6/02/08
Newuniversal
The series New Universal by Warren Ellis and Salvador Larocca was initially released in 2006. The character concepts it uses, however, were conceived a full 20 years earlier, in a series of comic books published by Marvel Comics called The New Universe. Oddly enough, that line in itself was intended to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Marvel Comics, but that's just a coincidental bit of trivia.
Less-than-humble beginnings
The line was intended to be a contrasting alternative to the Marvel Universe, with a more "real-world" approach to its storytelling. Unlike the world of the Marvel Universe, the actions and consequences of the super-powered characters would have more realistic repercussions on the world, and a year would pass in the book for every year that passes in real life. The majority of the characters with super-powers gained their powers in one form or another from a white flash of light that enveloped the planet that became known as "The White Event".
There were eight books in the initial release of The New Universe:
- Nightmask - A young man named Keith Remsen gets injured in a car accident. He wakes up when the White Event occurs and finds that he is able to project himself into other people's dreams (think Dennis Quaid in the movie Dreamscape).
- Star Brand - Car mechanic Ken Connell receives a star-shaped tattoo called the Star Brand, which gives its bearer unbelievable energy powers (it had the premise of The Greatest American Hero with a whiny main character straight out of Thirtysomething).
- D.P. 7 - A small portion of the human population gained superpowers as a result of the White Event, and a medical facility was founded to help the people with more unusual and uncontrollable powers. A group of seven patients at the facility escape once they find out the sinister motives of the facility's director, Philip Voight.
- Justice - Tensen, a law officer from an alien dimension follows an evil dictator into our dimension to stop his plans of conquest. He possesses the ability to form a psychic shield with his left hand and his right hand is capable of instantly incinerating foes to dust.
- Marc Hazzard: Merc - The title character is a Vietnam veteran-turned-mercenary who uses his military expertise to make money while trying to maintain his relationship with his son and ex-wife.
- Spitfire & The Troubleshooters - College professor Jenny Swenson and a group of brilliant students fight various criminals using a robotic suit of armor created by her father.
- Kickers Inc. - A pro football quarterback named Jack Magniconte and some of his teammates form a group of heroes for hire after he gains superhuman strength and speed from the White Event.
- Psi-Force - A group of teenagers with psionic-based abilities are gathered by rogue CIA agent Emmet Proudhawk and, shortly after his death, stay banded together to protect themselves from agencies both domestic and foreign who would abuse their powers.
Four of the more forgettable books were cancelled after the first year, and the remaining books were overhauled by varying degrees before the entire line was cancelled in 1989. The universe and its characters made some appearances in other mainstream Marvel titles over the years (Spider-Man 2099, Quasar and Exiles among them), but they did not have their own series after their initial run.
A contemporary retooling
Enter uber-writer Warren Ellis and artist Salvador Larocca with New Universal. This series takes the more compelling character and story concepts of the original New Universe (Starbrand, Spitfire, Justice & Nightmask) and streamlines them into a single story, at the same time reinventing them and tying their origins even closer together.
New Universal takes the original New Universe concept and frames it within a sci-fi style story that is driven by what is quickly becoming the standard Warren Ellis plot device: a group of ordinary individuals gain extraordinary powers and are given (or take up on their own) a mandate to change the world. He explored this concept in a straight-up superhero setting with StormWatch & The Authority, and in a science-fiction/adventure setting with Planetary. The major difference with this story is that, true to the "real world" feel that Marvel was looking for with the original New Universe, the majority of the characters that gain powers do so under less-than-ideal circumstances. I'll elaborate on that in a little bit.
You don't have to have read the original stories from the 1980's to know what this story is about (because Ellis is just that damn good of a writer and Larocca's artwork almost jumps from the page into your brain), but here's a little bit of "Versus" style comparison to give you some history on the original characters as well as the new take that Ellis is using with them.
The White Event
1986: The White Event phenomenon appears across the world, transforming a number of individuals into Paranormals. The reason for the event, which is linked to the Starbrand, isn't elaborated on until about a year later.
2006: The White Event phenomenon appears across the world, endowing four people (with more to follow) with incredible powers. The origin of the event is explained immediately. An alien supercomputer travelling just outside of reality in what it calls the Superflow makes contact with our reality, causing a "Paradigm Shift" that empowers certain individuals to assist in bootstrapping the human race to the next level of evolution. This "Paradigm Shift" has happened multiple times throughout human history.
