WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: The Difference 25 Years Make, Steve (SLUDGE, SLUDGE: RED X-MAS)

Supposedly, Steve Gerber had no idea for what he could write as his contribution to the Ultraverse. Sure, he was doing Exiles, but that was a short term stunt designed to let readers know that no character was safe. And according to our dear friend Roland Mann:

"The idea was that he should write something along the lines of Man-Thing or Swamp Thing and he wasn't for it. So Chris Ulm said something like "Yeah, you probably couldn't think of anything new to do anyway. So--Sludge. "

And, yes...on the surface, Sludge is Swamp Thing relocated from the swamps of Louisiana to the sewers of New York City. But in its twelve issues and a special, it rapidly became something more--and easily lies alongside Firearm as my favorite Ultraverse title so far.

Frank Hoag is a a crooked cop doing tasks for the Marcello crime family. But one task he won't do is murder a fellow cop. So Frank is shot down in the middle of a chemical lab and dumped in the sewer. The mix of the chemicals he was bathed in and the sewer detritus transforms Hoag into a hulk blue goo monster with an addled brain and a serious case of malapropism...who's still stuck in a conflict between three...unusual gangs.

The thing that I love the most about Gerber is his strange combination of misanthropy, social concerns and humor...and given how light the reins were held on him, Sludge is magnificent. Even though you can see he is taking inspiration from his previous works, he manages to improve upon the original. You just have to look at Bloodstorm, who appears sporadically after being introduced in the second issue--there are elements of Man-Thing villain Foolkiller as well as his recurring motif of a fat kid's bullying ending up tragically (something he did in issues of Giant Size Man Thing and Omega The Unknown in the 70's) in this hitman...and yet his nihilistic worldview makes him compelling and his emotional arc is darkly entertaining. Making one of the other gangs a Triad that owns 'Paygo' (read 'Nintendo' or 'Sega') Electronics has echoes of both Howard The Duck and The Defenders. One of my favorite supporting characters is investigative reporter Shelly Rogers, who artist Aaron Lopresti explictly makes the niece of one of my favorite fictional characters of all time in a Easter egg in issue #4 and serves as a platonic Beverly Switzer to provide commentary as the story gets more and more absurb.

And then there's Pistol and his boss...

Lord Pumpkin is not Gerber's creation, according to Mr. Mann:

"I think, though, that Lord Pumpkin was the brainchild of Dan Danko. Gerber ran with it, but I think Danko is the one who came up with the nuts and bolts."

--and boy, did Steve run with it. In earlier articles, I've discussed the later appearances of this character and expressed some confusion as to why so much emphasis was put on it in the post-Marvel buyout world. In reading these early appearances, I certainly now understand why fans were so enthusiastic about him. Lord Pumpkin in Sludge is as charismatic a villain as can be, putting on a gentleman's demeanor and acting as a surrogate father to his bodyguard, an adolescent hitman. Both dress in classic 30's gangster style, and there seems to be an actual affection between the two of them. And when we do get some of Pistol's backstory (we'll get to that in a minute), we understand the dynamic even more. I get the impression that the duo's plan, involving marketing a magical drug called Zuke, was supposed to be bigger and somehow connected to Godwheel and Prime, but this was never expanded upon fully because the book was canceled after twelve issues.

Apparently Gerber's trouble keeping deadlines, which led back in 70's to such things as the 'Dreaded Deadline Doom' issue of Howard The Duck*, continued in the 90's which led to artist Aaron Lopresti plotting a handful of issues, all containing weird monsters like a giant crocodile man, a Frankenstein satire and an evil witch that spurs on a fight between Sludge and Prime in the last issue. Other than the inclusion of these monsters, they fit seamlessly into the series and not just because Gerber contributes dialogue. This may have been a case of writer and artist having such similar semsibilities that they create exactly what they had in their mind. Lopresti's artwork is moody, dark and distorted...which makes it perfect for this series.

