So I've started my Ultraverse collection...

[FrogMan]

I just ordered Exiles 1-4, Black September, along with all the Infinity issues, Ultraforce Vol. 1 and 2, along with any crossover issues they had (Avengers, etc) and the GodWheel mini-series.

My question is, what should I get next. There's a lot to choose from.

[marshal99]

You are stepping on the bandwagon after it had gone off the rails ?

You might as well get all the ultraverse crossovers with marvel one shots

Rune/Silver Surfer
Rune/Venom
Nightman/Gambit
Prime/Captain America (featuring a evil Bill Clinton , ha !)
Ultraforce/Spider-man
The Phoenix Resurrection

Mutants vs Ultras (which collects Prime vs Hulk , Nightman vs Wolverine & Exiles vs X-men)
http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/55619504898.1.gif

If you want to get individual series , my recommendation would be Prime , it was a fun series. Very nice early art by Norm breyfogle , however the series declined towards the end.

[FrogMan]

Actually, I used to have a bunch of these Ultraverse comics, but they were casualties of a bad breakup back in 1999, along with my complete Transformers run, my complete Micronauts run, every Avengers comic I ever owned, plus my complete runs of New Warriors, Darkhawk, Heroes for Hire, and all the Heroes Reborn crap. PLus a few other sets I had.

I've been slowly rebuilding my collection of stuff that the Evil One wouldn't give me back. Since I was rebuying my Ultraforces, I figured I'd try and get a complete set of Ultraverse stuff.

Okay, so Prime is on the list to get next. How about Mantra?

[FanboyStranger]

James Robinson's Firearm is, in my opinion, the best of all the Ultraverse titles. I would recommend picking up 1-18 at once if you can. You occasionally see a lot up on eBay.

[FrogMan]

OKay Firearm is on the list of ones to get next.

How's the RUNE series?

[IMJ]

OKay Firearm is on the list of ones to get next.

How's the RUNE series?

There is a real niche group of guys over on the Valiant fans website forum that collect these too. A true complete universe of these comics is actually somewhat hard to put together with all of the goofy variants, and some very hard to find ashcans...

[FrogMan]

I'm not trying to collect variant covers and whatnot. Just one copy of each story is good enough for me.

Can anybody tell me if Rune appeared in any issues of Warlock and the Infinity Watch?

[Expletive Deleted]

I don't believe so, no (http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/runeuv.htm).

[FrogMan]

Here's a question. Is it the Strangers that everyone says isn't actually part of the Ultraverse? If so, why does it say Ultraverse on covers?

[oenglish]

Here's a question. Is it the Strangers that everyone says isn't actually part of the Ultraverse? If so, why does it say Ultraverse on covers?

While I'm not sure what book "everyone says" isn't really part of the Ultraverse, but Strangers should not be that book. Its a very old-school team comic book, written by Steve Englehart (who also did Night Man for the Ultraverse). Personally I thought it seemed a little sedate - it flet more like reading a Charlton book than a Marvel or a DC book, but its still an enjoyable run.

My own thoughts: Hardcase and Prototype were both pretty solid books, some of the better ones. Ultraforce was clearly the class of the various series. For some reason, I had a particular fondness for two sidebooks: Solitaire (a 12? issue series with a ganglord's son trying to make things right) and Siren (which came out at the end of the Ultraverse's lifespan when they were getting a little slimy and doing lots of "bad girl" stuff, but this one seemed to try to be a "bad girl" book and instead came out as just a fun four-issue miniseries of a very Marvel style heroine). Oh, good lord, how can I forget Sludge - if you like Stever Gerber's Man-Thing, you will like this (and if not, well - go find something else!). And Freex was a lot of fun too, if you like a New Mutants-ish or DP7-like teens-on-the-run kind of vibe.

To avoid: run like heck as far and as fast as you can from Mantra, Rune, and any spin-offs of those or of Prime.

While I read a very few of these off the rack, I did the same thing you're doing about 5 or 10 years back -I just put together a list of what I had and started watching comic books shop quarter bins (well, now they're more like dollar bins) for any of the Ultraverse stuff I was missing. At those kind of prices, most of it is worth reading, though, well, Mantra is still just way wrong...

Anyway, all my opinions - your own mileage will vary.

[Strannik]

Here's a question. Is it the Strangers that everyone says isn't actually part of the Ultraverse? If so, why does it say Ultraverse on covers?

The concept pre-dated Ultraverse, but it was integrated into Ultraverse as it was developed.

[marshal99]

I'm not trying to collect variant covers and whatnot. Just one copy of each story is good enough for me.

Can anybody tell me if Rune appeared in any issues of Warlock and the Infinity Watch?

