Meet the Maker, Mister Fantastic’s Dark Doppelganger from the Ultimate Universe

With one of the sharpest minds in any universe, Reed Richards has built such a heroic legacy with the Fantastic Four that it echoes around the Multiverse. While Mister Fantastic stands as one of Marvel’s greatest champions, his young variant from the Ultimate Universe used his limitless intellect and ambition to become the Maker, a Multiversal threat, instead. 

Even though the Maker started out as a heroic member of the Ultimate Fantastic Four, he has since threatened the world he once saved and is willing to do anything to rebuild his lost home, the Ultimate Universe, in his own image. Now, let's look back at how the Ultimate Universe’s Reed Richards evolved into the Maker as his dark designs unfold in ULTIMATE INVASION (2023) #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Alex Sinclair, and VC's Joe Caramagna.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR

Before he became the Maker, the Ultimate Universe's Reed Richards seemed destined for greatness. When he debuted in ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR (2003) #1 by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, Adam Kubert, and Danny Miki, Reed was a young, socially awkward super-genius who built a school science fair project that teleported a toy car into a desolate dimension called the N-Zone. 

Reed was recruited by the Baxter Building, where he worked alongside other young prodigies like siblings Sue and Johnny Storm. After several years at the Baxter Building, Reed, his best friend Ben Grimm, and the Storm siblings received powers when an experiment to send biological matter into the N-Zone went awry, thanks to the tampering of their fellow prodigy Victor Van Damme.

With his newfound elastic abilities, Reed became the Ultimate Universe’s Mister Fantastic, a celebrity, Super Hero, and leader of the Fantastic Four. While navigating a romantic relationship with Sue and adjusting to his fame, Reed pushed the boundaries of science and battled threats like Van Damme, who became the Ultimate Universe’s Doctor Doom, and Nihil, the tyrannical ruler of the N-Zone. In ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR (2003) #21 by Millar and Greg Land, the Ultimate Fantastic Four’s adventures even introduced Marvel Zombies to the Multiverse.

HOW REED RICHARDS BROKE BAD

However, Reed’s time with the Fantastic Four ended after ULTIMATUM (2008), when Magneto launched an attack on humanity that devastated New York and killed numerous heroes. After the Storms’ father died, the Invisible Woman rejected Reed’s marriage proposal, and the team disbanded in ULTIMATUM: FANTASTIC FOUR REQUIEM (2009) #1 by Joe Pokaski, Robert Atkins, and Mark Morales. 

In the wake of the Fantastic Four’s collapse, Mister Fantastic emerged as a villain in a trilogy of interconnected miniseries that included ULTIMATE COMICS ENEMY (2010), ULTIMATE COMICS MYSTERY (2010), and ULTIMATE COMICS DOOM (2010). In these stories by Brian Michael Bendis, Rafa Sandoval, and Roger Bonet, Reed returned to his childhood home, killed his family, and faked his death. With a harsh outlook, Reed stole advanced technology from Project Pegasus in his efforts to find or make what he considered a better world. 

When Reed faced his old teammates in battle, he tortured Sue, and the Human Torch subsequently attacked Reed and permanently scarred his face with his hottest flame in ULTIMATE COMICS DOOM (2010) #4 by Bendis, Sandoval, Bonet, and Jordi Tarragona Garcia.

HOW REED RICHARDS BECAME THE MAKER

After a brief exile in the Negative Zone, Reed emerged as the Maker in ULTIMATE FALLOUT (2011) #4 by Jonathan Hickman, Brian Michael Bendis, Nick Spencer, Sara Pichelli, Salvador Larroca, and Clayton Crain. As the Maker, Reed began using his elastic powers to occasionally expand his brain, leading him to wearing a helmet that matched the shape of his elongated cranium. 

There, the Maker created the Children of Tomorrow, a group of genetically engineered superhumans who evolved at an accelerated pace inside the Dome. With the Children, the Maker slaughtered the Asgardians, waged war against governments, and battled the Ultimates starting in ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES (2011) #1 by Hickman and Esad Ribić. His ambitious efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and he even helped Kang partially assemble the Infinity Gauntlet with his world’s Dark Ultimates. 

