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Charles Francis Xavier – the most powerful telepath on the planet, except that there are now a ton of other telepaths that seem just as if not more powerful – is the founder and sometimes leader of the X-Men.  He was once close friends with Magneto, but their fundamental disagreement lead to Xavier being confined to a wheelchair.  In the MMU, his creepy, inappropriate feelings for a teenaged Jean Grey caused him to turn into Onslaught and led to the temporary ‘deaths’ of many of the world’s superheroes.  In the Ultimate universe, his creepy, inappropriate feelings for a teenaged Jean Grey just led to Scott Summers getting a little mad.

MMU Professor X’s legs got better, then he suffered another accident that put him back in a wheelchair.  Then he regained the use of his legs but lost his telepathy, but then he got his telepathy back.   

Ultimate Xavier was first shown to be more devious than his MMU counterpart, but with all the retcons of MMU Professor X over the years, that doesn’t really hold up anymore.  Both are pretty willing to use their powers to mess with other people’s minds.  Ultimate Prof X just doesn’t protest otherwise as much as the MMU version.

Winner – Ultimate Professor X

Tomorrow – Bishop!

Magneto is an extremely powerful mutant bad guy.  He and Charles Xavier were once friends, but their ideals took them down different roads.  I guess you could say the friendship was officially over the day that Mags severed Chuck’s spine.

The MMU Magneto has been dead (but it didn’t take), reformed (likewise, didn’t take), de-aged (but not really, that was another guy), dead again (another guy again, but a different other guy), and de-powered (in M-Day - guaranteed not to last very long).

The Ultimate Magneto may be even more powerful than his MMU Counterpart ever was.  As of this writing, he has recently slapped Thor silly & stolen his hammer, and is now on a quest to wipe out most of Earth’s population.  From the looks of Ultimatum #1, he’s got the power to back that plan up.  He’s mad as heck that his kids got offed and he’s not gonna take it anymore.  Oh, yeah, and his wife was TOTALLY smoking hot.

Winner - Ultimate Magneto.

Tomorrow - Gambit

This is a tough one for me.   Both versions started out with essentially the same origin.  The Beast initially looked basically human, with some brutish characteristics.  Then he was forcibly mutated further into the classic fuzzy blue version.  Then he was de-mutated back to the brutish look.  The Ultimate Beast is holding at that point now.  The MMU Beast was un-de-mutated back to the fuzzy blue look, then secondarily re-un-de-muated to a cat-like “Beauty and the Beast” version of the character.

The Beast was among the most enjoyable characters in the Marvel Universe.  Then Grant Morrison got a hold of him and turned him into the dour grumpy cat dude he is today.

The Ultimate Beast was dead for a good while.  His resurrection story (he almost died, but didn’t, Professor X & Nick Fury conspired to keep him hidden so he could work on a cure for the legacy virus) kind of sucked.   As of this writing, he may or may not be dead again thanks to Ultimatum.

Winner – Classic MMU Beast.  Way better than the current MMU Beast of the maybe-maybe-not dead Ultimate version

Tomorrow – Magneto!

Moon Knight is Marvel’s answer to Batman.  He’s rich, dark, brooding, and has lots of really cool gadgets.  Unlike Batman, he’s nutty as a fruitcake. 

The MMU Moon Knight was a regular guy, then he got super powers, then he (I think) lost them through unexplained means.  For a while he had magic weapons, then he had non-magical copies of the magic weapons, now he’s got new & different weapons.  For a while, he wore a costume made of adamantium.  Lately, he’s gone completely nuts.

The Ultimate Moon Knight, like 94.2% of the heroes in the Ultimate Universe, gained his powers through the Super Soldier program.  He suffers from multiple personality disorder.  He pretty much makes the MMU Moon Knight look rational. 

Winner – MMU Moon Knight.  A little more skilled, a little less crazy.

Tomorrow - Beast

Until recently, the Main Marvel Universe Nick Fury held little appeal for me.  His recent handling by Brian Michael Bendis in the Secret Invasion cross-over has really upped his standing in my estimation. A WWII veteran and super-spy, Fury has the vigor of a much younger man thanks to the ‘Infinity formula’. 

