“Yesterday’s” Comic> Break-Thru #1

“How many characters do you want on there?” “All of them!” Even the pretzel cart gu..” “ALL!”

Break-Thru #1

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (December, 1993)

WRITER: Gerard Jones

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, James D. Hudnall, Tom Mason, George Pérez, James Robinson, & Len Strazewski

PENCILER: George Pérez

INKER: John Lowe

INK ASSIST/LETTERER: Tim Eldred

COLORIST: Moose Bauman

EDITORS: Chris Ulm & Hank Kanalz

The closer you get to Los Angeles, the more people seem to be trying to get to the moon by any means necessary (even the really dumb ones). Just after the events of Exiles, Amber is in the skies over LA constantly shifting colors. If she goes ultraviolet the city is dead. The various hero and villain factions of the Ultraverse gather, with Mantra (undercover at Aladdin) able to learn that something is speaking through Amber, warning of danger. Meanwhile, Colonel Samuels wants to protect his secrets, so sends Prime to the moon as planned, as we saw in the last Prime comic the reading order told me to go with. This upsets Rex Mundi, who wanted the source of the Jumpstart that created some of the Ultras for himself and sends his team out of the fight to go to the moon themselves. And when the heroes learn that’s the place to be, and the explanation of most of their powers, that’s where they’re going as well.

This isn’t a stand alone story. So much depends on knowing the Ultraverse already and the story is going to continue through most of their books. Meaning comics I opted not to read I won’t have a choice on because they’re important to this storyline. It’s an event that mostly seems to be happening in the main titles. The end result is this issue feels more like a terribly thought out promotion for the Ultraverse. It’s also way too early in this universe’s creation to have a crossover, but here we go.

Some characters might not be taking part. The Night Man is still hunting the kid killer. Sludge is attacked by people in New York who feel the calling to the moon. The Freex only seem to be taking part because one of their members vanishes. Sadly, two of the most annoying Exiles are not dead (and the few barely likable ones are still dead), while Dr. Deming and Spectral are here to be an exposition dump about the color spectrums Amber is going through.

This is the wrong time, and not a very interesting story. Stuff happens, story moves forward, but at a pace so fast and with characters I either don’t care about at all or haven’t had time to really get into yet being forced together just to have a crossover and explain where the Jumpstart comes from. It’s hard for me to recommend this, but depending on what happens in the crossover stories there might not be a choice if you want to follow the history of the Ultraverse.