Jonathan Hickman wraps up his four-part launch of the new Ultimate Universe with a fascinating exploration of this universe’s Howard Stark and what it means to be an autonomous individual. His decision to take matters into his own hands and his decisions have a seismic impact that will undoubtedly cause ripples yet to be seen. Hickman also does a phenomenal job developing this Reed Richards as a sympathetic and enigmatic figure who will like play a major role moving forward, as evident by the discovery he and Tony Stark, who dons the Iron Lad moniker, make at the end of the issue.

This was the perfect conclusion to the initial story Hickman set out to tell, though I’m not sure where things go from here. The only series which will take place in the new Ultimate Universe and that’s currently announced is Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man, which wasn’t set up at all. As a whole, this miniseries has been a quintessential Hickman story and it’s a shame Marvel didn’t put more marketing effort behind it.