The Ultimate Universe Was Always Missing One Team – Now That Can Change

The Ultimate Universe is returning this summer, and now Marvel has a chance to finally introduce the one team that has always been missing.

With Marvel’s Ultimate Universe seemingly coming back with the four-issue series, Ultimate Invasion, there’s an opportunity to include one team that never appeared in Ultimate form during its initial run, the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Ultimate Marvel Universe was one of the most exciting new takes on comic books when it debuted in the early 2000s, and helped set up a lot of the tone and themes that influenced the MCU.

The concept for the Ultimate Universe was simple enough on the surface: it strove to reinvent the entire Marvel Universe and its characters to present them to readers as if they had been invented in modern times. Some story decisions were controversial and didn’t always sit well with hardcore fans, but it did allow for new fans to enter into the Marvel Universe without having to wade through decades of backstory for characters like the Fantastic Four, Captain America, or Iron Man. The series had a few missteps, like the unfortunate romance between Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, but it was ultimately successful, resulting in breakout characters like Miles Morales. However, as its more successful elements were eventually integrated into the main Earth-616 continuity the Ultimate Universe lost a lot of its edge and was destroyed in 2015 during the Secret Wars event.

Related: The Ultimate Iron Man’s Secret Was Too Terrible For The MCU To Adapt

Fans Can Finally Meet The Ultimate Guardians of the Galaxy

Even though the universe — dubbed Earth-1610 — no longer exists in comics its influence over the unfolding of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is very real. However, because the Ultimate comics came out before the release and subsequent rise in popularity of the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy, that team never got a chance to be reinvented in this edgier and modern take on Marvel canon. Now with the upcoming Ultimate Invasion by Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch, Marvel has a chance to change that.

Though official details of the upcoming miniseries are scarce, it is fun to speculate about. The Guardians of the Galaxy would be a great fit for the Ultimate Universe, given that they are already morally gray characters. After all, the Ultimate Universe is where Black Widow killed Hawkeye’s family, so there is a lot of leeway when it comes to what heroes are allowed to do and be. The Guardians could potentially become an even more extreme version of the characters fans already know and love.

Star-Lord could be more than a fast talking pirate, but a liar, a conman, and a secret coward who manipulates others into fighting his battles, which would actually help bring him in line with the original character. Characters like Gamora and Drax would become stone-cold killers, even more than their current incarnations. Gamora might even begin as a double-agent for Thanos, much like how Ultimate Wolverine was a double-agent for Magneto sent to kill Professor X before having a change of heart. Rocket and Groot could become even more gruesome and powerful. In the Ultimate Universe the tragic origin of Rocket could leave him a lot more scarred, both mentally and physically, while Groot might very well be something more akin to a silent but terrifying living god. In fact, the entire team itself could be active and dangerous criminals who don’t care about their intergalactic body count, but are only out for themselves.

Regardless of whether fans will get so see this glaring omission from the Ultimate Universe included in the upcoming miniseries, it is fun to imagine what would be in store for the Guardians of the Galaxy in a world that is closer to our own than standard Marvel canon. The Ultimate Universe shaped the MCU, and it would be fun to in turn see something from the MCU shape it right back with all-new versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Ultimate Invasion #1 will be available on June 21 from Marvel Comics.