Ultraverse Origins
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (January, 1994)
COVER ART: Quesada & Rubinstein | COVER COLORIST: Calleros according to the cover but George Cox according to the credits page
INTERIOR COLOR DESIGN: Robert Alvord, Moose Baumann, Keith Conroy, & Tim Divar
INTERIOR PAGE COLORIST: Albert Calleros, Scott Cattanach, George Cox, Tim Divar, Judy Hosobuchi, Tabitha Martin, Lydia Nomura, Dan Santiago, Dana Senit, Andy Walton, Ruth Yasharpour, & Chris Young
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Annie Chien, Jennifer Schellinger, & Jennel Cruz
EDITORS: Chris Ulm, Dan Danko, Hank Kanalz, & Roland Mann
This comic is a collection of recollections of the characters’ origins. I won’t be going over the origins themselves but the presentation. I’m going over origins in the books themselves.
Prototype
WRITERS: Tom Mason & Len Strazewski | ARTISTS: Dan Jurgens & Terry Austin
This book is already show it’s not always to go have normal presentations. For this one it’s a spread of photos, probably during a PR meeting between Leland and his PR person. It tells how Bob “retired” as Prototype and let Jimmy take over in the new suit. There are also post-it notes where we learn that Jimmy is an Ultra without realizing it (though by the point I’ve reviewed in the old list he’s figured it out). We also learn that Jimmy was a video game star, though I’m not sure what that means in the 1990s. Professional gaming and online streaming weren’t around back then. The lady Leland is talking to wishes they could create their own Ultras, “audibly” drooling over Prime’s overmuscled body. Oh, if only you knew, lady. You’d probably hate yourself…or I hope you would.
The Night Man
WRITER: Steve Englehart | ARTIST: Kevin Maguire
I guess all of these are two page stories. This is told from the perspective of Johnny, how he had the accident, gained his powers and the price for them (not being able to sleep or see properly in the light), and after hearing a thought of murdering someone became The Night Man. Johnny says he’s not an Ultra…so what does being an Ultra versus having powers mean? Marvel’s mutants have a gene that give the powers but it’s not the only way to get them. Meanwhile almost every official Ultra was given their powers through science, Yral maybe being a rare exception. I thought being an Ultra simply meant having powers beyond normal human abilities, even with advanced training. You know, superpowers.
The Solution
WRITER: James Hudnall | ARTIST: Art Nichols
To add to the confusion, we learn how this team met. Actually, with only two pages we don’t really know how Tech and Dropkick found Darkmage and Vurk, who apparently uses the codename Outrage (fitting). Darkmage is a magic user and Outrage is an alien whose “powers” come from his normal biology, while Tech and presumably Dropkick use wetware implants. So it there more to being an Ultra than just having extrahuman powers? I’d call reading evil thoughts a superpower, but is Johnny in denial about being an Ultra or is there more to it than “superpowers”?
Warstrike (files)
compiled by Dan Danko & Roland Mann
The first of three character files. I guess these three couldn’t get an origin story done in two pages as a comic strip. We get his powers and gear before going into his backstory. We learn that he used to go by “The Strike”, which sounds like an early name for the character Danko and Mann opted to make part of his story anyway. Aladdin, who is behind the file, notes that he has been more erratic and unpredictable lately, which characters who know him in the comic have also noted, and suggest a connection with Mantra I’m not aware of having not read her comics past the first issue and his/her crossover with Prime. There’s also a recommended course of action to kill him if necessary. It’s not a bad presentation as it’s still in-universe and from Aladdin’s perspective.
Prime
WRITERS: Gerald Jones & Len Strazewski | ARTISTS: Jon Bogdonave & Norm Breyfogle
I’m working with scans but this must be a two-page spread, like with Prototype’s origin story. However, this is laid out like newspaper comics, week one and week four, on the artist’s table but with full lettering and coloring. Week one tells us about the experiment and then shows us Kevin’s first transformation, but I don’t think it happened that quick. They just have to fit it into the length of a Sunday comic. Week four shows us the fight with the demon from early in the comic. Kelly is saved from the monster in knock-off He-Man garb, but starts to melt and is taken away by the government. Having read the comics these strips adapt, I know this one is speeding up events. Still, it sets up where the comic was at the time. I’ll discuss that in my final thoughts, but presenting it this way keeps the comic from being boring and just having the same presentation. I appreciate the variety.