After the end of the series, Sludge did pop up in an episode of the Ultraforce cartoon as well as an issue of Foxfire. But his last significant appearance may very well have been his best--and Mr. Mann seems to agree:

"I think Sludge was our best title. Sludge Red X-Mas being the single best book we did. "

Not surprisingly, Sludge Red X-Mas was a Christmas special that reunited Gerber with one of his key collaborators on his classic run on Man-Thing, Mike Ploog. It focuses on, in addition to Sludge, some minor characters from the main run as well as Pistol and ties them up in a plot about a union leader who's not as heroic as he seems. It's a wonderful story, especially in regard to how it makes us see Pistol from another angle, making him more than a weird sidekick to become a sympathetic character. I don't know if I can say it is my favorite single issue story given I still have a number of titles to read...but it certainly is one of my favorites.

It's a shame that Sludge is long out of print, especially given how there is so little crossover that it can be read as a standalone. I know that Marvel is highly reluctant to even acknowledge the Ultraverse's existence, especially now that they're owned by Disney, who might be nervous about what happened to one of the imprint's founders...but surely it's worth it to have this prime example of Gerber's later work to fans like myself who love his quirky and weird world view?

Next time, I'll be looking at an Ultraverse title I literally didn't even recall until I started this project. It's the third title by the problematic Gerard Jones, and it's may be more the Ultraverse's answer to Batman than Night Man was...mixed in with some pulp and film noir tropes. It's time to put on the purple and blue and walk down these lonely streets as we examine Solitaire!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

*--This famous illustrated text issue pretty much inspired Vinegarette, a character who pops up in the later half of the book and resembles the Vegas chorus girl and ostrich fighting a lamp in one memorable double page spread in the Howard The Duck issue. 

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: What Was I Made For? (SIREN, SIREN SPECIAL, ERADICATOR)

Siren is pretty much the last character to hold down her own series who debuted before the Black September reboot.  She shows up in the background of Eradicator, a miniseries that spun out of Ultraverse Premiere*, interacting with the hero only long enough to ask if he is her father.  Her appearance isn't heralded by the trumpeting that preceded the debut of characters like Hellblade and Foxfire, but according to Roland Mann, Siren's appearance was intended to be a 'back door' pilot:

"Eliminator was a bone thrown to us, made ever sweeter because Mike Zeck was drawing. So we worked Siren in because that was one of the projects Hank had pitched and was working on with Chris Ulm. He (and I agreed) thought that might help to kickstart Siren--and it did."

 

Her next appearance, in Ultraforce #8, was overshadowed by the cover-touted appearance of The Black Knight.  She's a minor part of the next two issues, leading to Ultraverse/Avengers and Black September, after which she gets her own series and a follow-up special.

And that might be why this series lasted only four issues before she was shuffled back into the Ultraforce line-up...she's being overshadowed constantly in issues where she's supposed to be front and center.

You see, Siren Infinity literally dumps Siren into the Marvel Universe and onto Taskmaster's bed, where she insinuates herself as a prospective student and ends up paired with Diamondback, a character from Mark Gruenwald's Captain America run who's looking to destroy Taskmaster's operations.  They're both assigned to kill James Rhodes--at the time running Worldwatch Inc. and rocking a goofy alien armor--and ends up failing on purpose, but also picking up a really, really annoying teleporting kid called Kyi**  During the course of all this runaround and intrigue, Siren discovers she is an hydrokinetic and learns how to use it to her advantage.  By the end of the series, she's dumped back into the Ultraverse in the middle of the desert.

This led to Siren Special #1, which finally lets us know what the origin of the character is.  After she's abducted by Aladdin for wandering near their Groom Lake facility, she learns that she's really Jennifer, one of three genetic experiments using DNA from Rick Pearson.  Rick goes on to become Eliminator and Jennifer ended up in care of her aunt before deciding to be a thief with make-up that disappeared when she sprayed something on it.  Aladdin intends her to become one of their black ops agents and sics her on Shuriken, leading to a fight with her and Juggernaut before Jennifer returns to Aladdin, plants a virus provided by Shuriken that makes its computerized leader believe he controls her.  She has the doo-hickey that Aladdin put in her neck that coerces her to obey removed and...that's it.  She returns to the pages of Ultraforce, where she hangs around long enough to fight some alien invaders and disappear.