Starbrand
1986: Thirty-something Pittsburgh mechanic Ken Connell receives the Starbrand from a mysterious old man. At first he largely flounders around with unlimited power while he neglects relationships with his friends and fiancé. Once he finally gets it in his head to use his power as a superhero, he ends up doing more harm than good, destroying his hometown of Pittsburgh PA in the process.
2006: Oklahoma teenager Ken Connell (who, interestingly enough, is drawn by Larocca as if he is thirty-something) gets plastered with his girlfriend at a bar and falls asleep in an open field. He wakes up with the Starbrand on his hand and his girlfriend's charred corpse next to him. His powers draw the attention of the U.S. military and only the intervention of three other Starbrand bearers from different realities and the new Nightmask save him from having a nuclear bomb dropped on him.
Nightmask
1986: Keith Remsen uses his ability to project himself into other people's dreams to assist psychiatrist Dr. Ballard in dealing with problem patients. His younger sister Teddy uses her psychic bond with him to keep him ground in reality lest he get lost in the dreamscape.
2006: Goth girl Izanami Randall enters the Superflow and encounters the alien supercomputer as the White Event is occurring. It tells her that the Superflow is the place all sentient beings visit when they are dreaming, and explains that her Nightmask power enables her to traverse the Superflow at will. It also informs her of the existence of the other power designations that came from the Paradigm Shift (The Justice, The Starbrand and The Cipher among others).
Spitfire
1986: Professor Jenny Swenson takes the Man Amplified Xperiment (MAX) mechanized armor her father invented and uses it to fight injustice wherever she and her cohorts find it.
2006: Robotics designer Jenny Swann is desperately working to complete the Human Enhancement eXperimental (HEX) combat armor her father invented under the auspices of the government agency Project Spitfire. Project Spitfire is tasked to monitor and, if necessary, eliminate any superhumans that pop up, and the HEX armor is meant to be used for that purpose. When surveillance footage of Starbrand wielder Ken Connell is discovered, the project is upgraded to active status. In the midst of this development, Jenny gains the power of the Cipher from the White Event, turning her into the computer equivalent of Dr. Doolittle. This presents a quandary for her, as she is now one of the superhumans that Project: Spitfire has been tasked to eliminate.
Justice
1986: Shortly after the White Event, alien lawman Tensen arrives on earth in search of a criminal from his world named Darquill. It is later revealed that Tensen is actually DEA agent John Tensen, who was trapped in an illusion by Darquill, a paranormal with reality-warping powers. He later joins the NSA to help take down paranormal criminals.
2006: Police detective John Tensen is lying in a coma after a shootout with a gang of drug dealers when the White Event hits. He wakes up immediately after with the power of the Justice, which enables him to see every bad thing a person has ever done in their lives and gives him almost unlimited power to judge them. Unfortunately, his desire for vengeance on the gang members that shot him combined with brain damage from his head wound leave him mentally unbalanced, causing him to see injustice everywhere and lash out at everyone in his path.
New(Universal) Stuff
There are two plot devices used to drive home the fact that this is not the first Paradigm Shift to affect Earth. A similar event dubbed "The Fireworks" occurred in the 1950's, and Project: Spitfire head honcho Philip Voight (the same name as the evil director of the clinic in D.P. 7), who was not only around at that time, but actively participated in eliminating the people affected by that Paradigm Shift. This character looks like James Cromwell (Zephram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact) and acts like a cross between Cancer Man from The X-Files and HRG from Heroes.
The other one is the side storyline involving an archaeological dig in Latvia (Not Latveria, people. Latvia actually exists. Look it up on a map of Europe). There, a survey crew uncovers the tomb of a warrior named Starr the Slayer, possibly the very first bearer of the Starbrand. He and his compatriots may have used their formidable powers to build a city complete with electricity in an era when most humans were barely learning to use fire effectively. A little bit of the old is mixed in with this new stuff to allude to things to come, with the (re)introduction of Emmet Proudhawk, who sees the Superflow through a Native American vision quest and is told that he will serve as a Wicasa Wakan (Medicine Man) to other people affected by the White Event.
