Things get meta and full circle for Marvel with the ‘Ultimate Endgame’ event.<\/b>
\nLater this year, Robert Downey Jr. returns to the MCU as Doctor Doom for Avengers: Doomsday. But right now, he\u2019s all over the comics\u2014or rather, his artwork is.
On New Year\u2019s Eve, Marvel Comics released Ultimate Endgame #1, the first of a five-part miniseries telling the final tale of its relaunched Ultimate Universe. To help sell the event, the publisher launched a True Believers Blind Bag program, where readers can buy a bagged-up physical copy that could have one of the book\u2019s variant covers or 500 hand-drawn sketches by major Marvel artists like Pepe Larraz or Peach Momoko. Two of those artists are Downey and Kevin Feige. No, really, and Downey\u2019s drawn four, two each for his former and future turns as Iron Man and Doctor Doom with signed and unsigned versions.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Downey\u2019s drawings have led to Ultimate Endgame #1 potentially becoming Marvel\u2019s top-selling comic in years. At the time of writing, it\u2019s unclear what that means, since there are no hard sales numbers like DC recently gave for its Absolute books, but it\u2019s a notable milestone regardless.
It\u2019s also a fun bit of fate: Endgame is being written by Deniz Camp, who also writes Ultimates, and for that book\u2019s fourth issue\u2014which focused on that world\u2019s Doom, evil Reed Richards (the Maker), and the lack of the Fantastic Four. In the lead-up to that issue, he joked it\u2019s the book to grab \u201cif you want to understand Robert Downey Jr. as Doom.\u201d
Marvel\u2019s already looking to expand its blind bag program with the upcoming Daredevil relaunch in March. Meanwhile, Downey will take on Doom in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18, and Ultimate Endgame continues with its second issue on February 4.<\/p>\n