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Underground > Comic Books >

Newuniversal: Ellis & Larroca & the Starbrand.

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Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:24 / 07.12.06

In a world where upper case letter don't matter, in a world where one Beatle died instead of another, people haven't ever seen real superheroes right up until a blinding White Event throws off the natural order and starts tattooing people with super-ink. Or something.

I picked up the first issue of newuniversal unsure what to expect, mostly, and was impressed with what I saw. Ellis opens up a parallel world and establishes (mostly) the rules pretty quickly, then throws everything upside down as the hype warranted: paranormality! There's a stronger sense of design to this comic than the original New Universe, as far as the White Event's origin, and we're introduced to three characters quickly and follow them through into their new lives. A bit more compressed than Ellis usually is.

The Nightmask revival smacks of Planetary's Melanctha issue. Ken Connelly, as expected, is branded.

Art's decent from Larroca, not entirely to my taste but it'll probably improve in an issue or two once things start to gel together. His depiction of Connelly looks a lot like Lost's Josh Holloway, whatever that suggests as far as his use of references...

Did anyone else pick newuniversal up this week? Disses or Thumbs up? Has Ellis bitten off more than he can chew? I'm hoping this series will develop into a rotating anthology with different story arcs focusing on different groups of emerging paranormals.

Do we think the White Event is going to be explained, one day, or will it be kept mysterious? NIghtmask is potentially going to open that door...

21:57 / 07.12.06

I read New Universe comics when I was a kid. There are no bad ideas and a revival of Marvel's pocket universe has potential to be interesting, but Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca are not selling points to me. Consequently, I've not picked it up and have no plan to.

22:14 / 07.12.06

It is quite good though, Sleaze.

If I was a large, bearded man drinking red bull in a pub in Margate during the afternoon while my wife was at home looking after the baby, and doing whatever she could to keep me away from the internet, for fear of my 'going under the floorboards' again, I like to think this is the kind of thing I'd have written.

22:27 / 07.12.06

In its own funny way, it's quite oddly poignant.

23:59 / 07.12.06

Pretty good, but I have a feeling in the pit of my tummy that somehow Spitfire & the Troubleshooters are not going to appear unless... hmm, that definitely looks like a Gundam type suit on the cover preview for #2. I don't even know why I particularly care here, don't think I liked it age 8 as a back-up in Transformers Weekly. Oh, familiarity. Ken Connell also singularly failed to call girlf 'duck', but the relationship seemed kinda off-kilter enough (I get the impression she's a lot younger?) to almost qualify for Shooter-status.

The alien encounter had by (Nightmask, is it?) Izanami was certainly sufficiently Barbelith-enough, oddly synchronistic it occurs, with Michael Jones going on about VALIS in this week's Desolation Jones. Lovely art from Larroca (esp. that scene, which he kills,) and my hate for him used to know almost no bounds. Clearly, he's always been capable but getting to do his own washes instead of being cloddishly inked makes a world of difference (the last 2-3 issues on Milligan's X-Men were an exponential improvement.) And I'm intrigued by Justice's murder of the euthaniser - it's set him up as unsympathetically right-wing for me, so that's an interesting element. As is the pre-Sumerian civilisation, which oddly doesn't strike as something that'd've been in September's New Scientist.

It does come across somewhat TV pilot, but was good enough for me - Ellis seems to be going through a bit of a revival recently, what with the last excellent, McCarthy-fuelled Nextwave, Desolation Jones and this.

03:07 / 08.12.06

I really liked the New Universe - as for the newuniversal idea - well, I may have a look at it at some point, see what Ellis is doing with it. The main problem though is that Larroca's art seems too similar to that awful computer generated Batman book from years ago, no emotion, to sense of movement or oganics or fluidity - plus I really liked JRJ's Star Brand stuff from the old days, so...

03:29 / 08.12.06

Izanami was certainly sufficiently Barbelith-enough, oddly synchronistic it occurs, with Michael Jones going on about VALIS in this week's Desolation Jones.

I don't think it counts as synchronicity when it's the same author mining the same source material for inspiration in two of his books.

One of the things that tends to irk me about Ellis is the way that you can always tell what he was reading when he wrote something if you're reading multiple titles of his at the same time, like when references to psychedelics and shamanism popped up in Planetary and Ultimate Nightmare and Iron Man all at the same time. Given that Ellis comics already tend to be structured as showpieces for ideas to begin with, it becomes a little tiresome.

Lovely art from Larroca (esp. that scene, which he kills

Yeah. I'm not a big Larroca fan, either, but I had to hand that one to him.