He didn't appeared but he stole the infinity gems from the watch in Rune/Silver surfer (even thanos) , it was never explained why the watch never went after the thief.
Warlock on the other hand , went to the ultraverse to retrieve back his soulgem and appeared in a story with Rune in the ultraverse unlimited anthology series.

http://i14.ebayimg.com/03/i/08/e6/54/48_1_b.JPG

[WMichael]

Frogman and I have already had some conversations, but I want to reply to some of the posts appearing here.

First, regarding The Strangers -- there have been a couple of different books from different publishers using that name: Straners/Image Comics, Strangers in Paradise/Antarctic Comics -- along with a second series by Abstract Comics and a third series by Homage Comics. There was also a title called Stranger's Tale.

But the Malibu comics title The Strangers was very much part of the Ultraverse. As a matter of fact, their first issue depicted the beginning of the Ultraverse when a bunch of people on a trolley car in San Francisco were hit by some strange force, and which created "Ultras." The Malibu books were published from June 1993 through May of 1995. An annual was published in December of 1994.

Unlike one of the other posters, I actually began reading Mantra when it first began in 1993. I thought it was pretty incredible, but then Mike Barr is a pretty renowned writer. The quality of the art was variable, sometimes terrific and sometimes not all that great. For example, Issue 1's cover illustration didnt' look like all that much, but the cover of issue 12 is almost like a portrait. No one could draw Eden Blake or Mantra like Dodson could.

Mantra covered a scope of 1500 years, beginning with the Warrior Lukasz fighting a perpetual battle of good and evil in the service of Archimage warring against his evil half brother Boneyard. Each time Lukasz was killed, his sould would take over the body of another man and he would continue the battle.

In the first issue, Lukasz has just been killed again, but this time he "comes back" only to find himself in the body of a woman. The scene of him waking up in the body of the beautiful Eden Blake, who apparently had apparently just finished making love with her boyfriend, is really pretty amazing.

Eden is a complex character, a single mom raising 2 kids, one of which is a rebellious young teenage son and the other a little daughter. She has a regular job, although later she goes to work at Alladin -- sort of the Malibu equivalent of Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.

Her new persona is as much or more sorceress than warrior and she must maintain Eden's identity while she slowly learns to master her new powers. The book certainly takes a few humorous shots and maybe expectable jabs as s/he has to adapt to men hitting on Eden, dealing with having breasts and female plumbing, and learning to walk in high heels.

The story goes off into some interesting and very varied story lines. Lukasz falls in love with Eden and begins sort of a consciousness sharing with her. As Mantra, what is almost a totally separate identity begins to develop. There is an entire world that exists within Mantra's cape. Lukasz, as a male personna has to deal with being very attracted to beautiful females, but can't act on the attraction because he doesn't have a male body. And when he encounters a beautiful female who is attacted to Mantra/Eden Blake, he cannot react to that situation either because he knows the attaction is for the wrong reason.

The last few issues did go down hill something awful in terms of storyline, and then it went for awful to downright horribly unvelievably and even unforgiveabley bad. Marvel decided they couldn't do much with a man who was inhabiting the body of a woman, who was also a female superhero -- it was all too complicated, with way too many gender issues.

So Eden and Lukasz sort of either died or disappeared after Black September and we got the "new Mantra." This was the person of Laura Sherwood, who had been Eden's baby sitter. She quickly morphed into a young and dumb valley girl type, and the book went cheesecake beyond reason. The fans began writing hate letters and the title was cancelled after 7 regular issues, with a sort of apology by the editor.

Anyway, sorry I went on for so long, but as Frogman knows, I am a major Ultraverse collector, although actually I have not actually read many of the books, outside of Mantra. I believe so far I have identified about 435 individual titles, and with all the the special covers, ashcans, etc, I currently show about 475 books in total, but I am still discovering more new titles all the time.

Of course, there is also the Firearm vhs video which tells the first half of a story continued in Firearm Issue #0. And tons of collector cards, action figures, posters and on and on.

[GreatLakesAvengers]

I put my Ultraverse collection together about 5 years ago, as well. Cheap bins are WONDERFUL!

Anywho, I'm not sure what Oenglish didn't like about Mantra but, I remember enjoying the series very much. The concept was a novel idea and it was enjoyable watching Lukasz struggle to fill in for Eden's life. It was also fun watching him freak out when guys would hit on him (in Eden's body).

In short, read Mantra!

[WMichael]

You say you put your Ultraverse collection together 5 years ago, and I am curious if you found about the same number of titles as I have. I believe last count I was at right about 435 individual books, but if you add in all the variable covers, the total rises to about 475.

I think I am close to completing two full sets in VG to NM quality. Interestingly, I have found that some of the later issues are a little harder to find than the first issues. I guess in the beginning, Malibu simply flooded the market, but two years later, under Marvel, they dramatically reduced the total print run.