The Bottom Line
I was a fan of most of the titles in the original line, so I was a little leery of any attempt to resurrect it. But I decided to give it a shot because I love Warren Ellis' writing, and not only was I not disappointed but was thoroughly impressed. I also love Salvador Larocca's subtle, almost photo-realistic art style (I can even forgive him for patterning Jenny Swann after Angelina Jolie). The scenes in which he draws the Justice power being used are graphic, yet almost clinically detached, much like the man using them.
I can't wait until the follow-up, Newuniversal: Stormfront, gets released. It is my fervent hope that Ellis retools some of the other original New Universe concepts, because I was a big fan of D.P. 7 and Psi-Force back in the day (which, according to Dane Cook, was on a Wednesday). By all means, either buy (or rent) this book.
<TOP>6/13/08
Peter David & The Incredible Hulk
With the new "Incredible Hulk" movie premiering in theaters this month, it seems like a good time here at The Bottom Line to take a look back at the four-color history of the jade (and sometimes slate-gray) giant. It would take a "senior moment" of, well, Hulk-like proportions to forget the bold new direction that Greg Pak took the character in. From an Illuminati-enforced exile from Earth, to overthrowing the Red King on the alien world of Sakaar in "Planet Hulk", to his planet-shattering return home in "World War Hulk", it was a story that put Bruce Banner and the Hulk through the wringer like never before. The fans responded to this new direction favorably, and the character's popularity rose to the point that a new Hulk title was created, the old title was taken over by Hercules (who backed Hulk's play for revenge in "World War Hulk"), and a new self-explanatory spinoff title called Skarr: Son of Hulk, which is set on the ruins of Sakaar just dropped.
Pak should be commended for giving readers the most unique take on the Hulk in a long time. The Hulk is a character that I would imagine is difficult to write for, as I have seen too many Hulk storylines either flounder about or outright jump the shark. A good example of that would be John Byrne's run on the book. Another comic book writer, who shall remain nameless for now, had this very unflattering but nonetheless succinct recap of what he did: "(The Hulk was)…a character who was unmarried and transformed into a monster when he got angry, and over the course of the run he split the character in two, separating them into two separate beings, thus eliminating a dynamic that had been in place for a quarter of a century, married off the hero, and basically wrote a series of stories that were indistinguishable from 'Godzilla'". Granted, John Byrne is by no means my favorite writer or artist (although I think his revamp of Superman in the 1980's was pretty good), but it didn't hurt the character of Bruce Banner to have him married to Betty Ross.
My point in bringing that up is that writing a character like the Hulk requires a writer to take a great deal more risk with the storytelling than with most characters. As the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV series showed us, you can only do the same thing with the character for so long before it gets really stale, really fast. Innovation is definitely the key to keeping readers of the Hulk on their toes. So while Byrne's idea to split Banner & the Hulk might not have proved popular, it was at least an honest attempt to bring a new dynamic to the character. With that in mind, there is one writer that stayed on the Hulk for a run of over 100 issues, and he placed Bruce Banner and the Hulk in situations that no other writer would ever have dreamed of. That writer's name… Peter David.
Roughly half of David's epic run has been collected in trade paperback form in the Hulk Legends: Peter David Volumes 1-5. In addition to some of the most groundbreaking writing ever done with the character of the Hulk, there is early artwork from three comic book artists that would go on to make a big impact in the comic book world with Image Comics, like Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen and Dale Keown. In addition, he teamed with George Perez on the Hulk story Future Impefect, where Bruce Banner is taken to the future to tangle with The Maestro, a villain that not even the Hulk can take in a fair fight.
When David took over the book in the late 1980's, the Hulk was probably the least popular book within the Marvel bullpen. David was given the book because, to hear him tell it, no one else wanted to take it. He had broken into comic book writing after serving as an editor for Marvel, and his first writing assignment was on The Amazing Spider-Man. That assignment got yanked from him due to what he referred to as office politics. When he was offered The Incredible Hulk, he was given an assignment that would not be yanked from him, and because it sales were fairly low David would be given carte blanche to do what he liked with the character. Over the course of 100+ issues, he continually reinvented the Banner/Hulk dynamic and made The Incredible Hulk a must-read title. Listed below are some of the highlights of his brilliant and inventive run that has been collected thus far.