Hardcase
WRITER: James Hudnall | ARTIST: Mike Zeck
For example, this is like the Solution’s comic, a simple telling of the backstory of the Squad, how they were attacked, and how Hardcase got his groove back. It’s straightforward but kind of boring on its own. With so many characters to go through, the variety of presentation benefits the book as a whole, while having these more normal presentations are still welcome to just tell the origin.
Rune
WRITERS: Barry Windsor-Smith & Chris Ulm | ARTIST: Barry Windsor-Smith
One of the comics I haven’t been interested in at all. This is just a splash page presentation of Rune’s backstory as a monster even when he was still human, and now Rune is something he’s fighting within himself. It does not push me to want to read the title. Points for the caption boxes styled like old scrolls to match the look and tone they were going for instead of ordinary boxes.
Wrath (files)
compiled by Roland Mann & Dan Danko
Another Aladdin file. This time, unless the scan is missing pages, we don’t get a full backstory, just an assessment of their agent, how his patriotism may be a liability, and how they’re manipulating his hatred of Ultras after his father was hurt in an Ultra battle. We really don’t learn anything if he already ready enough of his comic.
Sludge (files)
compiled by Roland Mann & Chris Ulm
Our final file, and this has even less to say. All they have is a “john doe” style ID number and that he exists. It keeps Warstrike from being the weakest profile but that’s all you can really say about it.
Solitaire
WRITER: Gerald Jones | ARTIST: George Pérez
I like this one. We know Solitaire’s dad, Mr. Lone, is a crime boss and Djinn is his underling. In this presentation, Djinn has been talking to various people, characters we’ve seen in the previous stories, discussing Solitaire. Is he a fighter? A leader? A killer? Even the Monkey-Woman shows up and says that one of them is going to die. We already know which one it is. Lone is convinced that nobody can touch him, but Solitaire is listening in, and he’s prepared to eventually take down his father’s operation. This is still a comic, but one that takes a look at the hero from the point of view of others, and for Solitaire it totally works.
The Strangers
WRITER: Steve Englehart | ARTIST: Adam Hughes
Comparatively we just get a dry look at the Strangers backstory and what they learned about the origins of the event on the cable car during the “Break-Thru” event. I know it’s difficult trying to get all six characters’ history into two pages, like with the four-member Solution, but just because it can’t help being dry doesn’t change the fact that it is.
Firearm
WRITER: James Robinson | ARTIST: Howard Chaykin
There’s a bit more to the presentation of Firearm’s history. We’re shown he used to be part of British special forces until an Ultra powered agent worked with an Aladdin agent to frame his dead self, but he found out about it, didn’t die, and quit, moving to Santa Monica to become a PI. Too bad his old codename isn’t the only thing that followed him. Not reading that comic I don’t know how much they already told. As for the guy telling this story to don’t know who? Apparently he’s going to become important to the story.
Mantra
WRITER: Mike W. Barr | ARTISTS: Chris Sprouse & Karl Kesel
It’s just Mantra’s origin, how he ended up in the body of a woman (in a cheesecake panel) with two children, and how it ties into the rival brothers Archmage and Boneyard. Still not interested in reading it, but the presentation works.
Freex
WRITER: Gerald Jones | ARTIST: Walt Simonson
The Freex discuss their origins when Ray asks them what they see when they close their eyes. Except what Ray sees isn’t his dark past, but little colored lights like most people. That final joke was a fun way to end the book.
overall
Some of these titles I’ve read further after under the old reading order list I was using at the time. A few I’ve never been interested in at all or didn’t impress me after their first story arc. It’s the variety of presentation that makes the comic interesting. Even the dry reads are balanced by the more imaginative. Just a book of Aladdin case files would have been boring. Just a bunch of wackier presentations would have been dumb. Just the straightforward comics would have lost me. By combining the different methods the presentation isn’t boring or nuts. It holds your attention better throughout the comic. There’s only so much you can do in two pages (one in the case of Wrath and Sludge’s files) but it’s a good primer for Ultraverse, and was released at 99¢. I don’t think you need it to follow the Ultraverse if you were already reading, but as a “here’s what your missing by not adding these to your pull list or newsstand visits” promo it works pretty well.
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