The New Universe
The New Universe History
A few years before Marvel's 25th anniversary, they started planning a celebration. The idea was to create a new universe, a universe more based in reality and actual science than mutants, time travellers and fantasy planets.
Tom DeFalco, Shooter's head editor, asked for the project to be his. Shooter granted the request, allocated a budget and sent DeFalco off to create 8 titles for the late 1986 launch. DeFalco wound up making poor progression on the project and Shooter had to step in. With the deadline fast approaching and with Marvel cutting back on budgets due to their pending sale, Shooter and his team of volunteers and unknowns hastily put together 8 titles for the launch.
The New Universe did not set the comics world on fire. Sales were profitable but not outstanding and the critics came down harshly on the line. Due to being rushed to print, the titles don't have the same quality we have come to expect from Shooter's products.
About a year after the New Universe launched, Shooter quit Marvel and Tom DeFalco took over as editor-in-chief. They immediately cancelled 4 of the titles and tried to revitalize the universe. They began to introduce more fantasy elements and didn't focus on continuity as much. The slogan around the office became: "The New Universe: It doesn't suck anymore." The people who remained after Shooter left took veiled shots at Shooter in the New Universe, namely by writing a universal storyline called The Pitt which centered around obliterating Pittsburgh, Shooter's hometown.
In Mid 1989, 2 and a half years and 32 issues after it launched, the New Universe was put to rest. They wrapped things up with a 4-part mini-series titled "The War." The characters of the New Universe laid dormant for years until Mark Gruenwald reused some of them in Quasar. Spider-Man 2099 also briefly brought Justice back.
Even though the New Universe sank, Shooter knew the ideas behind it were sound. He proved it at Valiant when he used the same ideas and principles to generate sales records and win industry awards with the Unity crossover. Shooter was editor-in-chief for the first year the New Universe was in existence. He also lent his writing talents to the first 7 issues of The Star Brand.
The New Universe is an interesting read because you can see the same ideas in the New Universe that wound up being successfully done at Valiant, Defiant and Broadway: reality based science fiction revolving around a tight universe continuity.
The basis for the entire New Universe structure is the White Event. On July 22, 1986, a blinding, mysterious white event affected the lives of a small percentage of people on Earth. The stories of the humans turned paranormals by the White Event are told throughout the New universe.
Tom DeFalco, Shooter's head editor, asked for the project to be his. Shooter granted the request, allocated a budget and sent DeFalco off to create 8 titles for the late 1986 launch. DeFalco wound up making poor progression on the project and Shooter had to step in. With the deadline fast approaching and with Marvel cutting back on budgets due to their pending sale, Shooter and his team of volunteers and unknowns hastily put together 8 titles for the launch.
The New Universe did not set the comics world on fire. Sales were profitable but not outstanding and the critics came down harshly on the line. Due to being rushed to print, the titles don't have the same quality we have come to expect from Shooter's products.
About a year after the New Universe launched, Shooter quit Marvel and Tom DeFalco took over as editor-in-chief. They immediately cancelled 4 of the titles and tried to revitalize the universe. They began to introduce more fantasy elements and didn't focus on continuity as much. The slogan around the office became: "The New Universe: It doesn't suck anymore." The people who remained after Shooter left took veiled shots at Shooter in the New Universe, namely by writing a universal storyline called The Pitt which centered around obliterating Pittsburgh, Shooter's hometown.
In Mid 1989, 2 and a half years and 32 issues after it launched, the New Universe was put to rest. They wrapped things up with a 4-part mini-series titled "The War." The characters of the New Universe laid dormant for years until Mark Gruenwald reused some of them in Quasar. Spider-Man 2099 also briefly brought Justice back.
Even though the New Universe sank, Shooter knew the ideas behind it were sound. He proved it at Valiant when he used the same ideas and principles to generate sales records and win industry awards with the Unity crossover. Shooter was editor-in-chief for the first year the New Universe was in existence. He also lent his writing talents to the first 7 issues of The Star Brand.
