Ultimate Nightmare

A five part mini-series written by Warren Ellis of Transmetropolitan, Planetary, and the Authority fame, after signing an exclusive two-year work-for-hire contract with Marvel, penciled by Trevor Hairsine , noted for working on the Ultimate Six mini-series with fellow true believer Brian Michael Bendis, and inked by Simon Coleby who has previously worked on Marvel UK's Warhead series in the 1990s.

The world's communications systems are pulled to a swift stop, the source of which is narrowed to the Tunguska Wasteland in Russia, the site of a comet crash a century ago.

Having obviously drawn the attention of such Marvel Universe organizations as international intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and passive mutant rights, private school Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning, home of the X-Men, both send investigative teams simultaneously.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Nick Fury assembles a team compromised of himself, the legendary Captain America Steve Rogers, ex-KGB Agent Natasha Romanov AKA the Black Widow, and Sam "Falcon" Wilson. Xavier, or Professor X, sends the bearer of the Phoenix Force, Jean Grey, former government controlled assassin with a swift healing factor and indestructible skeleton, James "Logan" Howlett, better known as Wolverine, and Russian literal man of steel, Piotr "Peter" Rasputin, or Colossus.

Held in Marvel's Ultimate continuity, both teams enter the wasteland to discover a forgotten complex of the former Communist Russia unaware of each other's presence. Both teams attempt to find the source of the interference, while fighting horrific monsters bent on killing them. As they progress, Nick Fury and his team discover that the Russian installation they are in once housed the Russian super-soldier program, which grafted parts taken from an alien machine to human beings, rather than the complex surgery and steroid enhancements used by the United States.

Eventually, both teams discover the source of the interference, and each other. There is a brief struggle, but Nick Fury and the Ultimates manage to subdue the X-Men. They are then surprised to see that the source of the worldwide interference was a sentient robot called Vision. It told the Ultimates that had come to Earth 100 years ago to warn them of a threat, but its ship malfunctioned, causing it to crash. He warns the Ultimates that Galactus, Eater of Worlds is headed for Earth. The X-Men, meanwhile, disappointed that the source of the interference was not a mutant, manage to escape the Ultimate's custody and retreat. Nick Fury then calls in SHIELD to recover Vision, and hopefully find a way to stop Galactus.

Originally intended to be followed by Ultimate Secret and another Ultimate mini-series, title pending, the final issues were hugely delayed, forcing a delay of several months in Ultimate Secret