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Ultimate Marvel Reading Order (with Spider-Man Miles Morales, Fantastic Four, X-Men, The Ultimates)

Ultimate Marvel Reading Order

Welcome to Earth-1610, home of the Ultimate Universe. Ultimate Marvel, later known as Ultimate Comics, was an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, where familiar heroes and villains were re-booted for the contemporary reader.

Those characters include Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Ultimates (the counterpart of the Avengers), the Fantastic Four, and others. The imprint was launched in 2000. Brian Michael Bendis wrote the first comic book of the Ultimate imprint, Ultimate Spider-Man. A little bit later, Mark Millar (Jupiter’s Legacy) started the Ultimate X-Men comics, the Ultimate Fantastic Four, and The Ultimates.

The Ultimate Universe ended at the conclusion of the 2015 “Secret Wars” storyline, when select characters from the Ultimate Universe moved to the mainstream universe. However, writer Brian Michael Bendis established at the end of the 2017 miniseries Spider-Men II that the universe and its superheroes still exist.

Ultimate Marvel Complete Reading Order

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Following is a menu to navigate in this reading order, and going directly to the era of your choice

  1. Ultimate Marvel (2000–2009)
  2. Post-Ultimatum, Ultimate Comics (2009–2011)
  3. Ultimate Comics: Reborn (2011–2014)
  4. Ultimate Marvel NOW! (2014–2015)
  5. Other collected editions

I. Ultimate Marvel (2000–2009)

Published between 2005 and 2008, volume 1 and volume 2 of Ultimate Iron Man were intended to be canon, but it didn’t make sense. Mark Millar retconned the series as a fictional Japanese anime version. You can read them anywhere you want.

Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra and Ultimate Elektra: Devil’s Due are both flashback stories that you can read before the beginning. It takes place before Marvel Marvel Team-Up #6, but has been published later.

Ultimate Comics Thor is primarily a prequel, but the story goes up to the first volume of The Ultimates. Ultimate Adventures: One Tin Soldier takes place during and after Ultimates. We advise reading those volumes together.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23 is the beginning of the Zombieverse, Marvel Earth 2149. We don’t have a reading order yet for that Earth. You can read here Marvel Zombies: Dead Days #1, written after this FF story-arc, but occurring chronologically earlier than any other story in the Zombieverse. Ultimate Fantastic Four #30–32 also cross-over with the Zombieverse.

The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy is a collection of three comic book limited series written by Warren Ellis showcasing the arrival of the planet-eating entity Gah Lak Tus on Earth.

Ultimate Power is a crossover between Ultimate and Supremeverse, also known as Supreme Power or Earth-31916. After this story, you can read Squadron Supreme: Power To The People, which deals with the aftermath of Ultimate Power.

Ultimatum is the very unpopular crossover event between the Ultimate Marvel titles, written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by David Finch.

II. Post-Ultimatum, Ultimate Comics (2009–2011)

Following Ultimatum, The Ultimate Marvel imprint was re-launched as “Ultimate Comics” with the first part of this period concluding with the arrival of Miles Morales as Spider-Man.

III. Ultimate Comics: Reborn (2011–2014)

Only two years in and Marvel delivered another relaunch, named “Ultimate Comics Universe Reborn”. The Ultimates and Avengers team were merged again into a single team, the Ultimates. Miles Morales becomes the new Spider-Man and we have the first crossover with the main universe with the Spider-Men miniseries for the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man. It’s not the only crossover during that time, and the end of Age of Ultron will lead to the start of the Cataclysm cross-over.

Courtesy of the multiversal machinations of Mysterio, the Marvel Universe’s friendly neighborhood Peter Parker meets Ultimate Comics’ new kid on the block, Miles Morales in the limited series Spider-Men!

This is where Age of Ultron (Reading Order) takes place, a crossover storyline by Brian Michael Bendis, with artists Bryan Hitch and Brandon Petersonn, which Cataclysm is considered a sequel.

  • Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand
    Collects Hunger #1-4; Cataclysm #0.1; Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand #1-5; Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man #1-3; Cataclysm: Ultimate X-Men #1-3; Cataclysm: Ultimates #1-3; & Survive #1.

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IV. Ultimate Marvel NOW! (2014–2015)

In the wake of the Cataclysm comes a new relaunch for the Ultimate line, named Ultimate Marvel NOW!

Written by Dan Slott, Spider-verse is a 2014 Marvel Event in which all the Spider-Men were attacked by Morlun and his family, the Inheritors. To know more about it, you can consult our Reading Order.

  • Spider-Verse
    Collects Amazing Spider-Man #7-15; Superior Spider-Man #32-33; Spider-Verse #1-2; Spider-Verse Team-Up #1-3; Scarlet Spiders #1-3; Spider-Woman (2014) #1-4; Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #6-8; & Free Comic Book Day 2014 #1.

The All-New X-Men (aka the five original X-Men, brought from the past to the present written by Bendis) meet Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man in this crossover story.

This is the end of the line for the Ultimate Marvel imprint with the 2015 cross-over event Secret Wars. This is the destruction of the Marvel Universe as we knew it and various other alternate universes like the Ultimate one or the 2099 line and more. To know more, go to our Secret Wars Reading Order.

The Ultimate Universe ended at the conclusion of this event, with select characters from the Ultimate Universe moving to the mainstream universe. Discover here what happened to the characters of the Ultimate Marvel Universe on Earth-616, or check out our Reading Guides for Miles Morales and The Maker.

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Since then, Brian Michael Bendis established at the end of the 2017 miniseries Spider-Men II that the universe and its superheroes still exist.

V. Marvel Ultimate collected in other collections

Above was a reading order following trade paperbacks. Marvel has also collected some of those issues in other collections (some still available and some not).

In Omnibus Form:

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In deluxe hardcovers and corresponding paperback Ultimate Collections :

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  • Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol. 5 (only hardcover)
    Collects Ultimate Fantastic Four #42–53
  • Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol. 6 (only hardcover)
    Collects Ultimate Fantastic Four #54–57; Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe #1–2; Ultimate Secrets
  • Ultimatum Companion (only hardcover)
    Collects Ultimate Fantastic Four #58–60; Ultimatum Fantastic Four: Requiem; Ultimate Spider-Man #129–133; Ultimatum Spider-Man: Requiem #1–2; Ultimate X-Men #98–100; Ultimatum X-Men: Requiem; March on Ultimatum Saga; Marvel Spotlight: Ultimatum

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