This makes me very strongly believe that Peter was to die for real in Ultimatum, but terrible reviews left BMB scrambling for a mulligan.

I’ve always said the mainstream Marvel U and the Ultimate U could not continue on together indefinitely. The market would not support two versions of the same universe forever. Back in the day, my fear was that Marvel would be shortsighted and replace the original with the Ultimate. Thankfully, since Ultimate’s updating of classic Marvel for a new century is now over a decade old, and seems commonplace–and since NEW AVENGERS, HOUSE OF M, CIVIL WAR, et al have basically Ultimate-ized the mainstream MU, making it once more a place where anything could happen(and remember that all started less than 5 years after Ultimate got underway)–at least it’s clear that Marvel will prefer the original to the Ultimate when the time comes. And it will come.

The only things that’re likely holding back the reaper on Ultimate at this point are the inclusion of the Ultimate version of Nick Fury in the movie Marvel Universe and the few remaining that will buy the books until the bitter end (and maybe the fact that there’s an Ult. Spidey cartoon on the way, not to mention the high school oriented film reboot). But none of those will keep it going forever. The next step will likely be reducing the line to ALL limited series. They’re almost there on that front, and it already looks like the only remaining ongoing may be getting cancelled (new Spidey notwithstanding, are there any solicitations for actual issues of Ult. Spidey after #160?). Next, the limited series will become sporadic, and then they’ll just fade away, possibly with another attempted shakeup before the end or maybe even a big finale crossover (although that’s not very likely).

Then, 5 years down the road, we’ll get some Ultimate revival minis, which probably won’t go anywhere and finally, Ultimate will be gone for good (well, as much so as any idea in comics ever goes away for good, the occasional nostalgia project notwithstanding).

Why is there so much desire to see the Ultimate line cancelled? Yes, they’re rebranding the line after two years, so what? DC reoriented the entire line of Batman books in 2009 after Battle for the Cowl and then brought Bruce Wayne back and rearranged the books again–less than two years later! OMG, DC is cancelling the Batman line! The Batman line is in its death throws!