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107-586: The Ultimate Universe, as a part of a large-scale reboot of the All-New, All-Different Marvel Multiverse , 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. Between June and September 2023, Marvel published

214-604: A Doctor Doom mask-wearing Reed Richards work to undo what Maker has done. Marvel Comics later revealed in June that following the end of Ultimate Invasion, a one-shot called Ultimate Universe #1, written by Hickman and drawn by Stefano Caselli, will release in November and set the stage for a new line of Ultimate Universe comics. The plans have been laid out by Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Hitch, and C.B. Cebulski. In September 2023, Marvel revealed that one of these new titles would be

321-593: A 2013 storyline. The story, however, is largely a team-up of characters from the Ultimate and mainstream Marvel universes, with only a superficial relation with the plot of the crossover. Matt Little from CBR suspected that the story may have been conceived at some earlier point, and then slightly modified to serve as a tie-in for Secret Wars . Aaron Davis , Morales' uncle, makes his first Marvel-616 appearance in Spider-Man #234. The Maker , an evil Reed Richards ,

428-566: A blue being of energy and the depiction of Harry's transformation into Green Goblin. The 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is based on the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy , in particular the design of Galactus . The franchise was rebooted in 2015 with Fantastic Four , which is strongly based on the first arcs of Ultimate Fantastic Four . Sony made an animated Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Into

535-613: A book about comics published by Random House . Brian Michael Bendis was born on August 18, 1967, in Cleveland , Ohio to a Jewish-American family. Bendis grew up in University Heights where, despite rebelling against a religious upbringing, he attended the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland , a private, modern Orthodox religious school for boys. He decided he wanted to be a comic book industry professional when he

642-529: A college-aged Peter Parker, and was written to tie-into the then-unreleased 2002 film Spider-Man . The pilot episode that Bendis wrote became the third episode aired. His dismay at being credited for something written by someone else, and the multitude of corporate and legal departments involved in the animation process soured him on the show. Bendis was one of the writers on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, which debuted in 2012. He

749-491: A less notable degree. The film Spider-Man was released in 2002, two years after the start of Ultimate Spider-Man , and also provided a higher character development for Uncle Ben before killing him in Spider-Man's origin story , while also modifying the character's origin story, by writing a genetically-modified spider, instead of a radioactive spider, as the source of his spider-powers and replacing Mary Jane-Watson, as

856-564: A new Moon Knight series with Maleev, which concluded with issue 12. In 2012, in conjunction with Marvel Studios' feature film The Avengers , Bendis began writing a new Avengers comic, Avengers Assemble . Bendis wrote the first eight issues of Avengers Assemble , a series that premiered in March 2012 that featured a new incarnation of the Zodiac, as well as the return of the Guardians of

963-406: A notable landmark in the comics being featured in the film. Spider-Man: Homecoming also had aspects of the comics like Parker's age, a younger Aunt May , introducing Aaron Davis and revealing the presence of Miles Morales and Stark mentoring Spider-Man though without S.H.I.E.L.D. and other heroes being involved like in the comics, and in the same film where Stark sports an armor reminiscent of

1070-461: A period within that of "nine years" living as a stereotypical 'starving artist'. In 1996–1997, Bendis moved from Caliber to Image Comics , where Jinx and his other previous crime comics were published by Image's Shadowline arm in trade paperback . At Image, he also produced five more issues of Jinx . Impressed with A.K.A. Goldfish , Image founder Todd McFarlane sought out Bendis, which led to his writing Sam and Twitch . Although set in

1177-404: A planned, but ultimately unproduced, Nick Fury story. Marvel Comics President Bill Jemas , on the recommendation of Quesada, hired Bendis to write Ultimate Spider-Man , which debuted in 2000, and was targeted at the new generation of readers. Bendis adapted the 11-page origin story of Spider-Man from 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15 into a seven issues story arc, with Peter Parker becoming

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1284-437: A prelude to Secret Invasion . After Marvel's 2006 " Civil War " storyline, Bendis helmed another Avengers revival, launching Mighty Avengers with Frank Cho in 2007. Post-"Secret Invasion", Bendis left Mighty Avengers with issue #20 and wrote Secret Invasion: Dark Reign , a one-shot that preceded another ongoing Avengers series, Dark Avengers . In 2009, Bendis and former Daredevil collaborator Maleev launched

1391-611: A relaunch of Ultimate Spider-Man written by Hickman and illustrated by Marco Checchetto and will begin publication in January 2024. This iteration of the story will focus on Peter Parker, having been bitten by a radioactive spider in adulthood as opposed to a teenager, balancing his heroics with his dedication as a family man towards raising his two children with his wife Mary Jane Watson . The following month during New York Comic Con , Cebulski and Hickman announced Ultimate Black Panther written by Bryan Hill with art by Caselli and

1498-520: A relaunch of Ultimate X-Men written and illustrated by Peach Momoko to begin publication following Ultimate Spider-Man in February and March 2024, respectively. Titles in this section are organized by approximate publication date and line title. Brian Michael Bendis wrote the first comic book of the Ultimate imprint, Ultimate Spider-Man , launched in 2000. This was his first work for Marvel Comics. He later worked in other comics of

