Tomorrow Men
 The novel deals with the confrontation between Nick Fury and the Ultimates, and the self-styled "Tomorrow Men", who claim to have travelled two centuries back in time to seek the help of the Ultimates in combating Tiber, a criminal organization which, in their future, has ruined the entire planet; the Tomorrow Men prove their claim using various future knowledge, such as revealing the presence of a small device in Steve Rogers' brain that was planted in case the Super-Soldier Serum drove him insane. However, during a mission Iron Man is accidentally transferred into the Tomorrow Men's future, where he learns that not only is it merely an alternate future—it actually diverged from their own reality at some point prior to the Tomorrow Men's arrival in the Ultimates' world—but that the Tomorrow Men are actually working for Tiber, seeking to expand into other worlds. Taking advantage of the differences between the technology developed by him and that developed by his counterpart at this point in his life, Iron Man is able to take the Tibers by surprise when they attempt to boil him out of his armour- diverting the heat into his armour's power cells- and return home, warning the team about the Tomorrow Men and forcing them to retreat before Thor destroys the portal they used to gain access.