Malibu certainly tried some novel ideas, i.e., two different covers of an issue which put side by side complete a picture. In an other instance, there was a battle between two of their characters -- on one cover variation one of the characters is shown victorious, in a second variation the other is.

Even the Black September covers had variations -- some were printed in plain solid black, others looked more like one of those velvet paintings with generally good artwork on a black canvas.

I have put together a sort of check list of all the books and variations. If anyone wants a copy, I will be glad to e-mail it to them.

I have very high hopes and even a reasonable belief that in some way or form these characters might see life again some day. Joe Quesada, current Marvel chief has said he would like to resurrect them, but got thumbs down from higher ups.

Most of the creators have said they would be very cooperative in terms of waiving claims to any financial remunneration.

Just plug in Ultraverse into your browser and you will see hundreds of hits. And speaking of Mantra -- plug Mantraverse into your browser and you will see one of the best fan sites on the net.

[GreatLakesAvengers]

I've never sat down and counted them all but, the entire run fits into one long box and about half of a short box. Assuming 350 or so comics fit in a long box, I'd say you're pretty close.

I've managed to track down a lot of the variants ... but not all of them.

Most of the original titles debuted with a silver foil logo variant. These had a print run of 5,000. Many of them also had hologram variants. These are even harder to find.

The original titles had lower print runs as they progressed and the last 5-6 issues or so of the original volumes are usually pretty hard to find.

The titles launched after Marvel bought the company had infinity (black september) issues. Each infinity issue had a solid black cover as well as a regular cover. Each #1 issue had a computer-painted variant of the original cover. For every 5 issues of the regular cover that shipped, there was 1 issue of the "painted" variant. The last issues of these runs (Mantra v2, Rune v2, Prime v2, Ultraforce v2) are VERY hard to find.

Other titles have variants thrown in here and there. Prime #4 has a variant. So does #13. Mantra #8 has a variant, as well.


WMichael,
I'd love you to send me a list. I'll let you know what I've found over the years. I've also got a ton of Malibu comics available that you might be interested in. I can sell them cheap. Send me an email to strovei@hotmail.com

[WMichael]

I received a batch of Ultraverse books yesterday and the seller must have just thrown in for the heck of it what looks like some sort of promotional booklet. It is comic size and on the front it is a sort of brownish-black with orange splashes and in yellow lettering which says "Lord Pumpkin, Ultraverse Premiere Origin Tale, and there is a strange depiction also in yellow of the character.

The booklet is only 8 pages (four double sided pages), but the numbering at the bottom of the first inside to last inside page goes from Hero Illustrated 207 to Hero Illstrated 211. The pages have all separated, but the condition of the pages are a little aged looking but basically in fine shape

The inside front cover says:

Lord Pumpkin, Written and Created by Dan Danko, Illustrated by Aaron Lopresti, Colored by Albert Calleros, Lettered by Patrick Owsley, Character Designed by Tim Eldred.
Then, at the bottom of that page it reads:

LORD PUMPKIN ULTRAVERSE PREMIERE ORIGIN TALE is produced for HERO ILLUSTRATED by Malibu Comics.

I haven't been able to figure out how to post a picture right in this post, but I have attached a jpg if you want to see what it looks like. I cannot find any information in any of the pricing guides, so if anyone knows anything about this, I would appreciated hearing.

[WMichael]

Issue #0 of FIREARM originally came in a blister pack along with a 35 minute vhs video. I currently have 3 copies of the short movie and watched one for the first time tonight. Not exactly great cinema -- it ranks about 22 rungs below a really bad made-for-TV movie. Still, it was a pretty innovative idea, starting the first half of the story in a live-action video and then concluding the story in the pages of a comic book.

[Lord_Archive]

Its really a shame that Marvel wont acknowledge the contracts that Malibu gave to its staff requiring that a percentage of profits be given to the people that created the characters. A lot of those characters could be useful to the Marvel Universe - if reworked a little.

To a different degree, its kind of the same thing that happened to Charcoal of the Thunderbolts. I really miss that guy.

[marshal99]

I received a batch of Ultraverse books yesterday and the seller must have just thrown in for the heck of it what looks like some sort of promotional booklet. It is comic size and on the front it is a sort of brownish-black with orange splashes and in yellow lettering which says "Lord Pumpkin, Ultraverse Premiere Origin Tale, and there is a strange depiction also in yellow of the character.

The booklet is only 8 pages (four double sided pages), but the numbering at the bottom of the first inside to last inside page goes from Hero Illustrated 207 to Hero Illstrated 211. The pages have all separated, but the condition of the pages are a little aged looking but basically in fine shape

The inside front cover says:

Lord Pumpkin, Written and Created by Dan Danko, Illustrated by Aaron Lopresti, Colored by Albert Calleros, Lettered by Patrick Owsley, Character Designed by Tim Eldred.
Then, at the bottom of that page it reads:

LORD PUMPKIN ULTRAVERSE PREMIERE ORIGIN TALE is produced for HERO ILLUSTRATED by Malibu Comics.

