It seems a little odd to think about Marvel reinventing the Ultimate Universe because it’s so new compared to the standard Marvel U. When the Ultimate Universe started it was to be the place where creators could go to take classic Marvel characters and tell new stories and craft new history’s for those characters. No writer would necessarily be stuck with the years of back-story created for these characters in the standard Marvel U. The problem is that over the last few years those predictable story arcs and standard character histories have crept into the Ultimate Universe making it too similar to what we, the readers, expect and taking away the shock value and excitement that were supposed to the be hallmarks of the Ultimate stories.

So, Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathan Hickman are leading the rebirth of the Ultimate Universe with Bendis of course telling a really new kind of Ultimate Spider-Man story as well as launching an Ultimate Hawkeye miniseries and Hickman bringing on the Ultimates. Ultimate Comics Reborn begins in August with Ultimate Comics Ultimates and Ultimate Comics Hawkeye 1 (of 4) and will be followed in September by Ultimate Comics X-Men and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. Covers will be done by Kaare Andrews.

“Kaare is doing the best work of his career with these covers,” said Marvel Senior Editor Mark Paniccia. “With Ultimate Comics Universe Reborn, all of the titles will be tighter than ever, so when it came time to think up ideas and concepts for the covers – we wanted a sense of unity to tie the books together. At the same time we wanted striking covers that jump out at you on the stands. Kaare’s bold design sense made him a natural choice.”

While these stories will be off the wall kinds of stories the way that the Ultimate Universe was meant to be, they will exist within one cohesive universe. For example, ripples from the death of Spider-Man will be felt across all of the Ultimate books. The new covers are very reminiscent of the original Ultimate Comics covers from way back when it all first started. Check them out below.

Preview