Siren was the creation of Hank Kanalz .  If there's one thing that her solo adventures show, it's that (and I suspect it's the fault of the Marvel takeover) no one could decide upon what the character was.  Throughout these few issues, I got a sense of what she could be--at times she looks like she's being set up as a Gambit-like ambivalent hero, a Green Hornet-esque 'hero pretending to be a baddie to fight crime from within', a sassy bad girl ala' Harley Quinn, or a rogue spy ala' Black Widow.  But they don't ever stay with any one character take for very long.  It also doesn't help that her powers and abilities change from moment to moment.  Hell, there's a moment in the special where Jennifer appears to use mind control on Juggernaut, and it felt like that ability was added suddenly when someone remembered her name was actually, you know, Siren.

The artwork is pretty excellent--Mike Zeck does the Eliminator issues, and Kevin J. West (whose style seems even better suited here than it was on Foxfire) did all her solo issues save for the special, which was done by John Fang.  All of these pencillers are very action-oriented, and some of the set pieces are exceptionally fluid and kinetic.  I really thought much of it worked visually.  I just wish it was in service of a series that was more focused than what we ended up with.

After finishing all the issues, I wonder if Siren's development couldn't have been better handled by putting the special in between Eliminator and her initial appearance in Ultraforce.  There's this nagging feeling that all the adjustments and readjustments poor Jennifer went through in her main series wouldn't have occurred if Kanalz had cemented her origin and powers before Marvel gained majority control.  But as it stands, the constant course correcting coupled with the forced Marvel connections obscures what could've been an interesting heroine.  The series and the special are readable and has good looking art, but I would not call it recommended.

We're ramping up to the grand finale of my journey through the Ultraverse.  Coming up next is Steve Gerber's other regular Ultraverse series, in which takes he one of his most celebrated Marvel characters, relocates him to New York City and drops him into the middle of a noir crime epic where one of the gang bosses is...Lord Pumpkin.  Be sure to wear full protective covering when we make the acquaintance of Sludge!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

*--This was the second series I read during this project.  It made no sense to me then. I figured at the time that the series, a strange fusion of martial arts, cyborg and Stephen J. Connell-style characterization, would make more sense as I got deeper into my re-read...and here, over halfway through, I still don't know what that was all about.  And by now, I understand the first book I read, Break/Thru...I think.

**--For some reason, the Ultraverse was all in on the kid sidekick trend.  At least Kyi wasn't a speedster like Prime's Turbocharge or Rush, who was tacked on to the later half of Mantra volume two.

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: Punked By A Green-And-Purple Sci-Fi Cockroach and Other Indignities (RUNE V. 2, RUNE V. VENOM, RUNE: HEARTS OF DARKNESS, RUNE/CONAN crossover event)

 As with the other three Ultraverse titles that netted itself a second volume, changes were very apparent in the new, post-Black September Rune.  While Kyle Hotz was retained as the artist of note, the scripting was taken over by Len Kaminski, perhaps best known for the run on Iron Man that introduced War Machine*.  The reboot changes of the second volume did manage to make the plotline more comprehensible than it was in volume one.  However, it doesn't necessarily make it better.

At the end of Rune Infinity, Rune is literally dumped into the Negative Zone, where he will get owned rather decisively by Annihilus (incidentally, one of my favorite Marvel baddies).  This leaves us with the two twins who made up Gemini, Erik and Noel.  As Erik is bitten and turned by Rune in the Curse of Rune mini, he takes over the Gemini form at night and stalks Los Angeles whereas Noel has control of the body during the day and tries to be humanity's savior while totally misunderstanding how to do so.  Meanwhile, Adam Warlock (who we found at the end of Curse) is revived by Aladdin, gains healing powers and sort of walks around, reviving the people seriously injured by Noel's 'world saving.'  And in the background, instead of Janus, we've got a pair of police detectives and a policewoman who's secretly a bewinged and befeathered ultra that Warlock takes an interest in.

Don't worry, though--Rune gets a two part tale set during the Black Plague in issues #4-5 before finally finding his way out of the Negative Zone into Marvel Earth and fusing with a symbiote (where did he get a symbiote?  Hell if I know...) so he can tangle with Venom in the appropriately named Rune Vs. Venom one-shot.  He doesn't appear in the last two issues of Volume Two, but does show up in both the Rune: Heart of Darkness mini and the rather unique crossover with Conan.

