Marvel’s Next Big Thing panel kicked off with President Dan Buckley, Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski, editors Nick Lowe and Wil Moss, and writers Deniz Camp, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Chris Condon (who showed up cosplaying with an Ultimate Wolverine helmet), and a surprise guest appearance by Joshua Williamson, who took the stage.
The panel covered a lot, from the shocking fate of the Ultimate line to the announcement of a new Iron Man series written by Williamson, marking his return to Marvel. Fans also got a first look at a Doom-themed horror imprint, and fresh previews of Infernal Hulk.
Infernal Hulk
The panel began with a first look at the horrific-looking Infernal Hulk #1-2, which was promised by writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, to see Hulk stronger than he’s ever been. Featuring art by Nic Klein.
“Up until now, Hulk has been Banner’s monster,” Johnson teased at the panel. “He’s the thing that stalks Banner behind his eyes. Starting in Infernal Hulk, Hulk is the monster of the Marvel Universe. He’s the Hulk of Marvel, not just of Banner himself. It starts to tie in with the Marvel Universe at large; he becomes everybody’s problem. The monsters that we’ve seen so far have been fun and exciting, but the stuff we’re on is truly cosmic scale, where everything ramps up and the stakes get way higher.”
The biggest reveal, and one few believed at first, was that the Ultimate Marvel Universe is coming to an end, culminating in a confrontation with The Maker that kicks off next year with Ultimate Endgame #1. The Ultimate line has been one of Marvel’s strongest and most talked-about lines month after month, making the announcement all the more surprising.
Ultimate Endgame
To hype up what’s happening with the End of The Ultimates and Endgame, Deniz Camp shared a lot about what’s happening in the series’ ending.
“This is really the culmination of everything that Jon (Hickman) began from Ultimate invasion and everything that’s been going on in my book and everybody’s book; it’s all converging here and all coming to an end in a big way,” Camp said. “You’ll see a lot of conclusions to a lot of stories, and some not conclusions to stories, whatever it is, it’ll be big, emotional; there’s going to be life, there’ll be death, there’ll be new characters. New twists on old characters that we’ve seen before in the Ultimate Universe, there’ll be characters we haven’t yet seen that’ll come in with new twists… It’s just wild. The city is going to open. And things are going to go insane.”
Even though it’s been promised that the main story of the Ultimate line is coming to a close, not all the fans, let alone retailers, actually believe that it’s truly ending. Deniz Camp clarified, again, for the naysayers:
“Nothing like this has ever been tried before. We’re going out on a high note, where everybody gets to tell the story they wanted to tell exactly the way they wanted to tell it… This is really something I’m excited about; it’s not going to peter out, we’re going to go out on a bang on a high note doing the best work we’ve ever done on these books.”
The final arc of The Ultimates will be called “Ultimate Uprising.” Details are sparse, but it’s supposedly a heart-wrenching ending. The Ultimate Universe will end for all the lines with Ultimate Spider-Man, X-Men, Black Panther, and the Ultimates, all ending at issue 24, and Wolverine, at issue 16.
As perviously reported, the first issue of Ultimate Endgame will feature True Believer blind bags, which feature original sketches by Marvel’s greatest current artists, of unique, 1-of-1 pieces of art, something which has never been done before.
Other details about what’s to come in these final issues Ultimate Universe:
- Ultimate Spider-Man 22-24, things quickly escalate. The last 3 issues are a huge story where Sinister 6, Spider-Man, Mysterio, Green Goblin, the surprise allies Spider-Man’s made along the way, Black Cat, Venom/Richard Parker, all combine in a surprising way.
- Ultimate Black Panther, Vibranium has dark spirits within, claimed by the progenitors, and the resource is not the Wakandans as they thought. Storm will foresee this prophecy that this child of light is connected to her.
- Ultimate X-Men, all the characters will have their final moments.
- Ultimates, there’ll be a Doom issue again, drawn by Phil Noto in #17. It’s Doom creating something like The Fantastic Four. It’ll be four panels per page but with a different form, much like their critically acclaimed #4 issue. Finally, issue #18 is the kickoff to the ending of this universe. #19 will be a Wasp-focused issue. #20 Nick Fury. Acclaimed Spanish comic book artist, Javier Pulido, will be drawing Ultimate Daredevil. There’ll also be another Thor-focused issue before the end, rooted in Norse mythology.
- Ultimate Wolverine, spinning out of issue 10, the Eurasian Republic will be thrown into chaos with civil unrest. The people are unhappy, and no one knows what happened to Omega Red, so the Eurasian Republic wants revenge.
After the Ultimates talk, Marvel unveiled details about the aftermath of One World Under Doom. The 616 universe is looking for a new Sorcerer Supreme in the upcoming Sorcerer Supreme comics. There are also signs that the Dungeons of Doom is following the trend with Horror, as Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Ben Percy team with Carlos Magno, Robert Gil, Justin Mason, and Georges Jeanty in what’s looking like a horror anthology set in a massive stronghold that holds Doom’s most dangerous nightmares. There will be Latverian freedom fighters, Wakandan spies, and multiple factions trying to make sure what’s inside this stronghold doesn’t get out.
Finally, the panel ended with an appearance by DC’s Joshua Williamson, revealed to be writing a new Iron Man ongoing with art drawn by Carmen Carnero. The premise is that Iron Man comes face-to-face (or I guess, mask-to-mask?) against Madame Masque and AIM, who are looking to recreate their own version of Tony Stark by kidnapping some of the world’s brightest people and making them undergo the same ordeals that created Iron Man. Not necessarily to build an Iron Man suit… but to somehow create a type of Tony.
As shared in our earlier reveal, Williamson stated:
“I am a huge Iron Man fan. A massive Iron Man fan…and I knew it was time. I absolutely had to do this. Part of our tagline for this book is that Tony Stark is the most dangerous weapon in the Marvel Universe. When he went into the cave, Tony built the armor…but after I thought about it more, the armor wasn’t what he built in the cave. Tony built Tony.”
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from NYCC ’25.
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