WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: A HOG, A FLOOD, SOME APES AND A PAIR OF RUBY SLIPPERS (RIPFIRE, ULTRAVERSE FLOOD RELIEF, ULTRAVERSE DOUBLE FEATURE)

 One more short wrap up of...well, one shots.

There are three more one-shots that I haven't talked about, all with different objectives and approach.  One is a charity benefit book, one is another flip book experiment, and one is another 'pilot' for a character who previously was showcased in Ultraverse Premiere...although unlike Elven and Eliminator, this guy never made the cut.

That guy is Ripfire, who is unique in that he was created, written and drawn by Darick Robertson.  He appeared in the first two issues of UP before his serial ended abruptly.  The story started therein is finished in this one-shot and that was that until he showed up out of nowhere in the last issue of All-New Exiles and became a member of Ultraforce for that series' last handful of issues.

Matt McKinney is a teenager growing up in the middle of Arizona and yearning to be somewhere else.  He's hanging with his collection of teenagers-that-love-motorcycles (even though there's a motorcycle gang that harasses them, there's no indication that Matt and his buddies are an official gang themselves) when a trio of spaceships appear.  Each of the teenagers--except for one, Clyde, that runs to the police--accept the chance to bond with the aliens within.  The police stumble across Matt while he's in a battle for control with another teen/alien combo, call in the army, and the skirmish ends with some dead soldiers.  Taking the name from his motorbike, Matt and his alien host flee for Los Angeles only to beat up some bikers in a roadside diner...and that's it.

I can see why Ripfire never made it past the pilot stage.  While Darick's artwork is excellent even though it's early on in his career, there's a definite sense that the story needed to go through another draft, perhaps one that would tone down the Image-era 'extreme'-ness and make Matt and the aliens more defined.  I never quite got an idea about what Matt's plans are after the final original segment.

There's a real sense that the Ultraverse staff wanted to give Ripfire a conclusion, but whoever decided to drop him in All-New Exiles in an issue set in New York when the character was heading to L.A. may not have cared too much.

Ultraverse Flood Relief was not a pilot but a benefit comic for, well, Flood Relief.  In this story, written by the trio of Dan Danko, Hank Kanalz and Tom Mason, a selection of heroes (Prime, Hardcase, Prototype and...shudder...Zip Zap) descend on Des Moines, Iowa to deal with a flash flood that is caused by a wetware application that has become a water elemental called Wave.  As a benefit comic written by three writers and penciled by two (Aaron Lopresti and Richard Pace), it's pretty damn good.  The thing that I think makes it work the best is how the writers managed to write a story that slides pretty easily into normal continuity.  The heroes depicted are true to how they are in their own series and incorporates status quo for all of them (I especially liked how our writers tell full advantage of the Prime/Prototype rivalry).  The villain, a creature made of water who comes out of some lost wetware and its bonding with a little girl, is okay, but it gives the characters something to try and punch for some action sequences.   It a decent little story and I appreciated that it could stand along outside of the context of being for charity.

The last one shot I want to discuss is another of the Ultraverse flipbooks, Ultraverse Double Feature.  As I mentioned in past articles in this series, Malibu really went in on the flip book idea, launching an anthology book, Ultraverse Premiere, to act as a floating flip book that would change homes from month to month.  This is a flipbook that's kind of reminiscent of the classic 'duo feature' Marvel Comics like Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense and Strange Tales...which makes sense given the very retro feel of the Prime tale within.  "King of the Beasts," written by Gerard Jones with art by Joel Thomas, sees Prime discovering a hidden civilization of intelligent talking gorillas and helping resolve a power struggle within.  The other story, "No Place Like Home," written by Jones and Julie Huffman with art by Miraglia, features the hero Solitaire as he investigates a series of very...specific movie memorabilia thefts in Los Angeles.

Both stories are pretty good, but if I had to chose a favorite it'd have to be "King of The Beasts."  There's such an infectious Silver Age throwback feel to the tale, and Joel Thomas' pencils are nicely detailed with a good sense of facial expressions.  To be fair, my familiarity with the Prime character might have helped me in enjoying it as well.  "No Place Like Home" is set up like a mystery (even though I figured out said mystery very early), and the tone seems to really fit the character, plus I liked the background of high end memorabilia collecting and how it was used.  If anything, I got strong vibes of the Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle's cult 80's comic Crossfire...which is a good thing.  

If I was purchasing any of these three one shots back in the 90's, I think I would be most satisfied with Ultraverse Flood Relief.  Ultraverse Double Feature has two good stand alone stories that gives the reader a taste of the individual characters, although I don't know if my enjoyment would prompt me to check out their individual series.  And even though I liked Darick Robertson's art, Ripfire needed a little more refining before it could convince me I wanted to read more about the series.  Still, I don't know if there's anything in this round of one shots I wouldn't recommend.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend Ripfire, but I wouldn't tell a fellow comic fan to stay away.

When next we return...it's the Big One.  I start my re-read of the most popular Ultraverse title in its five year history, a title that almost made it to the Big Screen but most probably will now never be seen again.  So see me struggle with that boundary between art and reality as I peruse the first volume of Prime!

