WHAT'S A NEW UNIVERSE?: A BRIEF NEW UNIVERSE OVERVIEW

[MattBrady]

Note: Art at right is a house ad from the original New Universe launch in 1986.


by Ryan McLelland

The announcement of Warren Ellis’ Marvel Comics reboot project, newuniversal might have some fans in the dark on what exactly Ellis is rebooting. For some, Marvel Comics’ New Universe lines is nothing but a distant memory that represents nothing more then generic quarter bin fodder. Others see it as a noble attempt at creating a new non-costumed superhero universe with a tiny budget and lack of promotion. And for others, it gets a “Wha-?” at best.

Spearheaded by then Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter, The New Universe line was conceived as a universe away from the Marvel Universe that occurred in real time and exist with superpowered individuals that, for the most part, did not wear flashy spandex. The idea was begun as a celebration of sorts, of Marvel’s 25th anniversary in 1986, the idea being, 25 years later, Marvel was creating a “new universe.”

Shooter was quoted as saying that he had wanted to bring in a new era in comics, using our own world as a basis for the universe, and introducing very little fantasy elements into the New Universe storylines – a reinterpretation of Marvel’s original ideas as laid out by Stan Lee. The characters within the New Universe wouldn’t be as flashy and would perhaps act as everyday people would act - should they suddenly obtain superpowers.

Wanting to fill the titles with the top-tier creators of the day, Shooter found his budget for the editorial side of the imprint cut, allowing him to pull only from quality, but mid-tier creators. As such, the start of the New Universe would coincide with the demise of several Marvel Comics titles like Rom, Power Man and Iron Fist, Micronauts, and its long-running Star Wars series as creators were shifted from their previous projects to their New Universe titles.

1986 was the 25th anniversary of Marvel Comics and the year that the New Universe would launch with eight titles that included Star Brand, Nightmask, DP7, Kickers Inc, Marc Hazzard: Merc, Spitfire and the Troubleshooters, Psi-Force, and Justice. The universe would be created by ‘The White Event’ – a supernatural planet-wide phenomenon that would give extraordinary powers to two out of every one million people. From powered-up football players to a dream invader to a stunning redhead in a robotic suit of armor, the titles were dispersed enough from one other to give a uniqueness not only within the New Universe, but from all of the comic books being produced at that time. With hindsight being 20/20 and all, looking back at some of the concepts and ideas introduced in the New Universe, one could almost argue that the imprint was at least ten years ahead of its time.

The talent working on the New Universe books for its short three year run most certainly reads as a power list of stars from past to present including writers and artists like Fabian Nicieza, Mark Grunewald, Peter David, John Byrne, Tom DeFalco, Archie Goodwin, Mark Texiera, Ron Lim, John Romita Jr., Lee Weeks, and Todd McFarlane. However within the first year of New Universe’s inception the books failed to gain the support of comic fans and were considered by Marvel to be low sellers. Within that first year low sales caused a wave of cancellations that saw Nightmask, Kickers Inc, Merc, and Spitfire to be cancelled, though the actual numbers of the books by today’s standards is a relatively high number of books sold. Justice, Psi-Force, and DP7 would continue on monthly while Star Brand, the cornerstone book of the universe, would become a bi-monthly comic. Shortly afterwards, Shooter himself left the New Universe and Marvel Comics as a whole due to a disagreement with then Marvel Comics new owners New World Entertainment.

Things quickly reached a point with the line where something drastic was going to have to be done to both re-awaken the remaining audience and pull readers in again. Under Mark Gruenwald, the line was retooled and tweaked, with John Byrne coming on to Star Brand, which would become the pivotal title of the remaining series.

In Star Brand, ordinary guy Ken Connell had obtained a mysterious tattoo (the Star Brand) that granted him some the greatest powers within the New Universe. Connell would come to find out that ‘The Old Man’, the person who had brandished the Star Brand before him, tried to get rid of the tattoo by placing it on an asteroid. What came forth from that action was, in fact, the White Event that, in turn, gave those lucky individuals on Earth their supernatural powers. By issue #12, Connell had just come from another encounter with ‘The Old Man’ that led to the destruction of a convention center in Pittsburgh.

Connell barely survived the encounter and, with his powers reaching extreme levels, decided to release some of the Star Brand’s energy into a barbell. This one action would, in turn, change the entire New Universe. With the releasing of the energy onto the barbell Connell would accidentally blow up the entire city of Pittsburgh that, in turn, became known as the Black Event, as seen in The Pitt one-shot. The subsequent massive crossover events that occurred with the New Universe would be released in a prestige format starting with The Pitt, moving to The Draft.

