| Ultimate Origins | |
|---|---|
Cover to Ultimate Origins" #1 |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Genre | Superhero |
| Publication date | August — December 2008 |
| Number of issues | 5 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Brian Bendis |
| Artist(s) | Butch Guice |
Ultimate Origins is a comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics, released in June 2008.[1] It falls under Marvel's Ultimate Marvel imprint. It was written by Brian Bendis and illustrated by Butch Guice. It was intended to be a "chapter in the development of Ultimatum, a crossover event scheduled to begin in September 2008.
Jeph Loeb has stated in an interview with Comic Book Resources: "What Ultimate Origin is going to do is sort of tell us how it all began. ... The Ultimate Universe isn't very old, so this isn't a cosmic story. You're not going to see the birth of a planet. What you'll see is how the superhero community was introduced into the human population. So you'll learn the importance of things like the Super Soldier program, which has been hinted at in Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimates 1 and 2. Now, Brian is going to connect the dots."[2]
The story opens with a scene from Ultimate Marvel Team-Up 3, where Spider-Man is confronting a deranged Bruce Banner, who tells Spider-Man in desperation that "it's all connected." General Ross arrives, and despite Spider-Man's attempts to defuse the situation, Banner transforms into the Hulk and escapes.
In 1942, at Battle of the Tenaru, an American super-soldier (a normal GI dressed in a special uniform, looking much like Citizen V) rallies his men in the face of a Japanese onslaught. However, the soldier is shot and killed, his blood staining the American flag. A photograph of this image is released around the world, and then-President Roosevelt demands a true super-soldier from his advisors, rather than a normal soldier wearing a special uniform.
A year later, during the invasion of Sicily, three soldiers, (American privates Fisk (the grandfather of The Kingpin) and Nicholas Fury, and Canadian soldier James Howlett), attempt to loot a house. Military police arrive to arrest them, and all three are subdued. Fisk is grazed by a bullet, while Fury and Howlett, despite the latter's protests that he's Canadian, are shipped off to separate unknown locations.
Fury is selected to be the next test subject for Project Rebirth, as his bloodwork most closely matches that of subject 22, the most successful of the previous test subjects. He is injected with a serum that gives him super-strength, which he uses to free himself and the other prisoners, who then escape. The scientists who were working on him let him escape, deciding that they have all the information that they need for now. Elsewhere, Howlett awakens in a tank of water inside the Weapon X complex. He escapes the complex, but is shot as he nears freedom. Miraculously, Howlett's wound heals completely and he is recaptured. Dr. Cornelius, Weapon X's head scientist, explains that in attempting to create their own version of Captain America, Weapon X accidentally discovered a genome that, when genetically altered, grants the person carrying it various abilities based on their DNA. He calls these altered humans “mutants", (with Howlett as "Mutant Zero"), and states that mutants will be how humanity survives.[3]
The story then flip-flops between Captain Carol Danvers at Project Pegasus finding the artifact known as the Watcher and the events leading to the birth of Captain America. Project Pegasus is shown as a government-issued warehouse for objects with mysterious origins and, usually, mass destructive value.
Steven Rogers, with a bad limp, is recruited by Dum Dum Dugan into the Super-Soldier Program; Project Rebirth. Through many different treatments, Steven Rogers is reborn as the ultimate super-soldier and leaves his fiance Gail behind to start his life in World War II.
Later, a teenaged Erik Lehnsherr visits the Weapon X complex and sets Wolverine free, letting him know that his name is James. When Magneto's mother, who works at the complex, tries to stop him, he murders her and proclaims that he hopes there "is a hell." Before his mother's death, she justifies her work with Weapon X by declaring that she only wanted to find a cure for Erik and the others.
Even later in Erik's life, he reads a book published by Charles Xavier and is determined to meet him. Showing up in the class that Xavier teaches, they soon realize that Charles's telepathic powers do not work on Magneto. They discuss the theories involved with having "mutanity" accepted and eventually relocate to the Savage Land, where Magneto's Brotherhood is waiting to be trained by the two.
Sometime later, Nick Fury is questioned by General Ross while lying in a hospital bed after seemingly being saved by Wolverine during an earlier war. General Ross feverishly questions him about his previous involvement with the mutant known as Weapon X and the nature of Nick Fury's unique physiology. After Fury dismisses his use as the "new" Captain America, he wonders about his usefulness in other ways.
The story skips forward for the brief description of Project Rebirth 2, including Fury later becomes involved with Project Rebirth 2, which includes the involvement of Dr. Franklin Storm, Bruce Banner, Dr. Hank Pym, and Dr. Richard Parker. During this time, Dr. Storm is contracted to work with the Baxter Building project as well as Project Rebirth. Their work with the facility is helped along by the use of a vial of Fury's blood of which, none of the scientists know the truth of where the blood came from, (except Parker who suspected it). When Banner seems to have had a breakthrough, he and Dr. Pym decide to try it on themselves, starting with Banner. The trial goes horribly wrong and Banner, now as the Hulk, destroys the building, and wounds both Richard and Mary Parker, leaving their infant son Peter an orphan.
The sight of the infant son in his mother's arms shocks Banner back to himself and is quickly subdued by Fury. Taking the infant in to his arms, he whispers that it is good that Peter is young, because he won't remember a thing.
Later, Fury infiltrates the Weapon X project, and, after the shock of the environment sinks in, Fury realizes that neither man nor mutant should ever know of man's involvement in the mutant gene. This conclusion is acted upon when he kills all of the scientists and their experiments. The only mutant to make it out alive is T'Challa, whom Fury feels a connection with due to their tragic pasts.
Charles Xavier is next seen being speared in the back as an act of retaliation by Magneto, who claims Charles tried to attack him in his own mind. Magneto speaks of the mutant race's fate to ascend like gods over homo sapien and his belief that God willed this to be.
In the present day, the Watchers speak through Sue Storm and tell of a certain doom that awaits before picking a herald. While the Fantastic Four wonder who this could be, Rick Jones is found by his family glowing in the backyard.
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