Ultimate Comics just got in the habit of killing off too many characters for shock and awe and changing characters up completely for the hell of it. Colossus and Nightcrawler have both worn thigh high boots in the 616 universe so they were made gay in the Ult. Universe where they never even wore those suits... 

I WILL say, I thought the idea of the Thing going all Wonderman-lite was cool when Reed was out of the F4 and slowly becoming the badguy. Wolverine being the universe's Cable was lame. Ult. Cap was just a modernized Cap and worked. The alien Capt. Marvell was cool with the morphing tech suit. Ult. Capt. Britain was also pretty badass. 

They put themselves into a corner with that universe and then there was no going back. The New Ultimates didn't take and Miles sales were slowly declining. Ult. Future Foundation couldn't compete with actual well thought out team books [the cast included a neutered Ironman or X-51 I can't remember, Falcon, Invisible Girl, and I can't even remember who else... and the X-Men just had way too many deaths to have a decent team. 

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