I just wanted to say thanks for doing this! I've been following these threads for a few months ever since I started to get nostalgic and collect all the hardcovers to the early "phase one" part of Ultimate marvel that I thought was super consistent and well-connected. I've had to do a lot of head canon and delusion, and subtraction to get it to work (like pretending Ultimate Power and Ultimatum didn't happen, or that they did but use inference and imagination to fill it in). I just wanted to drop a couple of my biggest continuity issues that I had to overcome with mad denial (most of which have been mentioned already):
1. The Ultimate Origins scene where Hulk "injures" the Parker parents. It's pretty sad that Bendis screwed this up because in the War of the Symbiotes story he had *just* referenced that VHS flashback scene again. Ultimate Origins reeks of retconning all over the place to me, like this means that Banner and Betty have been dating and not married for 15 years? Possible but ...
2. How War of the Symbiotes references the Rhino fight from the Annual even though the next day Peter is talking to Mary Jane as if they're still close despite being broken up. To be fair the Annual scene could have a fairly large gap between the Rhino fight and the next Peter Parker scene but it's still really unfortunate. I hear this might be because it was referenced in the video game?
3. Floating timeline issues, like USM taking the place over a year while everything else seems to take longer. Like Carol Danvers' hair growing to full length in the case of a month or two. She could be wearing a wig of course or have some super hair growth formula.
4. In the first UFF story Franklin Storm references the Ultimates, even though the UFF was referenced in Ultimates #2. I think this is fine, in my head canon I imagine the Ultimates were announced as PR first, and then the F4 get their powers and the Ultimates are referred to abstractly even though they haven't been formally assembled yet.
5. In UFF#1 the flashbacks say 21 years ago implying that Reed is 21 years old but in Ultimate Galactus Trilogy Reed says he is 18 when asked.
6. Ultimate Doomsday had a bunch, small and large, and also plot holes. Like Wasp appearing in the last spread even though Jan is dead (retroactively referred to as Red Wasp even though it's clearly Jan), and a random panel flashback to Ultimate Power where Wolverine is in his 616 costume as well as the others. Also everyone referring to Nick Fury as thought dead, even though most of them should know he was not dead due to the events of Ultimate Avengers 1.
7. I drop Kirkman's X-men from my headcanon and stop at BKV's run because of how botched Apocalypse got, but all of the Peter Parker/Kitty interactions outside of USM are really baffling when they are not supposed to be dating anymore. The fact that in UXM Kitty leaves the X-Men when Prof. X dies but in USM claims it was because Xavier kicked her out is a little baffling.
8. The worst one I have trouble stomaching is the USM Requiem #2, with the Hulk rampaging on the bridge. I've tried to think about it as happening after the Ultimate Origins/Marvel Team-up incident or being Ben Urich's version of the events but neither sits well with me.
I really like the first phase of Ultimate Marvel because of its consistency, so it's just too tempting to try to glue it all together in my mind so it stays consistent. I'm glad to be here where other continuity nerds like me can be here and not judge *too* much.
