An Obscure Marvel Character is the Ultimate Universe’s Most Powerful Villain

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John Dodge is an MTV Writer for CBR who specializes in movies, television, comics, and pop culture. He has a deep knowledge of franchises like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel, and DC Comics, along with a passion for indie and horror titles. An expert on obscure productions from the ’80s and ’90s, John is known for his encyclopedic recall of cult classics like Beetleborgs.

One of Marvel's forgotten classic villains is officially an Ultimate powerhouse, and even Spider-Man can't stop him.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #5 (by Deniz Camp, Cody Ziglar, Jonas Scharf, Edgar Delgado, and VC's Cory Petit) finds Miles Morales and his unlikely allies racing against time to save his baby sister, Billie, who is currently caught in the clutches of the villainous Emmanuel Da Costa. While Miles is more than capable of catching up to Da Costa courtesy of a little help from the Ultimate Universe's Illyana Rasputin, neither of them seems to stand a chance against their foe. At least, not once he pumps the powers of dozens of different mutants straight into his veins.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #5

Written by DENIZ CAMP & CODY ZIGLAR
Art by JONAS SCHARF
Colors by EDGAR DELGADO
Letters by VC's CORY PETIT
Design by JAY BOWEN
Main cover art by SARA PICHELLI & TAMRA BONVILLAIN
Variant covers by MARC ASPINALL; PETE WOODS; and LEINIL FRANCIS YU & ROMULO FAJARDO JR.

In the primary Marvel Universe, Emmanuel Da Costa was the father of Roberto Da Costa, better known as the mutant hero Sunspot. Introduced in the pages of 1982's Marvel Graphic Novel #4 by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, Emmanuel Da Costa was a self-made multimillionaire and political powerhouse unto himself. Eventually, Emmanuel's dealings led him to work with Sebastian Shaw, the infamous Black King of the Hellfire Club. Unsurprisingly, this drove a deep wedge between father and son, and ultimately cemented Emmanuel's legacy as an unfortunate villain.

The Emmanuel Da Costa of the current Ultimate Universe made his comic book debut in the pages of 2023's Ultimate Invasion #3 by Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch. A member of the Maker's secret council, which posed as independently operating world leaders in a bid to maintain the global regime that kept the general populace in check, the Ultimate Emmanuel serves as the leader of the Society of South America, giving him near complete control over a vast swathe of the planet. Rather than wielding any powers of his own, Da Costa keeps a veritable army of mutant prisoners from whom he can steal blood and powers, including his own son.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #5 comes just ahead of the end of the Ultimate Universe as a whole. Announced during New York Comic Con, the entire Ultimate line of comics will be reaching their conclusions over the next six months, beginning with Ultimate Spider-Man in December and closing out with The Ultimates and Ultimate Wolverine in April 2026. Writer and Ultimate Universe co-architect Deniz Camp said of the news at the time, "It's hard to talk about it without getting emotional. It really is the culmination of everything Jonathan [Hickman] began. Everything from my book and everyone else's book are all converging. It's gonna be definitive, it's going to be big. It's going to be emotional, there's going to be death... It's just wild."

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #5 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.