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    Ultraverse

    Concept » Ultraverse appears in 517 issues.

    The Ultraverse was a shared universe with original characters created for Malibu Comics during the first half of the 90s decade. Super-powered characters were known as "Ultras".

    Short summary describing this concept.

    Ultraverse last edited by Thor_Ul on 01/21/24 02:32PM View full history

    Background

    Malibu Beginnings

    Year One
    Year One

    The Ultraverse was a presently defunct comicbook imprint and the name of the shared universe published by Malibu Comics under this banner. The shared universe which served as the setting for the wave of several new original series from Malibu Comics.

    Originally conceived under the name of Megaverse, the Ultraverse, as was finally rebranded, was a creative effort of several creatives,veteran and new talents in the early 1990s. The Ultraverse also received creative imput of science fiction writer Larry Niven.

    The Ultraverse is a shared universe in which a variety of characters – known within the comics as Ultras– acquired super-human abilities. Even if several characters resembles previously seen ones, the creators gave them in those cases a distinguishing twist, sometimes even a controversial one, than helped the Ultraverse stand apart of other books of the time.

    The Ultraverse was fairly successful at first, thanks to an agressive marketing campaing and even produced a short-lived Ultraforce cartoon TV series and spawned a Nightman TV live action series. Also, inside the Ultraverse titles there were landmarks involving characters like Mantra and Spectral, as the title take new levels of violence and talked about itssues still untouched in the 90s. However as the comic speculative bubble of the 90s hit them, several titles were cancelled and the mother editorial house, Malibu was sold to Marvel Comics in 1994.

    Marvel Reing

    The beginning of the end
    The beginning of the end

    When Marvel Comics bought out Malibu, the Ultraverse was radically redesigned. Starting with several team-ups of Ultraverse characters with Marvel characters, the whole line of crossovers would reach the event known as "Black September" (or B.S., to most fans). In this event, the entire continuity of the Ultraverse was rebooted. Some characters were changed or retconned out of existence, many series were canceled, and stablished heroes and villians visiting from the Marvel Universe came to dominate the remaining books. Several of the elements than had make the Ultraverse attractive to some readers were lost under the Marvel management. After a year and a half of this situation, Marvel finally closed down the whole company. The Ultraverse saw their chronicles ended in the one-shot special Future Shock, where many of the loose ends of the canceled series were resolved, and revealed that both the original Ultraverse and the "Marvel" version still existed, in separate realities. Future Shock was the last book published by Malibu in (cover date) february,1997.

    In the Marvel Multiverse, the Ultraverse has been catalogued as Earth-93060. It is not clear if that is the original Ultraverse or the Marvel version which receives that densignation.

    Revival & present status

    Steve Eagleheart was commissioned to revive the Ultraverse with the title "The Strangers" around 2003. However, nothing came from it.

    Another possible revival of the Ultraverse and their characters has been repeatedly denied by Marvel executives. Joe Quesada explained in an interview from 2004 that the initial structure of the deal made "next to impossible to go back and publish these books".

    According to other sources, Marvel possesses the total control of the intellectual propierty and there are no real legal reason to not to use the characters.

    Curiously Ultraverse characters had made "not cameos" in Marvel products: Rune's remains appeared in Thanos series in 2004; Rune also was part of the Avengers Black Panther and the Illuminati Singles Heroclix set. And a character inspired in Topaz appeared in Thor: Ragnarok.

    The real motives for Marvel to not use the characters are a mystery.

    History

    The main source of the powers of the Ultraverse came from the called the Godwhell a world divided between a techno scientific and a fantastic amgical side. From this world several creatures came, one o¡f them being the mysterious Entity on the Moon (the core of a crashed interdimensional spacecraft. This entity sent outbursts of energy called the "Jumpstart" effect, which gave certain people superhuman powers for a longer period of time, according to the needs of the Entity itself. These beings came to be known as Ultras, the most popular and well-known of which was Ultraforce. The other sources of superpowers in the Ultraverse were magic, the nanotech "wetware" developed by the hidden civilization of the underground-dwelling Fire People, or simply from being an alien from another planet or universe. Scientific analysis of these Ultras allowed some of these aspects to be artificially copied or genetically spliced into various human beings.

