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The Maker Reading Order, The Ultimate Reed Richards

As one of the Fantastic Four, Mister Fantastic, aka Reed Richards, stands as one of Marvel’s greatest heroes. One of the most intelligent beings on the planet, he is driven by an insatiable curiosity and a deep sense of responsibility to protect others, even as his single-minded focus on science sometimes causes him to struggle with personal relationships and emotional connections.

But what if Mister Fantastic were transformed into a supervillain and chose to use his intellect to become a multiversal threat? This scenario was explored in the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610), where the Reed Richards variant is now known as the Maker.

Created by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, and Adam Kubert, the Ultimate Reed Richards made his first appearance in Ultimate Fantastic Four #1. Initially introduced as a younger, modernized version of the beloved character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, his turn toward villainy was depicted in the pages of Ultimate Comics and Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates, orchestrated by writer Jonathan Hickman. Like Miles Morales, the character didn’t disappear following the destruction of their Earth. He survived the Secret Wars and began working for his own gain on the new Earth-616.

Discover more about this Reed Richards doppelganger with our reading order, highlighting his appearances in the Ultimate Universe and beyond.

The Maker Comics in Order

The Ultimate Fantastic Four

The story of the Fantastic Four is rewritten by Brian Michael Bendis and Warren Ellis in this Ultimate Universe! Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, Susan Storm and Ben Grimm – super-hero icons for the new century! When high-school genius Reed Richards enrolls at a secret government-sponsored school for the most gifted minds in the world, he unwittingly starts himself and his friends on the journey of a lifetime!

This part can be considered Optional as this is not an important reading for the origins of the Maker.

Ultimatum is the very unpopular crossover event between the Ultimate Marvel titles, written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by David Finch.

The Origin of The Maker, the Dark Mister Fantastic

Starting point! This is where you can start reading to learn about how Reed Richards became evil, under Brian Michael Bendis, followed by the creation of his new identity as the Maker from Jonathan Hickman.

Cataclysm! A sequel to the main continuity Age of Ultron crossover (don’t feel obliged to read it if you haven’t), Cataclysm is a crossover set in the Ultimate Universe dealing with the superheroes facing Galactus of the main continuity. The Maker plays a major role in the fight against the cosmic entity.

Secret Wars! Secret Wars is the conclusion to Jonathan Hickman’s run on the Avengers, leading us to the destruction of the Marvel Universe as we know it (and to a reboot!). One of the most important Marvel events in recent years with the Maker playing a noticeable role in it.

The Maker: Supervillain in Earth-616

The Marvel Universe has been rebooted and The Maker is now on Earth-616! Evil Reed Richards serves as an antagonist in the New Avengers (Vol. 4) from Al Ewing where became a member of W.H.I.S.P.E.R and uses the organization to serve his megalomaniac plan to reshape the world! Beware that his characterization in this series has often been criticized (meaning, this is not the most popular representation of the Maker!)

Still under Al Ewing, the Maker joins forces with the High Evolutionary in The Ultimates, playing a role in the Eternity War and naturally used this situation to serve his own interests and personal ambitions!

When the Future Foundation embarks on a quest to find the pieces of their friend the Molecule Man, they didn’t expect to encounter the Maker…

  • Future Foundation
    Collects Collecting Future Foundation #1-5 and material from Fantastic Four (2018) #12

The Maker’s Dark Machinations

Absolute Carnage! There’s no doubt that The Maker’s appearance during  the Absolute Carnage event is one of the recent highlights for the character! As part of Donny Cates’ run on Venom (definitely worth a read if you haven’t yet), the story deals with the return of Cletus Kasady as Carnage. The Maker is working here as a member of the mysterious organization Project Oversight. And we won’t say more to avoid spoilers!

Around that time, The Maker also appeared in a couple of panels in Ghost-Spider (2020) #7-8, positioning the character as a big bad for Gwen. Alas, this story has no conclusion since the title was canceled and the character s’ appearances for the last issues of the series were removed (there seems to have been a little conflict of appearances between this series and Venom). So, you can discover the end of The Maker’s plan in Venom and his next step to reshape the world in Ultimate Invasion!
  • Venom (2018) #26 and Free Comic Book Day 2023: Spider-Man/Venom Vol 1 1
    Collected in Venom by Donny Cates Vol. 5: Venom Beyond
  • Ultimate Invasion
    Collects Ultimate Invasion #1-4. This is the start of the new Ultimate Universe from Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch. A reading order is coming soon!

Did we forget an important issue? Did we make a mistake? Let us know in the comments!

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