Ultimate Wolverine has quickly proven itself to be one of the most important comic books in the new Ultimate Universe. That was cemented by how things ended in Ultimate Wolverine #4 with the revelation about the fate of Jean Grey and Charles Xavier in the Ultimate Universe. This revelation further strengthened the role mutants have played from the shadows in the universe The Maker shaped. It all adds to what has been in-development for the mutants status quo in Ultimate X-Men. With that said let’s look at the state of mutants in the Ultimate Universe thus far.
JEAN GREY AND CHARLES XAVIER ULTIMATE UNIVERSE FATE
Ultimate Wolverine #4 finally answered the question as to what happened to Jean Grey and Charles Xavier in the Ultimate Universe. To be honest, it this wasn’t one of the big questions as to what The Maker did to shape Earth-6160 in his vision. That isn’t because Jean and Xavier aren’t major characters. But there has been such big changes made to Earth-6160 that the focus has been on what will happen when The Maker makes his return at the end of 2025.
Even with that said it did not mean that when we finally learned what happened to Jean and Xavier it wasn’t a big deal. And it wasn’t just because we finally learned about their fate. But it is the brutal nature of Jean and Xavier’s fate that is eyebrow raising. That is because Jean and Xavier possibly have one of the worst fate’s in the Ultimate Universe as they’ve both been turned into specimens to be experimented on.
It is really hard to tell who got it the worst between Jean and Xavier. It can be said their fates are equally brutal as Xavier had his brain extracted in order use Omega-level psychic powers to keep Jean in a sedated state. This was due to Jean’s, who is nicknamed the “Phoenix specimen”, latent abilities and capabilities of hosting a cosmic being (aka the Phoenix Force).
As we see at the end of Ultimate Wolverine #4, this decision by The Maker’s Council has left Jean in a state where her body was deemed useless due to lack of nutrition or activity. Making this fate even more tragic is that The Maker’s Council has attached Xavier’s brain to a device inside a room named the Cerebellum where Jean is kept.
And based on the this it looks like The Maker’s Council have utilized Jean to create soldiers they can control. This is seen as they used Jean’s powers to transform Ultimate Wolverine into the Winter Soldier. Though it is teased that this has also led Jean to create unique connection with Logan that she hasn’t with other experiments by the Council.
WOLVERINE & THE OPPOSITION ARE GREATEST THREAT TO THE MAKER’S COUNCIL
Throughout Ultimate Wolverine we have learned about The Opposition, an underground group fighting The Maker’s Council. While we finally got to see them in Ultimate Wolverine #3, the entire series has built on the legend of The Opposition. Based on what we’ve learned, The Opposition, led by Ultimate Shadowcat and Ultimate Gambit, have been fighting The Maker’s Council for years, if not decades. While initially it appeared that The Opposition were made up of just mutants we saw Shadowcat and Gambit recruit Ultimate Black Widow, hinting other non-mutants are part of the group.
The Opposition place in the Ultimate Universe is made even more intriguing by Wolverine’s status quo. Because as we saw in Ultimate Wolverine #1, we know before being captured and turned into the Winter Soldier that Logan had a relationship with Nightcrawler, Mystique, and other Opposition members. This was further confirmed in Ultimate Wolverine #4 with Shadowcat using her powers to unlock some of Logan’s repressed memories of his past, including fighting The Maker’s Council.
Given what we have seen thus far The Maker’s Council chose to capture Logan for a reason. Similar to what we saw in Days of Future Past, The Maker’s Council turned Logan into a Hound hunting any mutant deemed dangerous. And who better than someone who is deeply connected with The Opposition and possibly their deadliest former member.
This all speaks to The Opposition being who The Maker’s Council see as their biggest immediate threat. It would make sense since The Ultimates have yet to gain a big victory over The Maker’s Council. And from what we know of The Opposition, the underground group has been destroying facilities and causing chaos in various territories run by The Maker’s Council.
X-MEN FUTURE IN THE ULTIMATE UNIVERSE
Ultimate Wolverine isn’t the only place we have been seeing the picture of the mutants status quo is in the Ultimate Universe. Before Wolverine’s series we have been getting developments for mutants in Ultimate X-Men. Initially it appeared that mutants weren’t a commonly known thing given how the amazement of Armor and Maystorm’s powers were treated.
We have quickly learned that it isn’t that mutants aren’t prevalent in the Ultimate Universe. Rather The Maker’s Council have been various ways to control the mutant population. In Ultimate X-Men we’ve seen that in Sunfire’s territory he has made Ultimate Mister Sinister into a cult leader to recruit mutants into the Children of Atom facility. Through Ultimate Mister Sinister, we have seen impressionable mutants gather and be experimented on, some willingly and others not. This has been under the guise of helping mutants understand and control their powers but it is all part of The Maker’s Council’s plan to control the mutant population.
The way mutants are treated speaks to how they are seen as the biggest wild cards in the new Ultimate Universe. Because if The Maker wanted to he couldn’t wiped out all the X-Men he knew would be troublesome while locking up the ones he found useful like he did to Jean. But it appears the only mutants The Maker purposely eliminated where Professor X and Magneto due to their leadership abilities.
It could be a case The Maker left the mutants he didn’t see as a bother because it is easier to control things with only the X-Men he knows about than mutants he doesn’t. Which is highlighted by the efforts of The Maker’s Council to create facilities to understand and keep an eye on mutants. Any potential powerful mutants that could arise Council would know about even if they weren’t in The Maker’s files.
All this leads to further positioning the Ultimate X-Men and The Opposition as bigger threats to The Maker’s Council than The Ultimates. Especially if Shadowcat and her group can get Wolverine back on their side The Opposition could be who defeats The Maker’s Council. Afterall, it does seem like the Council is putting more resources into the potential threat mutants pose to them than The Ultimates.
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