The good news is Len Kaminski's stories are more coherent and focused than what we saw in Volume One.  The bad news is it's still a mess and a half.  It's hurt by the fact that both Erik and Noel become absolutely unsympathetic and unlikeable over the course of the first three issues of volume two.  By the time we do hit that Rune flashback two-parter--also a lot more coherent and focused than the first volume--it's almost a relief.  

Then there's the presence of Adam Warlock.  I think he's brought in to act as an opponent for our Gemini/Rune Jr. mash-up, something that's given more credence by his being given the new ability to 'travel through men's souls' and heal, maybe even from death, others.  But he hangs out with Aladdin for two issues, all the while moaning about being brought back to life again, wanders into Los Angeles and hangs out with an ultrafied cop with wings....it's made obvious there's a Big Conflict between the two coming.  But when they're finally face to face, on the last page of the last issue of Volume Two, we're directed to the first issue of Ultraverse Unlimited for the resolution (and I'm so unimpressed that I'll wait to talk about that when we get to that title as a whole).

So volume two leads into Rune: Heart of Darkness, written by Doug Moench with pencils by Kyle Hotz.  This finds Rune in New York being hunted by a malign intelligence that, we learn in flashback, is where Rune got his soul-sucking gems from.  This really seems like an attempt to realign the character into a more 'heroic' role.  After two and a half issues of running around, Rune ends up winning the battle by getting the rune gems on his side by promising only to sup on the wicked.  It's great seeing Hotz work on a character that's right up his alley--Hotz leaves midway through volume two, presumably to do this--but there's something weird about how Rune went from The Big Bad of The Ultraverse to Cosplay Morbius in his last appearance.

The funniest thing is that the outlier to this phase of the Ultraverse--the only Marvel/Ultraverse crossover that's put out by Marvel--is arguably the best thing published featuring the character.  To celebrate Barry Windsor Smith's debut on Conan twenty five years previously, Marvel editor Carl Potts arranged for an event called Rune v. Conan.  This took up the fourth issues of both Conan The Barbarian and the black-and-white The Savage Conan as well as a stand alone special.  Cleverly, the event is portrayed as happening over the life of Conan with each issue focusing on a different phase of his career.  All three of these could be read on their own to get a complete story, but reading them together gives you a different reading experience.  Each issue is great for its own reason.  Larry Hama provides the script for Conan, and it's a massively breathless adventure story full of swashing and buckling with Rune in the background getting visions of Conan as his greatest opponent.  The special, written and drawn by Windsor Smith, shows the character at his best as young Conan stumbles upon Rune supping on an entire troupe and fight very, very hard to gain even a sliver of vengeance.  And The Savage Conan issue shows us the two encounter each other while Conan is King as a priest tries to call forth a Lovecraftian monster.

Which brings me to something that puzzled me.  Considering that the best stories featuring Rune (the prequel serial, the two-part story set during the Middle Ages, the Conan crossover) were those dealing in the past, why wasn't that the premise of the series?  The Ultraverse had a number of characters and concepts that stretched back into the past, and I'd be intrigued to see Rune interact with, let's say, Rex Mundi or Rhiannon or Lukacz earlier in their existence, or following up on some of the hints in the prequel (why did Rune pick Tesla's mind anyway?).  We could even do stories on some of the individuals who became trapped in Rune's stones.  Ultimately, I don't think the tight interconnectivity hurt the concept--it just needed a little thought to make it work optimally.  Rune doesn't work as The Cosmic Big Bad, but he definitely could have worked to further build the 'world' of the Ultraverse.

I once again state--I wanted to like Rune.  And for a change, the second volume suggests to me how I could have liked it.  But taken as a whole, this series was very disappointing.  It's certainly in a lower tier, a book that never lived up to its true potential because...well, maybe because the creative team behind it wanted it to be something else.

