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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 16, 2016 11:51:52 GMT -5
 "I wish I would've met you
Now it's a little late
What you could've taught me
I could have saved some face
They think that your early ending
Was all wrong
For the most part they're right
But look how they all got strong"~ Filter, "Hey Man, Nice Shot"September 1991- Four individuals from all walks of life and backgrounds are suddenly overtaken by startling new powers. Being of a sound moral compass, they seek to use their new abilities for the benefit of mankind (or at the very least, the Los Angeles area) as "The Squad" March 10th, 1992- Six Months have passed and the Squad is no more. After a fierce and seemingly unwinable battle against a xenomorphic brute named "N-Eme", two squad members are dead, with another in a coma. Tom Hawke, alias Hardcase, renounces his ways as an "Ultrahuman" to become a movie star out of fear. June 1993- A series of events are set in motion by unseen forces that grant "Ultrahuman" abilities to 59 people on a San Francisco cable car and one innocent bystander in a black miata. A roided up menace with goodly intentions attacks a high school gym coach for attempted pedophilia and injures a once profitiable drug empire. These circumstances, being so much like the ones that became Tom Hawke's way of life, force Hardcase back into the field of superheroics In another world, one so much like our own, a company by the name of Malibu Graphics was set to take the comic book world by storm. Headed up by some of the most gifted literary scribes of the time, a new universe was forged and given an extensive backstory at think tank summit. For two and a half years, they toiled away at books that were ahead of their time, only to be completely forgotten when they were absorbed into the corporate giant known as Marvel These, my friends, are the tales of The Ultraverse; told in the best way they possibly can, in chronological order |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
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Post by shaxper on Aug 16, 2016 11:55:44 GMT -5
Never read this and am only vaguely aware of what it was. I look forward to learning more.
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 16, 2016 12:43:38 GMT -5
 Hardcase #1, June 1993
Writer: James Hidnall, Artist: Jim CallahanPlot Overview: 1992, Tom Hawke (alias Hardcase) watches in dismay as his friends, his team members, are torn to shreds by an inhuman force of nature known as "N-eme". Jamal (alias DJ Blast) summons what's left of his strength to blow himself, Forza, and N-eme to pieces with a massive explosion while Hardcase and comatose Starburst make their escape. One year later, Hardcase is a breakout film star, much to the shagrin Justin Kuttner, a washed up 80's star. Hardcase is later approached by a LA police officer for an autograph and a question, "When are you coming back to crime fighting." Hardcase's answer is cut short by an APB on a bank robbery by an Ultrahuman named "Headknocker" With his accute sense of hearing, Hardcase hears Headknocker tossing about police officers like ragdolls and fleas the film set to aid them. Alas, he's too late and the cop that approached him earlier is dead, but Headknocker's not coming out unscathed either. A brutal fight, that's later speculated to cost up to a couple of million in damages, takes place and Headknocker is brutally wounded by a police car to the face. Elsewhere, a mysterious person in an underground lair is furious that Hardcase is still alive Overall Thoughts: A very strong start that's quite bombastic in a good way, giving the feel of a four-color opera that really hasn't been seen since the golden age of Marvel in the 60's. There are some bits of dialouge that I question like Hardcase's monolouge that opens the issue, but that can be easily overlooked. Tom/Hardcase has a lot of interesting elements, both with his powerset and personality, that make him seem grounded and relatable as a main character. A lot have compared him to a pulp hero with some bits of golden age Superman thrown in like being able to "jump" instead of fly. N-Eme, the being that killed the Squad, is baffling to me due to how much he resembles a Xenomorph from the Alien franchise. How Malibu was never sued over this is strange at best Score: 9.5/10 |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2016 13:41:35 GMT -5
Really going to enjoy this. I only was able to read Prime, Hardcase & Ultraforce.
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 16, 2016 13:50:57 GMT -5
Really going to enjoy this. I only was able to read Prime, Hardcase & Ultraforce. Hope you do~ As I've said before, I have a love for the Ultraverse that spans the stars and time itself as it's what endeared me to the concept of"Forgotten/Dead Universes". Prime, Hardcase, Rune, Sludge, The Solution, and Mantra are all personal favorites, but Nightman is extra special to me. I grew up watching the live action tv series from the late 90's that Glenn A. Larson did |
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Post by Action Ace on Aug 16, 2016 15:07:27 GMT -5
In an era when there seemed to be a new comic "universe" coming out every week, the Ultraverse was my favorite.
