DC and Marvel have always chased each other in circles going back to the dawn of The World Outside Your Window. Hell, at one point they were even chasing Jack Kirby back and forth between companies. So its not at all weird to, on the one hand, have a newly powered Peter Parker working with Harry Osborn and Otto Octavius to untangle mysteries behind the Kingpin; and on the other, have Bruce Wayne, also just starting his hero career, sitting down for a poker game with Harvey Dent, Oswald Cobblepot, Waylon Jones and Eddie Nygma, wheedling intel out of them over the course of what appears to be a regular game. Thats par for the course for the companies at this point.What is odd is that these Spider-Man and Batman stories are simultaneously the best superhero comics on the stands and part of alternate lines that are fulfilling the promise of Marvels original Ultimate Universe concept.Twenty-five years ago, Marvel Comics, crawling out of the shadow of a bankruptcy, tried something new. They started over, relaunching the Marvel Universe on an alternate Earth, starting in 2000 instead of 1962, and for a minute, it felt like it was something truly fresh and full of exciting possibilities. Indie crime comic newbie Brian Michael Bendis and perpetually post-9/11-even-before-9/11 writer Mark Millar relaunched Spider-Man and the X-Men for a new generation and made the books cool and relatable in a way they hadnt really been for years. It helped that new #1s for all these books made these great jumping-on points for new readers, including fans of the Spidey and mutant movies of the era. Eventually, that original line devolved into rehashing concepts from the main Marvel Universe (WITH A TWIST!) and then collapsed even further into shock jock comics (do NOT read Ultimatum). By the time the line started really innovating, it was barely hanging on. We lucked into Miles Morales, the Ultimate Universes most high-profile creation, and he was saved from doom (literally) by that popularity when Earth-1610 was destroyed by Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, and Earth-616 in the greatest superhero crossover event ever written, 2015s Secret Wars.However, despite its initial MASSIVE popularity, DC never actually chased this alternate universe line of books, likely because Marvel used it as a way around rebooting its entire universe, something DC had done *counts on fingers* at least three times by 2000 (one and a half, if you count Zero Hour and Final Night as the same story). Until Marvels Ultimates were dug out of their graves. By the guy who put them there.There are some surface differences between the two lines, reflected in who launched them. Hickman, the meticulous planner who destroyed Earth-1610, schemed out an entire history for the new Earth-6160, the setting of Marvels current Ultimate comics, building it out around his great villain, Ultimate Mister Fantastic, and his desire to have a home of his own again, albeit one he shaped from its start.From that foundation, Hickman has kept his hands on the reins for the excellent Ultimate Spider-Man, with truly terrific art from David Messina. He handed off the rest of the line to some utterly fascinating creative teams. Deniz Camp, fresh out of 20th Century Men, an indie comic that can best be described as What if Humanoids published the Avengers?, got his hands on the actual Avengers (The Ultimates). Teamed with artists Juan Frigeri and Phil Noto, Camp has created the best Avengers comic since the Secret Wars era, featuring Iron Lad and Doom finding and reactivating Avengers in preparation for a big fight with the Maker. Bryan Hill and Stefano Caselli have Ultimate Black Panther, where a younger, more scheming TChalla has his hands full defending Wakanda from Ra and Khonshu, the Makers chosen rulers of the rest of Africa. And then theres a book I cant believe is in continuity: Ultimate X-Men by Peach Momoko, a supernatural high school manga thats also an incredible Shadow King story. The most recent launch is Ultimate Wolverine, recasting Logan as the Ultimate Winter Soldier, and Im eager to get a look at it.While Marvels new Ultimate line launched out of some meticulous planning, DCs Absolute line just kind of exploded at us. It started in Mark Waids big event book with Dan Mora, Absolute Power, which was the Tron: Legacy of comics events: I have no idea what happened but I loved looking at it and want to keep looking at it. At the end, Darkseid made his way to an alternate Earth and fell back in time to that universes creation, infecting everything that grew out from its Big Bang. Unlike Marvel, DC went with established talent to launch the new universe. So we get Scott Snyder and genius draftsman Nick Dragotta relaunching Batman as an enormous crimefighter who drives giant trucks and wields Bat Axes. We get Kelly Thompson at the pinnacle of her powers reimagining Wonder Woman, giving her to Circe to raise in Hell after the slaughter of the Amazons and bringing her to Earth to love and save the world, with stunning, indie-inflected art from Hayden Sherman. And we get the best thing Jason Aaron has written since Scalped: Absolute Superman with Rafa Sandoval, featuring an utterly brilliant twist at the end of the first issue.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Im partway through two books and a full Claremont X-Men readthrough, with a full Starman read on deck, and I drop everything when a new issue from any of these Ultimate or Absolute series hits. These books are fresh, thoughtful, emotive, and brilliantly crafted with old and new creators all completely on top of their games. Its a great time to be a Marvel and DC fan.