Ultimate Marvel Reading Order

[AaronJS]

I'm curious too about where to put Ultimate X but also too the now current books.

So in terms of timeline order, would it be...

Ultimate Spider-Man #1-3
The Ultimates #1
Ultimate Hawkeye #1
The Ultimates #2
Ultimate Hawkeye #2, 3, 4
The Ultimates #3, 4
Ultimate X-Men #1-6
The Ultimates #5
Ultimate Spider-Man #4, 5, 6
The Ultimates #6

So I placed what I did because Ultimate Spider-Man 1-3 went back in time a little to tell the origin of Miles Morales. The Ultimates and Ultimate Hawkeye run concurrently with Hawkeye finishing up his mission and rejoining the team in The Ultimates #3.

The events of Ultimate X-Men are essentially running at the same time with the other books and the events of Ultimate Hawkeye #4 catching up to Ultimate X-Men #6.

In The Ultimates #5 we see Nick Fury had passed along to Spider-Woman news of the appearance of a new Spider-Man. Who she then goes on to deal with that in Ultimate Spider-Man #4 and 5.

With everything up to this point now having caught up, I placed Ultimate Spider-Man #6 and The Ultimates #6 where I did because well, there is no where else to place these until we see, if anything displaces that order.

Look good?

[Hackworth]

I was referencing this read order for a friend who is starting USM and I noticed a small mistake that is barely worth mentioning. Anyway, Ultimate Spider-man Annual #3 is listed twice. I believe the first listing is the correct location in the list.

[Nikita Wagner]

"Sentinels" story arc ran on Ultimate X-Men from #84-88, not #84-85 as you've listed, also USM Annual #3 is listed twice.

UPD:"Hellfire and Brimstone" story arc ran on Ultimate X-Men from 21-25, not #21-27 as you've listed; #26-33 is "Return of the King" story arc

UPD2: Ultimate Adventures must be placed somewhere between The Ultimates #5 and #6, 'cause Thor is already in the team and Hank Pym is still among them.

Anyway, great work, thanks.

[leoo]

Why not start with Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra and Ultimate Elektra - Devil's Due?

[atlasjj]

I found a few things with the order that could be updated; as I have been re-reading the entire universe I found that Ultimates Vol.1 #1-6 should go between Ultimate X-Men #14 and #15 as in #18 of X-Men characters talk about the Ultimates in full for the first time. So for me it was better to read Ultimates #1-6 before X-Men #15. Also for Ultimate Team Up #1-3 #1 can stay between Spider-Man #7 and #8 but for Team Up #2-3 Peter is shown working at the Daily Bugle, but the Bugle is not introduced until Spider-Man #8. So Team Up #1-3 fit better after #13. I know it could help break up the issue which is why I said leave T.U. #1 between #7 and #8.

[Chaos_Alfa]

Plawsky could you update you reading order post Ultimate Fallout? It will help new readers who want to start reading the Ultimate Universe with the relaunch.

[Trallis]

Just a nit pick here.. but I think some of this would be easier to understand for new readers of the ones with the "Ultimate Comics" label vs the original Ultimate label were noted as such.. I know it confused me when I was just getting started.

[Xistel]

Plawsky, are you going to keep updating the list? I'm really enjoying it!

[RockyBanks]

Just a nit pick here.. but I think some of this would be easier to understand for new readers of the ones with the "Ultimate Comics" label vs the original Ultimate label were noted as such.. I know it confused me when I was just getting started.

To be honest, the "Ultimate Comics" label still confuses me, and I've been reading this line for years.

We had a thread about it awhile back. I think I'll go dig it up...

[marquisd]

When does the new miles morales stuff take place?

in ultimates you have Europe gone and Washington DC is destroyed but everyone in NYC is acting normal. I'm sorry but if Washington DC is actually Gone I don't see how there wouldn't be some some sort of reaction in USM

In X-men Pietro was negotiating with the President that's now kaput. I thought the books were supposed to be more closely linked instead they seem to be different universes USM especially

[RockyBanks]

When does the new miles morales stuff take place?

in ultimates you have Europe gone and Washington DC is destroyed but everyone in NYC is acting normal. I'm sorry but if Washington DC is actually Gone I don't see how there wouldn't be some some sort of reaction in USM

In X-men Pietro was negotiating with the President that's now kaput. I thought the books were supposed to be more closely linked instead they seem to be different universes USM especially

I don't think the timeline has been explicitly laid out.

