Ultimates - Publication History

Publication History

The first volume of the Ultimates, written by Millar and illustrated by Hitch, was published in limited series format and ran for thirteen issues with production delays from March 2002 until April 2004. Hitch described the alternative-reality reimagining as one where, "You have to approach it as though nothing has happened before and tell the story fresh from the start.... We had to get to the core of who these people were and build outwards, so Cap was a soldier, Thor is either a nut case or a messiah ... Banner an insecure genius, and Fury the king of cool".

A second series, also by Millar and Hitch and with similar production delays, was released as Ultimates 2 and ran 13 issues (Dec. 2004 - May 2007).

In a 2004 interview, Millar outlined the difference between the Ultimates and the Avengers: "The idea behind The Avengers is that the Marvel Universe's biggest players all get together and fight all the biggest supervillains they can't defeat individually, whereas Ultimates 2 is an exploration of what happens when a bunch of ordinary people are turned into super-soldiers and being groomed to fight the real-life war on terror."

This was followed by the one-shot Ultimate Saga (Nov. 2007), a condensed retelling, by writers C. B. Cebulski and Mindy Owens and artist Travis Charest, of the events of Ultimates and Ultimates 2. A third series, Ultimates 3 (Dec 2007 - Sept 2008) was written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Joe Madureira.

Mark Millar returned to the Ultimates with a series of shorter miniseries, beginning in 2009 with Ultimate Comics: Avengers, which started in 2009 and is currently being published.