a f’ing tease!!
"Moriarty" out.
