There's little that comic book fans value more than "continuity." Grant Morrison wrote in their book Supergods that continuity was "first recognized by Gardner Fox, Julius Schwartz, and Stan Lee as kind of imaginative real estate that would turn mere comic books into chronicles of alternate histories."

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Ultimate Marvel was meant as an introduction to Marvel for new readers, but it was always doomed to fail in this original purpose. The longer it ran, the more continuity it accumulated, and the less friendly to new readers it became. There are numerous occasions where writers either lost track of the plot or had their visions clash, and continuity suffered as a result.

9 There Ended Up Being Two Bolivar Trasks

Bolivar Trask

Due to an editorial oversight, Bolivar Trask found himself adapted in the Ultimate Universe twice over. The first Trask was, like his classic counterpart, creator of the mutant-hunting, robotic Sentinels. He ultimately met his end in Ultimate X-Men #87 (written by Robert Kirkman & Yannick Paquette).

Trask was referenced in Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley's Ultimate Spider-Man during the "Venom" arc; it was Trask who funded the creation of a cancer-curing "Suit" Richard Parker & Edward Brock Sr. However, this Trask can't be the same as the Sentinel creator, since he shows up alive and well in the later "War Of The Symbiotes" arc.

8 The Swarm And The Red Wasp Are Inexplicably Tied

Swarm Red Wasp

The villains of Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch's Ultimates 2 were the Liberators, an international group of super-soldiers who led an invasion of America. One of their number was Swarm, a Syrian woman with the power to control insects - she died when smashed by a giant-sized Janet Van Dyne.

Except, not - when Millar returned to Ultimate Marvel with Ultimate Comics: Avengers, he brought back Swarm. Now an Agent of SHIELD, she was given both a real name (Petra Laskov) and new code-name (Red Wasp), as well as a backstory where her family was killed by the Red Skull. The two portrayals are so different, one wonders why Millar tied Red Wasp to Swarm at all.

7 The Chitauri Are Not Recognizable Between Versions

Chitauri Ultimate

In Millar & Hitch's first "Ultimates," the villains were the shape-shifting aliens the Chitauri. Their true forms were never fully revealed, but from glimpses, they appeared to be blue-skinned, horse-faced reptiles. They were also shown to operate with a hive-mind.

When the Chitauri briefly returned in Hunger (written by Joshua Hale Fialkov & Leonard Kirk), they were reimagined to be much more in-line with their portrayal in Joss Whedon's The Avengers, from their looks to how they had individual minds.

6 Doctor Doom's Appearance Has Little Consistency Besides The Cape

Ultimate Doom

In Warren Ellis & Stuart Immonen's Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Doctor Doom had only broad similarities to his classic counterpart. For one, his armor was mutated flesh rather than just a suit, and he had additional features like satyr-legs and a demonic tail. His outfit was also a single, tattered green cloth rather than a regal cloak. When Doom next appeared (in an Ultimate Fantastic Four story by Millar & Greg Land), he was now the spitting image of 616 Doom.

RELATED: MCU: 10 Ways Doctor Doom Can Be Introduced In Phase 4

No explanation was offered, but Doom kept this look in Ultimate Power then Jeph Loeb's Ultimates 3Ultimatum. Granted, these all turned out to be imposters, and when Doom himself returned in Ultimate FF, he had his first look once again. However, there is no explanation for the initial shift in his appearance between Immonen and Land.

5 The Wasp's Race Changed Between Adaptations

Ultimate Wasp

When Janet Van-Dyne/The Wasp first appeared in Ultimate Marvel, she was clearly Asian-American; Bryan Hitch even reportedly modeled her look after Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.

Then, inexplicably, in Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum (both written by Jeph Loeb, the former drawn by Joe Madureira and the latter David Finch), Jan had become a brunette caucasian.

4 When Bruce Banner Became The Hulk Varied

ultimate-hulk

The Ultimate Hulk first appeared in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #2 (Bendis & Phil Hester) - Banner briefly transforms into the Hulk and fights Spider-Man. In Ultimates, this is referred to as the first Hulk incident; Banner is cured until he ingests a second, stronger dose of the serum after his teammates emasculate him.

RELATED: Every Film & TV Appearance Of The Incredible Hulk, Ranked

However, in Ultimate Origins, Banner first transforms into the Hulk when Peter Parker is an infant - the story even implies he killed Richard & Mary Parker. Bendis wrote both Origins and Team-Up, so there's nary an excuse for the inconsistency.

3 Magneto's Backstory Changes Over Time

ultimate magneto

In Mark Millar & Adam Kubert's opening arc Ultimate X-Men, Magneto tells Cyclops how his family was wiped out by genocide. This implied that, like his classic counterpart, Ultimate Magneto was a Holocaust survivor.

Bendis & Butch Guice threw this out entirely for Ultimate Origins. In this tale, Magneto is the son of Canadian Weapon X scientists who contracted the Mutant Gene from a captive Wolverine. After freeing Logan, Magneto murders his parents himself. This change may have been done to account for the change in mutants' collective origin; rather than the next stage of human evolution, mutants in Ultimate Marvel are the result of post-WW2 super-soldier experimentation.

2 The First Appearance Of The Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, And The Skrulls Ended Up Being Stricken From Canon

Ultimate Marvel Team Up FF

Ultimate Marvel Team-Up was written entirely by Brian Michael Bendis to fill in the gaps of the Ultimate universe, back when Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men were the only books in the setting. So, there are some inconsistencies. One of the most flagrant is Issue #9 (pencils by Jim Mahfood), where Spider-Man helps the Fantastic Four foil a Skrull invasion.

For one, the FF are basically the 616-versions (middle-aged rather than teenagers, same costumes, etc.), while the Skrulls' appearance contradicts both Ultimates and the later "President Thor" arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four. The events of the issue proved so incongruous that it was stricken from canon.

1 "Ultimate Iron Man" Was Removed From Canon Due To Poor Reception

Ultimate Iron Man feature

In 2006, Sci-Fi writer Orson Scott Card was commissioned to write a 5-issue Ultimate Iron Man. Card revealed that, due to an accident while he was in the womb, neural tissue spread throughout Tony's body, turning it into one giant brain but making him extra-sensitive to pain. This is the reason for Tony's genius-intellect, his alcoholism, and why he built the Iron Man suit.

The series was poorly-received as its reworking of Iron Man considered too radical. This motivated Marvel to de-canonize the mini-series.

NEXT: 5 Things The MCU Avengers Took From Ultimate Marvel (And 5 Things They Took From 616)