The New Universe is an interesting read because you can see the same ideas in the New Universe that wound up being successfully done at Valiant, Defiant and Broadway: reality based science fiction revolving around a tight universe continuity.
The basis for the entire New Universe structure is the White Event. On July 22, 1986, a blinding, mysterious white event affected the lives of a small percentage of people on Earth. The stories of the humans turned paranormals by the White Event are told throughout the New universe.
New Universe history from wikipedia
The New Universe is a comic book imprint from Marvel Comics that was published in its original incarnation from 1986 to 1989. It was created by Jim Shooter, Archie Goodwin, Eliot R. Brown, John Morelli, Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco and edited by Michael Higgins.
In 1986, in honor of Marvel Comics' 25th anniversary, Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter launched the New Universe line of comics. This was to be a distinctly separate world, fully divorced from the mainstream continuity of the Marvel Universe, consisting of its own continuing characters and stories in a more realistic setting.
There would be no aliens, hidden races, gods, mythological beings, magic or supertechnology. Superhuman characters and powers would be limited and thus more subdued in their activities, yet their actions would have more realistic consequences. This served to act in direct contrast to the traditional Marvel Universe, which always purported to take place in a mirror of the real world where public knowledge of superheroes, supervillains and their activities had little effect on normal "day-to-day" business.
Adding to the sense of realism, the New Universe titles were designed to operate in "real-time"; roughly a year would lapse in the universe for each year that passed in reality. The limitation of fantasy elements and the low-key nature of the characters' activities in the New Universe gave the imprint verisimilitude, to seem like "the world outside your window".
The New Universe was the first line produced by Marvel Comics utilizing a pre-conceived shared universe concept. The central concept tied all of the titles together, allowing them to serve as one unified crossover. The line could either be read as individual titles or the entire line of titles could tell a much broader story when read together chronologically, following a timeline that appeared in the back of the comics.
The premise behind the New Universe line of comics was the question "What would happen if normal people became superhuman overnight?". The event that started it all was known as the White Event. It was a strange astronomical phenomenon that occurred on July 22, 1986, 4:22 a.m., EST, and lasted for mere moments. It bathed the Earth in a bright white light and caused genetic anomalies in two out of every one million humans, which led to them developing certain powers. Many looked completely normal, but for others, the anomaly resulted in a physical manifestation which led to horrible disfigurations. Human beings who developed a reaction to the White Event were referred to as "Paranormals".
Eventually, the true nature of the White Event was revealed: it was caused when an immortal being known as The Old Man tried to rid himself of the Star Brand, the most powerful energy source in the known universe, by transferring its power onto an asteroid.
In many ways, the New Universe was the first time concepts of advanced human potential were explored in popular media.
Problems: The New Universe was heavily marketed, but faced substantial problems. Jim Shooter had planned to recruit top creators, but this became unfeasible when Marvel's corporate owners unexpectedly reduced his available budget.[2] As a result, many of the pitches were handled by others and certain books lacked focus as creative teams were swapped. Shooter was also involved with complex politics at Marvel Comics (which eventually led to him resigning his position), and thus could not give the line as much attention as he would have liked. After the first year, four of the titles, Kickers, Inc., Merc, Nightmask and Spitfire, were cancelled.
In an effort to save the line, then Editor-In-Chief Tom DeFalco and Editor Howard Mackie ended up removing some of the more fantastic elements from it and in a few cases doing radical revamps - John Byrne was enlisted to write and do breakdowns on Star Brand, altering the title so that it focused less on Ken Connell and more on the power of the Star Brand itself. This began initially with the idea of having Ken Connell go public with his identity as Star Brand. Similarly, the premise of Justice was revealed to be a hallucination which had been artificially induced in the title's protagonist by another Paranormal. From this point on, Justice becomes judge, jury, and executioner of Paranormals who abuse their powers.