1605-453: A standalone Ultimate Black Panther story. In the late 1990s, the US comic book industry had declining sales. Annual combined sales from all publishers, which had been close to a billion dollars in 1993, had declined to 270 million. Comic books were briefly seen as valuable investments and sales shops flourished, but prices dropped as the speculative bubble popped in the early 1990s. In addition,

1712-538: A successful run on The Avengers , starting with Avengers Disassembled . He created Jessica Jones in the Alias comic book, part of the R-rated MAX imprint. He wrote major crossover events such as House of M , Age of Ultron and Civil War II . He wrote Cataclysm , the last crossover event within the Ultimate imprint, and Ultimate End , that closed it. He moved to DC Comics in 2017. Mark Millar

1819-457: A supporting cast largely based on their Ultimate counterparts. Despite the name and the involvement of Bendis, Ultimate Spider-Man is a different work (although Peter Parker is modeled after his appearance in the comics though with a slightly bulkier build), aimed primarily at a younger audience. Being criticized by this, Bendis said that the show was made for Disney XD and "not for Showtime ". The series adapted some specific storylines such as

1926-467: A vested owner about developing a property as a tangible asset with the future in mind," rather than only working on his own characters under his own terms. In 1998, Bendis co-wrote and illustrated the Eliot Ness -starring Torso with Marc Andreyko, again for Image, and in 2000 he produced three issues of the autobiographical Fortune and Glory for Oni Comics . That same year saw the debut of

2033-550: Is a Scottish comic book writer, and started his career with British comics such as Judge Dredd . He was hired by DC Comics, and worked in several titles. His most successful work was Superman: Red Son , which reimagined Superman as a newborn alien whose ship fell in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas. This work was published in 2003, two years after his departure from DC. Millar started the Ultimate X-Men comics,

2140-625: Is also restored to life and moved to Marvel-616, where he is a recurring villain in the Infamous Iron Man & New Avengers comic books. The hammer of Ultimate Thor (lost in the Cataclysm crossover) is found by Thor Odinson , who is not capable at the time to wield his classic hammer, owned by Jane Foster . He refuses to take the new hammer, which is then lifted by Volstagg in the Unworthy Thor miniseries. Jimmy Hudson ,

2247-532: Is an American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime and noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero work. While at Marvel Comics , Bendis worked with Bill Jemas and Mark Millar as the writer on the first book of the Ultimate Marvel imprint, Ultimate Spider-Man , which debuted in 2000. He relaunched the Avengers franchise with New Avengers in 2004, wrote

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2354-633: Is based on his origin story from the Ultimate Universe, as both versions become the Hulk while attempting to recreate the Super Soldier Serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. Hawkeye and Captain America's costumes were based on their Ultimate uniforms as well and elements of Captain America's origin story are adapted from the Ultimate comics such as Bucky Barnes being his childhood friend who protected him from bullies and being around

2461-478: Is the last story of the Ultimate imprint. It was produced by Bendis and Bagley, the team that started the imprint. Miles Morales, a character that originated in the Ultimate Universe to take over the mantle of Spider-Man when the Ultimate Universe's Peter Parker died, was migrated to the Marvel-616 universe, along with his supporting cast, a development that saw his mother restored to life, following her death in

2568-521: The All-New, All-Different Avengers for Free Comic Book Day , a preview of the new Marvel Universe that featured many "legacy heroes", a term used for new characters taking on the role of established heroes. The comic also featured a preview of Uncanny Inhumans . In early June 2015, Marvel unveiled two photos depicting many of its iconic and lesser known characters post-"Secret Wars". Among these were Gwen Stacy 's Spider-Woman counterpart, X-23 as

2675-527: The Fantastic Four comic book, as a result of the disputes between Marvel and 20th Century Fox over the film rights over the characters. The 2015 Secret Wars storyline concluded the Ultimate Marvel imprint. In the plot, it was destroyed alongside all the other alternate realities in the multiverse , and then recreated as a region of the Battleworld . Ultimate End , set in such region,

2782-671: The Ultimate Invasion miniseries written by Jonathan Hickman with art by The Ultimates co-creator Bryan Hitch . The events of the miniseries culminated in the establishment of a rebooted Ultimate Universe designated as Earth-6160 , which serves as the setting for a relaunched series of books under the Ultimate Marvel banner, which began with the eponymous Ultimate Universe #1 in November 2023. The new Ultimate imprint also encompasses new versions of Ultimate Spider-Man , Ultimate X-Men , and The Ultimates , as well as

2889-736: The Golden Apple Comics chain [of comic shops] in Los Angeles . Bendis's best-known early work, Jinx , starring the titular bounty hunter in a crime noir version of the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , began publication in 1996, and ran for seven issues from Caliber. He characterizes much of this period of his professional life in terms of working as "a graphic artist for almost twelve years", undergoing

