During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con today, it was announced that this October, Marvel will be releasing Ultimate Comics: Thor - a four issue miniseries that plans to explore the roots of the Ultimate Universe’s thunder god.

The series will be written by fan-favourite writer, Jonathan Hickman, and will feature artwork by Carlos Pacheco.

According to Marvel, the events of the story takes place before the events depicted in the first arc of Ultimates, by writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch. Hickman says that he re-imagines a number of familiar players, including the All-Father himself, Odin, and Balder the Brave.

During the panel, Hickman quipped that:

“Everybody can figure out how my Ultimate Comics: Thor ends. They already know where everybody ends up. So the trick in telling a story like this is really about the journey and why they become those people. And we do all that.”

He also stated that:

“We see Odin for the first time. We see Asgard for the first time. We see Loki as he was before and why he ends up the way he was in the later Ultimates work. It’s how we get the hippie Thor, and I’ve read all of Jeph [Loeb's] stuff that he’s doing right now and we tie a bunch of that stuff in as well. I’m trying to make a lot of sense of everything that came before, which is sort of a backwards way of constructing this thing. But who tells linear stories anymore, right?”

He goes on to say that:

“I’m trying to steer away from the direction that Matt Fraction is heading in for his run, that he’s getting ready to start. It’s different. All the surprises and all the cool little nuance stuff is all plot points and I’d hate to give that stuff away, but if you like Ultimate Thor, you’ll be happy with it.”

“Ultimate Iron Man isn’t really that much different from the characterization of what we have as Iron Man in the regular Marvel Universe,” explains the writer. “It’s different, but we can see the parallels. And I think Captain America, even though he’s more militaristic in the Ultimate Universe, I still think we get Cap. I think the way they did Thor was a real departure and probably one of the best characters to come out of the original ULTIMATES arc. I understand why people love that. I get it and I like it a lot, too.”

Of Artist Carlos Pacheco’s work on the title, the writer had this to say:

“Carlos has done a wonderful job with it. I’m trying to think what his exact words were; he wanted to do a little death metal. It’s definitely a little more Viking I would say. But again, the transition from that to how Ultimate Thor ended up being with the harness and belt and all that is part of the story.”

As fans of Hickman’s work know, he often likes to convey extra information to the reader through supplementary information, included in the back of the book. However, for this book, Hickman has planned something extra special:

“I have a lot to do with how the book is being laid out and how it’s going to be collected. There’s a certain kind of thematic thing that we’re going for there. So, it’s not the same as all of that stuff that I normally do, but it’s in the same spirit. I’m really speaking more along the lines of that there’s a presentation to the way that we’re telling the story. Obviously, Carlos’ art is the dominant thing as it’s a comic, but there are some text pieces-not big chunks of dialogue, but text pieces-that kind of mark our journey as we’re going through the story. It’s just me screwing around as usual and trying to look at new, neat ways to lay things out.”

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2. Ultimate Comics X #1 Returns With a Third Printing
3. A Five-Page Sneak Peek Preview at Ultimate Comics X #2
4. Marvel Releases an Ultimate Comics: X Teaser Image
5. Marvel Releases the Fifth and Final Ultimate Comics: X Teaser Image