And speaking of characters and potential, next time we'll look at the last character introduced before the Black September reboot whose major problem may have been being introduced just as Black September hit...and also maybe the fact that we don't learn her origin until her series is over.   Join me--and Taskmaster, and Diamondback, and yet another kid sidekick--as we kick back and examine the short solo life of Siren!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

*--although for me, I will always fondly remember him for his year-long arc on Hellstorm, Prince of Lies...complete with frequent swipes at DC's John Constantine: Hellblazer, the title it was consciously aping.

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: BUT I WANNA DO COSMICALLY POWERED ALIEN BARBARIAN VAMPIRES WITH CANCER! (RUNE V. 1, THE CURSE OF RUNE, RUNE/SILVER SURFER)

I really, really wanted to like Rune.

I did.  I know that Barry Windsor-Smith can be off-putting to some, but I love his unique pencil style.  The fact that Rune was supposed to be focusing on the Ultraverse's major villain was novel.

But it pains me to say this--what resulted from Windsor-Smith taking a liking to a proposal by Chris Ulm is just, well, impenetrable.  What's worst, it has so little to do with the Ultraverse that it rightfully should have been put under the banner of Bravura, the Malibu Comics imprint for creator-owned properties.

Rune is an ancient...alien?...barbarian who was exiled to Earth by Argus, one of the deities we learn a lot about in the Godwheel event.  While hanging out here, he ends up being vampirized and becomes worshipped as a god by a tribe in Africa.  A war with another tribe causes Rune's girlfriend to be murdered, resulting in him stalking the Earth and getting cancer from a nuclear bomb blast.  Meanwhile, a military man during the Vietnam war discovers an alien artifact and creates an AI called Genie that leads to the foundation of Aladdin and the creation of two boys infused with alien tech that, when joined, become a ultra-powered cosmic being named Gemini.  Meanwhile a fat guy cosplaying as John Constantine with a pet rat called Janus looks for Gemini so he can find Rune and...

sigh

Did everybody get that?

Believe it or not, there's loads more exposition, and even after absorbing it all I still don't understand what Windsor Smith and Ulm is actually talking about.  I will begrudingly admit that the storyline gains a little bit more clarity in the last issue of Volume 1--the first issue where Ulm flies solo and Windsor Smith isn't doing pencils--but at that point Marvel has taken over the reins and things go back to confusing.  The last issue leads us into Godwheel, which then leads us into Rune/Silver Surfer, yet another flipbook with the same story being recounted by the POV of the two different characters.  In that issue, Rune shows up on Marvel Earth just long enough to grab all the Infinity Gems and stop time only for the Silver Surfer to show up and punch him back to the Ultraverse...

...which leads right into the four part Curse of Rune, where Gemini and Janus look for Rune, and Shuriken (remember her from All-New Exiles?  This is her debut) shows up looking to capture Gemini and kill Rune, and Rune shows up and bites Gemini, who is now part vampire, and....

As all knotted up as the storyline is, I would have forgiven it if the characters were, well, interesting, and these characters aren't.  After showing some charisma in the prologue that ran through all the Ultraverse titles (and reprinted as a promotional giveaway in an issue of Spin), Rune spends almost all of his time thumping his chest and giving himself really Edgelord-y nicknames like 'The Dark God' and 'Prince of The Void.'  The only way I can tell the difference between the two kids who make up Gemini is because one of them is always whining about his girlfriend.  And Janus...oh, god, Janus.  There's a constant sense that Janus will be Really Important, and that there's a reason he's hunting Rune and that he's older and more powerful than his 'scraggly homeless man' vibe indicates...but nothing connected to him ever develops.  At one point, this is a character who is decapitated and his head put on a pike that still talks and I felt nothing.  I wasn't impressed, I wasn't sickened, I wasn't disgusted or disgruntled...not. A. Thing.

This series just made my head hurt.  And throughout it all, I never got a sense it actually belonged in the Ultraverse.  Outside of the issue where Mantra and Prime show up for a couple of pages and the Aladdin name, it felt like it was happening in its own continuity.  I wonder if I would find this more palatable if this was a stand-alone series (and let's be obvious, Bravura was right there).  But since Rune was a much-touted Ultraverse title set in the Ultraverse, I have to evaluate it in the context of the imprint.  And as part of the imprint, the story fails. I think Malibu knew it also judging by the way there was a sudden, sharp pivot to defining Lord Pumpkin and Necromantra as the major bads of the continuity.

