All throughout December, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked.

Today we look at the current status of Orson Scott Card's Ultimate Iron Man origin within the Ultimate Universe.

Enjoy!

In 2005, Marvel did an origin mini-series for Ultimate Iron Man, written by Orson Scott Card.

It was an interesting series, really, but Card did make some dramatic changes to the concept, including making Tony's whole genetic structure become quite...unusual...right from birth...

No one really used Card's concepts in the later comics (outside of Warren Ellis in the mini-series Ultimate Human) and in New Ultimates vs. Ultimate Avengers #2, Mark Millar finally wrote the origin out of existence by explaining that it was a show-within-a-show in the Ultimate Universe. A cartoon show, to be precise...