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Marvel made an embarrassing little gaffe this week and dropped the ball, but really, who’s surprised at this point?
This time around, it takes place in the excruciatingly named “Ultimatum Spider-Man Requiem” #1, which was actually a really good story in its own right, except for their inclusion of the Ultimate Universe’s Iron Man. The story is a flashback to a few months earlier, when Stark Industries was being threatened by Hydra, who wanted Tony to hand over his Iron Man armor, whilst Mary Jane Watson was there for an interview. Needless to say, Spider-Man intervenes, Tony manages to get in to his armor, and the day is saved. Well, except for that whole thing about Spider-Man being presumably dead in the present day Ultimate Universe, but whatever. That day was saved.
So, here’s the problem. Ultimate Iron Man has been around for over 5 years as a character now. He’s been a mainstay of The Ultimates, and had two mini-series of his own. He’s got his own toy. He showed up in two movies. He’s pretty well known. And he looks like this.
So its a little confusing that in the entire story, Tony showed up wearing his current armor from the core Marvel Universe (Known to fans as the 616 Universe, a designation given by Alan Moore).
There’s also appearances of old armors that Tony wore in the 616 universe, but as far I can find, do not exist in the Ultimate Universe (Scroll down for those pictures). The issue was written by the same guy who’s written most of the Ultimate Universe, Brian Michael Bendis. The pencils come courtesy of Mark Bagley and Stuart Immonen. Fun fact: Bendis and Bagley hold the record for the longest run on a single title. Which title was that again?
And yes, Ultimate Iron Man made several, several appearances in Ultimate Spider-Man.
I gave up on the Ultimate Universe resembling the Ultimate Universe after Thor showed up with a stone hammer and an ancient dialect.
What the eff? Seriously. I stopped reading anything having to do with the Ultimate universe after I read the first page of Ultimates 3 #1, but come on. They should know what the Ultimate Iron man armor looks like. I swear, Marvel just doesn’t give a crap about anything anymore. My DC-centric friends may be right; it may be time for me to start picking up more than just Green Arrow/Black Canary. I may have to read TPBs of Green Lantern to catch myself up and start paying more attention to the DCU. Just as long as I don’t have to change my name from Marron Marvel to Mary Marvel. =P
You should just go ahead and put down Green Arrow/Black Canary. They’re terribly mishandling both characters, to the point that Black Canary’s entirely out of character in the book. You should pick up the new Detective Comics, which features Batwoman and The Question now, Green Lantern, and keep an eye out for IDW’s Doctor Who on-going that starts in a few months.