I Predicted Marvel’s Biggest Character Death in 2024 (And I’m Thrilled They Didn’t Pull That Blow)

Warning! Major spoilers for Ultimates #6!

A few weeks ago I predicted this Wonder would kill the Ultimate version of Iron Manas an important turning point for its relaunch Ultimate miracle Headline – and I was right. I don’t say this to brag, although I’m definitely happy about it, but because I’m thrilled that they pursued this storyline.

The Ultimates #6 – written by Deniz Camp, with art by Juan Frigeri – finally brings his incarnation of the Avengers fully together for the first time to fight the Hulk, leading to the team’s first victim: their leader Tony Stark, familiar in this continuity as the Iron Boy.

It wasn’t a “gut feeling” that made me believe this would happen, nor a lucky guess; rather, There was no better choice for a character’s death The Ultimates in an unexpected new directionand I’m glad Marvel allowed the book’s creative team to go there.

Iron Lad Is Dead: I knew Tony Stark would have to pay the price for his team’s inexperience as heroes

The Ultimates #6 – Written by Deniz Camp; Art by Juan Frigeri; Color by Federico Blee; Lettering by Travis Lanham

Firstly, I would bet that Ultimate Tony Stark’s death was probably planned well before Jonathan Hickman’s 2023 Ultimate Invasion Miniseries that rebooted Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, almost ten years after Hickman had the previous incarnation destroyed, more or less because it became too chaotic. The fun thing about Ultimate Marvel 2.0 is that it tells an overarching story in real time – so it seems unlikely to me that a major plot point like the death of the character who is arguably the central protagonist of the story wouldn’t have been planned in advance of the jump.

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As I argued in my prediction, killing every other member of the Ultimates would have advanced Tony Stark’s arc, but Killing Stark advances every character in the book’s story arc. The Ultimates So far, it’s been a story about an inexperienced leader assembling a team of inexperienced heroes. At an abstract level of storytelling, making one of the recruits pay the price for their collective inadequacies makes the story more about the leader’s failure and subsequent growth; The leader who pays the price tells the story about the team.

Marvel told fans that an Ultimate would drop – but no one wanted to believe it would be Tony Stark

The Ultimates #6 – Available now from Marvel Comics

Of course, I didn’t predict Tony Stark’s death completely out of nowhere – Marvel announced the death in the extended synopsis Ultimates #6. Or rather, they teased a character’s death as part of the hype surrounding the end of the series’ first story arc, giving fans months to scour the previous issues for details and speculate about who it would be. I certainly wasn’t the only one who found out it was going to be Iron Lad either, and The only reason more people didn’t make the same prediction is a matter of fanbase.

This means fans have favorite characters. You become attached to characters. You develop expectations for these characters. All of these things make up a death like Tony Stark’s Ultimates #6 was super effective, but they also stopped the majority of fans from seeing it coming. Sometimes it can be difficult for fans to think about how their favorite character best fits into a story. Instead, they tend to look at the story in terms of how the story can best serve the character. In my opinion, this has led fans to discount the possibility of the series killing off Stark.

Iron Lad’s death – how it happened and what I think it means for the Ultimates

An incredibly brutal scene

In Ultimates #6, Tony Stark leads his entire team on his first mission – leading a completely unprepared group into a confrontation with the Hulk, who also has the powers of Iron Fist in this world. The action, which dominates much of the issue, is intense, The climax involves Hulk grabbing Iron Lad with his giant hands and squeezing him to death in his suit. What I really appreciate about the staging of the moment is that it’s not a familiar heroic sacrifice for Stark, but rather the result of his utter inferiority.

The dramatic effect of the death scene is great, but a writer like Deniz Camp could and would have achieved the same effect if he killed every member of the Ultimates. The reason for Tony Stark’s death was that it threw The Ultimates into turmoil and promised a whole new paradigm for the future of the series after just one story arc. Most superhero team books end their first arc with a victory and the establishment of a status quo – but camp Ultimates rejects this plot tactic and leaves a completely undefined narrative boundary for the next story arc.

What exactly does “gamechanging” mean for a story and is Iron Lad’s death suitable for it?

The Ultimates #7 – Available December 4, 2024 from Marvel Comics

I admit that I probably overuse the word “groundbreaking” when talking about major storylines, so I wanted to take a moment to go into more detail about what exactly that means. I definitely believe that Tony Stark’s death in Ultimates #6 is appropriate, but I’d like to extrapolate why. “Gamechanging” of course refers to competition to talk about story – so what is something in a game or sport that completely changes the look of a game when it happens? I think the best example of this is an interception in American football.

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In football, a team moves steadily and gradually in one direction across the field – and then in a single moment the ball is intercepted and the action suddenly goes in the completely opposite direction. Tony Stark’s death in Ultimates #6 is like an interception; Any progress they made has been completely wiped out and they have ceded ground to their enemy. Furthermore, Stark is not only their leader but also their benefactor, meaning the team’s resources and overall functionality are at risk.

My next prediction: Ultimates has set up their version of Doctor Doom as the new leader of the team

Is the endgame Reed Richards vs. Reed Richards?

I think I have a good sense of where Ultimates is coming next, although it could certainly continue to surprise us – and I hope it does. Still, it seems pretty clear Tony Stark’s death was necessary in part to make room for the Ultimate version of Doctor Doom to take center stage in the story as the next leader of the Ultimates. Just as Iron Lad’s previous arc led to his downfall, Doom’s arc seems designed for him to become the hero of the Ultimate Universe in the long run.

The main antagonist of the Ultimate Universe is the Creator, an evil version of Reed Richards. Ultimate Doom is another version of Reed Richards, tortured and disfigured by the Creator in a cruel and inexplicable act of self-destruction. It seems like the biggest narrative end point for both characters would be facing each other in a spectacular duel, which is something I personally really want to achieve. In my opinion, this is a great story, and while I hope it has many more twists along the way, I hope this is the endgame.

Fans will, of course, expect Captain America, Thor, She-Hulk or even the original Human Torch to step into the leadership vacuum created by the death of Tony Stark and therefore opt for a Doctor Doom variant – even if he is technically seen OG Marvel hero Reed Richards – would be a surprising and satisfying change in itself The Ultimates. Meanwhile, whether the Ultimate version of Iron Man has finally disappeared Ultimate miracle Universe, that’s a completely different question.

Ultimates #6 is available now from Marvel Comics.

Ultimate miracle

Founded in 2000, the Ultimate Marvel imprint has reimagined the entire Marvel Comics universe with a series of new origin stories and relationships. The reboot reimagined Marvel continuity from the ground up, simplifying and updating the company’s 60-year history for modern audiences. With famous comic book writers like Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis, and Mark Millar at the helm, the Ultimate Universe (called Earth-1610 in the Marvel Multiverse) lasted for 15 years and provided plenty of inspiration for the MCU.