The modern reimagining of Marvel in the Ultimate Universe took the early 2000s by storm, and the Fantastic Four were one of the biggest stars of the initiative!
When high-school genius Reed Richards enrolls at a secret, government-sponsored school for the world's most gifted minds, he unwittingly embarks on the journey of a lifetime! And the experience will be transformative for Reed and his friends: Ben Grimm and Susan and Johnny Storm! But before they can even begin to get accustomed to their incredible new abilities, former classmate Victor Van Damme -- forever altered by the same experiment -- returns to exact his revenge! Plus: The nascent FF explore the N-Zone, meet Namor and the Inhumans and discover another reality very like their own. Is it the Marvel Universe we know and love, or home to a deadly threat set to lay waste to the Multiverse?
COLLECTING: Ultimate Fantastic Four (2003) 1-32, Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual (2005) 1
Award-winning comic-book creator Brian Michael Bendis is one of the most successful writers in the industry today. In addition to an acclaimed run on Daredevil, he has helmed a renaissance for Marvel's popular Avengers franchise and written the event projects House of M, Secret War, Secret Invasion, Siege, Age of Ultron and Civil War II. Bendis wrote every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man from its launch in 2000 before bringing his multiracial Spider-Man, Miles Morales, to the Marvel Universe for continuing adventures. He took on Marvel's mutants in the pages of All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, and launched Guardians of the Galaxy into the stratosphere. Bendis shook up the life of Tony Stark in Invincible Iron Man and related titles, introducing Riri Williams as Ironheart, and then assembled street-level heroes Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil and his co-creation Jessica Jones in Defenders. His creator-owned projects include Scarlet with Alex Maleev, Brilliant with Mark Bagley, and Takio and the Eisner Award-winning Powers with Michael Avon Oeming.
Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter's Legacy, Nemesis, Superior, Supercrooks, American Jesus, MPH and Starlight. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2 and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films. His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son. At Marvel Comics, he has written The Ultimates, selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade; the acclaimed Wolverine saga "Old Man Logan;" and Civil War, the industry's biggest-selling series in almost two decades. Millar has served as producer and executive producer on previous adaptations of his works and, following the purchase of his Millarworld comic line by Netflix in 2017, remains the company's president. For his services to film and literature, he received the prestigious honor of being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen in 2013.
Springing from the fertile ground of the U.K. comics scene,
Warren Ellis came to Marvel during the early '90s and proved his iconoclastic mettle in the ultra-edgy series Hellstorm and the limited series Druid -- followed by fondly remembered extended runs on Excalibur and Doom 2099. After making a name for himself as a premier talent with Wildstorm's Stormwatch, Transmetropolitan, The Authority and Planetary, Ellis returned to Marvel to pen Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, Iron Man and more. His Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. was both a critical smash and a cult favorite. In addition to reviving the 1980s New Universe in newuniversal and writing Thunderbolts, Ellis took over Astonishing X-Men following Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's departure, and penned perhaps the definitive story of the Armored Avenger in Iron Man's "Extremis." In addition, he offered a distinctively memorable new take on Moon Knight. His Wildstorm miniseries Red was adapted into a hit movie in 2010. Ellis broke into prose fiction with Crooked Little Vein and his New York Times best-selling novel Gun Machine.
The son of industry pioneer Joe Kubert,
Adam Kubert has won numerous comics-industry achievement awards -- including an Eisner Award and a Wizard magazine award. His landmark runs on Wolverine and Incredible Hulk made him a superstar, leading him to work on X-Men titles including the Marvel Universe-changing Onslaught saga. His subsequent efforts for Marvel include revisiting the world of Logan on Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine and the blockbuster sequel Origin II. Kubert joined the stellar artistic lineup of the event series Avengers vs. X-Men, and his subsequent work includes All-New, All-Different Avengers; Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man; and Captain America. In 2020, he made a triumphant return to his signature character for the Dawn of X relaunch of Wolverine.
Award-winning artist
Stuart Immonen began his comics career in 1988, having worked for most of the industry's major publishers -- including Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image -- in the decades since. In addition to 2011's Fear Itself, he has illustrated such high-profile Marvel series as Ultimate Spider-Man, Thor, Incredible Hulk, Avengers and the cult-favorite Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. After joining forces with Mark Waid to inaugurate Marvel's digital Infinite Comics line, Immonen penciled All-New X-Men in the Marvel NOW! era before taking on the ultimate blockbuster project: Star Wars.
Artist
Jae Lee made a name for himself on Marvel's Namor the Sub-Mariner, his gothic style a stark departure from traditional comic art. After a short X-Factor arc, Lee decamped to the newly formed Image Comics -- illustrating the Youngblood Strikefile and WildC.A.T.s Trilogy miniseries, and introducing his own creation in Hellshock. In 1998, he won an Eisner Award for his distinctive work with writer Paul Jenkins on the Marvel Knights series Inhumans. He and Jenkins reteamed in 2000 for Sentry, the multilayered tale of a deliberately forgotten Silver Age hero. Continuing his Marvel Knights work, Lee illustrated Grant Morrison's Fantastic Four: 1234, an arc of Captain America and the Hulk/Thing: Hard Knocks limited series. After drawing an arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Lee was tapped to lend his distinctive style to Marvel's adaptations of Stephen King's Dark Tower novels.