And I'm intrigued by Justice's murder of the euthaniser - it's set him up as unsympathetically right-wing for me, so that's an interesting element.

I'm curious to see how Justice as right-wing vigilante plays out in Ellis' hands.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:57 / 08.12.06

diz: I'm curious to see how Justice as right-wing vigilante plays out in Ellis' hands.

I'm not entirely convinced it's the character driving that impulse or the power, based on the one scene - as well, there's something genuinely creepy about the nurse in question and how cavalier he is about the whole process.

And, honestly, it would be interesting to see the paranormals developing regardless of politics and some of them are more right-wing and others are more leftist, and have that actually explored without it being a tiresome melodrama a la Civil War.

21:27 / 08.12.06

I liked it much better than expected. Suppose I should have trusted in Ellis a little more: he seldom dissapoints (but BLACH GAS: ugh! Stinky!). I finished and found myself looking FWD to the next issue, which is my basic rule of thumb for buying.

I do recall the original NU launch and pretty much loathed it all. My departure from Marvel Zombiehood was only a year or two away at that point...

22:06 / 08.12.06

I'd no idea there was one, but would anyone mind expanding a bit on what the old New Universe was all about?

03:32 / 09.12.06

It was originally set up to be an infant superpowered universe set within the parameters of the very real, supposedly our, universe, more real character and setting than the MU. There were about 8 or 9 books originally, was it Jim Shooter or someone (Tom Defalco?) who was put in charge of it all? Anyway, it laster a year or 18 months for the most part - I think a couple of books went on for longer, and then they tied all the stories together in a one shot called The Pitt, which saw Starbrand - a kind of Green Lanternish everyman who gained amazing powers from a dying alien - destroy Pittsburgh - it kind of disappeared after this - Starbrand continued for a while, but got all 2001 star child. It was hurt, supposedly, by a hugh budget cut and in-fighting between Shooter and Marvel.

I looked at some of the art pages on line - much better from Larroca, still some over stiff images. One character looked incredibly like Gene Hackman?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:29 / 04.01.07

Second issue's out today. It felt a lot more solid than the first and the characters gelled a little more although they are still - by and large - ciphers.

I'm not sure how I feel about the implication that this has happened before, but I like the new Nightmask much more now. Sawyer...I mean, Josh Holloway...I mean, Ken Connell still wears his photo-reference on his sleeve and the starbrand's not showing any specifically interesting powers yet. I think I'm getting bored of seeing "bullet time in comics" sequences.

Spitfire and we see more reasons that this New Universe isn't very close to our universe at all. Or is it?

And yet I enjoyed the issue. More of Ellis's "multiversal architecture" twitch.

Others?

22:56 / 11.01.07

I also collected some of the New Universe Titles back in the day (D.P. 7 mainly, with a few issues of Psi Force, Nightmask, Spitfire, etc.), and, being a big fan of Ellis, have been eagerly looking forward to Newuniversal. and yes, if memory serves, NU was Jim Shooter's baby.

Well, so far, I'm quite impressed. I've only seen Larroca's art here and there before, but his work here is nice. I may be lucky that I'm not familar with _Lost_, so I'm not reminded of some actor whenever I see Kevin. Ellis has managed to squeeze a fair amount of info and "action" into two issues, esp. scattered across that many characters/locales.

So, unlike before, the White Event wasn't an accident, but the heralding of a new epoch, as Earth entered a new "phase of the superflow" or some such. The way I read it, Nightmask was empowered and summoned to the superflow by that alien probe, so that she could bear witness to the birth of a new age. The specific mentioning of Justice, Starbrand and Nightmask as agents of change of some kind is intruiging. Also interesting is the appearence of Voight in #2, as Spitfire's boss, esp. his commentary the "black folders". BTW, wasn't Voight the head of the clinic from DP7, back in the day?

that said, the 2 things I'm waiting for are:
1) info on this ancient city, and what it has to do with the Aliens/White Event/old NU.
2) the appearance of something like the DP7, since that was by far the best of the old NU.

10:34 / 12.01.07

The multiversal architecture here seemed even more based on Zenith's Omnihedron + Barbelith than normal. Is that just me? I know that Grant's quite liberal with his influences too, so it's a bit difficult to say that these are rips from an original wellspring, but still.

Quite enjoying it so far, although at the moment I don't really understand what's interesting or particularly different about the three of them and what possible role they could have. If there actually is a narrative there that will emerge rather than an excuse for superheroes, I'll be cool with it. Certainly it looks and feels nice and smart so far.

14:06 / 18.01.07

Well, I never thought I'd use my first post to discuss the New Universe.