The Nuclear Age Jeckyl & Hyde
When David inherited the book, Banner and the Hulk had been reunited into one person and the Hulk had reverted back to the state that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced him in. Instead of the change from Banner to the Hulk being triggered by fear or anger, the change to the Hulk would occur at night, with Banner returning at daybreak. The Hulk of that time was more intelligent, less childlike, and was basically all of Banner's repressed negative emotions unleashed. David took this oft-overused plot device and transformed it into a game of mental chess between Banner and the Hulk. For example, knowing that Banner would naturally want to return to the Hulkbuster base to once again search for a cure for his condition, the Hulk would go out of his way to hinder him. On one occasion he left him stranded on top of a butte in the desert, where only a passing helicopter saved him from being trapped until nightfall. Another time he broke into a liquor store and ingested a prodigious amount of alcohol just before the transformation, which left Banner too inebriated to even stand up straight and prompted the local police to throw him in their drunk tank to sleep it off.
A New Quest
Banner and his cohorts discover that the US military has reopened the Pandora's Box that created the Hulk in the first place, the Gamma Bomb. Having found new evidence that the military is secretly stockpiling Gamma Bombs, Banner and the Hulk (in a surprising show of common interest) decide to travel across the country in an attempt to find and destroy them. Banner's motivation for ridding the world of the terrible weapon he created is obvious, whereas the Hulk's motive is to ensure there are no other Gamma-spawned individuals to give him competition. Throw the newly resurgent Leader (who wants to steal a Gamma Bomb for his own purposes) into the mix and the quest takes on a whole new sense of urgency.
Brains & Brawn
One disadvantage of the Hulk reverting into his prototype gray form is that his base strength level isn't as high as it was in (God forgive me for making this pun) his salad days. But what he lacks in brute strength (which is still quite strong), he makes up for in intellect, cunning and savagery. In a battle with Wolverine in Volume 2 drawn in visceral detail by Todd McFarlane, the Hulk shows the mutant cover-boy that he got off light in their first battle. In a fight with the Thing in Volume 4, the Hulk is caught at a disadvantage because an additional exposure to Cosmic Rays has mutated Ben Grimm's rocky form further and granted him even greater strength than before. To compensate for his lack of strength, the Hulk employs hit-and-run tactics, tagging the Thing and then jumping away. After the Thing is sufficiently winded from running after him for an hour, the Hulk lowers the boom on his exhausted opponent.
Introducing: Mr. Fixit
The Hulk disappeared after the conclusion of the Gamma Bomb quest. With the world not generally aware of his new state of gray and the government thinking him dead, he resurfaced in Las Vegas working as an enforcer at a casino. The Hulk enjoyed a Banner-free existence for three months and found contentment in living large in a penthouse and cracking skulls when called upon. The storytelling of the "Mr. Fixit" era was pretty lackluster, with sub-par villains and half-hearted cameos. The only real bright spots of this arc came with the aforementioned battle with the Thing and in Glorian's quest to redeem the Hulk's soul.
Over Hill, Over Dale
By far my favorite stretch of David's run (indeed, the one that made me a fan of the Hulk) came when artist Dale Keown took over as artist on the book. Perhaps not coincidentally, David really started to kick the book into high gear. A pitched battle with Freedom Force (the group formerly known as The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now working for the government) featured a hilarious brawl between Hulk and the Blob, and a team-up with former Defenders founders Dr. Strange & Namor were well-executed. But the final story in Volume 5 starts the wheels rolling on what is possibly David's best story idea for the Hulk, and features the long-awaited return of the green Hulk.
The Bottom Line
To be brutally honest, not every story arc that David wrote in these first five books are of the highest caliber. Volume 3 and most of Volume 4 are fairly forgettable. But name me one writer (besides that freak of nature Brian Michael Bendis) that can write 100+ issues and have every story be flawless. Despite the flaws in those story arcs, they are still integral to the overall story that David tried to tell with the Hulk. If you aren't of the mind to pick up the entire run so far, I highly recommend that you at least pick up Volume 5. If Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada is smart (and previous evidence points to the fact that he is), he will sign off on releasing the subsequent stories in future volumes. That is when David's run really starts to get interesting.
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