On January 20th, fans of the Ultimate Universe, or the 1610, got some bad news. It would be merging with the 616 universe and entering the land of Battleworld for the upcoming Secret Wars event. After the Secret Wars ends, there will be a whole All-New-Marvel to look forward to for fans. Luckily, it was stated that there will be some characters making it into this new Marvel age from some of our favorite universes.
That got me thinking. I'm a huge fan of the Ultimate Universe and have really followed what's been going on for years now. There's some characters I've really grown fond of that I would hate to see disappear from comics entirely in the 1610. After fighting myself and debating who I need to see live on in this all new world of Marvel. I came up with a few of my favorite Ultimate characters that I want to see keep pushing on in the future.
7. Miles Morales (and Ganke too)
Let's just get this one right out of the gate. I'm not going to make a list of what I love about the 1610 and then "surprise" you with Miles Morales as number one. Where's the suspense in that? Miles Morales is the best character in the Marvel Ultimate Universe. If you think otherwise, you're wrong. Sorry. That's the way it is. While Ultimate Peter Parker gave new readers someone they could grow up with Miles Morales gave readers a look at what it means to be a contemporary super-hero from a different cultural stand-point. He grew up in the city and some of his family members aren't law abiding. He was also super-young when he started, which added a new dynamic to the character. Along with having Miles Morales around, you NEED to have his best friend Ganke. They have a great support system for each other and I couldn't imagine Miles running around, saving people, without being to talk it up with Ganke.
6. Spider-Woman
First, none of the "Black Widow" nonsense. She's Spider-Woman, a clone of Peter Parker. We can just undo the whole Black Widow trade-off which made no sense, right? It's the All-New Marvel! Anyway, Spider-Woman ended up becoming the only real super-hero friend Miles had during his stint as Spider-Man. She helped train him and show him the way. She's very important to the world of Miles Morales, and more importantly, she's such a cool character who is capable of ground level crime fighting, helping out in a larger-scale event, and even working for S.H.I.E.L.D. She's one of the most versatile characters currently alive in the Ultimate Universe.
5. Reed Richards as a Villain
Asking me "who was the coolest villain in the Ultimate universe" will result in only one answer: Reed Richards. Sure, he came around towards the end of Cataclysm and saved the world from Galactus, but prior to that, the man was sadistic. During the ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES run, we saw the highly intelligent Reed Richards take a turn for the dark side. While the 616 version of this character has always been a bit of a jerk, the 1610 version was one of the most formidable villains anyone had to deal with. Sure, he's evil, but he's also one of the smartest guys in the world and knows it. He took the idea of "evolve or die" way too seriously.
4. Galactus/Gah Lak Tus Swarm
Ok, Galactus is from the 616 universe, but last time we saw him was at the end of Cataclysm, when he was being sucked into the N-Zone by a newly reformed Reed Richards. So technically, he's still there, right? Where Galactus is at in the Marvel universe is a little confusing, especially since he's going to be in issue two of UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL. Anyway, this was the toughest villain the Ultimate universe had to deal with. Yes, he was tougher than Reed, but not as interesting. Focusing more on the Gah Lak Tus swarm, this would be a really cool cosmic villain, as long as it's kept away from Earth. For some reason, putting the Gah Lak Tus swarm on Earth didn't sit right with me. However, with Marvel focusing a bit more on their cosmic characters, this could be an incredible addition to the All-New Marvel.
3. Rick Jones
Speaking of cosmic... How about some Rick Jones/Captain Marvel? Ultimate Rick Jones is pretty awesome and when he became Captain Marvel at the end of HUNGER? Even more awesome. Sure, during the ULTIMATE X-MEN tie-in to CATACLYSM, we're led to believe that Jones was killed off by the Gah Lak Tus swarm, but I didn't see a body. Therefore, he's still alive to me. The same goes for Ultimate Captain America as well. Again, the idea of including him goes back to building up the cosmic universe. Jones walks the same path as Miles Morales. They're both young and been granted these amazing powers, but sometimes, their inexperience gets in their way, but ultimately (pun intended), they've shown they have what it takes to be heroes. On top of that, I have a strange love for the Ultimate version of The Watcher which follows him around.
2. Mach Two
One thing that made the run of ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN so appealing to me was the power struggle between Kitty Pryde and Mach Two. For all intents and purposes, Mach Two was the villain of the book, even though she lived on Reservation X, where most of the mutants in the Ultimate Universe were forced to live because every universe hates mutants. Mach Two was extremely young and thought she could run mutantkind better. She was also a bit sadistic as well and had roughly the same powers as Magneto, except she was much more powerful, even showing the ability to control the iron in someone's blood, which would also stop Kitty from phasing. Whether or not she'd be a hero or villain in the new Marvel world is up for discussion though. She works either way. Still, she's one of the best things to come out of the later volumes of Ultimate X-men.
1. Blackheath
Surprised? Were you expecting Jimmy Hudson or something? The 616 version of Blackheath is well, for lack of a better term, silly. The guy's name was "Plantman, for Pete's sake. While the picture above shows a much tougher version of this character, he was much more on the ground level, planning things with the X-Men and playing kissy-face with Storm. Sure, his hair cut is kind of the worst, but he was a really sympathetic and pretty complexed character, even though he spent a lot of the time in the background or being played between two sides. Plus, he controls plants and doesn't look like a pile of crud. I'm looking at you Man-Thing. Blackheath has the punk rock attitude with a caring side that I'd love to see in the new Marvel.
While there are a ton of Ultimate comics characters I'd love to see in the All-New Marvel, these are my top seven. Again, sorry Jimmy Hudson. Let us know what characters you would want to carry on into the future of Marvel.