ELLIS COMMENTS ON NEWUNIVERSAL

12-09-2005, 09:43 AM	#1
MattBrady	ELLIS COMMENTS ON NEWUNIVERSAL Note: Art at right is a house ad from the original New Universe launch in 1986 In his latest Bad Signal e-mail newsletter Warren Ellis added some more insight into his upcoming newuniversal project from Marvel which will restart the “New Universe” concept at the publisher, which first saw publication 19 years ago. Ellis wrote: Twenty years ago, Marvel tried to launch an entire secondary line of action books that straddled that sometimes-amorphous space between superhero fiction and science fiction. Despite the presence of writers like Archie Goodwin and the young Peter David, it died within two or three years. It was under-funded, generic, and really stands out as a failure of nerve and ambition. And they called it The New Universe. In summer 2006, I'm going to be launching an ongoing title at Marvel called newuniversal. No capital N, no capital U. We refer to it in-house as NU -- and I might have called it NU, if it didn't always suggest nu-metal to me. The central concept, these days, also looks kind of generic. Wild Cards did it, Rising Stars did it, etc etc. Something called The White Event occurs, and afterwards a handful of people are found to have been made superhuman. So far so blah. But, in looking at this stuff on a webpage one night, it occurred to me that that's not what happened. What actually happened was that there was this huge astronomical event where the skies went white all over the world for a minute, and the aftermath was that the laws of physics had been changed. There's a sf book by a writer called Vernor Vinge where the laws of physics are radically different depending on which part of the galaxy you're in. Conventional physics' dirty little secret is that the speed of light appears to fluctuate. There is, as I say, a whole library of science fiction about superhumanity. These are not superhero novels. Some lean closer than others, of course – Zelazny and Saberhagen's Coils comes to mind, and Slan was very clearly a precedent to the X-Men. But there's a lot more that speaks to, if you like, the superhuman condition. Melding that with the notion that suddenly the laws of physics can go and stay slightly nuts... In one six-hour session, I generated a bunch of notes about how and why this could happen, with some ideas from some old abandoned projects of mine (from the Loose Ideas folder) fitting themselves into it... Sure, it's not exactly cut from whole cloth. Like I said, it's a writing challenge. Blows the cobwebs out a bit. Makes you focus on the craft a bit. Sometimes it's worth sitting down and thinking, what does make a Marvel character work? (Answer: tragedy.) To subscribe to Bad Signal, click here.

12-09-2005, 09:55 AM	#2
Police-dude	WOOHOO First Post! In your Face everybody else But serious, This could be really great, ive never read anything of the New Universe. Mabey Ill try it

12-09-2005, 10:02 AM	#3
bsmith	This is interesting -- although with this move (revamping stuff like Grant Morrison's been doing in SEVEN SOLDIERS - what a great project that is BTW), and Marvel's House of M announced partway through as "building to something bigger next year" (a la Identity Crisis to Infinite Crisis), a cynic might lok at this like Marvel racing to catch up with DC, which is interesting. I really like Ellis, and wish him and the team well on this. I'm just buying trades these days so if it ends up there I'll probably look at it.

12-09-2005, 10:02 AM	#4
Layters	So this has actually got sod all to do withh the original New Universe. It was so crap apparently that I would rather read the reprints than whatever this series is thats trying to cash on somethign that was apparently so bad in the first palce it makes you wonder why they are using the name.

12-09-2005, 10:03 AM

bob_at_york

Quote:

Originally posted by Police-dude
WOOHOO First Post!
In your Face everybody else

But serious, This could be really great, ive never read anything of the New Universe. Mabey Ill try it

good for you.

I am awaiting more details on this project.

12-09-2005, 10:06 AM

algertman

Quote:

Originally posted by Layters
So this has actually got sod all to do withh the original New Universe. It was so crap apparently that I would rather read the reprints than whatever this series is thats trying to cash on somethign that was apparently so bad in the first palce it makes you wonder why they are using the name.

agreed

12-09-2005, 10:07 AM	#7
Marchie77	im getting into the new universe as its in all the 10p boxes... and its often darker than youd think i agree with both Ellis and Jim Shooter in that if this line had been properly funded it could have been awesome... I totally trust Ellis on this revamp... i guess a kind of Superme Power/Ultimate take on it all Also glad to see that Ellis shares an interest of Nightmask with me!

