No One Believes Marvel That The Ultimate Universe Is Ending. But It Is

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No one believes Marvel Comics when they say that the Ultimate Universe is ending. But it is.

Article Summary
Marvel officially confirmed the Ultimate Universe will end with Ultimate Endgame in April 2026 despite fan disbelief.
Bleeding Cool first reported on the contractual timeline, tracing the agreement to Jonathan Hickman’s involvement.
Speculation swirls that Marvel will reboot the Ultimate Universe, but plans are set for a clean conclusion.
Ultimate Universe’s success won’t save it—Marvel is honoring its original promise to tell a finite story.

It was Bleeding Cool that first tried to say this a month ago. We reported, “As far as Bleeding Cool can ascertain, Ultimate Endgame #1 published on the 31st of December 2025, will indeed begin the end of the current Ultimate Universe. And that’s how it was contractually agreed three years ago with Jonathan Hickman when he took the project over from Donny Cates. Which, yes, is hard to square with its sales success against other Marvel titles.” Then Marvel Comics went and made it official at Retailer Day at New York Comic Con two days ago – Bleeding Cool was first to report on that as well. The Ultimate Universe will end in April 2026 with the conclusion of Ultimate Endgame.

Retailer Day for Bleeding Cool

And still no one believes it. There are message board threads and social media conversations with people convinced that Marvel will just reboot or restart the Ultimate Universe in May. That they can’t seriously just be stopping it now. And it comes as Scott Snyder, talking about DC’s Absolute Universe, confirms it will be continuing past DC’s K.O., featuring the Absolute Trinity, and will be expanding further. The question is, why wouldn’t Marvel do the same?

The answer is that this was the agreement made. That’s how they got Jonathan Hickman to come on board, to showrun the Ultimate Universe. It would be a fixed term, it would tell its two-and-a-half-year story, told in real time, and then they’d be done with it. Close it up, don’t keep on extending it, and don’t have a repeat of the Krakoa situation.

Still, even as I type these words, I know that no one will believe it. But that’s the deal, and it seems from what I hear from Marvel Comics at New York Comic Con is that they are sticking by it. Even as Ultimate Spider-Man, especially, has outsold all the other Spider-Man titles regularly and consistently. So, basically, enjoy it while you have it. Nothing worth having lasts forever…

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