notTHATtodd said:
I've noticed that usually Bendis makes an attempt to tie the UMTU issues into the main continuity when the chance presents itself, something that seems to have been done fairly well with the Hulk, Black Widow, and (oddly) the Man-Thing issues. I did notice, however, that he actually seems to have "dis-cluded" the X-Men issue (11) and an argument could be made for the 1st issue with Wolvie. I went back to USM #44 and checked. When he's on the hospital bed he wakes up to the X-Men staring at him without his mask on. Since he had already met Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and (pre-blue) Beast you'd think either he or one of them would have noted this. Oddly, if issue 11 is discounted, then it is possible for discounting issue #1 of UMTU since the two issues had been so closely tied together.
It never said anything about him not recognizing them. He only asked where he was, and they told him. Not to mention when they met up before in UMTU #11 they were all out of costume, whereas every time after they met up they were in costume. Again, the only issue of UMTU which can be "dis-cluded" as you put it, is UMTU #9 (see below).
For my two cents on issue 9 - it always seemed to me that it was an April Fools issue that came out may months too early. There's just too much onsense there to ever consider it in continuity and those who do probably watch that Super Dog cartoon on Saturday mornings and complain it isn't in continuity....
Even Bendis says this issue isn't in Ultimate continuity, it was a joke issue, i guess an attempt for him to have some fun. There's too much stuff going on for it to be included, besides the ridiculous nature of the story. (thats why I don't include it in the timeline).
And the Daredevil / Punisher Arc: IMO it is nothing to get all that excited about. Yes, the art is great, but the story is fairly bland and it goes back to my complaint that Bendis really didn't bother to make any changes to either of the charcters. It was just an origin story for the Punisher, and establishing the rivalry between him and Daredevil. And Spiderman's inclusion seemed very forced. It may have been a better stor if Bendis hadn't tried to shoe-horn the guy into each issue. I've always assumed that he was told that he needed to include Spidy in each one regardless of what the thing was about. It made the title weaker because of it.
Ehhh, I liked this arc, not the greatest Ultimate story by far, but it was better than a lot as well.
My point is, UMTU (all issues but #9) and the Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special still belong in Ultimate continuity. As for the Iron Man origin, I blame the discrepancies on Card, not Bendis. The Iron Man origin (however bland and 616-like it may have been) was written first, and Card decided to further gobbledygook the timeline by ignoring it and writing his own (I expect this might be a result of Card's huge ego). I do find Card's origin much more interesting (at least so far), but he could have made more of an attempt to reconcile the differences between the two. Another thing, Card's origin only comes into conflict with the first few pages of UMTU #4, when Peter is giving the speech about Tony Stark. The rest fits fine. If worse comes to worse, we can assume either Peter's info was faulty for some reason, or Tony made up some fake origin to tell to reporters/the public instead of the one where he had to wear a blue substance on his skin during his childhood. Sounds like something Tony would do just to screw with people, as a sort of joke.
If you want to consider Ultimate Marvel Team-Up not part of the continuity, thats fine, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. But officially its still considered in continuity, and until that changes, it'll stay a part of the timeline.