2996-741: The Icon Comics imprint, which allowed Millar to retain the rights. Millar then created Millarworld , with his own comic books, such as Wanted and Kick-Ass . Wanted , Kingsman , and Kick-ass had cinematic adaptations. Millarworld was acquired by the American streaming media company Netflix in August 2017. The only adaptations of the Ultimate Marvel works to other media are two direct-to-video films by Marvel Animated Features , Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of

3103-520: The Spawn universe, Bendis approached Sam and Twitch primarily as a crime comic. He wrote Sam and Twitch for twenty issues, as well as most of the first ten issues of Hellspawn , another Spawn spin-off title. This non-creator-owned work allowed him to, in the words of Rich Kriener in The Comics Journal , "[add] the responsibility of caretaker to his resume, in that he would answer to

3210-535: The Starjammers story, which gained him an A+ grade for imagination and inventiveness. At 19, Bendis began attending the Cleveland Institute of Art , while working at a downtown comic book store where he eventually sold some of his early work. Between the ages of 20 and 25, he sent in a large number of submissions to comics companies, although he ultimately abandoned this approach to breaking into

3317-635: The Ultimate Fantastic Four , and The Ultimates . Stan Lee , creator of many characters of Marvel comics, praised his work, but also advised him: "That's great, but you should do your own characters instead of doing mine. I didn't do Superman and Batman and Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes. I went off and did the X-Men". Dave Gibbons , artist of Watchmen , was impressed by his work and started working with him in Kingsman , published by Marvel at

Ultimate Marvel - Misplaced Pages Continue

3424-417: The " Heroic Age ". Also in 2010, Bendis launched Scarlet through Icon Comics , his first new creator-owned comic book in over a decade, re-teaming once again with Maleev. In February 2011, Icon released the all-ages graphic novel , Takio by Bendis and his Powers collaborator Mike Oeming, and in mid-2011 a maxiseries called Brilliant with artist Bagley. Bendis's other 2011 projects included

3531-582: The 2006 prequel Spider-Man: Battle for New York features a retelling of the story of Spider-Man and Green Goblin , in addition featuring The Ultimates and Kingpin . The 2004 video game X-Men: Legends and its 2005 sequel X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse have the titular characters wear their Ultimate costumes as do the Brotherhood of Mutants . Other Marvel video games have also featured Ultimate influences such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance and its sequel Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 featuring

3638-467: The Avengers, with very little in common with the mainstream title. Captain America got a rash soldierly personality, Hulk was written as a murderous and cannibalistic monster that kills hundreds of civilians, and Thor was ambiguously introduced as either an actual Norse god (as in the main comics) or a man with stolen weapons and a psychiatric disorder. Nick Fury , originally a caucasian character in

3745-501: The Galaxy , which teamed with the Avengers against Thanos. Bendis concluded his stint on Avengers and New Avengers in 2012 with the "End Times" arc. His final issue of Avengers , released September 2012, was a "jam issue", featuring splash pages by Marvel artists including Walt Simonson , Jim Cheung , and Leinil Yu . Following Marvel's "Marvel NOW!" relaunch of its titles, Bendis took on writing duties on All New X-Men , which saw

3852-528: The Maker's attempts to bring back the Ultimate Universe, with the Illuminati reforming to try and stop him. Despite claiming that Earth-1610 would be revisited, the storyline went a different path and showed a new Earth called Earth-6160 and reshaped it into his own image before being thwarted by Howard Stark who operates as Iron Man. Afterwards, Earth-6160's Tony Stark (who takes up the name Iron Lad) and

3959-589: The Marvel storylines " Avengers Disassembled " (2004-2005), " Secret War " (2004–2005), " House of M " (2005), " Secret Invasion " (2008), " Siege " (2010) and " Age of Ultron " (2013), and co-created the characters Riri Williams , Miles Morales , and Jessica Jones . Bendis has won five Eisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on various Marvel Comics books. Though he has cited comic book writers such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore , Bendis' writing influences are less rooted in comics; drawing on

4066-571: The Marvel-616 Universe, was modeled after the actor Samuel L. Jackson , and the new design eventually overshadowed the original one, being incorporated into the mainstream Marvel-616 universe and all new media adaptions of the characters. The main premise was to write a comic that looked the way a superhero film about the Avengers should look. At that point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had not been created, and

4173-638: The Marvel/DC intercompany crossovers as a justification. The Age of Ultron crossover, between the mainstream comics, ended with Galactus displaced into the Ultimate universe. This premise started the " Cataclysm " crossover in the Ultimate imprint, which was followed by yet another new relaunch. The Ultimates disbanded after the crossover, and were replaced by a completely different team, led by Miles Morales. This team starred in All-New Ultimates , by Michel Fiffe and Amilcar Pinna. Spider-Man

4280-552: The New Avengers / X-Men crossover, " House of M ", which would retroactively be considered the second act of a three-act super-event beginning with "Avengers Disassembled" and culminating in the Bendis-written 2008 storyline " Secret Invasion ". Bendis also wrote the storyline " Secret War ", which was published between 2004 and 2005. The series, which was not connected to the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars , served as

