Martinex1: Today we need all of the BitBA lurkers, commentators, visitors, and drifters to join in and help out with the conversation...because I know virtually nothing about the topic today. We need to Chew the Fat about Marvel's New Universe!
In the late 1980's under the guidance of Jim Shooter, Marvel launched a new brand that ostensibly was to focus on "super" characters in the real world. The original premise (and rather than reboot the existing Marvel Universe) was to explore what it would be like to have powers on our very own planet. This of course was originally how Stan Lee charted Marvel in the beginning; and this was a bit of an update on that concept in the '80s.
A number of titles launched (see below) and this is where my knowledge is virtually nil. The New Universe arrived right during a lull in my collecting so it is a gap that I have not filled. The brand existed between 1986 and 1989 with eight titles (the longest ran for 32 issues).
I've managed to pick up some tidbits like Jim Shooter wrote Star Brand before his departure from the company; later it was written and drawn by none other than John Byrne. Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan worked on D.P.7. Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz created Kickers Inc. And Archie Goodwin penned a number of titles. Both John Buscema and Mike Zeck contributed covers to Mark Hazzard: MERC.
Take a look at the covers and brief descriptions below. And please share all you know about the New Universe! Recommendations and warnings are all welcome today.
D.P.7 focuses on seven powered individuals on the run from an agency hunting the paranormal.
Justice focuses on a vengeful knight from another dimension who doles out alien justice.
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Kickers Inc. focuses on powered football players who hire out their services.
Mark Hazzard: MERC follows a Vietnam vet who hires out for mercenary work.
Nightmask can enter people's dreams.
Psi-Force are also on the run from the government, but together they can become a psi-hawk!
Star Brand follows the adventures of a teen who receives the mysterious alien brand.
There you have it...now let's get the conversation started! (Somebody please say you have read some of these books)!
20 comments:
Regrettably I can only say I have never seen these and know nothing about them. :(
Can't help you too much, either, even though I had a few of them.
These hit when I got back into comics for a while after a hiatus in the mid-1980s. I remember having the first issue of Star Brand and the first few issues of DP 7 (which, as I recall, wasn't a bad series at all). None of the other titles really interested me, although I've heard from other fans later that Nightmask wasn't too bad.
The thing is, it wasn't a bad idea at all. But I think it should have started smaller, with one or two (or three tops) titles released, and then gradually building up from there (kind of like the original Marvel U grew, sort of 'organically'), instead of launching a whole bunch of titles virtually all at once.
Collecting all things Byrne, I ended up with the whole Starbrand series.
Some JRjr art in the early issues then Byrne later on. Went thru about 5 writers in only 19 issues but I think Byrne was starting to get on a roll when it got axed. Too bad.
Others have told me D.P.7 is pretty good but haven't read any myself.
What I've just read here actually comprises virtually all I know about the New Universe now.
I've seen a lot of these books languishing in the back issue boxes of my LCS for a while now, so they definitely must have had their fans.
Sorta reminds me of that other line of comics which Shooter ran for a bit, Broadway comics, if only superficially.
I wanted to love the New Universe, being right at the age where the thought of being "on the ground floor" of another Marvel phenomenon was too tempting.
I bought Starbrand #1 and didn't think much of it. I thought Justice and DP7 looked interesting, and actually got about the first 7 issues of each of those series.
They were okay, but this was around the time when DC was experiencing an incredible renaissance, and with their "Mature Readers" comics being especially compelling, I was pretty much lured away from Marvel entirely, so New Universe couldn't hold my interest.
I did start picking up Starbrand when Byrne took over, but it didn't really hold my interest. And I'm pretty sure I bought the one-shot "The Pitt" (where Pittsburgh blows up) but don't think I even read it.
And that "ground floor" buzz would return later for stuff like Valiant (in which Shooter seems to revive a lot of New Universe ideas) and, later, Image Comics.
[and being older and wiser now, I see that the "ground floor" universe impulse doesn't seem to work out much]
-david p.
I was really interested in the premise of these when they came out (summer of 1986, if I remember correctly - I turned 15).
I got Starbrand, Psi-Force, and Spitfire and the Troubleshooters. I dropped Spitfire pretty quickly, stuck with Starbrand maybe 6 or 7 issues and had Psi-Force the longest - maybe 12 or 15 issues? (I remember the art being so terrible eventually I dropped it)
Most of what I know about the New Universe is the behind the scenes resentment at Shooter from the rest of the bullpen about doing this, and how they burned him in effigy in the backyard of (I think) Byrne's house, using copies of New Universe books to fill out the body, and that after Shooter left and some of the books got consolidated they wrote The Pitt, which makes Pittsburgh (Shooter's hometown) into a giant hole.
I agree with most people these days, that the universe would have done better slowly introduced over time rather than so many titles at once (Lion Forge Comics is currently introducing their own superhero universe and used this approach, having introduced five titles over the course of a year or so).
The titles were wildly uneven in terms of art and writing. I know lots of people that swear by DP7, but I never tried it.
I have mixed memories about NU. Some of the titles care awful, but the bright spots are bright. Psi-Firce in particular is really good. Mark Texiera is on art at the beginning and then Rin Lim takes over. A young Fabian Nicieza takes over writing the book on issue 15 or 16 and the book gets really progressive and interesting. I would definitely recommend that book.
PSI Force and D.P.7 were my faves, and I thought they were quite well done. New Universe titles were pretty interesting, especially during the first year and a half of their run when they had Marvel's top tier talent working on them.. After that, I believe they went to a direct marketing distribution model, which in the eighties would have really limited their distribution.
The first 12 issues or so of Star Brand were really quite promising as well, although the main character was a bit of a dick.