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 16, 2016 17:46:33 GMT -5
The only Ultraverse title I read regularly was  I loved that Malibu was so progressive and generous with their creators. At the time it seemed like so many companies were trying to do their take on the integrated universe :  Dark Horse,  Valiant,  Milestone,  Topps,  Marvel UK,  and Defiant. We all look back at the 90's too harshly I think. Yes there was a lot of bad, but IMO, a lot of it came from Marvel and tiny little crappy imprints mostly, though everyone didn't have perfection to be sure. Looking back at these images reminds that I still have, and love, these issues. |
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Post by coinilius on Aug 16, 2016 17:54:20 GMT -5
There was a really good issue of Comicscene which was about all the new comic book universes that we're starting around the same time - Uktraverse, the Dark Horse ones, maybe the Clive Barker-verse comics marvel was doing as well - I can't remember exactly what all the content was, but I think Warriors of Plasm was in there too lol
I enjoyed what I read of the Ultraverse, which was mainly Prime and Mantra.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2016 20:41:16 GMT -5
We all look back at the 90's too harshly I think.
Yes there was a lot of bad, but IMO, a lot of it came from Marvel and tiny little crappy imprints mostly, though everyone didn't have perfection to be sure.
The 90's weren't all bad. For me it started to fall apart when Malibu was sold to Marvel & Valiant was bought by Acclaim. Plus early Image was crap & DC & Marvel scrambled with all the new publishers & made some really terrible decisions. By the end of the 90's it started to turn around again.
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 16, 2016 21:12:11 GMT -5
True
Some of the Acclaim stuff wasn't great, but some was, like their Shadowman, and Solar.
Marvel got good under Quesada & Palmiotti with the Marvel Knights line, definitely.
Of the covers I've shown here, I'd still buy any one of those titles. That was good stuff.
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Post by foxley on Aug 17, 2016 3:56:19 GMT -5
Looking forward to this. I really enjoyed The Strangers, Mantra and The Solution.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2016 4:13:50 GMT -5
I read everything when it first came out up until Break Thru which was my breaking point from the line. I tried again with Godwheel, but by that point it was a dire mess trying to be tacked on to the Marvel Universe. I did stay with a few series, and I think the class of the Ultraverse books was James Robinson's Firearm. The Warren Ellis/George Perez Ultraforce stuff was interesting as well for what it was, but was by no means the best work either creator did in that time period. The Ultraforce cartoon and action figure line were also ok for what they were, and Lord Pumpkin was one of my favorite visual designs from that era and a concept with a lot of untapped potential that never got materialized. It was also nice to see Mike Ploog do Sludge, and I was hyped for BWS to do something but Rune was underwhelming when it finally did appear. To make it worse, the Break Thru linewide crossover was pretty dire even with Perez art, and some of the concepts felt like they were forced to fit in with the core conceits of the shared sandbox, like the writers they recruited had ideas they wanted to explore that were square pegs but had to be bashed into round holes to fit the shared continuity of the Malibuverse, as a lot of things felt tacked on to concepts that otherwise would have stood free of the central concept to make it fit and acted as albatross around the necks of those series. There were a lot of great ideas being bandied about by a lot of talented creators, but not all of them fit together well but they were forced to kitbash those ideas together to make yet another shared universe anyways.
-M
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Post by DubipR on Aug 17, 2016 11:16:40 GMT -5
James Robinson on Firearm was solid. As was Warren Ellis on Ultraforce (with Perez pencils)
I liked Mantra quite a bit. Sludge had potential but fell apart. Rune came out infrequent but lovely artwork.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 17, 2016 16:50:43 GMT -5
I dropped out when Rune was thrown into the back of every issue. It was shocking how crappy BWS's work was in that run. Or maybe I just hated the concept.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 17, 2016 16:52:53 GMT -5
Of all the Universes, I thought that Comics Greatest World by DH showed a lot of promise. They had some nice spin off books from their initial offerings.
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