The new Ultimate Universe of Marvel Comics may be going away, but its legacy will live on in the main Marvel Universe. The details of how were confirmed today, as Marvel revealed two of a new wave of heroes and villains to be introduced in the coming year. Surprisingly, one of them is a new incarnation of Wonder Man, while the other is a horrific new villain.
The Ultimate Universe is an alternate reality created by a villain known as The Maker. This twisted variant of Reed Richards created the Ultimate Universe so he could rule a world without superheroes. He arranged this by preventing every origin story he could. This insured that the heroes either never existed or were corrupted into something he could control. However, this plan was thwarted thanks to the Ultimate Universe version of Tony Stark.
Stark created “Origin Boxes” based on stolen records of what their world should have been. This gave rise to the creation of the Ultimates. However, it was agreed that the extra Origin Boxes were too dangerous and risked being reclaimed by The Maker’s servants. Miles Morales, who met the Ultimates in the Ultimate Incursion miniseries, agreed to take the remaining Origin Boxes back to his reality for safekeeping. Somehow the boxes will instead create a series of new heroes and villains, including a new Wonder Man.
New Wonder Man and Hostilicus Explained
The new Wonder Man and a new villain were revealed in a cover preview of the first issue of Reborn: Ultimate Impact. The five issue miniseries will introduce the new characters created by the Origin Boxes. Each of the characters will be spotlighted on a special First Appearance variant cover by artist Stefano Caselli.
The new Wonder Man is a man named Vin Lerner. While apparently a new creation, his costume (with distinctive red sunglasses) and energy powers seem to mimic those of Simon Williams, the first Wonder Man. He also resembles actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who plays the MCU version of Simon Williams.
Contrastingly, the other new character, Hostilicus, is clearly a villain. He is described as the “scourge of the Negative Zone.” That, coupled with his appearance and name, suggests a connection to the Fantastic Four villain Annihilus.
Reborn: Ultimate Impact #1 arrives in comic shops everywhere on May 20, 2026.