At least the art, more often than not, is spectacular.  In addition to Windsor Smith the majority of the first volume, we get lovely John  Buscema pencils on the Silver Surfer half of Rune/Silver Surfer and Kyle Hotz doing exceptionally weird art for Curse of Rune #1-3.  If you're going to need someone to follow Barry Windsor Smith's very mannered and atmospheric art, Kyle Hotz is probably the best choice you can make.

The pre-reboot run on Rune was the most difficult run I've had to get through save for The Phoenix Resurrection and maybe All-New Exiles.  After all of this, I still feel like there's still world building that needs to be divulged so I can better understand what the Hell is going on.  I do want to love this given the creatives involved, but I cannot in no way recommend it.

But we're not done with our...favorite?...cosmic barbarian vampire.  Black September is just around the corner, and you know what that means!  It's time to look at Rune V.2, as well as Rune vs. Venom, Rune: Heart of Darkness, and the crossover that spans Marvel's Conan #4 and Conan The Savage #4, as well as Rune Vs. Conan!  Can this series right itself in the brief reboot phase?

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: CORPORATIONS ARE EVIL, OKAY? (PROTOTYPE)

Of all the solo Ultraverse heroes, you would think Prototype would be the easiest to figure out.  He's a guy in an armored suit who works for a corporation; he's Iron Man.  To be more precise, he's what Iron Man was supposed to be back when Tony Stark had a secret identity.  It's prolly why I passed over the book back in the 90's when it first came out.  It's prolly why I didn't pay much attention to the character in the second volume of Ultraforce, which is where he landed after Black September  and his book's cancellation.

So image my surprise to find out that this is something else, with a shifting point of view that comes off at times as a technothriller.  In many ways, the titular Prototype isn't the hero, but the catalyst for the action of others.

UltraTech is proud of its mascot, Prototype...until its operator, Bob Campbell starts believing he's a super-hero for real.  So, using the loss of his arm during one combat, Bob is ousted and the armor is upgraded for its next operator, Jimmy Ruiz--literally, as Ruiz is unwittingly a natural ultra whose energy abilities are able to fuel the suit.  But both men realize on their own that it's in their own interest to fight back against their employers.  Meanwhile, in the background, the 'terrorism corporation' Terrordyne and the Asian Techuza war against each other, involving both our heroes as well as the enigmatic super-scientific samurai Arena.

Visiting these issues for the first time was interesting.  I did not expect that it would be focused at times on both Bob and Jimmy, and it was the contrast between the two--and the chemistry between them in later issues--that is the book's biggest appeal.  According to Tom Mason, who co-wrote the majority of the book with Len Strazewski (three issues were written by Strazewski solo, with the final issue--easily its worst--a fill-in by R.A. Jones):

"My initial thought was that the book was going to be Bob Campbell's story. After some discussion with Len - all friendly back and forth as we tried to figure things out together - it became clear that Jimmy's story would be the journey to hang everything else on. Jimmy was Len's idea; Iron Man as a teenager learning. Everything else was subplot which would sometime take a larger piece of an issue to move things forward and keep things interesting."

Strazewski added:

"My original intention was explore multigenerational models for heroes and Jimmy led the way with his tattoo tech. The final result was to have two heroes--Prototype and Ranger, sometimes working together with different techniques."

And I think the fact that we had two writers championing two different characters may have made Mason and Strazewski work to make both characters more engaging...and it shows.  I never felt that one character's arc was interfering with the other, and it ended up creating a wonderful rapport between Bob, Jimmy and Bob's ex-wife that gave the series heft.  What's really remarkable is how seamlessly the series handles weaving itself into the larger crossovers--unlike other titles, there is never a sense that Prototype's main storyline is put on hold so the Break-Thru or Hostile Takeover event happens.

I was also rather taken by the way these events have repercussions.  After the Hostile Takeover event, Jimmy finds himself working for new employers with new rules on how to be Prototype.  Since so much of the series revolves around the corporate aspects, the writers are able to sneak notes of satire and parody of what was current culture at the time.

