The Marvel Universe and the "New" Universe

[Evil_T0NY]

This is a blast from the Past, an old Marvel Comic ad I had buried in my place for a time

I never really followed it too much back then, but what does it mean?

Marvel Universe then New Universe (http://etexperience.blogspot.com/2009/01/marvel-blast-from-past.html)

Was that the one where Spiderman got his black costume?

[Shellhead]

No, that was when Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter started up a separate comic book line in it's own setting. Initially, the only connection between the Marvel Universe and the New Universe was that the Beyonder from those two Secret Wars events used his vast power to create the New Universe.

I tried some of the New Universe titles. They seemed to be striving for real-time stories, meaning that every twelve issues, the characters would all be a year older. The setting was much closer to our Earth than the Earth-616 of the standard Marvel Universe... basically everything was just like our Earth, except with the recent addition of some superhuman characters. Oh, and Pittsburgh was so completely destroyed in one issue of Starbrand that it was renamed the Pitt.

Rumor has it that Shooter was planning to end the mainstream Marvel titles and switch completely over to the New Universe, but that seems too crazy to be accurate. More likely, one of the many, many writers or artists that Shooter pissed off started up this rumor to get back at him, and all the other pissed-off creators were happy to spread the rumor. Then again, Shooter did get fired a couple of years after the New Universe started up, so maybe there was some truth behind the rumor.

With Shooter gone, the New Universe titles soon ended, though there was an interesting crossover event where a bunch of these superhumans got recruited by the U.S. military to fight terrorism or something. I believe that it was called The War. A little later on, Quasar from the mainstream Marvel Universe acquired the power of the Starbrand. I had already dropped his title, so I don't know that happened, but the Starbrand symbol was very distinctive. And a few years back, there was a very brief revival, with a couple of issues of Exiles set in the New Universe, and then a one-shot or something. I didn't read any of those.

[Scavenger]

There's no conenction to the Beyonder with the New Universe. There was an add that looked like there might be, but apparantly not.

The rumor is that Marvel was going to lose the rights to the various Kirby created folks. So thus, the New Universe was created. I'm hoping Comic Book Legends Revealed tackles this at some point.



Quasar at one point was bouncing through the multiverse. He wound up in the New Universe and with the Star Brand was able to jump start his quantum powers to get home.

[Shellhead]

There's no conenction to the Beyonder with the New Universe. There was an add that looked like there might be, but apparantly not.


In Secret Wars II #9, Molecule Man kills the Beyonder. The Beyonder's vast power reverts to the Beyond-Realm from which he came, causing the Big Bang that starts the New Universe.

[Expletive Deleted]

It was just a new line of comics, in its own universe. No connection to the MU until much, much later. Some of the titles were pretty decent (Shooter's STARBRAND and Gruenwald's D.P. 7, especially), but it collapsed after Shooter left. It was kind of interesting how it imploded, actually. The minute Shooter left, his pet character (Starbrand) was used to obliterate his home town (Pittsburgh) in the middle of a comic book convention and his carefully crafted "real world, with superpowers" setting instantly became a dystopia. It was all downhill from there.

The current (albeit irregularly published) series NEWUNIVERSAL is a revamp of the various New Universe properties by Warren Ellis.

[Expletive Deleted]

In Secret Wars II #9, Molecule Man kills the Beyonder. The Beyonder's vast power reverts to the Beyond-Realm from which he came, causing the Big Bang that starts the New Universe.It created a new universe, but not explicitly the New Universe. The FF visited it later on, although I suppose you could argue that was a retcon.

[ComiXFanBoy]

They seemed to be striving for real-time stories, meaning that every twelve issues, the characters would all be a year older. The setting was much closer to our Earth than the Earth-616 of the standard Marvel Universe... basically everything was just like our Earth, except with the recent addition of some superhuman characters. Oh, and Pittsburgh was so completely destroyed in one issue of Starbrand that it was renamed the Pitt.

ahhh the almighty shooter. he had an idea to create a universe that was more similar to reality which was less powerful and more realistic characters that aged at the same time we did. he did the samething with valiant comics. when he was fired from marvel, the people that were pissed off at him decided to destroy pittsburgh because that is shooters hometown. no surprise really that the series went downhill when shooter was let go. marvel lost a great visionary but at least that gave us valiant comics

[Shellhead]

It created a new universe, but not explicitly the New Universe. The FF visited it later on, although I suppose you could argue that was a retcon.