I was always a fan of the original line. It came out when I was nine years old, and I followed D.P.7, Star Brand, and Justice throughout their runs. Rereading them now, DP7 is the only series that still holds my interest at all (though all of the titles became at least readable following their move to prestige format). I think this is because it makes the best use of the gimmick. It really does feel like the stories in DP7 are taking place in the "world outside your window." The other titles could have just as easily taken place in any comic book universe. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that the popular theory at the time was that the most popular characters would wake up in the Marvel Universe once the New U. folded.

Newuniversal (are we allowed to capitalize it at the beginning of a sentence?) throws out the conceits of the original line, with the stories taking place in an alternate universe (and has such ever been established so clumsily?), and (presumably) not bothering with the "real-time" aspect of the original books. Ellis has also altered the characters' personalities, if not their actual identities in whole. So, what's left but a bunch of second-rate characters? Star Brand went from being a Green Lantern knockoff under Shooter to become a Miracleman knockoff under Byrne. Justice is Punisher with superpowers. Spitfire is Iron Man without the personality. Ellis might have something interesting to say using these characters, but couldn't he have just as easily done so using his own "new universe?" Resurrecting this franchise just seems overly showy, and to little point. I'll see it out, but obviously don't have very high hopes.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

15:54 / 18.01.07

Nobody's mentioned the ugly misfit bastard children of the New U, Kickers Inc. and Merc. Can't wait to see what Ellis does with them.

I was, and am, an unabashed fan of the first dozen issues of Star Brand, the whole DP7 run, and the bulk of Psi-Force. Spitfire and Merc were the only titles I had absolutely no time for, and Nightmask always seemed like it was something absolutely great but being squandered because nobody knew how to handle it.

Nightmask, Star Brand and Justice make the most sense as series focuses -- I mean, Psi-Force and DP7 were team comics, and having a team comic in something that's already a multi-character, multi-perspective book would just make it labrynthine. Merc was just silly, as was Kickers, and ... well, I can see Ellis getting some play out of Spitfire.

I don't mind the reboot, but I thought what a lot of the New U did was gutsy for its time -- having your flagship hero become an inadvertant mass murderer of millions because he tried to do something really, really stupid was completely shocking to me as a kid. So I'm a bit sad to see some innovative ideas like the Black Event, the Pitt, the War, etc. all get slotted off to oblivion in favour of the reboot.

Aha! I am Klarion

20:06 / 18.01.07

i for one know next to nothing about the new universe line...but if kickers inc. shows up i expect ellis to play them just like the toy commercial (captian american with sceaming voice chip) in the recent issue of thunderbolts: the will be overblown, but ultimately foppish figure-heads for super-human defense.

thought the first two issue were great. esp. liked the "MIB" for super-humans in an otherwise realistic alternate history.

13:55 / 23.01.07

I'm surprised I'm actually enjoying this... or I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying it is probably better. I'm actually intrigued and will stick around... Pretty good stuff so far.

16:47 / 30.01.07

These first 2 issues were fun - what's with the mention of a "Cipher," though? The New Universe didn't have a character called Cipher, did they? (this is from when the big Close Encounters ship is talking with Nightmask in the super-fly Superflow)

16:48 / 30.01.07

plus, Warren Ellis' take on the title/concept Psi-Force would probably be pretty cool, if he uses that one. Sort of like that old Eclipse comic ESPERS written by James Hudnall, IIRC ...black ops psychic team.

18:04 / 30.01.07

The 'Pitt' event always seemed awful bitter, meta-mean, to me, in light of Shooter's departure, rather thans something that came out of the actual stories and characters themselves.

'DP7' however, and it's (for comics) muted quality, made it, to my mind, significantly more mature than quite a lot of other mid-eighties comics that hyped themselves as MATURE! Superbaddy for President, after he abuses a bunch of innocents at a hospital. An otherwise decent guy being mildly racist. Bad relationships not necessarily just ending immediately, but dragging on uncomfortably. The collection of black stereotypes versus the collection of white stereotypes versus the kid stereo... you see where this is going. The nice thing was that, while everyone in the book was a 'type' there were a whole lot of them. And that Woodsman guy, who was apparently nuts, but nuts in a Michigan Militia way that fit the overall premise.

And when the new book ends, it ought to end with one of those 'x in an x-issue mini' just like.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:29 / 08.02.07

Number Three's out this week, with more development for our Spitfire and a bit more background on previous pseudo-White Events. "The Fireworks" is a good name. I suspect that Ellis kind of misses Planetary now that it's closing doors, based on this issue...or some of the characters, at least.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

21:51 / 08.02.07

I imagine that we've now seen the modern and past incarnations of the Cipher with issue 3.

