Something jumped out at me from yesterday’s interview with outgoing Ultimates writer Sam Humphries and incoming replacement, Joshua Hale Fialkov on the main site. Namely, this explanation from Humphries about why he was leaving the book a year into his run:
It’s not easy for me to leave the Ultimates. I love this book and I love these characters — they have been a special home to me since the dawn of my days at Marvel. But was offered another project I couldn’t pass up, and something on my schedule had to give.
Anyone else remember what Jonathan Hickman said when he passed the book to Humphries, back in February 2012?
I never planned on leaving The Ultimates, and when I got offered the Ultimate Thor gig, I took that job because it came with the understanding that I was going to get The Ultimates after that. When I first got in the door at Marvel, that was the book I wanted to do more than any other. When I came on the book, I think [editors Mark Paniccia and Sana Amanat] would agree, we’re doing very special stuff there. But I got a job offer that I couldn’t refuse, so I’m taking it.
Firstly: Marvel, stop offering better jobs to your Ultimates writers.
Secondly: Is it just me, or do two outgoing writers in a row both saying “I was offered something I couldn’t refuse” weirdly underscore how oddly unimportant the Ultimate line has become at Marvel these days? Admittedly, it’s been some time since the line was the jewel in Marvel’s crown – I don’t think that’s been true since the early days, with Bendis/Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man and Millar/Hitch on Ultimates (Ultimate X-Men has, let’s be honest, always been a problem child for the imprint) – but there was still a time when the line had some level of prestige to it. With both Hickman and Humphries jumping ship mid-storyline because of better offers, and saying so, it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s become more of a second tier thing at best, a training ground or metaphorical albatross that needs to be lugged around.
There are still rumors around that the Ultimate line is headed towards closure at some point this year. Maybe that would be a good thing, at this point, at least temporarily. If nothing else, we’d be spared the interview – inevitably at some point in the next twelve months – where Fialkov tells us that he, too, is sad to leave the book but someone offered him an opportunity he just couldn’t turn down.
March 13th, 2013 at 8:17 am
The Ultimate line worked amazingly well a decade ago and primed Marvel’s position for film. Now that the MU has begun to reflect the films, there’s no need for the Ultimate line. They can let it go.
March 13th, 2013 at 8:49 am
A Graeme McMillan piece: “Is it just me or is the sky blue?”
March 13th, 2013 at 2:18 pm
Don’t forget what else Hickman said about leaving Ultimates.
http://blog.newsarama.com/2012/12/06/hickman-on-leaving-ultimates-and-the-ultraverse/
March 13th, 2013 at 4:56 pm
It’s the same problem the Marvel Adventures line had. The main Marvel U kept stealing the talent.
March 13th, 2013 at 8:18 pm
Here’s a better idea: Cancel the title. This is a series that was designed for Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. After they left, the book should have left as well. It’s nothing more than a retread now, like much of the “Ultimate” line.
March 14th, 2013 at 6:08 am
BTW, does anyone else love that Aaron Poehler’s comments link back to a website that he only posts on/updates every three months or so? That’s funny.
March 14th, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Do you even know what you want anymore ?
For a while people were b*tch*ng about Ultimate being the only universe worth reading and were changes were actually happening and sticking around , lamenting how boring and stale the real universe has gotten in comparison .
Now that the regular Mu is the flagship again we mourns the Ultimate one being more relevant ?
How about just enjoying both when they happen to be good instead of pitting them against each other ?
March 14th, 2013 at 8:42 pm
He’s most likely leaving the book because sales keep falling. This is why Hickman was taken off the book. Over the last decade Marvel editorial and their creators throw out some BS spin story to sugar coat why a low selling book written by a “popular” and/or “critically acclaimed” writer is being cancelled or why said “popular/critically acclaimed” writers are leaving a book with low (and continuously falling) sales. Marvel (and the creators themselves) seem to be trying to protect and/or maintain the image that these writers are huge sellers.
As for the Ultimate Universe as a whole, that line was pretty much doomed when they started writing the books as “realistic” deconstruction superheroes with the first ULTIMATE X-MEN and THE ULTIMATES series. So I say good riddance to the Ultimate Universe.