Ultimate Nick Fury was an early test subject for the Super Soldier program.  Whether or not this gave him any lasting degree of super strength is not clear, but it has certainly retarded his aging process.  He’s a bit of a snake, teaming with Doctor Doom at one point in order to further his own agenda.  Ultimate Nick’s character design is based on Samuel L. Jackson, one very scary & cool cat.

Winner – MMU Nick wins, mostly because Ultimate Nick got booted out of the Ultimate Universe and into the Squadron Supreme-verse.

Tomorrow – Moon Knight!

The Avengers are the ultimate (pardon the use of the word, but it really does apply here) team of heroes in the Marvel Universe.  Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ms. Mavel, - just about everyone who is anyone (with the exception of the core members of X-Men and the Fantastic Four) has been an Avenger at one time or another. 

The Ultimates are a bunch of screwed-up neurotics with super powers who somehow manage to save the day despite themselves.  The Ultimates make for good reading, but in terms of overall character they can’t hold a candle next to their Main Marvel Universe counterparts.

Winner – The Avengers in a landslide.

Tomorrow – Nick Fury

Doctor Doom rocks!  Part of the reason that I never liked the Fantastic Four all that much was that I found myself rooting for Doom to win.  The Main Marvel Universe Doom has had his share of corny plots and silly schemes over the years, but for the most part he’s a stone-cold diabolical mastermind who simply sees himself as better than everyone else and therefore the rightful ruler of the world.  He’s stolen the powers of the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, Galactus, and the Beyonder, yet he always loses. 

The Ultimate Doom has the same genius level intellect as his MMU counterpart.  On the plus side, he’s also got super powers.  On the minus side, he’s got goat legs.    

Winner – It’s a draw.  I had Ultimate Doom slightly ahead, but the goat legs brought him down. 

Tomorrow – The Avengers vs. the Ultimates!

Today’s matchup is interesting because to me it represents the greatest disparity between universes.   I don’t like the Main Marvel Universe Fantastic Four.  I never have.  Since I was first learning to read, the Fantastic Four comic blatantly promoted itself as “The World’s Greatest Comic” and it just never lived up to its own hype.

The Ultimate FF is a promising fresh start without the self-aggrandizement of its MMU counterpart.  Ultimate Sue is smoking hot, a genius, and a capable hero with incredible power.   The big difference is that the Ultimate line manages to show Sue’s capabilities naturally as part of the story, where in the MMU the reader is continually hit over the head with just how powerful and smart she is.

The Thing is the Thing in whatever reality.  The Human Torch is pretty standard as well.  But I love the teenaged, geeky, Mr. Fantastic so much more than the regular old Reed Richards in the MMU.

Winner – Ultimate Fantastic Four by a landslide. 

Tomorrow – Doctor Doom!

We’ll be getting back to the Ultimate vs Marvel throw downs on Monday.  I’m thinking it is time to pit Fantastic Four against Fantastic Four.  Feel free to suggest your own future ideas for Ultimate vs Marvel slobber knockers in the comment box below.  Who have we missed?  Dr. Doom?  Yeah, he’s coming up right after the FFs square off.

For now, check out this hilarious video that looks at how Superman would really fit into Batman’s world. 

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1884973

None of this ‘equally matched’ crap that DC has been foisting on us for decades.  Superman is super.  Batman is a guy in a mask.  These guys get it right with a great sense of humor.  (No, I’m not affiliated with whoever made this.  I just stumbled across it online & thought it was worth sharing.) 

Thor is, IMHO, the single best ongoing series on the stands today.  The art is solid and Strazynski is a masterful story teller.  Secret Invasion: Thor was a weak concept but was executed so well that it worked.  The two recent Thor one shots detailed periods in his long history with a brutal reality that has been absent from previous stories of the thunder god’s past. 

All of that said, who at Marvel thought Thor: Truth of History was a good idea?  It felt like I was reading a Thor Annual from 1983.  ToH is a silted, dated, obvious story with throwback character design and nothing more.  As far as I can tell, there was no relevance to anything else in Thor’s history or the greater Marvel Universe. 

I want my 4 bucks back.