For those of you not reading the Monday Malibu “Yesterday’s” Comic reviews, Malibu wanted their own shared superhero universe. They created the Ultraverse, a reality where people with superpowers, or “Ultras” exist. Some are created by technology, some by mad science, some by space science, and there’s some magic thrown in there for a bit of spice. Malibu’s Ultraverse titles didn’t get a lot of post-comic appearances. There was a live-action version of The Night Man by Glen A. Larson, a one-season Ultraforce cartoon as part of Saban’s weekend “Amazing Adventures” programming block, a direct to video movie I’ve looked at before, and a video game starring their Captain Marvel/Shazam stand-in, Prime!
Malibu Interactive only had 19 games to their name, and only one of them was featuring one of their Ultraverse characters. Oddly, the list includes Batman movie tie-in games, a Battletech game, and a Joe Montana Football game among others. Prime, released in 1994 for the Sega CD and published with Sony Imagesoft, was co-developed with Psygnosis Limited. In it, you play our overmuscled hero (he’s 13 and this was the 1990s) as he searches for his would be girlfriend, Kelly. The game was packaged with another game, Microcosm, and a pack-in minicomic that I don’t recommend trying to track down unless you know what sites to avoid. My usual site that I use for the Ultraverse comics (it’s out of print and I doubt Disney or anyone at current Marvel knows or remembers they have them after Marvel bought Malibu for their now out of date computer coloring process and slowly tossed the rest of it) doesn’t have it, one had so many pop-ups I have to pray I don’t have a virus, and the one I finally found had to shove it into a collection of other comics just to get access to it. Well, at least I can finally review it.
“That stop sign will ever hurt anyone again!”
Prime: Sega CD Edition
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse/Sony Imagesoft (1994)
“The Deadliest Game”
WRITERS: Len Strazewski & Gerald Jones
ARTISTS: Joe Staton & Steve Mitchell
COLORING: Moose Baumann & Violent Hues with Emily Yoder
LETTERER: Dave Lanphear
EDITOR: Hank Kanalz
It’s rare to see a full creator list like this on a minicomic. It pays when it’s owned by the same company.
The story, taking place during the third “act” of the game, opens with a very angry Prime (what else is new?) about to punch an Ultratech office goon’s lights out after taking out a bunch of security. The comic fails to tell you what Ultratech is. Basically, Ultratech is one of the factions vying for control of Ultras. This one is the obligatory evil business. There’s also the obligatory shadow military group, the obligatory outside shadow group, and occasionally we get other dimensions and planets involved. Ultratech is the one who kidnapped Kelly, and Prime is here to save her.
From here, as Prime continues to smash his way through Ultratech and the various heavy armed security goons, Prime tells the readers his backstory. Kevin Green required a special medical procedure to make it past being born, but what the general didn’t tell his mom is that there was more to it, something Kevin’s dad is at least currently aware of. When he reached puberty he developed a way to excrete a green goop from his body that he could form into whatever he wanted. Not explained what the end goal is here, but in the comics the general wanted an army of supersoldiers. For Kevin, superheroes were his main interest, and so he was able to create a body with superhuman strength and flight, though there is a limit of what his body can take, and only so much time before he can form a new one if the old one breaks down. In the comic we also see him use the “primal powers” in his body to create a short range energy burst to take out opponents.
Like I said, there are numerous factions involved, and Ultratech figured out Prime was hanging out with a teenage girl, protecting her for some reason. Prime looks like a grown man, so one would hope it’s not a grown man crushing on a teenage girl. Then again, let’s just say Ultratech probably wouldn’t care, but it is bad PR after Prime chased off a pervy gym teacher in one issue. Realizing the guards were trying to keep him from getting up an elevator shaft, Prime breaks on past them and into a lab, where the scared scientist sends a bunch of monster experiments to fight him. That doesn’t last long, but Ultratech, keeping their sins on such a downlow many of the employees aren’t aware they’re evil, sends Prototype to deal with him.
Not explained in the comic, Jimmy Ruiz is…anybody remember when Tony Stark used to pretend Iron Man was his bodyguard? If you only know him from the MCU, probably not, as they referenced and tossed out that idea almost immediately, while the comics did it decades later in the weakest way possible in comparison to his movie counterpart. Well, Prototype is that cover story only true. He protects Ultratech because he’s too dumb to see his bosses are evil. Even when Prime sees something in a holding jar, Prototype isn’t listening until Prime’s body finally starts to break down. What does Prime see? You’ll have to play the game to find out.
Here’s a recording of the first few levels to give you an idea what the game is like. I’ll post a full gameplay at the end of the article for the curious, but this is a sample.
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That’s the game, a standard arcade-style beat-em-up similar to The Death & Return Of Superman. A version was planned but dropped for the SNES as was a teased game based on another Ultraverse character, Firearm. Yes, the same guy from the Saturday Night Showcase link earlier. The Sega CD disk also contains a few issues of Prime, the crossover event Break-Thru, and I think Ultraforce, their later answer to the Justice League or Avengers as they bring together some of their more popular heroes. I haven’t gotten to Ultraforce yet, but I did think the cartoon was okay for the budget and that at times Saban clearly ripped off what they were doing on X-Men for Fox Kids in this show, since they made both around the same time. There’s also a very low resolution interview with creators of the comic, seen in the longplay below.
The comic itself is…okay. It’s setting up the events of the game, though you don’t actually start in Ultratech. You start by walking around the city punching random goons. It is a decent introduction to the comic. There is a level where you fight Prototype, and those two do not have the best history despite both being heroes. They also have tempers that would make the Marvel heroes jealous. Will Prime rescue Kelly and will Prototype join him? You’ll have to play the game or watch the video to find out.
Speaking of video games, next time we get to the planned comic for this installment and the last of the Atari Swordquest game tie-in comics. I just found out about this one while finding a new reading order for the Ultraverse reviews that’s in order of release instead of somebody’s idea of a timeline so I get to read comics properly again. Now as I catch up, I find out this exists, so I went and grabbed it now. We’ll be back to the proper reading order soon, and this is the last Ultraverse mini-comic I’m aware of. Then again, I didn’t know about this one until maybe a month ago. Anyway, enjoy the full game.
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