4387-591: The Panther , based on the Ultimates. The plot was simplified and the political aspects of the original work were removed, turning it into a standard superhero animated film. Other animated series incorporated aspects of the Ultimate comics, despite not being direct adaptations. The 2008 animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man shared many similarities with the Ultimate version of the titular character, including his age, his personal relationship with Eddie Brock, and

Ultimate Marvel - Misplaced Pages Continue

4494-503: The Spider-Verse , which starred Miles Morales. The plot is an adaptation of the 2014 storyline Spider-Verse and was released in 2018. The 2005 video game Ultimate Spider-Man is a direct adaptation of the storylines and characters from the eponymous comics. The game is centered around the Ultimate Marvel versions of Spider-Man and Venom , but also features appearances from The Human Torch , Wolverine , and Nick Fury , and

4601-437: The Ultimate comics, such as Captain Marvel and the suit of Captain America during the second season. Nick Fury was based on Ultimate Nick Fury since season 2, which was kept for the following series, Avengers Assemble which also drew influence from Ultimate Marvel comics. As for the X-Men, the 2000 animated series X-Men: Evolution also had important members reimagined as teenagers, and eventually incorporated costumes from

4708-552: The Ultimate line, including Ultimate Marvel Team-Up , which Bendis pitched to Marvel as a follow-up to Ultimate Spider-Man , as well as Ultimate Fantastic Four , Ultimate X-Men , Ultimate Origins , Ultimate Six , the first three issues of Ultimate Power , and the Ultimate Comics: Doomsday metaseries . In 2011, Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli created the Miles Morales character as

4815-441: The Ultimate version. This also extends to Spider-Man: Far From Home where Nick Fury is seen mentoring Spider-Man. Thor has similar traits to his Ultimate counterpart, such as his personality, powers, costume elements, and hammer. Thor ends up getting a new hammer during Avengers: Infinity War which is based on the Ultimate version of Mjolnir. Other films based on Marvel comics were also influenced by Ultimate Marvel, albeit in

4922-481: The Ultimate versions of the characters for the first game. The 2010 video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions features the Ultimate version of Spider-Man possessed with a symbiote . All-New, All-Different Marvel All-New, All-Different Marvel ( ANADM ) is a 2015–2019 branding for Marvel Comics ' entire main line of comics. Taking place after the crossover storyline " Secret Wars ", it details

5029-481: The Ultimates from the Ultimate universe. Bendis left Marvel Comics in 2017 and moved to DC Comics . One of his last comic books was a second volume of Spider-Men II , featuring Peter Parker and Miles Morales. The miniseries ends with the Marvel-616 Miles Morales emigrating to the Ultimate Universe to be reuniting with his lost love, following the death of her Marvel-616 counterpart, confirming that

5136-626: The Ultimates. This team would then be featured in Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates , written by Jonathan Hickman . The Death of Spider-Man features the death of Peter Parker and his nemesis Green Goblin . An Afro-Hispanic teenager, Miles Morales , becomes the new Spider-Man. He was featured in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man , still written by Bendis. The X-Men were relaunched in the miniseries Ultimate Comics: X , which introduced Jimmy Hudson ,

5243-535: The Venom project and both were intended as a cure for diseases) and it is implied that Norman Osborn betrayed Richard much like Eddie Brock Sr. had in the comics when they both selfishly wanted the research for their own ends and being responsible, even if indirectly in Norman's case for the deaths of Peter's parents. The villains featured in the films are modeled after their Ultimate counterparts, Electro in particular being

5350-487: The Venom symbiote in the comics); his signature wise-cracking and motor-mouthed sense of humor; his uncle's speech on responsibility and subsequent argument with Peter, moments before his death; a genetically-modified spider being responsible for Peter's spider-powers; his relationship with Gwen Stacy, mirroring his relationship with Mary Jane-Watson from the comics; Gwen being somewhat rebellious like her Ultimate incarnation and sticking up for Peter, albeit non-violently when he

5457-435: The audiences, and hired Jeph Loeb for a third Ultimates miniseries that would lead to such event. This miniseries relied on shock value and gratuitous amounts of death and violence, instead of the political overtones of the first two. The art by Joe Madureira was standard superhero art, instead of the cinematic action provided by Hitch. The miniseries had decent sales, but was near-universally panned by critics. The series

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5564-732: The character to eventually evolve naturally. His depiction of Aunt May in Ultimate Spider-Man , for example, strongly resembles his mother. Bendis met his wife Alisa in 1995 through the Cleveland chapter of the Hillel Foundation , where Alisa worked and Bendis was a staff illustrator. The two were married within a year. Alisa Bendis manages JINXWORLD, the company through which Bendis produces his creator-owned and licensed comics work. They have four children, of which three are daughters. Bendis's oldest daughter, Olivia,

5671-481: The characters, Millar based his general draft of the series on the 2000 X-Men film. Jemas and Quesada paired Millar with artist Bryan Hitch , who had also worked with The Authority , but in a run that did not overlap with Millar's. They would reimagine the Avengers , who were renamed as "the Ultimates ". Unlike the simple updates of the Spider-Man and X-Men titles, the Ultimates were a complete reimagination of