The villains are....iffy with the exception of Arena, who shows up in issue #6 to continue their conflict with Prototype unaware that there's a new operator in the armor.  Thankfully, Arena's story arc is resolved in both the Bob Campbell story in Ultraverse Premiere and an issue of Prime V. 2. 

I say thankfully because Prototype is ultimately frustrating because it just stops.  Strazewski, in the last few issues, builds up to a massive war between Prototype's new employers Nu-Ware and the Techuza, who has revived main series baddie Stanley Leland as a....cybersquid (trust me on this).  The two final issues make a big deal about Prototype: Turf War, a miniseries that would resolve this plot line.  However, I think it's telling that this miniseries was advertised as showing up just before the Black September reboot.  According to Tom Mason, it was cancelled before it could be completed, although there are some finished pencils by artist Gabriel Hardman over at the Ultraverse Facebook Group (and thanks to Mr. Hardman, here as well!).

Prototype did survive into the post-Black September era for a while as a member of Ultraforce V.2...but we'll get to that in time.

I was surprised at how much I took to Prototype.  It ended up being a title with one of the most consistent creative teams, and when it hit, it hit hard.  My biggest complaint is the fact that it remained unresolved--it ends mid-story with nothing close to a resolution to bring the series to a close.  I really recommend it.  Hell, if it wasn't for its lack of a satisfying end, it would have been one of my favorite titles in the re-reading.

Next time we approach the product of what was arguably the Ultraverse's biggest 'get'....which may have produced a series more suited for Malibu's Bravura imprint.  Unfurl your wings and sharpen your fangs as we take a look at Barry Windsor-Smith's cosmic vampire barbarian...epic?...Rune V. 1!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: Well, THAT Got Messy (PRIME V. 2, PRIME/CAPTAIN AMERICA, PRIME VS. HULK)

The end of Power of Prime #4, the last issue of the 'Origin of Prime' arc that closed out the first volume, Prime and his friends Turbo Charge and Phade were stuck on an island with a number of 'Prime Babies' asking what their future lies.

Prime Infinity, the first issue of volume two, has Kevin Green wandering the New York of 616 wondering how he's going to get back to his world and why his powers aren't working correctly...just before he get caught up in a battle between Spider-Man and...well, the comic insists it's Spidey's enemy the Lizard, but he sure don't look or act like it.

I've said in a couple of previous articles that the tightly interconnected continuity the originators of the Ultraverse came up with may have been more a bug than a feature.  If it wasn't true before, it certainly is in the post-Black September final months where Marvel has a firm grip on the reins.  Although this first issue does cite both Ultraforce/Avengers and Prime Vs. The Hulk in their explanation for what is going on, I only understood what they were talking about because I had vague memories from reading the former when it first came out.

To be fair, Prime vs. The Hulk is actually pretty good.  Split into two parts, written by Len Strazewski and Gerard Jones with plot assists by Peter David, it depicts Kevin's first day in Earth 616.  Looking for Avengers Mansion figuring they'll help him get back to his Earth, he runs across a scientist luring a teenager into his car so he can conduct his gamma ray experiments on her.  Understandably upset, Prime intervenes and ends up crossing paths with the Hulk.  There's a fight, there's an understanding between the heroes, and they bring the evil doctor to justice before Kevin runs away and ends up in the second volume of his own book.

And to be fair, the first couple of issues uses its Marvel connections to further the idea that this series is more about Kevin growing into himself.  Unlike, let's say, the Punisher showing up in Foxfire, Spider-Man is in Prime Infinity and Prime v.2 #1 to inspire Kevin to be more heroic.  Of course, that also results in him being Spider-Prime for a few issues, getting involved with the Ultra-world's version of the Spider Totem that I'm positive inspired J. Michael Straczynski four years later, and realizing that Prime is not just a body, but a union of that body with Kevin's soul....which is fortunate, because he has to confront his Prime body who's been running rampant in Ultra-Earth and overall being a dick.  Unlike some of the other reboots, the thing I like about this volume is how it builds upon the character as he was in Volume 1 instead of replacing him.

