In a letter from former Marvel President Bill Jemas to editors and creators, he made a bold suggestion, asking whether the primary 616 and Ultimate Universes should be permanently merged into one. The letter, which was an inquiry from the then-President about whether a merger made sense, even offered a few ways to make the combination universes possible, as Jemas floated a few wild ideas about how to make it happen.

On his blog, Marvel executive Tom Brevoort shared a letter sent by former Marvel President Bill Jemas about making the 616 and Ultimate Universe one and the same. In the letter, Jemas asked creatives about a potential merger while stressing multiple titles, such as The Amazing Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man, could co-exist. However, those working on different series' could roll back their character's history that works "best" for storytelling as they please.

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The Marvel President Offered Several Suggestions To Merge The Universes

Marvel Ultimate Universe

While Jemas wasn't confident about merging the 616 and Ultimate Universes and admitted he wasn't sure if it was a good idea, he still wanted to see what Marvel's creative talents thought. So he floated out several ideas about how the merged universe could work:

  • They could ask Jim Starlin, writer of the Infinity Gauntlet Saga, to create a "Universe-fixer" in a new Infinity series.
  • Continuity can be taken more seriously, with the universe being simplified.
  • In a seemingly joking suggestion, Jemas wrote that, like the TV show Dallas, the previous storylines can be retconned as an "in-continuity dream."
  • Writers can work together on crossover stories that "get the genies back in the bottle,"

Additionally, Jemas suggested that the new Marvel Universe could begin with countdown numbering, with the 1-to-12-issue series' counting down with the new universe starting with issue one. While the Marvel President was testing the waters for a potential universe merger, as Brevoort writes, the letter was sent right before the end of Jemas' time with Marvel. Brevoort notes that despite Jemas' "clear affection" with the Ultimate Universe, nothing ever came from the memo as it seemed to be born from the Marvel President's worries at the time.

While it would have been cool to see the 616 Universe and Ultimate Universe merge as one, as it would streamline the stories of Marvel's most important characters, part of what makes each universe so successful is they offer different versions of popular characters. Combining them might clean up continuity, but it would lead to fewer storytelling possibilities and less chances to play outside the usual canon. It's easy to see why the former Marvel President's letter did not lead to any significant change in each universe.

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Source: Tom Brevoort - Substack