Ultimatum



It started off as a simple task. The Ultimate Marvel universe, originally created to appeal to new readers without fear of years of Backstory or Retcon, had begun to stagnate. Sales had lowered and some series, such as Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four, had fallen into Seasonal Rot. So the powers behind Marvel came up with the ultimate plan to renew reader interest, a Crisis Crossover. A Wham Episode which would bring all the characters of the Ultimate Marvel universe and shake up the status quo to make a new jumping on point for new readers, written by Jeph Loeb.

It starts with Magneto claiming Thor's hammer and using it to flood New York. And then, well, it goes pretty much downhill from there. The series lasted for 5 issues (January-July, 2009).

Unfortunately, the series was not very well received. The series was criticized for relying on shock value, anticlimactic deaths, and borderline Gorn. On the brighter side, the art was praised and the series actually did accomplish its task of creating a new status quo for the universe, and was a sales success. Ultimately, this storyline is a rather touchy subject.

Contains examples of:

 * Always Save the Girl: Subverted in the Fantastic Four section. Reed prioritizes stopping Doom over saving Sue, leaving Ben to help her. She is not happy once she's better.
 * Anyone Can Die: And we mean ANYONE.
 * Artistic License Physics: Reed gives two explanations for how Magneto caused the tidal wave. Either he reversed the earth's magnetic poles (which wouldn't have much effect) or he reversed the axis (which he would have no power to do). Some have speculated that he could have caused the tectonic shifts necessary to create a tidal wave by moving large metal reserves in the earth's crust, but this is never stated in the story.
 * Linkara pretty much flipped when this was brought up in his review of the comic. Pointing out how stupidly written this was.
 * Crisis Crossover
 * Darker and Edgier
 * Disney Death:
 * Disproportionate Retribution: The reason why Magneto doing this
 * Downer Ending:
 * Dropped a Bridge On Him: Just about everyone who dies.
 * Gorn: Blob devouring ripped guts,  getting blown up by suicide bomber Multiple Man, complete with flying guts and a skeleton being incinerated,  getting squeezed by his own cape until his head graphically explodes, etc.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Yellowjacket gathers the Madrox dupes suicide bombing the Triskellion & takes them out to sea to save the rest of the Ultimates.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: When Hawkeye finds 's body, it's had a chunk bitten out of it by The Blob, who comments that it "Tastes Like Chicken".
 * Infant Immortality: Notably, the survives untouched, as do . Subverted with.
 * Killed Off for Real: See directly below. But more specifically, are gone, among many other really big names.
 * Kill Em All: No kidding.
 * My God What Have I Done: Magneto has this after learning the truth about mutants
 * Neck Snap: How Magneto kills.
 * Rasputinian Death: ; first almost all his soft tissue is blasted away, then his skeleton is torn apart, then the individual cells of his last remaining bones are destroyed.
 * , as well. His hand is cut off by Valkyrie, Wolverine goes to town on him, and finally Cyclops disintegrates his head.
 * Rocks Fall Everyone Dies: Could be the comic codifier. With the amount of ridiculous deaths, it starts to seem like someone at Marvel was using this as some sort of catharsis.
 * Selective Magnetism: Magneto is seen somehow treating a bleeding wound using magnetism. Probably the best explanation (in that it wouldn't work, but sounds almost possible if you don't know) is that he's controlling the iron in blood.
 * Shoot the Dog: At the end, after hearing Reed talk about how much of a threat Dr. Doom is, Ben quietly goes to Latveria, kills Doom, and leaves.
 * Tastes Like Chicken: The Blob says this exact line
 * Wham Episode
 * What the Hell Hero: Hawkeye gets a damn justified one on Captain America when he makes a snarky comment about Hank Pym's Heroic Sacrifice.
 * Tastes Like Chicken: The Blob says this exact line
 * Wham Episode
 * What the Hell Hero: Hawkeye gets a damn justified one on Captain America when he makes a snarky comment about Hank Pym's Heroic Sacrifice.