It is a shame that there is so little information on them out there. There were some Trade paperbacks released in 2016, but they seem to be as illusive as the originals.The Starbrand ones seem to be the most available.
I bought Star Brand and nothing else that I recall. I thought it was okay, but I can't recall much of it today. I wasn't crazy about Byrne's issues either, since he was inked by Tom Palmer it looked more like Palmer than Byrne.
I did pick up 'The Pitt', 'The Draft' and 'The War', the stories that were meant to wrap up all the New Universe stories. However, I don't remember much about those books either. Didn't make much of an impact on me.
I am a fan of the New Universe and always have fonf memories of this imprint. Folks always discuss its demise and catastrophic creative situation but I choose to remember how much joy it brought me.
The first day I saw Star Brand number one I was hooked. The 80s was when I began my comics collecting fascination! I was obsessed with my Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and while I could not afford any of the key books at the time I knew number one issues were a big deal back then! So when a whole New Universe of titles were debuting I was gonna be on ground level!
I bought every book! Some I liked more than others. Yes..I loved Kickers Inc as a kid! I hated Football at the time but the Ron Frenz artwork drew me in!
Spitfire and The Trouble Shooters was everything I looked for in a teen superhero book! It would have made a great Saturday Morning Cartoon!
Merc was another Punisher style hero that I was all about at the time.
Yes..these were my heroes and I was loving them..but NONE of my other friends were!!??
I couldnt understand it!! I was so engaged in this new concept and but no one else was. My friends commented that it wasnt in the Regular Marvel Universe. Despite the negativity I trudged onwards but even I its biggest fan began seeing dents in the armor. When a host of books were cancelled at year one I knew it was in trouble.
Looking back now I see that this project was Dead On Arrival!! I cant help but wonder what it would have been like if everything worked out and these books were popular. I would love to see a New Universe relaunched with the original concepts and not the teeny bopper versions of Starbrand and Nightmask we see today.
I remember when these came out (they were heavily promoted in the regular comics) but I never read any of them; they just never appealed to me. In fact, I don't even remember these being on the racks ... Andrew mentioned they went to Direct only later in their runs, but I don't remember them at all. (Unless my disinterest has just blotted them from my mind ;))
My reaction to these was a giant "Meh."
That is also my reaction to a great deal of the work of John Byrne.
Can't add anything to the discussion today; I've never opened an issue. By that time I was mostly out of comics, and had no interest in the New Universe;even Spidey was failing for me...
Thanks for all if the info and feedback. Thanks to the new commentators for jumping in. Sounds like Psi Force, DP 7, and Starbrand are the ones to look for if any.
Something that wasn’t mentioned is that the Starbrand made its way into the Marvel Universe in the pages of Quasar with Gruenwald writing. I don’t know what happened but I do recalll that they ultimately linked universes through the Starbrand. Does anybody recall that and know details?
Now...whatever happened to the Malibu line???
DP 7 was easily the best of the bunch, both in concept and execution. Psi-Force had some good potential. Star Brand was mostly a Green Lantern/Lensman retread with little new going for it, beyond being the Trigger Event for the New Universe.
Kickers Inc was, for me at least, the worst of the batch - painfully so.
Several titles had potential, but there was a LOT of pressure on them and they given the chance to develop. If it hadn't been such a high profile event there might have been better results in the long run.
The big books - The Pitt, The Draft, The War - really aren't worth reading unless you're already involved with some of the other titles.
Martinex, on Malibu: one of the regulars at the Classic Comics Forum has been posting about Malibu since yesterday. It's a pretty deep dive, starting with Eternity Comics, and he touches on what happened (not much) after Marvel acquired the line.
Thanks for that info Edo. Cheers!
I had just started collecting comic books when the New Universe appeared. Having read Sons of Origins, I saw this as a chance to be at the dawn of a new part of Marvel history. I really enjoyed D.P. 7 - sort of a 'more realistic' (to that 11 year old's mind) X-Men. I also liked PSI-Force, but I only keep reading D.P. 7 up to The Pitt. They were a great introduction to comic books, along with most things Marvel and DC were putting out in 86/87. I can't tell whether that era of comic books was truly great - for me, up to about 90/91, due to industry changes in art styles - or whether I was just at the right age where the medium ensnared me. Either way, my memories of New Universe remain largely positive. At the time I thought its end had been preplanned, an edgy conclusion to make those titles stand apart from legacy characters who went on for decades with little change. Little did I know...
I remember the launch of New Universe back then, all the hype and hoopla. I think it was an idea ahead of it's time though. I did try some of the titles, Spitfire immediately jumped out at me because I was (and still am) a huge Iron Man fan. Star Brand, Psi-Force, I even think I still have the first issue of Kickers somewhere.
But I don't really remember too much about them and I never really followed any of the titles with any regularity. I do recall the Pitt one-shot (but at that time was unaware of the backstory behind that).
Recently though, I've read Warren Ellis' limited relaunch as New Universal, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As others have mentioned, perhaps a slower introduction of characters and concepts may have helped build steam with this project among fans. Ellis takes a similar approach here. Spurred on by that, I tracked down copies of the Star Brand and DP7 trades which were recently released. I thought DP7 was quite decent while I haven't gotten around to reading Star Brand just yet.
Either way, New Universe is still prime with untapped potential.
I bought them all at launch, but quickly gave up a few. DP7 was my favorite all the way through. When the line was pared down, I started picking up Star Brand and Justice again. Justice and Psi-Force picked up in quality after they pared the line down.
After it was cancelled, I went back and picked up all the issues I'd missed (cheap). Check out my New U site at http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/newu/ (which I should update).
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