The New Universe would fall into near chaos for its paranormals. The President of the United States would start preparing for war that saw several New Universe characters from titles like Kickers Inc and DP7 brought into military service. These storylines continued on until June 1989 when the last four titles of the universe were finally cancelled, with DP7 reaching 32 issues. The final New Universe storyline would occur in the 4-issue monthly prestige format The War where those characters that had entered into the armed services were brought to South Africa to fight World War III. While the first issue of The War came one month after the canceling of the regular titles, even this final mini-series would be marred by the full year that would pass between the releasing of issue #3 and issue #4.

It was stated at that time that Marvel would continue releasing prestige format one-shots on the New Universe but those one-shots never occurred. The characters wouldn’t fade completely into obscurity thanks to some of the writers who had worked within the New Universe realm. The Mark Grunewald-helmed Quasar would see the hero brandish the Star Brand itself, have guest appearances by members of DP7, and some of the New Universe characters appeared in the Marvel Comics crossover Starblast. Peter David would feature a form of John Tensen from Justice in his Spider-Man 2099 series. Even Fabian Nicieza would begin to lay down some hints of a return on his Gambit run, but was taken off the title before this would happen. Ironically, Jim Shooter would take the framework of paranormals living in everyday life and apply the philosophy successfully with the launch of the Valiant Comics line in 1991 – which is an entirely different ball of wax.

Most recently, Marvel’s Exiles series has re-fired interest in the New Universe, with its reality-hopping band of heroes landing in the NU at a point prior to the Black Event, a time when the heroes were still heroing, and the future looked brighter than it did after The Pitt. Also, as announced during the press conference, the “pre-Pitt” New Universe will once again be visited in March, with a fifth week event telling Untold Tales of the NU.

Five specials will hit as part of the event:

DP7 by CB Cebulski and MD Bright
Justice by Peter David and Carmine Di Giandomenico
Nightmask by Fred Van Lente and Arnold Pander
Psi-Force by Tony Bedard and Russ Braun
Star Brand by Jeff Parker and Javier Pulido

As for the remaining properties, they’ll show up in back-up stories:

Kickers Inc in New Avengers #16 by Jeff Parker and Juan Santacruz
Merc in Amazing Fantasy#18 by Tony Lee and Leonard Kirk
Codename Spitfire in Amazing Fantasy #19 by Justin Grey and Marshall Rogers

While the New Universe might be just a footnote in the history of Marvel Comics there still lays a bevy of dedicated fans that appreciated the attempt and those individuals who worked hard on the titles. With the upcoming Ellis series, new stories which occur within the realm of the old New Universe, and new trades collecting the old stories, 2006 looks to be the year where the New Universe will finally get its due.

[TCJohnson]

I remember all of these (really liked DP7) except for Justice. What was that about again?

[Kevin T. Brown]

New Universe=Not-So-Ultimate Universe..? So far this has illicited one big yawwwwwwwwwwn from me....

And here's info about Justice, TC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_%28New_Universe%29

[eh_ver]

This sounds great! I have a lot of faith in this editor by now and I'm glad that the original New Universe will get some play time before Ellis rewrites the whole thing. Not that I'm complaining that he is, but its probably fairly unlikely that we'll ever see much of the original NU after this. I'm in for the Amazing Fantasy back ups for sure since that book is just about the best thing going on for Marvel right now, but I may try and dabble in some of those one-shots. I wonder if they tie together at all? Probably not.

[joefixit2]

DP7 was, IMO, the best book out of all of them. Great team book with great writings and artwork.

[Justin M. Campbell]

It should be noted that StarBlast closed the door on the New Universe by establishing that that universe all means of travel to it were surrounded by Marvel cosmic being the Stranger, and he would allow no travel in or out of it, banishing Quasar love interest Kayla Ballantine to that world.

[Bevbos]

Originally posted by Justin M. Campbell
It should be noted that StarBlast closed the door on the New Universe by establishing that that universe all means of travel to it were surrounded by Marvel cosmic being the Stranger, and he would allow no travel in or out of it, banishing Quasar love interest Kayla Ballantine to that world.

Yeah, but I bet Captain Britain could get in there if he wanted to.

[GI BRO]

i started reading comics because of the new universe.

[djshalope]

hah! newuniversal better take place in Pittsburgh.

[evilive72]

They cancelled Rom, Power Man & Iron Fist, and Micronauts, three of my favorite titles, to produce a two year effort in futility.

Thanks.

