Ultraverse

The Ultraverse was a comic book imprint published by the American company Malibu Comics which is owned by Marvel Comics. The Ultraverse was a shared universe in which a variety of characters—known within the comics as "Ultras"—acquired super-human abilities.

History

The Ultraverse line was launched by Malibu Comics during the "comics boom" of the early 1990s. Ultraverse emphasized tight continuity between the various series in their line; Malibu made extensive use of crossovers, in which a story that began in one series would be continued in the next-shipping issue of another series. Various promotions for special editions or limited-print stories also encouraged readers to sample issues of the entire line. The Ultraverse line came to dominate Malibu's catalog. Several characters from the series Ultraforce were featured in a short-lived animated series by the same name.

As American comics sales declined in the mid-1990s, Malibu canceled lower-selling series. The company was purchased by Marvel Comics in 1994. Reportedly Marvel made the purchase to acquire Malibu's then-groundbreaking in-house coloring studio. In reality, Marvel purchased the line to prevent DC Comics from buying Malibu, in order to increase DC's market share.[1]

Marvel canceled the entire Ultraverse line, but (during the controversial Black September event) re-launched a handful of the more popular titles as well as a number of crossovers with Marvel characters. The initial move was foreseen with popular franchises and characters from the Avengers guest-starring in their books. The "volume 2" series each started with "#∞" (infinity) issues and were canceled a short time later. Within the Marvel Comics multiverse, the Malibu Universe is designated as Earth-93060.

Black September

When Malibu was bought out by Marvel Comics, the entire Ultraverse line was cancelled and restarted. Only a few of the more popular series were rebooted and relaunched, with some being radically altered. The history and continuity of the Ultraverse was retconned in numerous ways, and a number of characters simply ceased to exist (or in the new continuity, to have ever existed). This now-modified Ultraverse lasted less than a year and a half before being cancelled once again.

The event connects issues that were part of the countdown to Black September — Ultraforce #8-10, Ultraforce/Avengers Prelude, Avengers/Ultraforce, Ultraforce/Avengers — after which all the surviving Ultraverse titles restarted with a special "∞"-numbered issue.

Revival

In June 2005, when asked by Newsarama whether Marvel had any plans to revive the Ultraverse, Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada replied:

Let's just say that I wanted to bring these characters back in a very big way, but the way that the deal was initially structured, it's next to impossible to go back and publish these books.

There are rumors out there that it has to do with a certain percentage of sales that has to be doled out to the creative teams. While this is a logistical nightmare because of the way the initial deal was structured, it's not the reason why we have chosen not to go near these characters, there is a bigger one, but I really don't feel like it's my place to make that dirty laundry public.[2]

Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort has stated in the past that the reason Marvel cannot discuss the Ultraverse properties is because of non disclosure agreements in place with certain parties, which has been speculated to pertain to Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's contractual position as "ongoing producer deal for all Malibu Comics properties".[3]

Titles

Characters

Crossovers with Marvel Comics

References

  1. ↑ Cronin, Brian (December 16, 2016). "Comic Legends: Why Did Marvel REALLY Buy the Ultraverse?". CBR.com.
  2. ↑ "Joe Fridays - Week 9". Newsarama. May 2005. Archived from the original on March 23, 2006.
  3. ↑ De Blieck, Augie Jr. (December 17, 2013). "Miracleman, Malibu's Coloring Department & More!" CBR.com.
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