12-09-2005, 10:15 AM	#8
Coward	I'm chuffed that Warren Ellis seems determined not to just rehash. I used to like to read Spitfire and the Troubleshooters when I was about 5 or 6 so I can't say I have any kind of fully formed opinion about the New Universe, but I've never seen any reason to object to it's existence and it's good that Marvel actually acknowledges it happened. Another one to chalk up on my Marvel "This looks interesting I hope they don't balls it up" scorecard.

12-09-2005, 10:17 AM	#9
BlueThunderArmy	Not familiar with the old New Universe, so I'm not really sure what to think about this. But most of Ellis's recent books have been quite good, and Nextwave sounds like a blast. So I'll probably check this out.

12-09-2005, 10:21 AM	#10
Super-Yoda	cool That ad takes me back to my G.I. Joe days when that was the only book I read. I remember thumbing through the issues at the local (privately owned) drug store until the owner would kick me out!

12-09-2005, 10:32 AM	#11
Robert_Coyner	At this point, it would seem for anyone but Ellis faithful to be too excited. I'm hoping though, like with Supreme Power, they are taking an obscure long-forgotten corner of Marvel's history and creating something new, memorable and special. I like Ellis, so I'll be keeping track of this, but I can still understand trepidation on the part of others. I'm just wondering who the artist for this project will be... Who that is will say a lot about what they're aiming for with the title, I think.

12-09-2005, 10:37 AM	#12
Cerebud	I have every issue I own every issue of the New Universe. It was the first series that I got in on the ground floor with, which was exciting to me. All my other comics (Spider-man, X-men, etc) had been around for decades, and I wanted something new for me. To be in on the ground floor. For the most part, I loved them. Psi-Force, Nightmask, Spitfire, StarBrand, Justice, DP7, and even Merc were good. Kickers was crap. They had a lot of great talent on those books. When they reduced the line and really shook up the NewU by blowing up Pittsburgh, I was hooked. I actually lived in Pittsburgh at the time, so it got a lot of local press. The storylines from there got really wild, and it was a lot of fun. I think they'd already lost their audience by then though. I don't know if I'll get Warren's book, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on. Even if just for nostalgia (and to keep my run in tact?)

12-09-2005, 10:37 AM	#13
I am MODOK	Has potential. I don't automaticaly pick up everything Ellis does anymore, but this looks intriguing. I'm curious about artists and such, but I'll probably try the first issue. The only NU I ever read was the first issue of Spitfire.

12-09-2005, 10:40 AM	#14
Lukecage_2099	I'm not thrilled with the term "newuniversal", but I am pleasantly surprised by Marvel's renewed interest in this imprint, as expressed with the current NU arc in Exiles, and tapping Ellis to essentially reimagine the New Universe concept for 2006. Seeing that teaser ad for the original NU takes me back to my days in high school when the NU imprint promised to be an fresh take on superheroes grounded in the "real world", long before similar concepts like Wildcats and Rising Stars. Ellis is enough of a sci-geek to make this version seem plausible and perhaps even a little scary. To borrow an old comic book tag line, I'm looking forward to reading this imprint again for the first time!

12-09-2005, 10:50 AM

#15

Wormwood

Quote:

Originally posted by Marchie77
im getting into the new universe as its in all the 10p boxes... and its often darker than youd think

True. If anything the New Universe was a bit too ahead of its time. Comic readers at the time weren't very interested in super-powers books that weren't super-hero books as well. The New Universe books were dark, tragic, sometimes brilliantly fascinating, and in constant motion. More happened that was of consequence, that stuck, in those two and a half years then in whole decades of regular comics. Yeah, there were some dogs in there as well, but the good? Was REALLY good.

Looking forward to what they do.