    Heroes and teams

    • Hardcase is Tom Hawke, a former superhero after his teammates his teammates were killed by a mysterious robot. He had quit the superheroic life and were an actor until the mysterious ultrawoman Choice entered his life.
    • Prime is Kevin Green, a boy with the ability to "grow" an organic slime than transformed him into an over musculated adult superhero of amazing power. Prime wasn't the only ultra with this kind of abilities. Another hero, Elven, later would debut.
    • Prototype was James Ruiz, a teenager hired by a high-tech company to test their power armour suit , replacing the former pilot of the suit., Robert Campbell, incapacitated in an accident.
    • Mantra was Lukasz, an immortal warrior follower of the Archimage, who because of a betrayal of one of his allies, get trapped in the body of a divorced mother, Eden Blake. As Eden/Mantra, Lukasz must learn to manage more the magic than the warrior abilities.
    • The Strangers are a bunch of unrelated people from San Franciscowho gained superpowers when a mysterious Jumpstart effect, struck the trolley they were all in, and who decided to stay together as a superhero team. Notable for featuring one of the rare openly gay male heroes in superhero comics in that time.
    • The Freex was a team of superpowered, freaky-looking teenagers. As infants they were among "dozens" of infants injected with nanotechnology by a mysterious nurse who hoped to spread superpowers around.
    • Night Man is Johnny Domino, a jazz musician who was also empowered by the same "bolt" that affected The Strangers; having gained the ability to hear the thoughts of evil people, he became a costumed crimefighter.
    • Fire Arm Alec Swan, a human private detective who specializes in cases involving Ultras, using a special gun.
    • The Exiles a team composed of Ultras who gained their powers from a disease known as the "Theta Virus". The orginal team was part of a trick strategy as originally being described as an onoing series, the series ended abruptly in the issue 4, after the team died.
    • The Solution super-mercenaries for hire, who helped Hardcase in several occasions.
    • Sludge was a corrupt police Frank Hoag who refused to follow his magfia bosses orders. After being killed and dropped in the instalations of a pharmaceutical company the body was bathed in chemicals and thrown into a sewer. A chemical reaction brought him back to life. But in an entirely new monstruous form and with some mental issues.
    • Solitaire was Nicholas Lone, who gained powers after a failed suicide attemp. With new regenerative abilities he focus in destroy the criminal cartel of Anton Lone, his father.
    • Ultraforce debuter later when most of the character were stablished. Ultraforce was the team than integrated the most visible faces of the Ultraverse and added some new faces as Pixx, Topaz and Ghoul.

    Landmarks

    In the brief history of the Ultraverse, some stories stood as landmarks than defined the idnetity of this universe:

    • Break-Thru: When the Entity of the moon threatens life on earth, several ultras, heroes and villians will join foces to stop the menaces meanwhile others must faces the consequences of the events on earth.
    • Godwheel: The old god Argus awakes and in his quest for power he clashes against the earth Ultras. In this series , Loki and Thor makes appearances, marking the beginning of the incorporation of the Ultraverse to the Marvel cosmology.
    • Black September: After the coming of a god called Loki parallel universe, the reality itself is shocked and the universe story is rewriten, when the villian Nemesis acquire s the Ego gem.
    • Ultraverse Future Shock: 50 years in the Ultraverse future, a desperate band of heroes went to the past trying to correct the timeline and prevent the emergence of the Progeny Virus. Their plight will take them into the Multiverse and would close the stories in the Ultraverse.

    Other Media

    Despite its short existence, the Ultraverse had four properties adapted to other media:

    Hardcase (music video style short film, 1993)

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    Malibu Films, in association with Wizard, released a 6-minute music video style short film, starring British kickboxer Gary Daniels as Hardcase, directed by Darren Doane.

    Firearm (Direct to video short movie, 1993)

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    Based on the Ultraverse comic book Firearm, this short film was originally packaged with Firearm (1993) #0 as a special incentive. Starring James Jude Courtney, Joe Hulser, James Geralden, and Mark Thorne, this movie introduces you to the world of Firearm and continues directly intot he comic book series. VHS Tape, Approx. Running Time 35 min. Rated PG (does contain scenes of violence). Present day, the movie can be found on Youtube and Dailymotion pages.

    Ultraforce (Animated Series, 1994-1995 )

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    A short-lived Ultraforce animated television series that ran for 13 episodes, it was based on the first version of the Ultraforce comic book, produced by DIC Productions, L.P., and Bohbot Entertainment. The cartoon featured the roster of Prime, Hardcase, Prototype, Topaz, Ghoul, Contrary, and Pixx, with appearances of Rune, the Night Man and the Strangers.

    Night Man (Live-action Series, 1997-1999)

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    Adapted from the Ultraverse character, the syndicated series produced by Glen A. Larson had 2 seasons and 44 episodes. Three episodes were written by the character creator, Steve Englehart, and guest appearances by David Hasselhoff, Little Richard, and Donald Trump. Curiously the series was launched after Marvel cancelled the whole Ultraverse line.

    Lionsgate Entertainment released a complete series DVD in 2018. To a bigger sales impact, the box is promoted as a Marvel property, even when the whole concept was based on Malibu Comics property.

    Merchandising

    Action Figures

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    There was also an Ultraforce action figure line produced by Galoob. The line included a basic series with the versions of the members of the animated show and a subseries called Ultra 5000 that included alternates suits of several members and enemies.

    Games

    No Caption Provided

    Prime also starred in a Sega CDdisc published bySony Imagesoft bundled with Psygnosis' Microcosm video game. Though marketed as a video game, Ultraverse Prime was actually a multimedia CD which includes digital copies of 12 issues of the Prime comic book, video interviews with Prime's creators, some concept art, and a beat 'em up game.

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