5778-468: The comics as well. Similarly, Wolverine and the X-Men in 2009 had Magneto disassemble and reprogram the Sentinels like in the Ultimate X-Men storyline "Tomorrow People". Ultimate Marvel has also been a strong influence in the early stages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe . Joss Whedon said that The Ultimates brought Marvel into the modern age in a way no other book did. Tony Stark's personality

5885-437: The comics industry, including Mike Oeming , Dave Mack and Marc Andreyko , and began the first in a series of independent noir fiction crime comics when he published two issues of Fire in 1993 and five issues of A.K.A. Goldfish in 1994 with Caliber. In 1995 he illustrated Flaxen from a script by James Hudnall , with David Mack providing inks to the story featuring former Playboy Playmate Susie Owens as mascot of

5992-404: The company began revealing titles on a bi-daily basis. The new Invincible Iron Man series had Iron Man learning about who his birth parents are after it was revealed that Howard Stark and Maria Stark had adopted him and that Arno Stark was their biological son. Marvel unveiled most of its new titles in late June 2015, after a book detailing the titles was shipped out to retailers, which

6099-436: The crossover, Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four were cancelled, with a last issue for each title named Ultimate Requiem to give closure to their plots. The Ultimate Marvel imprint was re-launched, as "Ultimate Comics". Ultimate Spider-Man was renamed as Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man , and the line was joined later by Ultimate Comics: Avengers and Ultimate Comics: New Ultimates . New Ultimates featured

6206-413: The emphasis and focus on his parents and their subsequent disappearance; his father Richard Parker being a scientist specializing in biology, who worked on a secret project/experiment regarding the procurement of a special serum that was intended to cure terminal illnesses (which is depicted as being derived from the blood of genetically-modified spiders, encoded to the bloodline of Peter's family, instead of

6313-490: The episode "Freaky" where Spider-Man and Wolverine switch bodies as in Ultimate Spider-Man #66-67. Miles Morales appeared in that TV series as well first in a cameo before becoming a major character later on for the series adaptation of Spider-Verse . Also in this series, the host for Venom is Harry Osborn instead of Eddie Brock, and takes the form of Spider-Man's black suit. As for the Avengers, some character designs from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes were based on

6420-505: The first comic book of the imprint, Ultimate Spider-Man . One of the previous auditioners had made a word-by-word rewrite of the Amazing Fantasy #15 comic (the debut of Spider-Man), in a modern setting. Bendis preferred to avoid that writing style completely. Instead, he changed the narration style, so that it resembled a TV series more than a classic superhero comic book. There were no thought bubbles or long expositions , and

6527-430: The first issue did not feature any superhero costume. Jemas tried to bring more notice into the comic book by distributing it at chain stores like Payless Shoes and Walmart . The sales rose, and the comic book was acclaimed by critics. The art was created by Mark Bagley , known for his work on Spider-Man and Venom stories in the 1990s. The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of

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6634-555: The first miniseries of the Ultimates and the ending of the second. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier 's design throughout the films is also modeled after the Ultimate Marvel version. The depiction of Falcon in the films is derived from the Ultimate incarnation, and Rogers' relationship with Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is reminiscent of the one in the comics with the Triskellion,

6741-544: The imprint at that point was "Ground Zero". Unlike previous reboots, there was no in-story explanation for the existence of the imprint, and the standard comic books were still being published, unaffected by the new project. Thus, Ultimate Spider-Man would contain the stories of a new teenager Spider-Man starting his career, and the usual Spider-Man titles would still contain the stories of the adult Spider-Man with nearly forty years worth of continuity. Quesada then hired Brian Michael Bendis , an artist from indie publishers, for

6848-466: The imprint, such as Ultimate Marvel Team-Up (2001–2002), Ultimate X-Men (2003–2004), Ultimate Fantastic Four (2003–2004) and Ultimate Origins (2008). He is recognized as the main author of the whole Ultimate imprint. Most characters were reimaginations of classic Marvel characters; Miles Morales was an original character of his own creation. Given the success of the Ultimate imprint, Marvel asked him to write mainstream Marvel comics as well. He started

6955-649: The industry, considering it too much of a "lottery." Best known as a writer, Bendis started out as an artist, doing work for local magazines and newspapers, including caricature work. He worked at The Plain Dealer as an illustrator. Although he did not enjoy caricature work, it paid well and funded his interest in writing crime fiction for graphic novels . He eventually moved into both writing and illustrating his work, before he began producing work for Caliber Comics , including Spunky Todd . Through Caliber, he met many of his longtime friends and collaborators within

7062-529: The introduction of the Neil Gaiman character Angela into the Marvel Universe. On July 22, 2014, Random House published Bendis's instruction book on comics, Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels. The day after that book's publication, CBR.com published an interview in which Bendis talked about the course on writing Graphic Novels he had taught for

7169-420: The last — if not the last — Marvel comics". Comic book continuity , which had been a key to the success of Marvel Comics in its early years, turned into a problem for some readers. All stories had to fit into a sixty-year continuity, a bar that not all fans could reach and which scared away some new readers. The usual style of superhero comics with pages of garish colors, fantastical villains and convoluted plots