The writers also allowed for major catastrophic events which could not have occurred in the Marvel Universe. One of the founding ideas of the New Universe was that the existence of paranormals would have real and lasting consequences, but so far these had been few and on the personal level. This changed in an issue of Star Brand when Ken Connell decided that he was tired of the power which he wielded. Having learned that it was theoretically possible to transfer the Star Brand into another object (the White Event being the result of the failed attempt to transfer it into an asteroid), Connell flew above his home town of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and tried to transfer the brand into a barbell. Unfortunately, this effort resulted in a tremendous release of energy which scooped out a massive crater, obliterating the city of Pittsburgh. The destruction of Pittsburgh, which became known as the Black Event was detailed in the one shot The Pitt, named after the nickname for the huge crater which existed where Pittsburgh had once been. This event marked a turn into a generally grimmer tone for the line, with a more militarized international political scene, and some themes of post-apocalyptic fiction being explored. The increasingly unstable political scene would have effects such as the forcible military recruitment of paranormals as portrayed in The Draft (one-shot) and a war with South Africa which was detailed in The War (four-issue limited series).
Despite all of this, sales were poor and the imprint was abruptly discontinued in late 1989 after a total of 174 comics had been published.
The New Universe possesses interesting temporal characteristics. The White Event occurred on September 4, 1986, after which events moved in real time, at least up to the War, sometime in later 1989, or early 1990. They interacted with the Marvel Universe in 1991-1992 of real time, and were last seen in 1994, at the conclusion of the Star Blast saga. It's unlikely that the characters of the NU will be seen again (a true shame), but I'd like to think that they should somehow stay in real time. In addition, as the Prime One points out, since the Living Tribunal has isolated them from the rest of the Universe, they should be isolated from Eternity as well, meaning they won't be a part of 'Marvel Time' (or lack thereof).
In 1986, in honor of Marvel Comics' 25th anniversary, Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter launched the New Universe line of comics. This was to be a distinctly separate world, fully divorced from the mainstream continuity of the Marvel Universe, consisting of its own continuing characters and stories in a more realistic setting.
There would be no aliens, hidden races, gods, mythological beings, magic or supertechnology. Superhuman characters and powers would be limited and thus more subdued in their activities, yet their actions would have more realistic consequences. This served to act in direct contrast to the traditional Marvel Universe, which always purported to take place in a mirror of the real world where public knowledge of superheroes, supervillains and their activities had little effect on normal "day-to-day" business.
Adding to the sense of realism, the New Universe titles were designed to operate in "real-time"; roughly a year would lapse in the universe for each year that passed in reality. The limitation of fantasy elements and the low-key nature of the characters' activities in the New Universe gave the imprint verisimilitude, to seem like "the world outside your window".
The New Universe was the first line produced by Marvel Comics utilizing a pre-conceived shared universe concept. The central concept tied all of the titles together, allowing them to serve as one unified crossover. The line could either be read as individual titles or the entire line of titles could tell a much broader story when read together chronologically, following a timeline that appeared in the back of the comics.
The premise behind the New Universe line of comics was the question "What would happen if normal people became superhuman overnight?". The event that started it all was known as the White Event. It was a strange astronomical phenomenon that occurred on July 22, 1986, 4:22 a.m., EST, and lasted for mere moments. It bathed the Earth in a bright white light and caused genetic anomalies in two out of every one million humans, which led to them developing certain powers. Many looked completely normal, but for others, the anomaly resulted in a physical manifestation which led to horrible disfigurations. Human beings who developed a reaction to the White Event were referred to as "Paranormals".
Eventually, the true nature of the White Event was revealed: it was caused when an immortal being known as The Old Man tried to rid himself of the Star Brand, the most powerful energy source in the known universe, by transferring its power onto an asteroid.
In many ways, the New Universe was the first time concepts of advanced human potential were explored in popular media.
Problems: The New Universe was heavily marketed, but faced substantial problems. Jim Shooter had planned to recruit top creators, but this became unfeasible when Marvel's corporate owners unexpectedly reduced his available budget.[2] As a result, many of the pitches were handled by others and certain books lacked focus as creative teams were swapped. Shooter was also involved with complex politics at Marvel Comics (which eventually led to him resigning his position), and thus could not give the line as much attention as he would have liked. After the first year, four of the titles, Kickers, Inc., Merc, Nightmask and Spitfire, were cancelled.