When the Marvel Universe’s Galactus tried to consume the Ultimate Universe’s Earth, a seemingly redemptive Reed worked with the Ultimates and his world’s other heroes in CATACLYSM: THE ULTIMATES’ LAST STAND (2013) #2 by Bendis, Mark Bagley, and Andrew Hennessy. After traveling to Earth-616 and reviewing Mister Fantastic’s files, the Maker returned to his universe and sent Galactus to starve in the Negative Zone.

THE MAKER DURING SECRET WARS

While assessing potential threats for Nick Fury, the Maker realized that alternate universes were colliding with each other and creating incursions in AVENGERS (2012) #41 by Jonathan Hickman and Mike Deodato. After personally destroying dozens of universes to protect the Ultimate Universe, the Maker joined the Cabal, a group of Marvel Universe world-destroyers including Thanos and Namor. While working on a plan to survive the incursions, the Maker convinced Fury to attack the Marvel Universe as it collided with the Ultimate Universe in AVENGERS (2012) #44 by Hickman, Stefano Caselli, and Kev Walker.

Using stolen designs, the Maker and the Cabal built a cosmic raft to escape the collapse of the Multiverse at the start of SECRET WARS (2015). When the Maker and the Cabal stepped out of their vessel, they stepped into Battleworld, a patchwork realm constructed from the remnants of the Multiverse’s alternate realities. 

The Maker began working with the Marvel Universe’s Mister Fantastic, who survived on a similar ship with several other heroes, in SECRET WARS (2015) #6 by Hickman and Esad Ribić. However, the Maker turned against Mister Fantastic when they confronted the Molecule Man, the omnipotent source of Doom’s power. 

After the Maker turned Mister Fantastic into a monkey, the Molecule Man defended Mister Fantastic and cut the Maker into slices. When Mister Fantastic created a new Multiverse, the Molecule Man placed a portion of the Maker in every new reality. This gave each universe its own Maker, each of whom shared the original’s consciousness and seamlessly carried on their shared work whenever the Maker was detained or killed.

THE MAKER IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE

Following SECRET WARS, the Maker fought the Sunspot-led incarnation of the New Avengers in the Marvel Universe as he tried to combine the worlds of the Multiverse once again. After working with the High Evolutionary, he successfully brought down the walls of the Multiverse in a misguided attempt to help the cosmic being Eternity in ULTIMATES 2 (2016) #9 by Al Ewing and Travel Foreman. 

To protect himself from the Marvel Universe’s heroes, the Maker resurrected the Ultimate Universe’s Ultimates. However, they turned against the Maker when he killed Ultimate Captain America for questioning his orders. Although the High Evolutionary eventually killed the Maker, the surviving Ultimates started traveling through the Multiverse to find the Makers of those worlds.

When the Maker reemerged in the Marvel Universe, he focused on Project: Oversight, his mission to return to the Ultimate Universe, restore it, and potentially overwrite the Marvel Universe with it. With the approval of a group of Multiversal Mister Fantastic variants known as the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, the Maker realized that symbiotes could be the key to surviving the trip between dimensions. After studying Venom, Eddie Brock, and Dylan Brock, Reed recovered a sample of the Ultimate Universe Venom in VENOM (2018) #20 by Donny Cates, Iban Coello, and José Carlos Silva.

THE ULTIMATE UNIVERSE REBORN

After briefly bonding with several symbiotes to extract genetic information from their previous hosts, the Maker modified his universe’s synthetic Venom symbiote and bonded with it in VENOM (2018) #26 by Donny Cates, Iban Coello, and Juan Gedeon. During a fight with Venom and the symbiote Virus-wielding Mac Gargan, the Maker was then sucked into a destabilized portal he had developed. 

To his delighted surprise, Reed landed in the Ultimate Universe, where New York had been partially destroyed and the Ultimates were missing. Following that, Eddie Brock approached the Avengers, the X-Men, and the other heroes of the Marvel Universe and warned them about the Maker and his plans.

And in ULTIMATE INVASION (2023) #1, the Maker has taken his plans for the Ultimate Universe to the next level. Although he had been captured, he escaped custody and targeted the Illuminati by stealing technology from each member of the group to build his next portal. 

By the time the Marvel Universe's Mister Fantastic and the other Illuminati members found him, the Maker was already stepping into the Ultimate Universe and manipulating it to suit his whims. Now, the Maker is more dangerous than ever, with an entire universe trapped in his elastic grasp.

Behold the Maker's dark designs for the Ultimate Universe in ULTIMATE INVASION #1, now on sale!

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