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There was a time when Marvel’s Ultimate Universe dominated the comic book landscape. Marvel’s influential and experimental line regularly topped the sales charts, and brought in some of the biggest talents in the industry. 

So, what happened? 

Former Marvel editor Ralph Macchio has an idea. During a panel at Tampa Bay Comic Convention, Macchio shared his thoughts on the Ultimate Universe, and where it went wrong. 

“[Marvel vice president] Bill Jemas really conceived the idea of the Ultimate Universe along with Joe Quesada. Everyone else at Marvel thought that it wouldn’t work. Another Spider-Man book and a kind-of Avengers book? But, it really took off. We brought a guy in named Brian Michael Bendis, who at that time was known as an independent comics guy. Joe’s idea was to pair him with Marvel’s most experienced editor, and I had been there the longest, so they put him with me. The book just took off.” 

“Bill Jemas thought that if you just start something over without the 40 or 50 years of continuity, give people a chance to get in, put some good teams on these books, and they’re going to work,” Macchio added.

Macchio recalled that Jemas was against the idea of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe crossing over with mainstream continuity. He thought the concept was a sign of creative laziness and vowed that it would never happen under his watch. 

After Jemas’ tenure was over, Marvel began telling crossover stories between the two universes, including the mini-series Spider-Men. “I think it started to show weakness at Marvel that we felt we had to connect the two universes. I wouldn’t have done that,” Macchio admitted. 

“What happened was, Bill left and other hands kind of took over, and I was kind of unhappy that they decided to kill off a lot of the Ultimate characters, and the whole crossover thing. I don’t think the Ultimate Universe ever really recovered from that. We had four really good books that were really top tier. We were outselling Avengers with Ultimates, and we were outselling the regular Spider-Man book with Ultimate Spider-Man. We got Marvel Zombies from that.”

The original Ultimate Universe came to an end in 2015, but Marvel is currently publishing a line of comics set in a new Ultimate Universe. Will this new universe avoid crossovers? Time will tell, but I doubt the two universes will stay apart for long. 

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