What the fuck went wrong?

No, seriously, what the fuck? When the Ultimate universe launched it was huge, it got the best sales Marvel had seen in years, praise for literally every title in the line, and even managed to surpass the comic book barrier and make it into video games (Ultimate Spider-Man, MUA, designs in X-Men Legends). But then poof, nothing, the sales were abysmal and eventually Marvel put down the entire universe like a sickly dog.
So what the hell happened? And don't tell me it was Ultimatum because if you were there you knew this was happening even before that shitstorm (declining quality in UXM and UFF, shitty miniseries like Ultimate Power, Ultimates 3).

Bendis and Millar were getting more involved with the 616 stuff which might've contributed to the problem. Millar was also cutting down his Ultimate workload and Bendis' non-USM Ultimate titles weren't that great (remember Ultimate Origins?).

On top of that Loeb was having misfires such as the Ultimates 3 and the Ultimate Hulk annual before Ultimatum.

I kind of think the X-Men's decline had to do with Marvel's conflict with Fox. For a time they kept hyping up how Bryan Singer and the X-Men screenwriters would come on board be the next writers of Ultimate X-Men, but then that never happened.

Kirkman's UXM run also didn't help things.

>On top of that Loeb was having misfires such as the Ultimates 3 and the Ultimate Hulk annual before Ultimatum.
What the fuck are you talking about?
Ultimatum is what killed the Ultimate Universe, more then even Ultimates 3.
The Hulk annual was fucking awesome.

Reminder that the best arc/run that came out of the entire Ultimate Universe came after Ultimates 3 & Ultimatum.
>God Bless Hickman
>God Bless Ribic

>What the fuck went wrong?

Jeph Loeb

>Ultimatum is what killed the Ultimate Universe, more then even Ultimates 3.

Ultimates 3 got the ball rolling. Loeb went and made Scarlet Witch's relationship with Quicksilver more overt and made Millar look subtle. There was like a shitload of complaints, not just on this board, but everywhere else about how Ultimates 3 looked more like a bad 616 comic rather than an Ultimate comic.

If Ultimatum never happened, maybe they could've recovered. But there was a lot of goodwill gone from there.

>The Hulk annual was fucking awesome.
Readers in general didn't like it.

The problem was really ultimates 3 and what followed, and the fact that it became 616 2 after a time, and all the OCs that followed ultimatum did not help honestly

Millar's UXM was fucking good.

Didn't Millar return to write some Ultimates comics after the Ultimatum? Are those worth reading?

In a so-horrible-it's-hilarious way, yes.

>Hulks Face
evey time

I think it was simply that Sam Loeb died...

That's not Nick Spencer's Ultimate X-Men

>implying Ultimate X was bad

Why is Frank green?

Ultimate Avengers = good (if your not a retard that goes "EDGY" at anything violent happening to anyone not a adult white male)
Ultimate Avengers 2 = great
Ultimate Avengers 3 = horrible
New Ultimates vs Ultimate Avengers = great up to the silly resolution at the very end.

>Ultimate Avengers = good
>Red Skull is called a brilliant strategist but just kill everyone on his escape
>Fury's black ops team fights Cap in the middle of Paris during daytime
>Red Wasp was the raped wife for more edge
>Cap using little kids as protection
The whole "Cap had a son" setting had potential, but the execution was hilariously stupid and i enjoyed it

I didn't know Steve Dillon drew this. kek Look at Fra... Hulk's face. This is a must read.

Yeah, Ultimates vol. 1 & 2 are great. vol 3 was a horrible mess (Thanks Loeb), and now it seems that Millar's third run is a good read. I'm surely going to check it.

Ultimates 3 was what really started it. Before that yeah there were a couple one offs that weren't that great, but the main three lines (Ultimates, Spidey, X-Men) remained strong. After Ultimates 3, X-Men and Spidey were still strong a weak arc aside for X-Men. But everything went into irredeemable trash territory once Ultimatum happened. The fact that Loeb still holds a job after single handedly destroying Marvel's most profitable consistent comics venture in the 2000s baffles me.

>Write a Marvel universe where comics are easy to get into instead of building up on decades of continuity
>Quickly make into a maze of continuity

There's your problem.

UXM went to shit after Kirkman started that awful Apocalypse arc and brought Sinister back.

>>Cap using little kids as protection
LYING FUCK!
He was not using them as protection, he burst into that room by accident and then instantly called attention to them being in the same room as to make sure War Machine didn't just open fire.

>UXM went to shit after Kirkman started
Ftfy

Gotta work your baits a little more, son

Well... You're right.

Its not bait, its factually what took place panel by panel you stupid mother fucker.

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...

Exactly, if he tried to rush out of the room, WM could have opened fire before noticing the kids, HE DID THE RIGHT FUCKING THING!