Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, X-Men | Tagged: Real Time, ultimate black panther, ultimate comics, ultimate spider-man, ultimate x-men

Marvel's New Ultimate Comics Universe Is Playing Out In Real Time

This is something that initially passed me by. The Ultimate Comics line from Marvel is being published in real time.

Published Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:58:09 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Comments

Article Summary

Marvel's Ultimate Comics line adopts a real-time publishing approach, mirroring life.
Iconic strips and series like Judge Dredd have previously aged their characters in real-time.
Marvel Time paused character aging, but Ultimate Comics restores natural progression.
The new storytelling method includes month-to-month jumps, aging characters over time.

This is something that initially passed me by but hit me upside the head on a reread. However, the Ultimate Comics line from Marvel is being published in real-time. Which means that for every monthly issue published, a month is taking place between – or during – issues for the character. It's not that common, but there are prominent examples, including newspaper strips like Gasoline Alley, For Better Or Worse and Doonesbury, where the characters have aged, grown and died through the decades. Judge Dredd takes place in real-time, from a young cop in 1977 to the grizzled octogenarian law enforcer he is now. DC published John Constantine: Hellblazer as a real-time comic, over 300 issues and twenty years for the character before he was de-aged for the DC Universe. Erik Larsen does similar with his Savage Dragon, now starring a character who was born in the comic.

And when the Marvel Universe began, it was also in real-time. Peter Parker was a kid who graduated from school, went to college, got a proper job, and married. The Fantastic Four was when Reed and Sue married, had kids, and grew older. The X-Men also moved from college kids to twenty-something superheroes. But then… the progression stopped, or stalled, and "Marvel Time" was introduced, a rolling timeline that saw their origins constantly moved forward in time. Their roots in World War II, then the Korean War and then the Vietnam War were switched and moved forward, with a new fictitious war created to appease continuity issues. Marvel's New Universe was also meant to be in real-time, which necessitated a number of "four months later" scenes in order to try and catch up. And DC's comic book 52 was meant to be a weekly comic set over one year, catching up to One Year Later.

But the new Ultimate Comics line seems to be doing this as a matter of storytelling choices. Each of the first three issues of Ultimate Spider-Man has been set in a different month.

While Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Black Panther don't have this on the nose as much, but a month is passing for each between issues.

And time is being recorded from issue to issue.

As well as today's Ultimate Black Panther #3.

What does this mean in practice? Well, the characters will age, and the characters will change. In five years' time, everyone will be five years older. The X-Men's school years will race by in retrospect. But there are also other storytelling choices. Cliffhangers are different in that they will get solved in hindsight. You will get a big splash page for the big reveal, but the opening of the subsequent issue won't happen directly afterwards, but some time later.

ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER #3
MARVEL COMICS
FEB240615
(W) Bryan Hill (A/CA) Stefano Caselli
ENTER…STORM AND KILLMONGER!
Black Panther takes matters into his own hands and embarks on a covert solo mission to deal with Ra and Khonshu directly! Wakanda's conflict with Moon Knight has escalated. Even with spies all across the continent feeding information, Wakanda is overwhelmed. Everything changes, though, when a pair of freedom fighters enter the fray: Ultimate Killmonger and Ultimate Storm!
Rated T+In Shops: Apr 17, 2024 SRP: $4.99

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!