I haven't been able to figure out how to post a picture right in this post, but I have attached a jpg if you want to see what it looks like. I cannot find any information in any of the pricing guides, so if anyone knows anything about this, I would appreciated hearing.

I'm not sure whether those free ashcan comics given with hero illustrated magazine has any value.
Every issue of Hero illustration has a free ashcan comic , ranging from malibu , dark horse , image etc.

[FrogMan]

Hey WMichael, I don't know if you already knew this, but in my Malibu Ultraverse search, I realized that Rune makes appearances in Conan #4 (1995 series) and Conan the Savage #4 (1995 series.)

They tie in with the Rune vs Conan oneshot.

[WMichael]

Actually I did know that there was a Conan/Rune book, however, I don't believe it was published under the Ultraverse banner. I don' think Conan ever appeared in the Ultraverse, because Conan took place at a much different time. Rune on the other hand was immortal and thousands of years old, so he could have appeared prior to the time of the Ultraverse.

[WMichael]

Anyone else going to Sandy Eggo Comicom? My wife and I will be there, appearing as Jay and Silent Bob!

[WMichael]

Next year, 2008, marks the 15th Anniversary of the beginning publications of the Ultraverse, rights to which are now owned by Marvel.

I think it would be great if folks would e-mail Marvel managing editor Joe Quesada asking him to consider some sort of acknowledgement of that anniversary.

I would love to see a "Best of the Ultraverse" TPB or perhaps a Gold Collectors re-issue of the first issue of each title.

Send E-mail to Joe@JoeQuesada.com

[WMichael]

If there is anyone who is interested in the Ultraverse, or is an Ultraverse collector, please contact me by e-mail at Michael@ArrowpointRealty.com

Your address will be shared with about 5 other people as of now who are on the Ultraverse e-mail distribution list.

If you come across another person interested in the Ultraverse or an Ultraverse collector, have him or her send me an e-mail to be added to the distribution list.

I have been researching for weeks and have created a list of issues and variant covers which should be close to complete. If you would like pdf copy e-mailed to you, let me know -- even if you do not want to be on the distribution list.

Once you get the pdf list, if you have, or know for sure of a cover or issue not on this list, please let me or the group know.

Any future e-mails are intended to be very infrequent, primarily to distribute collector updates.

Next year marks the 15th anniversary of the Ultraverse (1993 -2008) and I have been on several websites asking people to write to Marvel managing editor Joe Quesada to do something to mark that anniversary, such as a trade paperback of all the first issues, or a "Best of the Ultraverse.' I have even added Joe to our mailing list -- hope he doesn't mind.

You can join in encouraging Joe to consider this by e-mailing him at joe@joequesada.com

Btw, I was at San Diego Comicon this year and thought that next year might also be a great occasion to present a look back at the very interesting story of little upstart Malibu comics and the origins of The Ultraverse.

Best wishes,

Michael

[FrogMan]

Hey can any of you Ultraverse pros gimme a a hand with this series? I just finished reading the final Prototype issue (#18) and on the last page it advertises the Prototype: Turf War miniseries, that is supposed to tie up all the loose ends from the regular series.

I can't find it anywhere. It was never published, right?

[Frank]

My favorite was Rune and all the things BWS created with the cyber brain, Gemini, etc...Barry Smith had gone insane...but in a good way. :D

[WMichael]

Hey can any of you Ultraverse pros gimme a a hand with this series? I just finished reading the final Prototype issue (#18) and on the last page it advertises the Prototype: Turf War miniseries, that is supposed to tie up all the loose ends from the regular series.

I can't find it anywhere. It was never published, right?


There was a Prototype Giant Size edition,which followed after issues 0-18. Its 3 am and books beginning with "P" are in boxes in bottom of the closet, but I'll try and dig through this weekend and see if the annual has the "Turf Wars in it.

[FrogMan]

There was a Prototype Giant Size edition,which followed after issues 0-18. Its 3 am and books beginning with "P" are in boxes in bottom of the closet, but I'll try and dig through this weekend and see if the annual has the "Turf Wars in it.

I have a Giant Size Prototype, but it is the conclusion of the HOSTILE TAKEOVER crossover. Do you mean a second Giant size Prototype? mycomicshop.com has it listed twice, but the picture shows the same cover for both entries.

hmmm

[pimp1911]

Michael thanks for the PDF's. The quest begins.

[WMichael]

I have a Giant Size Prototype, but it is the conclusion of the HOSTILE TAKEOVER crossover. Do you mean a second Giant size Prototype? mycomicshop.com has it listed twice, but the picture shows the same cover for both entries.

hmmm

Only one Protoype Giant Size/Annual that I know of.