I suppose, but once you factor in that Shooter created the Beyonder, wrote both Secret Wars minis, and created the New Universe, all within the space of about 2 years, the connection looks pretty blatant.

[Scavenger]

In Secret Wars II #9, Molecule Man kills the Beyonder. The Beyonder's vast power reverts to the Beyond-Realm from which he came, causing the Big Bang that starts the New Universe.

I suppose, but once you factor in that Shooter created the Beyonder, wrote both Secret Wars minis, and created the New Universe, all within the space of about 2 years, the connection looks pretty blatant.

There was a house ad that implied that the New Universe was that "new realm" and I certainly thought that at the time, but it never was done as a story point or officially mentioned.

Perhaps that was the initial plan and then fell though. shurg.

Another reason this should be covered in Comic Legends Revealed!

[Cthulhudrew]

The rumor is that Marvel was going to lose the rights to the various Kirby created folks. So thus, the New Universe was created. I'm hoping Comic Book Legends Revealed tackles this at some point.

There was an interview not too long ago with Shooter (http://web.archive.org/web/20010509182726/www.comicbookresources.com/features/shooter1/index3.shtml) that discussed the genesis of the New Universe. Basically, it came out of a creative summit as a question of how to celebrate Marvel's 25th anniversary. As he recalls it, someone had suggested a relaunch, but then he suggested a complete new line/universe. Some interesting reading about it on that part of the interview, including how it all kind of went awry.

Too bad, because Starbrand (before Shooter stopped writing it) and DP7 were great titles. I had some friends that really loved MERC, Psi-Force, and Justice, though I never really got into those myself. The Pit, the Draft, and the War really screwed things up, even though they were pretty logical/reasonable outcomes from the second White Event that occurred in Starbrand when Byrne took over. I don't quite recall how/whether the second White Event was Byrne's baby or more of an editorial mandate, but it really threw the whole line off, IMO. DP7 managed to make the best of it, and Gru was able to come up with some really good stories in spite of it.

[The Sword Is Drawn]

Ever watched Heroes, on NBC?

Yeah, well it was kinda like that. The New Universe was another universe with no superhumans until the day some kind of cosmic event occurs. Then certain people gain superpowers...

Sound familiar? Marvel really aught to sue those guys for plagiarism. :rolleyes:

[Evil_T0NY]

Wow...very good feedback and insight guys....I think I lost interest in 86 in comics (at that point in my life), that's when I became a Freshman in HS. :biggrin:

[Scavenger]

Too bad, because Starbrand (before Shooter stopped writing it) and DP7 were great titles. I had some friends that really loved MERC, Psi-Force, and Justice, though I never really got into those myself.


Psi-force and Justice took off when Fabian Nicieza and Peter David took over them. And both keep going back to the ideas in their series. (PAD has re-finished Justice at least twice, in his Psi-Man series and in Spider-Man 2099...though I want to say also in Star Trek).

[Dusty.]

I suppose, but once you factor in that Shooter created the Beyonder, wrote both Secret Wars minis, and created the New Universe, all within the space of about 2 years, the connection looks pretty blatant.

Yep, I always took the end of Secret Wars II to be what created the New Universe, too. I thought it was very obvious.

The New Universe had some good ideas, but the only book to establish itself was DP7, because all 32 issues were done by Gruenwald and Ryan. Star Brand was good when Shooter and Romita Jr. started it, and even better when John Byrne and Tom Palmer took it over after the first team didn't last 6 months. It was the lack of stable creative teams that killed it, initially, and with the exceptions of Shooter, Defalco, Gruenwald, Frenz, and Ryan, the other writers and artists weren't good enough to hold down a regular gig on Marvel's superhero line of comics. .