It's been said that after the resolution of the new Ultimate univers storyline (Ultimate Origins / Ultimatum) that one regular Ult book will be canceled.

Any idea or guesses as to which one?

My vote would be for Ult X-men. I've been reading this since issue #1, but the recent discard of prior story and psudo reboot has me steaming. (Jean Grey finally ascends to the Pheonix, only to be Jean Grey again next issue with almost no explanation.)

Well, let's look at it;

Ult Spidey - Heck no.
Ultimates - I wish... but sadly, I doubt it.
Ult FF - This has had some good runs, but I know sales have been slumping. Maybe.
Ult X-Men - potentially, but much like Ultimates, I have a feeling this one is sticking around

What else is there that isn't a mini-series of some sort (heck, Ultimates is technically a mini-series)?

The only thing I can add is how Quesada reacted to the question when what was then the rumor of a cancellation came up at WWE. I'm paraphrasing heavily, but the gist was that none of the Ultimate-verse titles was selling at levels they'd consider poor - the usual criteria for cancellation - and that if a title's ending it's going to simply be a consequence of story developments. Reading a little farther into it, indications were that the next thing to happen would be another title more or less taking its place.

Not reading any of those titles, however, I can't add anything else.

I'd think Ultimates would ultimately get canned.

Why?

Mid-way through Volume 3, we will see a change in the writer/artist stable, from Loeb/JoeMad to ???/Ed McGuiness.

MCGUINESS ON ULTIMATES?!? YES, PLEASE!

But unfortunately, I think after McG's run on Ultimates that we won't be seeing any more.

I'd love to see Ultimate Fan. 4 cancelled due to a devestation to the team, and spin that into the first Ultimate Defenders book (using Thing as the 'lightning rod' of the new team).

Reading the latest issue of Wizard also backs this up. A book will be ending, only to have one take it's place.

Didn't the Heroes writer just start his run on Ultimate X-Men? Seems like an odd time to end them. Ult FF would have my vote.

Well I can build on that. Looking at recent sales figures, Ultimate Spidey sells at around 56k, Ultimate X-Men is sitting at 49k and Ultimate FF is at 38k. With that in mind, it's a little obvious as to which book is sitting in the danger zone.

Looking at trends, they're all sorta level, except Spider-Man which had a nasty drop after Bagley left. I'd say FF is still the one in the most trouble though, stable sales that are that low still aren't too impressive. Also, I didn't include the Ultimates sales cause those are always good, regardless of quality in the newest run's case.

I was one of those readers that left with Bagley.

If they replaced Immonen with almost any other artist I'd probably pick it back up immidiately. I really don't like that guy's work.

Based on sales, JGonspy and Algrim are right in that Ultimate FF is the odd title out. However, Marvel can make some odd choices when it comes to sales – Moon Knight is in a pronounced slide, down to 29K as of March, and they’re not only NOT cancelling it, Marvel’s website is showing that the August issue starts a new six-part arc that will keep the book around until at least January 2009!

But if it’s a relaunch and not a cancellation, my guess would be Ultimate X-Men, simply because there are so many X-teams you could relaunch it into, like Ultimate X-Factor, Ultimate X-Force, or maybe even Ultimate Excalibur, while still maintaining at least a few of the same characters. It’s hard to think of the Ultimate universe without versions of Marvel’s staple teams, and you’d figure that if Ultimate versions of those books don’t sell, it probably doesn’t bode well for Ultimate versions of lesser-known teams in their own books.

Did they already cancel Ult Hulk vs Wolverine?

Anyways, the idea of Ult 4 switching to another Ult Book seems the most logical. Regular Thing has been on several teams, so its parallel to have him on another in the Ult series.

And, they could always switch back to Ult 4 if they need to.

Heck, Moon Knight dropped down to a little under 28k in April. Someone at Marvel might just have a soft spot for Moon Knight or that big story might be a grand a send off or it may have been planned so far ahead that marvel hadn't expected sales to go so poorly. With that in mind, Marvel could definitely choose to keep Ultimate FF around. However, I definitely think that it's at the very least a two horse race with Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimates in safer positions.

That's sad, because the stories have been awesome since Immonen took over. The artwork isn't as good, and he can't put it out as fast, but the stories are always what keeps me reading a book, and these ones have been top-notch.

My guess?

They'll cancel The Ultimates.... and then, a few months later, launch New Ultimates.

Hey, they did it with New Avengers.... and New Exiles.... and New Excalibur.... and sort of New X-men, although that wasn't a relaunch. Am I leaving any out?

I'm guessing that the mini-series don't "count", nor would "Ultimates 3" (although I wish this book was never made).

Ultimate Spidey is 100% safe...unless Bendis went back to an "Ultimate Team-up" format, in which I think it would basically be the same book.

I'd hate to see Ult-F4 go...it runs hot and cold, but for the most part I like the way it's been going. The recent Thanos arc did a decent job of channeling Kirby, IMO.

I've already dropped Ult-XMen from my pulls. The latest issue was just too disjointed from what came before. This is the same reason I dropped Ultimates 3 after a single issue.

I'm hoping Ultimate X-men is allowed to die. I certainly wouldn't pick up the replacement book if it is done with the same creative team (and features the same X-characters) as I feel they went out of their way to ignor the previous 90-ish issues of the run.