7276-550: The long-delayed Spider-Woman , following up on her role in the "Secret Invasion" storyline. Spider-Woman was the first comic book to be offered simultaneously on the Internet as a "motion comic" and in comic stores in print form. Bendis re-teamed with Olivier Coipel for the 2009 crossover series " Siege ", which brought the "Dark Reign" storyline to a close, and with-it, Dark Avengers . Springboarding out of Siege , Bendis relaunched both Avengers and New Avengers as part of

7383-526: The longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four . Ultimate X-Men was also launched in 2001. It was initially delayed by the search for a creative team, and even Bendis' proposed scripts were rejected. The new title was finally given to Mark Millar , who had a controversial run in DC's The Authority . The two authors had conflicting styles: Bendis sought to modernize

7490-581: The main character's primary love interest. The series was rebooted with The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, and Sony asked Bendis for suggestions. He proposed that Spider-Man should use artificial web-shooters, as in the comics, instead of portraying the ability as a part of the character's mutation, through the form of organic web-shooters in his wrists, as was depicted in the Raimi trilogy. The film series also featured elements and aesthetics borrowed from his Ultimate counterpart's personality and background, such as

7597-467: The main costumes of Captain America , Thor , Colossus , Invisible Woman , Mr. Fantastic , and the Human Torch based on their Ultimate counterparts as well as alternate costumes for Iron Man , Elektra , Storm , Wolverine , Moon Knight , Doctor Strange , Nick Fury , Deadpool , Magneto , Doctor Doom , Venom , Sabretooth , The Thing , Nightcrawler , Cyclops , and Hawkeye also based on

7704-454: The main problem of Marvel Comics was that it was "publishing stories that were all but impossible for teens to read — and unaffordable, to boot". He worked on an idea given by a CEO of the Wizard magazine: reboot the heroes to their original character premise. Marvel's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada preferred to start an imprint with new heroes, but accepted Jemas' proposal. The working title for

7811-498: The names used for boxers mentioned by a corrupt boxing manager in the 2003 Daredevil movie. Also in 2001, Bendis helped launch Marvel's non- Comics Code -approved, adult MAX imprint with Alias , featuring former superhero Jessica Jones operating as a private investigator . The series ran for 28 issues before many of the characters moved to Bendis's mainstream Marvel Universe series The Pulse . In 2004 Powers moved from Image to Marvel's creator-owned imprint Icon , where it

7918-404: The new Marvel Universe , with nearly 60–65 titles relaunched with first issues, with a total of 76 issues. Marvel NOW! 2.0 and Marvel Legacy are concurrent with it. It was announced in February 2015 by Marvel that following the "Secret Wars" storyline, a new universe would be established by combining the 616 Universe and 1610 Ultimate Universe . Soon after, Marvel revealed a title called

8025-537: The new Wolverine , Old Man Logan , Phil Coulson , Vision , Spider-Woman , Doctor Strange (wielding an axe), Black Panther , Thing in a Guardians of the Galaxy uniform, Red Wolf , Miles Morales , Peter Parker , Ant-Man , Steve Rogers ' elderly appearance, Kamala Khan , Doctor Spectrum , Rocket Raccoon , Star-Lord , Iron Man , Daredevil , Hyperion , Inferno , a Citizen V , and Medusa . Sam Wilson and Jane Foster remained in their adopted roles of Captain America and Thor , respectively. After this,

8132-476: The new version of the Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis wrote every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, including its second iteration, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man . Quesada offered Bendis the writing duties on Daredevil , which he took over in 2001, writing most of the subsequent 55 issues until 2006, collaborating mostly with artist Alex Maleev . As a major Daredevil author, Bendis's name is one of

8239-412: The old superhero tropes, and Millar sought to critique them. While Bendis tried to write atemporal stories, Millar preferred to set his stories amid the political tensions of the time, with edgy, quick action-driven stories and making the relationship between humans and mutants more realistic and distrustful. The first issue of Ultimate X-Men sold 117,085 copies in a month. Lacking previous knowledge about

8346-599: The other. When the Multiverse was eventually rebuilt, these mutants became stranded in the Prime Earth, suffering from amnesia as a by-product of their transition from one reality to another. After Secret Wars , Marvel published a new comic book named Ultimates , though it bore no relation with the imprint beyond the name. The Ultimates 2 #10, renumbered as #100 under the Marvel Legacy relaunch, features

8453-552: The past few years, initially at Portland State University , and beginning with the Fall 2013 semester, at the University of Oregon . His decision to teach came at the urging of Dark Horse Comics editor Diana Schutz . Among the works he employs as teaching guides are the works of Scott McCloud and Will Eisner . In November 2017, Bendis announced via Twitter that he would be working exclusively with DC Comics . His DC debut

8560-464: The poor reception of the Batman & Robin film cast doubts on the prospects of any other comic book cinematic adaption. Marvel Comics went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, many notable artists left the company, and their rival, DC Comics , topped them in sales. Brian Michael Bendis , who was hired to start the imprint, said that "when I got hired, I literally thought I was going to be writing one of

