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While Marvel fans everywhere let out an anguished cry after the news broke that the publisher would be shutting down the hugely popular Ultimate line, the creators themselves have a much more optimistic look at the situation. Creators like Ultimate Spider-Man writer Jonathan Hickman, Ultimate Wolverine writer Chris Condon, and now The Ultimates writer Deniz Camp have all expressed that they're satisfied with how the line is winding down this spring. At the end of the day, Marvel's decision to quit while they're ahead with the Ultimate line ensures that the books will all end on a high note. 

As much as the experience of writing The Ultimates has been rewarding for Deniz Camp, he revealed in an interview with Popverse that he does have one regret about his run coming to a close: that characters like Ultimate Hawkeye and Ultimate Luke Cage will not appear in future stories. 

"[Ultimate Hawkeye and Ultimate Luke Cage] were the ones that meant a lot to me because I thought they might mean a lot to other people, and I really wanted to make sure to get them right. I mean, I tried to get everybody right, especially if I, you know, changed their ethnicity or something like that. I wanted to make sure that I was doing justice to that. And so I'm really happy. I think my one regret about this ending is that those stories, like people who have had closer experiences to those characters, can't continue those stories on. And I was very happy that Hawkeye got a little bit of that. And I think that's my one, you know, little asterisk on my happiness about it, about the way that this is ending. But that's just the way that it is and I'm so pleased that people responded to those characters and that they meant something to people. That means a lot to me," Camp said. 

The Ultimate Universe's version of Hawkeye isn't Kate Bishop or Clint Barton, but rather a Two-Spirit member of the Oglala Lakota nation named Charli Ramsey. In keeping with the Hawkeye tradition, they do wear a purple outfit. Fans embraced this new Hawkeye, and it's a huge bummer that we won't be seeing more of Charli Ramsey within the mainline Marvel Universe (for now?!). There is a very small group of Native American and Two-Spirit characters within the Marvel Universe in general, making the end of the Ultimate Universe disappointing for everyone who wanted to see Charli's character and culture further explored in future stories. 

Ultimate Luke Cage has the same bulletproof skin and super strength as his Earth-616 counterpart, but he has a different origin. As a teenager, Ultimate Luke Cage was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in a for-profit prison for a crime he didn't commit. While enduring dehumanizing treatment within prison, Luke looked after his fellow inmates (including one guy named Danny Rand), forming a reading group that he was violently punished for when it was discovered. From his years behind bars, Luke instilled within his fellow inmates that they all had a common enemy: the prison guards and the system that they uphold. Luke subsequently gets his signature powers from a Stark box sent by Iron Lad, aiding him as he stages a prison break. 

Listen, Marvel Comics could always use more Hawkeye and Luke Cage in their stories, and the Ultimate Universe served fans of both of these characters by fulfilling this need. And while so many of us are mourning the loss of future Charli Ramsey and Ultimate Luke Cage stories, let's also remember that the end of the Ultimate Universe doesn't signal the end of their place in our imaginations. 

It's this last piece that Camp highlighted in our interview. "So it is a bummer that maybe there won't be more Hawkeye or whatever. As long as they meant something to the fans and the fans will take that forward, and maybe they'll become creators one day themselves and for Marvel, or maybe they'll just draw fan comics or whatever, maybe they can take some of that and do something with those characters or those ideas, not even directly, but just kind of be inspired by them, or put themselves into it and make something new that I could never have imagined, or that no other writer could have imagined, that's uniquely them. So while, like you said, it's bittersweet that it's ending, I do think there's a really positive thing there that these characters live on forever in the imagination of the readers as long as they made an impact," Camp said. 

Personally, I look forward to seeing where Marvel fans take Ultimate Hawkeye and Ultimate Luke Cage next. 

Popverse members can read the full interview with Deniz Camp here. 

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.