...and then we get a fill-in issue in  #5 that resolves a plot left over from Prototype, and Johns goes solo beginning with a three-parter that resolves plot lines left over from his series Solitare. Even though it has some great art from Scot Kolins, there is a definite sense that this was supposed to be a crossover between the titles that got retrofitted.  Solitare takes a lot of screen time away from Kevin, dealing with his paramour(?) Coco and the drug that empowers her hitting the streets.  On top of this, there's a big 'This is a message' vibe to the story that just doesn't quite fit.

But then, that seems to be the problem with Jones' solo work on the title.  He does stick around for two more issue to finally bring a conclusion of sorts to Prime's friendship with TurboCharge while also doing an amusing turn of the 'Superman-Flash Race' trope.  These two issues are elevated by Norm Breyfogle's brief return to pencils and the acknowledgment that the Ultraverse has a lot of speedsters, but overall Jones seems weirdly checked out of these issues.

Jones and Breyfogle also produced Prime/Captain America, which is easily the best issue of this second run.  Cap finds himself in the Ultraverse after some dimensional jiggery-pokery and ends up teaming with Prime to confront a plot to replace the President with a Bill Clinton from the alternative universe of the Ultraverse/Avengers crossover with the help of an alternate universe Prime who never grew out of his Rogue Prime phase and Liberty, an incidental character from the first volume turned into a patriotic-themed ultra.  It's lots of fun, the two heroes have equal time and there's a sense of humor--I really got a kick out of Chelsea Clinton figuring out Prime is actually her age.  And of course, it's a joy to see Breyfogle's take on classic Captain America (at this time Cap was running around in some awkward looking armor).

...and then V. 2 #11 comes along.  The remaining issues are written by Darrin Shaheen, although a lot is made of how Keith Giffen co-wrote the first three of the five remaining issues.  Art is by Al Rio and, while he has a fresh style that's more animation-based, he is made to draw this as if it is an Image comic; the posing of the female characters, even the non-sexualized one, is pure semi-broke back.

I think it's telling that these five issues focus more of Latin dictator Colonel Rinaldo and his supporting characters than Kevin.  Hell, outside of Kevin and his parents, a select few supporting characters only show up in one panel cameos during issue #14.  And the 'major new direction' that is teased in issue #10 is that the Green family is on the run after Kevin's secret is revealed.  The general plot is that Rinaldo wants to rule the world and wants to absorb Prime's powers....but he's also insane in the membrane, and there's members of his retinue plotting to overthrow him, and he's also growing Lord Pumpkin in a tube in a subplot that's not mentioned until issue #14, and...

It's terrible.  I think that Rinaldo was meant to be satiric ala' Giffen and DeMatties' lovely Justice League run over at DC, but whatever Shaheen meant is totally lost.  There just isn't anything there there, and it's doubly frustrating when you look at how this story totally ignores what Jones had set up.  Yes, those issues were written in what could have been interpreted as a closing of that chapter, but ignoring all the growth the character went through during the over two years of publication just rings false.  By the time we hit the last issue of volume two--it was released the same month that Ultraverse Future Shock was--I felt no stakes in either the story or Kevin Green.  And considering how much I had learned to like about this series in spite of the spectre of who Gerard Jones had become*, that's a pretty dire indictment.

To me, the potential of where a writer who wasn't Shaheen could take a more emotionally mature Kevin far outweighed what we ended up with.  I would have liked to see Prime interact with the Lauren version of Mantra, with the potential of the dynamics set up between Kevin and Eden Blake reversed.  Or seeing Kevin counseling Foxfire as she strove to become the heroine she wanted to be.  But what's done is done, and this five issue coda to what was overall a fairly effective series falls flat with a resounding thud.

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..which may very well be said about the other Black September reboots...but there's still two of those to go.

Next time, we look at the second of the three inaugural Ultraverse titles, Len Strazewski's other contribution to the line...a take on Iron Man's cover story if not Iron Man himself.  Join us for Prototype!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

*--and don't get me wrong, that spectre never quite left me every time we saw a naked Kevin rising out of the goo of his spent Prime shell...although the biggest 'ick' moment was reading Len Strazewski talking about how he delighted in how Kevin wandered about after his Prime Shell ran out in the videogame and the debate over whether they should give him boxers in the Prime Ashcan Edition.