UPDATE: Brian Bendis has tweeted;

The Ulitmate universe is not cancelled! the concept of legit comics reporting is though. — BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (@BRIANMBENDIS) February 19, 2013

Of course, this story did go through Marvel press people who didn't object to the piece – though they did ask that another story remove a detail that could spoil the Age Of Ultron, which I was happy to comply with. Both stories were similarly sourced.

Here's the original:

There are still more rumours and gossip to sift through from the Marvel Summit. We've already talked about a rumour of a Death Of Wolverine story in 2014, resulting from Wolverine's healing factor damage suffered during time travel trips in Age Of Ultron.

Well, here's another big one. The rumour is that we're going to see an Avengers Vs The Ultimates series next year, the second 616/Ultimate crossover, pitting one Captain America against the other.

And that the whole event may lead to the end of the Ultimate Universe, in print published form at least…

The Ultimate Universe was created by Bill Jemas as a way to refresh characters that had become mired in continuity. Since those early innocent days, the Ultimate books have become mired in their own continuity and have been through a number of relaunches. Could it be that their time has finally come? Ultimate Spider-Man is still a fantastic entry point for so many…

I'm also told from another source that before then, Joshua Hale Fialkov, may be writing The Ultimates for Marvel taking over from Sam Humphries (we've also rumoured Fialkov may have two Green Lantern comics on his plate as well).

Naturally no one involved with any of this chose to comment. Which is probably the way it should be.