However, if I'm reading it correctly, I believe that The Ultimates represents what is effectively "the present day", with the events of X-Men beginning shortly beforehand (by a few days probably), and the events of Spider-Man taking place well before that (by weeks or months).

I say this because...

- The events of The Ultimates #1-11 appear to take place in rapid succession, over the course of a few days. Reed Richards appears in Europe, and within a few days he has conquered Germany, destroyed Asgard, declared war on the SEAR, and killed the President.

- The events of X-Men #7-12 are vaguely referenced by the new President in The Ultimates #11, so they seem to have occurred roughly alongside The Ultimates.

- The events of X-Men #1-6 take place over the course of a few hours, and apparently take place before Reed Richards's arrival, because President Obama is alive and well, and there is no mention of a world war going on.

- Spider-Man #6-11 make no mention of the world war started in The Ultimates or the Nimrods' rampage started in X-Men, so it apparently takes place farther back in the timeline. (By a few weeks, I'd guess.)

- Spider-Man #1-5 explicitly begins during The Death of Spider-Man (several months ago) and mostly takes place during Ultimate Fallout.


EDIT: I don't know this for a fact, but I'm guessing that Divided We Fall will take place simultaneously across all three series, which means that Spider-Man will have to make a bit of a time jump. Fortunately, Spider-Men fits into that gap neatly.

[Plawsky]

The reading order is updated, but it is not in perfect timeline order.

As far as the current books for a timeline, here's my best guess:

Ultimate Spider-man 1-3 take place in the months leading up to "the present day"

Present Day:
Ultimates 1-2
Ultimate Hawkeye
Ultimates 3-5
Ultimate Spider-man 4-5 (based on SW's appearance)
Ultimates 6
Ultimate Spider-man #6-12
Ultimates 7-12 and Ultimate X-Men 1-12 (these seem to be happening all at the same time)
Ultimate X-Men #13
Divided We Fall

The only one that's difficult to place is the second arc of USM. There's no mention of the other events, so it would seem that Washington isn't blown up yet. In #10, Miles sees Thor and Iron Man fly overhead, but I'm not sure when that could be. It has to be after #5, obviously, because of Spider-woman's scene in that issue. But the only time they are seen together after that point is in Tony's workshop before they are attacked by rogue SHIELD agents and Tony hasn't been seen in his armor since then. The most logical place seems to be between #6 and 7, which would be when Tony and Thor are flying to Tony's workshop; it's just not something we see in the Ultimates.

I haven't taken the time to really go through these and do proper research (I'm currently working on the old UU stuff), but this seems to work for the time being.

[RockyBanks]

I'd forgotten about that scene with SW. Yeah, it definitely takes place before the end of the first USM story.

[marquisd]

I just remembered that Aunt May and Gwen just flew back from France/Europe I don't remember exactly what got destroyed over in Europe, but I can't imagine it happened yet for Gwen/May to be so calm about arriving back in the States

[Ginkasa]

This is awesome, BTW. I'm mainly a DC guy and generally follow Batman and Superman (with an emphasis on Batman). Ultimate Spider-Man was something I was always interested in, though, even from back when it was first starting to come out. I wasn't in a position to collect comics monthly back then and never got around to purchasing the TPBs as they came out either (I think it was because Spider-Man doesn't appear in costume much in that first trade); it also never felt like something I could just jump into halfway (which kind of defeated the purpose of the Ultimate universe, IMO).

Anyway, long story short, whether it was due to the intro of Miles Morales or The Avengers movie stirring some Marvel interest or the impending The Amazing Spider-Man movie, I felt like working through USM. I started buying the collections (and when those stopped, the issues themselves) digitally through comiXology. When I discovered the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited thing, I figured it was more cost effective considering how many issues I still had left, so I signed up for it. Now, though, I have access to not just USM, but the rest of the Marvel universe, too! I figured, "Why not?" so not I'm working my way through it via this list. I've got a heck of a lot of comics to read before I catch back up with USM, but I'm enjoying it all, so that's okay.

Basically what I'm saying is: Thanks for the reading list!