Contains Spoilers for The Ultimates (2024) #1!Captain America has long stood for the United States’ most lofty ideals, but in Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe, he faces an unfamiliar world and an uncertain future, as the American he knows and fights for has been disbanded. In a dramatic turn, Captain America’s name is given a new meaning, as he becomes the symbol of a country that no longer exists.

The Ultimates (2024) #1 – written by Deniz Camp, with art by Juan Frigeri – reintroduces Steve Rogers to a shockingly different contemporary world.

In the issue, Cap is broken out of ice in much the same way he is in mainstream continuity but discovers that this new Ultimate Universe radically altered from the world he left behind. As the issue explains, the United States of America dissolved in 1969, and a secretive council rules everyone by force and coercion. Cap now stands for all the best values of a country that he’s outlived by decades.

Ultimate Steve Rogers Is Offically A Man Without A Country

The Ultimates (2024) #1 – Written by Deniz Camp; Art By Juan Frigeri; Color By Federico Blee; Lettering By VC’s Travis Lanham

This new worldwide status quo is the fault of the Maker, the Reed Richards of the original Ultimate Universe. The Maker remade this world in his image using time travel, dividing the world and distributing it to members of his secret supervillainous Council, who rule the world at his discretion. As established in the miniseries Ultimate Invasion, the council plays at politics, fabricating fake conflicts to keep the world docile. In order to prevent any meaningful resistance, the Maker has also erased the very existence of most superheroes, an act which the new Ultimates seek to reverse.

One of the few heroes the Maker wasn’t able to stop was Captain America. With the early 20th-century heroic stalwart already frozen in ice, it was the Ultimates, led by Tony Stark, who found Cap first using their own time travel technique. Once unfrozen, Rogers is understandably upset by this new world, but adapts quickly, jumping into the fray to fight the evil council’s forces, and proving motivational to burgeoning heroes like Giant-Man. He might not have a country anymore, but Captain America will always recognize tyranny, and is more than willing to do what’s needed to fight against it.

Captain America Represents The Idea Of America, Not The Country Itself

Gone But Not Forgotten

Despite the drastically different circumstances he finds himself in, Ultimate Cap’s mission isn’t as different as it might seem from his mainstream counterpart’s. Captain America has always stood for an idealized America; he believes wholeheartedly in America’s values, but he’s willing to go against his country when it betrays its ideals, fighting to make it the great nation it purports to be. This is far from the first time that Cap has stood against the government, but this time he has not left the USA, the USA has left him. The bigger question is whether there’s still room in this new world for the idea of America.

Marvel’s new Ultimates series has positioned itself to ask what Captain American means to a generation who has grown up in the absence of America. He will have the opportunity to be a beacon of hope in an authoritarian world, and to face evil forces who have an imposing grip on the narrative of modern history. All of this makes for a fascinating dynamic, as Captain America tries to reshape the new Ultimate Universe into one befitting the ideals his long-lost country was supposed to stand for.