[Hypestyle]

being as the New Universe was really Jim Shooter's baby, once he started to become persona non grata at Marvel and eventually got the boot, everything really went downhill..

I liked Nightmask.. I subscribed to it.. but it didn't last but what, 12 issues?

I also liked "The Draft", but I didn't follow the NU after that.. what ended up happening?

I think the NU concepts should simply be transferred to 616 Marvel-- I think that's part of the reason why they didn't take off in the long run.. they were divorced from the main Marvel Universe.. also, they were supposed to take place in "real time", but i don't think that ended up working out..

[xpositive]

I always like the references to books being canceled back in the day that sell higher than Ultimate stuff now. Print the reloaded New Universe stuff on the old paper with old dot ink job and price them close to what they were back then and I'll buy. I'm more interested in going to the quarter bin to find this old stuff. Comics now are too damn expensive with too little content anymore. With little market value I really only treasure the books with my letters in them (thanks Kirkman). I buy less than twenty books a month but still spend a lot of money. That's the cool thing about the New U back in the day. Try something new without breaking the bank. Stupid late 90s...

[GI BRO]

Originally posted by Hypestyle
being as the New Universe was really Jim Shooter's baby, once he started to become persona non grata at Marvel and eventually got the boot, everything really went downhill..

I liked Nightmask.. I subscribed to it.. but it didn't last but what, 12 issues?

I also liked "The Draft", but I didn't follow the NU after that.. what ended up happening?

I think the NU concepts should simply be transferred to 616 Marvel-- I think that's part of the reason why they didn't take off in the long run.. they were divorced from the main Marvel Universe.. also, they were supposed to take place in "real time", but i don't think that ended up working out..

i think it's still 1986 in the new universe... according to exiles.

[Spaz_Monkey]

Originally posted by Hypestyle
also, they were supposed to take place in "real time", but i don't think that ended up working out..

Once they started doing multi-issue arcs, the 'real time' concept died a sudden, painful death.

[evilive72]

Originally posted by GI BRO
i think it's still 1986 in the new universe... according to exiles.

Isnt it everywhere?

[SDM]

This sounds like it was great conceptually, but had poor execution. I'm interested in what Ellis can do.

[ghostly1]

Originally posted by Hypestyle
being as the New Universe was really Jim Shooter's baby, once he started to become persona non grata at Marvel and eventually got the boot, everything really went downhill..

I liked Nightmask.. I subscribed to it.. but it didn't last but what, 12 issues?

I also liked "The Draft", but I didn't follow the NU after that.. what ended up happening?

Actually it went uphill after Shooter left, way uphill. Sadly sales didn't follow.

What happened after the Draft? Well, lets see... much of DP7 worked for the government for a while... the men in the army, the women with the CIA. Dave and Jeff went AWOL, and the CIA division employing the girls was dismantled.

Washington was devastated by a battle between the Psi-Hawk and Rodstvow, an extremely powerful and insane Russian paranormal. The Washington Monument was uprooted and destroyed, and, after Psi-Hawk lost, Rodstvow burned the Smithsonian's copy of the Declaration of Independence. Also, Justice's daughter was severely wounded in the attack.

The paranormal known as Blowout (who teleported and exploded the location he left), who was only in the army because Nightmask approved his psyche evaluation, went nuts and started randomly attempting to assassination people all over (including then-President Reagan, who barely survived)... until he fell under the spell of the Ayatollah who had paranormal mind control powers, and became one of the biggest threats to the US military.

Philip Nolan Voigt, paranormal with the ability to copy Overshadow the abilities of other Paranormals successfully ran for President of the United States.

The government received a fake video of a paranormal claiming to have been responsible for The Pitt, which led them to send a Paranormal Platoon into action. They narrowly averted a full scale WWIII (this was in The War).

The Medusa Web killed and replaced Gorbachev with a paranormal shapeshifter.

[/b]
I think the NU concepts should simply be transferred to 616 Marvel-- I think that's part of the reason why they didn't take off in the long run.. they were divorced from the main Marvel Universe.. also, they were supposed to take place in "real time", but i don't think that ended up working out.. [/b]

I liked that they were divorced from the NU, and the real time aspect worked out fine enough - it just didn't come into play very much, seeing as how it didn't last too long. However, once it was done, there were a number of characters that could have been absorbed into the NU in various ways - just like certain characters like Ronald Reagan existed in both the MU and the NU, one could assume that the MU also had, say, Scuzz... he might not have had any powers... or he might, if he happened to have been a mutant.

