Talk:Ultipotence/@comment-4370030-20160621060905/@comment-4867780-20160621214339

All pre-retcon characters and events did happen, the writers simply decided that changing various things in their continuity was necessary at some point or an least beneficial,though readers are usually divided about their relevance. For example, I'm not certain this contributive the recent "DC Rebirth" reboot is, especially after only 5 years of New 52.

On the plus side, it appears Doctor Manhattan is now the new Big Bad of DC (I shit you not). How they managed to achieve this is beyond me, but the Doctor is one of my favorite characters and was always painfully underrated and unexplored, so I'm certainly not complaining.

Now we'll gradually get to see how much of a badass mastermind he is, while adding a much needed touch of extra moral complexity in a still pretty black & white setting (though they did work a lot on it in the New 52 already, with many popular villains becoming the heroes of their own series : Harley Quin, Deathstroke, Sinestro, etc.).

Retcons are an inherent part of long-running series, they consign past events and characters to the series' history, not the abyss of oblivion. They simply add a new revitalizing new layer to the whole, and the deeper ones live on through past issues and the fans' collective memories.

From what I can tell though, at no point in Marvel's history did the Phoenix weild Ultipotent power (expect perhaps the White Phoenix of the Crown, but the Living Tribunal was already in its omniversal supervisor incarnation at the time, if I get it right). On the other hand, the Living Tribunal's maximal power-level also came with an underling status towards the then-new One Above All (not here again not Ulti-Potent).

In conclusion, only Pre-Retcon Beyonder and later the One Above All seem viable candidates for Ultipotence in the Marvel continuity. Yeah I know, the later is supposed to be full-blown Omnipotent, but in the end it remains uncertain. After all, even the name simply implies a "power above all others", which is exactly what Ultipotence is.