12-09-2005, 10:52 AM	#16
Robot H Brian	I really enjoyed DP-7...the first year at least. Paul Ryan actually made it to OKC for a signing at then-local powerhouse New World Comics around when the first issue came out. Super-nice guy, though he quickly grew tired of people asking if the "DP" was an homage to "Doom Patrol," especially since the main character could create shadow men not unlike Negative Man. That's all I remember of it, really. This book could be interesting, so long as they choose a solid (and dependable) artist for it.

12-09-2005, 10:52 AM	#17
Korvac	Props to Ellis for mentioning the excellent Wild Cards shared universe series. The comics may have sucked, but the books were wonderful.

12-09-2005, 10:54 AM	#18
man_nanny	Was "Nth Man" a New Universe book? He was a ninja on a futuristic planet, or something? I loved that book at age 8 or so.

12-09-2005, 11:05 AM

#19

MattBrady

Quote:

Originally posted by Wormwood
True. If anything the New Universe was a bit too ahead of its time. Comic readers at the time weren't very interested in super-powers books that weren't super-hero books as well. The New Universe books were dark, tragic, sometimes brilliantly fascinating, and in constant motion. More happened that was of consequence, that stuck, in those two and a half years then in whole decades of regular comics. Yeah, there were some dogs in there as well, but the good? Was REALLY good.

You know, I came to this conclusion a while back, too...yeah, there were errors in execution, but for the most part, it was at least 10 years before a lot of the ideas/approaches in there would be more embraced than they were originally.

MattB

12-09-2005, 11:05 AM

#20

fistofkhonshu

Quote:

I have never read a post I agree with more. I loved the New Universe. Ken Connell was the Ultimate loser, and when he had finally had enough of the Starbrand he proved how loserly he was, by accidentally vaporizing Pittsburgh. Anyone who never read The Pitt but remembers hearing about it...; Well In my opinion, The Pitt was Kingdom Come before Alex Ross and Mark Waid ever did it.

12-09-2005, 11:08 AM

#21

Rod Odom

Quote:

The central concept, these days, also looks kind of generic. Wild Cards did it, Rising Stars did it, etc etc. Something called The White Event occurs, and afterwards a handful of people are found to have been made superhuman. So far so blah. B

That's inaccurate. The central concept, which series creator Jim Shooter made very clear in his editorials, was the the New Universe was to be "the world outside your window". In other words the ongoing series were supposed to plausibly exist in our real world indefinitely. Which also meant that the characters would age in real time along with the readers.

The problem with that idea was that it was impossible for superheroes and villains not to alter the world they lived in. In such a way it would differ radically from the readers' real world. Unless the chracters sat around and did very little most of the time. Which unfortunately is what the main titles of the Marvel Universe these days is all about, so this "newuniversal" would fit right in.

12-09-2005, 11:14 AM

#22

Marchie77

Quote:

Originally posted by Rod Odom
That's inaccurate. The central concept, which series creator Jim Shooter made very clear in his editorials, was the the New Universe was to be "the world outside your window". In other words the ongoing series were supposed to plausibly exist in our real world indefinitely. Which also meant that the characters would age in real time along with the readers.

The problem with that idea was that it was impossible for superheroes and villains not to alter the world they lived in. In such a way it would differ radically from the readers' real world. Unless the chracters sat around and did very little most of the time. Which unfortunately is what the main titles of the Marvel Universe these days is all about, so this "newuniversal" would fit right in.

Nonono, Rod... You're right about the world oustide your window thing... but its the real world THEN the event happens THEN the world is changed... the idea is that its different from the 616 world where captain america existed and fin fang foom terrorised china...

12-09-2005, 11:19 AM	#23
HeX111	I'm interested... never read the original New Universe books, so I won't be bothered if it deviates from the original at all...

12-09-2005, 11:20 AM	#24
JoeSomar	I hope this comes out in a little more regularly than the Ultimate Galactus and Iron Man stuff did. I was really excited for both of those books and the delays really killed it for me. I haven't checked out Supreme Power yet, I'm thinking I'm going to like that a lot.

12-09-2005, 11:20 AM	#25
gredenko	No capital N, no capital U? Is there a reason, or is it just self indulgent? And can people stop having signature images that blow up the thread on a conventionally sized monitor?