In an effort to save the line, then Editor-In-Chief Tom DeFalco and Editor Howard Mackie ended up removing some of the more fantastic elements from it and in a few cases doing radical revamps - John Byrne was enlisted to write and do breakdowns on Star Brand, altering the title so that it focused less on Ken Connell and more on the power of the Star Brand itself. This began initially with the idea of having Ken Connell go public with his identity as Star Brand. Similarly, the premise of Justice was revealed to be a hallucination which had been artificially induced in the title's protagonist by another Paranormal. From this point on, Justice becomes judge, jury, and executioner of Paranormals who abuse their powers.
The writers also allowed for major catastrophic events which could not have occurred in the Marvel Universe. One of the founding ideas of the New Universe was that the existence of paranormals would have real and lasting consequences, but so far these had been few and on the personal level. This changed in an issue of Star Brand when Ken Connell decided that he was tired of the power which he wielded. Having learned that it was theoretically possible to transfer the Star Brand into another object (the White Event being the result of the failed attempt to transfer it into an asteroid), Connell flew above his home town of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and tried to transfer the brand into a barbell. Unfortunately, this effort resulted in a tremendous release of energy which scooped out a massive crater, obliterating the city of Pittsburgh. The destruction of Pittsburgh, which became known as the Black Event was detailed in the one shot The Pitt, named after the nickname for the huge crater which existed where Pittsburgh had once been. This event marked a turn into a generally grimmer tone for the line, with a more militarized international political scene, and some themes of post-apocalyptic fiction being explored. The increasingly unstable political scene would have effects such as the forcible military recruitment of paranormals as portrayed in The Draft (one-shot) and a war with South Africa which was detailed in The War (four-issue limited series).
Despite all of this, sales were poor and the imprint was abruptly discontinued in late 1989 after a total of 174 comics had been published.
The New Universe possesses interesting temporal characteristics. The White Event occurred on September 4, 1986, after which events moved in real time, at least up to the War, sometime in later 1989, or early 1990. They interacted with the Marvel Universe in 1991-1992 of real time, and were last seen in 1994, at the conclusion of the Star Blast saga. It's unlikely that the characters of the NU will be seen again (a true shame), but I'd like to think that they should somehow stay in real time. In addition, as the Prime One points out, since the Living Tribunal has isolated them from the rest of the Universe, they should be isolated from Eternity as well, meaning they won't be a part of 'Marvel Time' (or lack thereof).
Prime Eternal's New Universe Primer
The New Universe, launched in 1986 with eight titles-- Starbrand, Spitfire and the Troubleshooters, Nightmask, Justice, Psi Force, DP7, Mark Hazzard: Merc and Kickers Inc. -- was the brainchild of then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, and was conceived of as the ultimate project to celebrate Marvel's 25th anniversary-- by creating a "new universe" where there would be a greater emphasis on reality than even the Marvel Universe had seen before. No aliens, no undersea civilizations, no other dimensions-- the New Universe was, "the world outside your window", until "the White Event". After the White Event, "paranormals" began to manifest powers. It was to be stressed that these were ordinary people with extraordinary powers, reacting to a world not unlike our own.
The problem was, not all of the New Universe writers were made to understood this facet of the universe they were writing in, so greater-than-20th century-level technology appeared in Spitfire, other dimensions appeared in Justice, and football players played super-heroes in Kickers Inc. At the end of the New Universe's first year, Jim Shooter was gone, and so were Nightmask, Spitfire, Mark Hazzard, and Kickers Inc. It was time for a change.
In the second year of publication, only DP7 creators Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan were retained, while John Byrne, Fabian Nicieza, and Peter David took control over the remaining titles. All four writers felt that it was time for the New Universe to live up to its potential, and mid-way through year 2, the graphic novel The PITT was released, in which Ken Connell destroyed Pittsburgh, plunging the earth (and the stars of the four titles) into chaos. This in turn led to The Draft graphic novel, in which a paranormal platoon was prepared for World War 3.