[MShivers]

Originally posted by Justin M. Campbell
It should be noted that StarBlast closed the door on the New Universe by establishing that that universe all means of travel to it were surrounded by Marvel cosmic being the Stranger, and he would allow no travel in or out of it, banishing Quasar love interest Kayla Ballantine to that world.

Yep... this is pretty much the only thing that bothers me about newuniversal.... Warren pretty much already said that it will not be incorporating any of the previous events. If I understand correctly, he's just taking the basic concepts/characters, putting his own twist on them, and going nuts (insert your own joke here about which character(s) will become the ill-tempered chain smokers).

Which, of course, is appealing in it's own way.

However, even though I freely admit that StarBlast was pretty much one of the most horrid Marvel cross-overs ever, (great concepts... groaningly bad execution...), I hate it when continuity is just completely tossed away.

Warren could launch this thing with a special zero-issue of somesuch that resolved the previous plot line. Personally, I would love to Warren's depraved sense of humor used to eliminate Kayla (Quasar's old girlfriend) and the too-cheesy-for-words villains from StarBlast (anybody else remember... SkeleTron.... shudder?) I can just picture Ken Connell giving the Living Tribunal the finger as he breaks "the barrier" and moves the "New Universe" Earth back into it's proper dimension.

Sigh.

- m

[Prime_Eternal]

Originally posted by Spaz_Monkey
Once they started doing multi-issue arcs, the 'real time' concept died a sudden, painful death.

Untrue. The New Universe continued to progress in real time, but they would "make up time" so that every 12 issues still equaled one year (for instance, there's a gap of several months between DP7#10 & 11).

MH

[GI BRO]

i just hope marvel doesn't try to incorperate the new universe and other alternate reality's into the marvel U with some sort of Marvelistic crisis on infinite universe demension saga,

[BanMan]

Originally posted by MShivers
Yep... this is pretty much the only thing that bothers me about newuniversal.... Warren pretty much already said that it will not be incorporating any of the previous events. If I understand correctly, he's just taking the basic concepts/characters, putting his own twist on them, and going nuts (insert your own joke here about which character(s) will become the ill-tempered chain smokers).

Which, of course, is appealing in it's own way.

However, even though I freely admit that StarBlast was pretty much one of the most horrid Marvel cross-overs ever, (great concepts... groaningly bad execution...), I hate it when continuity is just completely tossed away.

Warren could launch this thing with a special zero-issue of somesuch that resolved the previous plot line. Personally, I would love to Warren's depraved sense of humor used to eliminate Kayla (Quasar's old girlfriend) and the too-cheesy-for-words villains from StarBlast (anybody else remember... SkeleTron.... shudder?) I can just picture Ken Connell giving the Living Trobunal the finger as he breaks "the barrier" and moves the "New Universe" Earth back into it's proper dimension.

Sigh.

- m

Just consider it as Warren preserving the current NU. And consider the new one an alternate regardless of what Marvel says.

[Prime_Eternal]

I liked that they were divorced from the NU, and the real time aspect worked out fine enough - it just didn't come into play very much, seeing as how it didn't last too long. However, once it was done, there were a number of characters that could have been absorbed into the NU in various ways - just like certain characters like Ronald Reagan existed in both the MU and the NU, one could assume that the MU also had, say, Scuzz... he might not have had any powers... or he might, if he happened to have been a mutant. [/b]

After the New Universe's death, Paul Ryan gave the cast of DP7 cameos in various titles he drew, including Stephanie & Charlotte in Quasar#4, Evan Huebner in Avengers#314, and gravestones for most of the cast in Avengers West Coast#65.

So there are Marvel Universe versions...of a sort.

MH

[Kavalier]

Originally posted by joefixit2
DP7 was, IMO, the best book out of all of them. Great team book with great writings and artwork.

I have to disagree.

DP7 was the best book EVER!!!

[TCJohnson]

Originally posted by Kevin T. Brown
New Universe=Not-So-Ultimate Universe..? So far this has illicited one big yawwwwwwwwwwn from me....

And here's info about Justice, TC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_%28New_Universe%29

Thanks Kevin.

I remember the concept but I don't remember anything about the book itself.

[BlueThunderArmy]

Originally posted by MattBrady
While the first issue of The War came one month after the canceling of the regular titles, even this final mini-series would be marred by the full year that would pass between the releasing of issue #3 and issue #4.

Marred? I thought lengthy delays got readers more excited...

I can't even imagine a title being delayed for a whole year, much less a miniseries.

[/sarcasm]

Seriously, thanks for the summary. I'm curious to see where Ellis takes this.