This week, Jonathan Hickman partners with Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Alex Sinclair, VC’s Joe Caramagna and Wil Moss for his hotly anticipated return to Marvel Comics in Ultimate Invasion #1. Though not nearly as shrouded in mystery as Hickman’s upcoming co-creation with Valerio Schiti, G.O.D.S., fans of the Ultimate Universe have waited with bated breath for any shred of info about this reimagining of Marvel’s most prominent parallel Earth. This massive opening salvo keeps its focus squarely on the architect of this event, The Maker, keeping his plans close to the chest while the board is set for what’s to come.
While there’s a healthy dose of action in the first scene, this issue devotes the majority of its time to building tension, which is handily done any time The Maker takes the stage. Though Hickman is known for complexity in his work and his enthusiasm for high concept genre elements, this premiere is intentionally straightforward, accessible to a wide ranging audience, and paced with an impending sense of dread. With a chilling sense of calm, The Maker carries himself with such certainty that the execution of his plan feels almost inevitable by the final moments of the issue.
Though shy about the specifics, The Maker takes great care to ensure that his goal is clear: “I’m going to someplace I can call my own. Someplace I can create as was intended at my creation.” This intention guides the structure of the issue into three distinct acts: escaping prison, drawing out the Illuminati, and exiting Earth 616. Hiring a mercenary hit squad to break him out specifically since their genetics are compatible with melting them into a dummy clone, alt-Reed’s escape perfectly reminds the reader why The Maker is so terrifying.
In act II, the Illuminati reunites as The Maker baits Reed Richards, T’Challa, Tony Stark, Black Bolt, Charles Xavier, and Namor into investigating his gambit. The fascinating side-step in this process is the brief visit that The Maker pays to Miles Morales. Despite knowing he originally hails from the original Ultimate Universe, Miles declines The Maker’s offer to join him on his voyage. Clinically assigned with “megalomania and personal dissociative disorder,” it’s rare to find The Maker genuinely engage with someone as if they were in some sense equals. Its a disposition he seems to only enter when engaging Mr. Fantastic, which he does in their final confrontation as The Maker sets out on his voyage. However, it’s a tone that he also takes in this short exchange with Miles, and this minuscule moment of vulnerability with his so-called “brother” is fascinating.
Surely that won’t lead to any unforeseen consequences, eh Reed?
Credit: Marvel Comics
An epilogue scene teases the fruits of The Maker’s labors, as an alternate universe teen Peter Parker is saved from a nasty spider-bite by a maskless Maker. It seems that this new Ultimate Universe is not the one we left behind in Secret Wars, and its Age of Marvels is being pruned before it can ever flourish. Rather than Earth 1610, two companion pages suggest that The Maker’s new experiment is Earth 6160. The first page marks the first chapter of Ultimate Invasion, the second marks its epilouge, and split between them is the quote attributed to Pablo Picasso and made famous by Steve Jobs: “good artists copy / great artists steal.” Stealing himself from captivity, stealing from the greatest superheroic arsenals on Earth, and stealing the fates of a nascent world of heroes: it seems The Maker considers himself quite the artist.
As much as this issue is hailed as Hickman’s great return from his two year departure, Ultimate Invasion #1 is also a momentous occasion for penciler Bryan Hitch. Hitch was a definite design voice for the original Ultimate Universe, which notably impacted the visual language for a large part of the MCU. Bringing Hitch in again to herald in this new Ultimate Universe is a respectful way to honor that, regardless of who the major art directors of this world end up being. Hitch absolutely delivers on the elements of horror and slow-burn tension that the story demands, and as a bonus the mega-sized issue also features several pages of behind-the-scenes looks at Hitch’s pencilling drafts.
Readers who want definitive answers about what The Maker is hoping to create or concrete answers about where he is now will be left wanting. Whether this is actually a flaw of the issue or the reader’s expectations of it are debatable. Regardless, it is an interesting choice to spend so much page real-estate telling a rather direct story that could easily have been told in a standard issue’s page length.
With a spotlight on the Maker, Hickman and Hitch consistently toy with the feeling of “Oh God, what is The Maker up to now?” expertly in Ultimate Invasion #1. The grandness of what’s to come can be felt throughout The Maker’s machinations, even as their purpose remains hidden. Though his success feels like a foregone end, not even The Maker can outplay all that Ultimate Invasion has in store.
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