Unfortunately, by then, New Universe readership had already been conditioned against these drastic changes. Readers had been mistakenly led to believe that "the world outside your window" meant that the New Universe had to always remain the world outside their window, and felt that the creative teams had betrayed Shooter's vision, which was not the case. After 33 months of publication, the New Universe came to a halt in 1989. The four-issue limited series The War tied up the World War 3 threads, and the New Universe drifted out of the memories of general readers.
But Gruenwald, Nicieza, and David refused to forget what they had produced. David brought Justice into the 2099 universe as "Net Prophet"; Nicieza gave the Starbrand a cameo in Gambit, and was connected to a potential New Universe revival only 3 years ago; Gruenwald never stopped utilizing the New Universe, and brought its cast into the Marvel Universe via Quasar#31, which later led to the Starblast crossover.
The New Universe is not gone. For now, it's simply resting. -Prime Eternal
Prior to Starblast, the NU did not appear to have any similarities to the universal structure and hierarchy of Earth-616 or similar worlds, andwas thus outside of the mainstream Multiverse, but within the greater Omniverse. It has been suggested that there may be one more division present between Multiverse and Omniverse, to link asociated worlds, such as those linked to Marvel, and to keep distinct from other such groupings, such as those associated with DC or other titles. Thus worlds like the New Universe or the Shadowline might be contained within the Marvel Megaverse. Sounds good to me!
Since the New Universe's Earth was physically removed and taken to the universe of the Earth-616 Marvel universe that may explain why it became a part of the Amalgam universe.
The New Universe was given the core continuum designation of Earth-148611 in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.
The problem was, not all of the New Universe writers were made to understood this facet of the universe they were writing in, so greater-than-20th century-level technology appeared in Spitfire, other dimensions appeared in Justice, and football players played super-heroes in Kickers Inc. At the end of the New Universe's first year, Jim Shooter was gone, and so were Nightmask, Spitfire, Mark Hazzard, and Kickers Inc. It was time for a change.
In the second year of publication, only DP7 creators Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan were retained, while John Byrne, Fabian Nicieza, and Peter David took control over the remaining titles. All four writers felt that it was time for the New Universe to live up to its potential, and mid-way through year 2, the graphic novel The PITT was released, in which Ken Connell destroyed Pittsburgh, plunging the earth (and the stars of the four titles) into chaos. This in turn led to The Draft graphic novel, in which a paranormal platoon was prepared for World War 3.
Unfortunately, by then, New Universe readership had already been conditioned against these drastic changes. Readers had been mistakenly led to believe that "the world outside your window" meant that the New Universe had to always remain the world outside their window, and felt that the creative teams had betrayed Shooter's vision, which was not the case. After 33 months of publication, the New Universe came to a halt in 1989. The four-issue limited series The War tied up the World War 3 threads, and the New Universe drifted out of the memories of general readers.
But Gruenwald, Nicieza, and David refused to forget what they had produced. David brought Justice into the 2099 universe as "Net Prophet"; Nicieza gave the Starbrand a cameo in Gambit, and was connected to a potential New Universe revival only 3 years ago; Gruenwald never stopped utilizing the New Universe, and brought its cast into the Marvel Universe via Quasar#31, which later led to the Starblast crossover.
The New Universe is not gone. For now, it's simply resting. -Prime Eternal
Prior to Starblast, the NU did not appear to have any similarities to the universal structure and hierarchy of Earth-616 or similar worlds, andwas thus outside of the mainstream Multiverse, but within the greater Omniverse. It has been suggested that there may be one more division present between Multiverse and Omniverse, to link asociated worlds, such as those linked to Marvel, and to keep distinct from other such groupings, such as those associated with DC or other titles. Thus worlds like the New Universe or the Shadowline might be contained within the Marvel Megaverse. Sounds good to me!
Since the New Universe's Earth was physically removed and taken to the universe of the Earth-616 Marvel universe that may explain why it became a part of the Amalgam universe.
The New Universe was given the core continuum designation of Earth-148611 in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.