Soon the logo slaughtering will cease.
Break-Thru #2
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (January, 1994)
“The Secrets Of The Ultraverse!”
PLOT: Gerard Jones, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, James D. Hudnall, Tom Mason, George Pérez, James Robinson, and Len Strazewski
WRITER: Gerard Jones
PENCILER: George Pérez
INKER: Al Vey
COLORISTS: Moose Baumann & Robert Alvrod
EDITORS: Hank Kanalz and Chris Ulm
Heroes and villains of the Ultraverse alike arrive on the moon while Amber continues to become a destructive force and the Ultras still on Earth are attacked by the moon-crazed citizens. Prime, mistaking the heroes as attackers, even takes on Hardcase until his proto-body is damaged. He finds himself rescued by Manta while in a fight with Rex Mundi’s forces, who unknowing drained some of the body’s energy to stay alive as she creates a pocket of air for them, saving Kevin’s life. The teen tells her about how the entity created Ultras to help it get home by downloading its data back to its home planet. After fighting each other for a bit, the heroes finally unite against the villains when Mantra relays the story, chasing them off and ending up getting it home before Amber could bathe the Earth in ultraviolet light and kill everyone. She is believed dead but she turns up alive and still a bit crazed. The Ultra heroes on the moon agree to work together, but in their heads they still have a way to go.
Yeah, more hero vs hero action. Yay. Some of them seem ready to join forces, and the Freex at least found an ally in Night Man even if they still don’t trust average people, but for the most part we have a while to wait for the team-up book. So much of this comic is exposition/fight/exposition/fight, and there isn’t a lot of story to it otherwise. We also get more questions to replace the ones already answered, though at least now we know where Ultras (or at least the ones hit by the Jumpstart) get their powers. Not sure how that works with the science-created Ultras like Prime and Choice, or magic users like Mantra and Rune, or if we’re done with that virus that only gets cured by becoming an ultra. There are parts i had trouble following.
Overall, was it worth having a way too early crossover event explain the Jumpstart? Not really. Maybe as a separate miniseries with a few more issues instead of the event we got would have been nice, after establishing all the players in the Ultraverse. Admittedly I’m still not reading every title and just followed the ones that I was either already reading or continued that story in a different comic, like Hardcase and The Solution or The Night Man and Freex, in both cases the second comic not being the ones on my reading list otherwise because I don’t like them. So I wasn’t sure why Mantra was there, when everyone learned this was an entity (a mechanical or biomechanical one at least), or why Sludge and Rune were here outside of a “we’re part of this shared universe, too” cameo. This just felt like a letdown for me, and I already wasn’t going in with the highest of expectations. And yet it’s needed if you’re following the Ultraverse and any of the important characters in shaping the Ultraverse.
BW Media Spotlight 