8667-599: The prospect of a film about the Avengers was remote. The series was a huge success, and became the single best-selling comic of the year. The Ultimate Marvel imprint was benefited by the contemporary topics that took place. Terrorism resurfaced into the public perception as a clear, dangerous and complex menace, which reduced the credibility of the usual supervillains of superhero fiction. Fictional conflicts involving explosions and property damage became more ominous. The Ultimate Marvel comics incorporated those topics into their plots, which would eventually become commonplace in

8774-409: The reconstruction of the team, and was made by Loeb and Frank Cho . Avengers features a black-operations superhero team, and was made by Millar and several artists. There was a new relaunch shortly afterwards, named "Ultimate Comics Universe Reborn". Both teams met in Avengers vs. New Ultimates , where Nick Fury is reinstalled as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the teams merge again into a single team,

8881-426: The return of the original 1960s X-Men to the present, Uncanny X-Men , whose focus shifts to Cyclops' team of X-Men going rogue after the events of "Avengers Vs. X-Men", and Guardians of the Galaxy , picking up where his Avengers Assemble run left off. Bendis wrote the " Age of Ultron " crossover storyline, which included an eponymous 10-issue miniseries, that was published between March and June 2013. Issue 10 saw

8988-457: The same age, him found and being thawed out of ice by S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than the founding members of the Avengers . Hawkeye also has a family, a context exclusive to the Ultimate comics. The film The Avengers featured the Ultimate take on the team, as a military operation organized by S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than an autonomous superhero group. Kevin Feige based the script of the film broadly on

9095-602: The screenplay adaptation of A.K.A. Goldfish for Miramax , and the screenplay adaptation of Jinx for Universal Pictures . In 2014, he wrote the plot of the Disney Infinity 2.0 video game. In 2013, he was named on IGN 's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", in part for his frequent Twitter posts highlighting the work of other creators. When creating characters, Bendis says that he always begins with someone he knows and builds upon that inspiration, allowing

9202-411: The son of Ultimate Wolverine, is also revealed to be alive in the new continuity, though this was not explained at first, but was eventually established that during the final incursion that caused the clash between Earth-616 and Earth-1610, with both universes' planets Earth acting as the collision point of this phenomenon, Jimmy Hudson, Quicksilver, Mach-II, Armor, and Guardian fell from their reality into

9309-518: The son of Wolverine. This miniseries was followed by Ultimate Comics: X-Men , written by Nick Spencer , who explored the X-Men mythos in a setting where both Charles Xavier and Magneto are dead. Initially, Marvel resisted the idea of crossovers between the Ultimate and the mainstream universes (although the idea had been teased for what turned out to be the beginning of the Marvel Zombies series), but eventually relented. The first crossover

9416-402: The source novels of both Thompson and Dashiell Hammett , which helped cement his love for crime stories . These, in turn, led him to discover the documentary Visions of Light , which taught him the visual "rules" of film noir , an important influence on him creatively. While in high school, he submitted a " Creative Writing assignment", a novelization of Chris Claremont 's X-Men and

9523-509: The streaming service HBO Max . The show is set to be based on his run of the comic book series and will not connect to the original animated series . In addition to his primary work in comics, Bendis has produced written work in several other media, such as video games , TV and film. Bendis was the co-executive producer and series- pilot writer for Mainframe Entertainment 's 2003 animated Spider-Man show, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that aired on MTV and YTV , which features

9630-491: The superhero police/ noir detective series Powers , co-created with and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming and published by Image. Powers won major comics industry awards, including Harvey , Eisner , and Eagle Awards . Around the time Bendis began Sam and Twitch , his friend David Mack began working for Joe Quesada 's Marvel Knights imprint, which Bendis was a fan of. Based on Bendis' work on Jinx , Quesada invited him to pitch ideas for Marvel Knights , which included

9737-537: The titles explaining, "One of the things a big event story is judged on, rightly or wrongly, is what kind of an impact it has on the Marvel Universe in its aftermath. That just becomes a condition of these big event stories: what is it at the end that changes the landscape?" ANADM was succeeded by Marvel Legacy , which in its turn was succeeded by Fresh Start , another line-wide relaunch by Marvel Comics in mid 2018. Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis ( / ˈ b ɛ n d ɪ s / ; born August 18, 1967)

9844-449: The titular hero after the fifth issue, making the book a bestseller, often surpassing in sales those of the mainstream Marvel universe title, The Amazing Spider-Man . The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four . Bendis subsequently wrote other books in

9951-645: The universe still exists. A brief glimpse of the still-extant Ultimate universe is provided by artist Mark Bagley, showing that Ultimate Peter Parker, who had been revealed alive in one of the last issues, has returned to the role of Spider-Man, and that he is a member of the Ultimates, as is Riri Williams and Hulk. The return of the Ultimate universe was used again in 2019, in story arcs at the Venom and Miles Morales: Spider-Man comic books. In February 2023, Marvel Comics announced Ultimate Invasion written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Bryan Hitch. This story involves