I'm *really* liking this book, right now. The evolution vs. intervention argument was great.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:41 / 08.02.07

The ideological argument was good and managed to flesh out the world's parameters a bit more at the same time as showing us character. Spitfire's my favourite so far, but only because Nightmask hasn't had much screentime.

I'm a -little- worried the Shining City and "Starr the Slayer" -- too soon after Seven Soldiers. I'm looking forward to seeing whether or not they expand the superhuman's purpose/design/ability beyond violence -- Justice bores me because it's More Of The Same.

03:27 / 09.02.07

Justice bores me because it's More Of The Same.

I kind of like that Justice appears to be heading in a direction that might be more critical of the whole vigilante concept, which could be at least marginally interesting.

Though I do hate the way this particular issue's Justice action used the boring old cliche that bugs me the most in scenes like that.

All right, follow with me here. Dead cop shows up. Has some kind of weird force fields and some kind of lightsaber or something.

At this point, any normal person would run screaming. But, no, there's always one hardass who says something stupid ("You want to play with knives?" or whatever) and steps up, like he's going to be the one who takes this guy down, and of course he gets pwned, and my suspension of disbelief goes out the window. It would bug me less if this wasn't trying so hard to be so grounded and "realistic."

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

06:59 / 09.02.07

At this point, any normal person would run screaming. But, no, there's always one hardass who says something stupid ("You want to play with knives?" or whatever) and steps up, like he's going to be the one who takes this guy down, and of course he gets pwned, and my suspension of disbelief goes out the window. It would bug me less if this wasn't trying so hard to be so grounded and "realistic."

The sad/telling thing is that I didn't even miss a beat with that scene as far as the reactions of the characters (as opposed to the graphic violence) - mostly, I presume, due to genre conventions. That's where the New Universe concept breaks down, at least originally - if you're going with absolutely realistic "world not used to superhumans" you actually have to have people react how they would to superhumans. Only, you know, dramatic imperative kicks in.

Does Ellis get away with it, though? Because of genre conventions, and/or because he clearly establishes that the New Universe isn't supposed to be a real world (odd statement for a fiction, yes, but keep in mind the original Shooter concept) - between the superhuman initiatives in place, the cribbed Gorias -- I mean, Shining City with -- and the inverted Beatles? Did other people catch on the same spot?

03:53 / 10.02.07

Starr the Slayer...did seem a bit off, didn't it?

Also, TOO MANY CELEBRITY LIKENESSES here. Johnny Depp, James Cromwell, Bruce Willis, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie...LaRocca, my man, take a break from the photo reference of People Magazine.

And do we think we're not getting any more New Universe character parallels? Come on, we really need to see the Ellis KICKERS, INC. by around issue 7!

13:48 / 10.02.07

I feel terribly shallow. I just like how newuniversal hurts people.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:32 / 10.02.07

It's been implied by what the big Metaversal Construct told Nightmask Girl that the four we've seen are the first wave, the ones that establish/ease the transition. It says something about the Nightmask, the Starbrand, the Cipher, the Justice. "And others..." Seemed to me to suggest that DP7, Psi-Force, et cetera will be coming up later once the initial paradigm shift is well on its way. From a writing POV, I'm assuming that Ellis is holding off on having a HUGE cast of characters right away -- especially because it's only one series versus five or six, and there's limited standard-format page count.

15:28 / 13.02.07

There wasn't an 'original' New Universe character called Cipher, though, was there...?

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

15:32 / 13.02.07

Not one that held a book. You may be thinking of the New Mutants' Cypher, Doug Ramsey.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

15:33 / 13.02.07

Oh. Obviously you didn't. Whoops.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:47 / 13.02.07

I don't think so. I think it's just Ellis attempting to tie Spitfire more closely to the primary action - I never read Spitfire & Kickers Inc so I can't quite comment...

21:20 / 13.02.07

Yeah, I did read Spitfire in the back of Transformers weekly when it ran, and apparently Jenny did later gain some (hideous) powers, but I have to imagine she's the Cipher referred to here.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:24 / 13.02.07

It's also pretty clear those powers will probably make the HEXsuits function when they previously haven't worked at all, which could lead to a conflict between Jenny Spitfire being a tool of THE MAN to fight the superhumans, despite her being a superhuman and the weaponry used powered by her. Which is a bit enh as plot twists go - you know, incredibly boring dramatic irony. I hope she just kicks off on her own and leaves Project Spitfire altogether.

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