10058-412: The whole comic book industry. Jemas was fired from Marvel in 2004, and Millar and Hitch left the Ultimates after writing a second miniseries. Sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card wrote a miniseries, Ultimate Iron Man , which was poorly received and later retconned as an in-universe television show. In 2008, Quesada considered that the Ultimate imprint needed a big crossover event to keep the interest of

10165-424: The work of David Mamet , Richard Price , and Aaron Sorkin , whose dialogue, Bendis said, was "the best in any medium." In addition to writing comics, Bendis has worked in television, video games and film. He has also taught courses on graphic novels at The University of Oregon and Portland State University . In 2014, Bendis wrote Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels,

10272-416: Was 13, working on his own comics, including a Punisher versus Captain America story that he revised several times. A fan of Marvel Comics in particular, he emulated idols such as George Pérez , John Romita Sr. , John Romita, Jr. , Jack Kirby , Klaus Janson and Frank Miller . He later discovered crime comics by Jim Steranko and José Muñoz , which he traced back via Jim Thompson 's work to

10379-635: Was based on that of his Ultimate counterpart, and Millar and Bendis were included in the staff as consultants. Samuel L. Jackson , whose likeness was used to create the new version of Nick Fury, was cast as the character in a multi-picture deal, starting in a post-credits scene in Iron Man . The script of the scene was written by Bendis. As a comic book fan, Jackson had noticed the use of his likeness and asked to be included in some eventual film. Bruce Banner's origin story in The Incredible Hulk

10486-405: Was being bullied by Flash (though in the comics it was Kenny Kong), in addition Flash having a crush on her like he did in the Ultimate comics; his friendship with Harry Osborn being modeled after that of Eddie Brock Jr. in the comics, being childhood friends who have not seen each other in a long time and whose fathers had worked together on a project (with the name Spider-venom being a slight nod to

10593-506: Was credited as a developer and wrote several episodes for the TV adaptation of his comic, Powers , which starred Sharlto Copley and ran on PlayStation Network for two seasons from 2015 to 2016. Bendis's video game work includes Activision 's Ultimate Spider-Man video game , which Bendis wrote. He also wrote an Avengers game, which was never released. He was also a writer of Marvel's MMO, Marvel Heroes . His film work includes

10700-420: Was followed by 2009's Ultimatum , a crossover between the Ultimate titles. In five issues, the story kills off thirty-four characters with an increased amount of graphic violence. The series was both a critical and commercial failure, and it has since been regarded as one of the worst comic books of all-time. The sales of the whole imprint were decreased, and never returned to their pre- Ultimatum figures. After

10807-466: Was in Action Comics #1000 (June 2018). Ivan Reis drew the first issue of Bendis's The Man of Steel limited series, and collaborated with Bendis on the relaunched the ongoing Superman series in 2018. Bendis took over writing Action Comics following its 1,000th issue. On December 21, 2021, Bendis announced that he was developing an adult animated Legion of Super-Heroes series for

10914-569: Was of little interest to young adult audiences, who preferred the style set by the Matrix franchise. Most superheroes were adults, even those that started as teenagers, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men . Previous attempts to cut the long continuity did not work as expected: DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour: Crisis in Time caused several plot contradictions, and Marvel's Heroes Reborn

11021-457: Was officially released on July 1. Three more titles were announced at San Diego Comic-Con the following month, after which Marvel began sparsely revealing even more comics. In May 2016, Marvel announced the return of Marvel NOW! ( Marvel NOW! 2.0 ) following the conclusion of the " Civil War II " storyline. Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort stated that the relaunch is timed to coincide with "Civil War II" as means to "refresh and revitalize"

11128-482: Was panned by critics and fans. The Dark Age of Comic Books tried to counter the campiness of the Silver Age with violence and shocking content, but the trend was declining as well. The idea for the Ultimate imprint was developed by Bill Jemas . A lawyer who had worked mainly at the collectible-trading-card industry before that point, he had little interaction with the production of comic books. In his perspective,

11235-569: Was relaunched as Powers Vol. 2 alongside another ex-Image series, David Mack 's Kabuki . Also in 2004, Bendis oversaw the closing issues of The Avengers as part of the crossover storyline " Avengers Disassembled ". This led directly to the Bendis-helmed relaunch of one version of the eponymous team in the pages of The New Avengers . Bendis's work on this storyline included the death of Avenger Hawkeye , which proved controversial. In 2005, with artist Olivier Coipel , Bendis wrote

11342-619: Was relaunched in Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man , which included the revivals of Peter Parker and Green Goblin. Ultimate FF ("FF" standing for " Future Foundation ", not "Fantastic Four") featured the "incursions", a multiversal threat that was being used in Hickman's run on the main universe's Avengers, and which would lead to the Secret Wars crossover. Ultimate FF was cancelled, alongside

11449-475: Was the Spider-Men miniseries, between Miles Morales and the adult Peter Parker. It was made for the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man. All-New X-Men , also written by Bendis, had a story where the main characters got stranded in the Ultimate universe and teamed-up with Morales. However, Bendis and Fialkov agreed that crossovers should be done sparingly, to keep them interesting, and cited the creative decay in

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