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

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: A PLUNGING NECKLINE IN SEARCH OF A COSTUME (WITCH HUNTER, ANGELS OF DESTRUCTION, ULTRAVERSE FUTURE SHOCK)

This one is another short one

As I've mentioned before, Malibu Comics was really invested in finding different ways to promote the Ultraverse.  In addition to short films starring Firearm and Hardcase, television advertisement and subway posters (my first exposure to the Ultraverse was seeing their rather elaborate poster featuring all their characters on the 3rd Avenue L line station here in New York City), there were numerous one shots and ashcan editions.  Most of these were designed to hype certain events like the Rafferty Saga and Godwheel.  One of them was a very neat low priced compendium of two to three page introductions to each title.  One of them reprinted the three mail-in comics under the blunt title Mutants Vs. Ultras.  And some of them took serialized stories from Ultraverse Premiere and presented them in one place.  Of those, two spun off very short lived series (Elven, which I will get around to shortly when it's time to talk about Prime, and Eliminator), and a third, the Darrick Robertson created Ripfire, never made it past this pilot stage.

But there's a heroine who is the central, or one of the central, character of three separate one-shots.  And those three represent the short life of Maria DeLorentii, the mystical heroine original called Witch Hunter, then Angel of Destruction before finally settling on Angel after too many other heroes told her that last code name was a mouthful.  She was the last character created for the Ultraverse to have her own series, and may be unique in that it was created by Laurie Sutton and Joyce Chin, two women creators.  

Witch Hunter, where Maria first appeared, was a product of the post-Black September phase of the Ultraverse.  In it, we learn that in 1936 Massachusetts, the DeLorentii family was attacked by 'ectoplasmic wraiths.'  Luckily, Zachariah Frost came upon this incident and drove said wraiths away--but Maria's mother ended up dead, one sister disappeared, the other left in a coma, and Maria had an arm severed in the attempt to close off the portal the wraiths came from.  Maria's body developed 'metabodies' that made her immune to supernatural attacks, and she was recruited  into the Seventh Sign, a agency devoted to battling mystical phenomena.  She was fitted with a metal prosthetic arm, Zachariah's old sword and a plunging neckline to become Witch Hunter.  In the present day, we see ol' WH saving Zachariah's grandson Gabriel Frost from a vampire cult named The Daughters of the Moon.

This reads a lot like an early draft that wasn't tightened up--there's so little info on what the Seventh Sign is that the one-shot contains a text piece explaining its lore--and it overall feels unfinished.  It's certainly of the post-Marvel 'more action less characterization' school, and the overall effect is underwhelming.  It would not have surprised me to never see this character again.

Now the official line was that Witch Hunter sold well, and the intention was to expand on the Seventh Sign in a subsequent series...but then the Ultraverse began falling apart, so instead fans were treated...if one could use such a word....to Angels of Destruction.  The framing sequence featured Maria hunting down Qualaero, a demon who enjoyed feasting on human souls--especially ultras.  In an effort to get Maria to let him escape, Qualaero provided her with glimpses into the souls of three ultras, and promised a look into the soul of her comatose sister.  And...well, that's it, except that the demon calls her an 'Angel of Destruction,' which Maria decides will be her new code name.

Now I know this sounds fairly generic...and lord knows the three vignettes don't contribute much.  Arguably the best is the middle one featuring All-New Exiles member Shuriken breaking into a research facility looking for a cure to the Theta Virus only to receive some bad news.  The other two are barely stories--Topaz has her first encounter with a male warrior from another city and Amber Hunt sits on the couch and mopes about not having powers any more--but what makes the whole package unique is that it was written by Brian Michael Bendis.

Yes, that Brian Michael Bendis.  

This counts as his first Marvel credit; at this time, he was making a name for himself as a writer of crime comics such as AKA Goldfish and Jinx over at Caliber, three years before he would start writing Sam and Twitch for Todd MacFarlane.  Not surprisingly, the most entertaining part of the story is in the dialogue, particularly the exchange between Maria and her demon adversary.  But overall, the experience is as underwhelming as Witch Hunter.  I think it's telling that the ad copy for this one-shot was more concerned with touting the painted cover by Hajime Sorayama than anything else.

So far, both Witch Hunter and Angels of Destruction are aggressively mediocre, and chances are Maria would find her way into the obscure character file given how the Ultraverse was collapsing in on itself....if it wasn't for Ultraverse Future Shock.

Ultraverse Future Shock was the last comic published by Malibu Comics in February of 1997, written by Mark Paniccia with art by Kevin West, Fabio Laguna and Manny Clark.  It is an attempt to resolve some dangling plot threads, including some dangled from the horrific Phoenix Resurrection event.  In it, an Angel of Destruction from a future alternate Ultraverse is sent on a mission to prevent the Progeny from reaching Earth in the present, an action that will trigger a series of events that brought us to the PR: Aftermath future.  This involves traveling to a second alternate Ultraverse where Rune was murdered and getting their Prime to convince the Ultraforce not to do something in our 'real' Ultraverse.  They also decide they have to pick up Rose 'Foxfire' Autumn before she's touched by the Phoenix Force and bring her to the first alternate Ultraverse's future, where everything wraps up nicely with an adult Prime telling the story to a child.

It sounds confusing, and it is--but to be honest, it's not as confusing as it could have been.  It does seem like everyone is on the same page here and trying to give an epic send off to the Ultraverse.  Of the three books here, it's maybe the most...readable?  substantive?  After reading through it (and skimming through the lengthy article summarizing the imprint's history), I felt like I had read an actual finished story.  I don't think I could recommend it or Witch Hunter.  I do recommend Angels of Destruction if only to read Brian Michael Bendis' first foray into mainstream comics.

There's more One-Shots to discuss before I move on to the next ongoing (and arguably The Biggest Ongoing of the Imprint)--a fundraiser, the aforementioned Ripfire, and another foray into the flipbook.  Join me for Ripfire, Ultraverse Flood Relief, and Ultraverse Double Feature!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?  If you would like to support my endeavors to keep pop culture honest, consider joining my Patreon  or buying me a Ko-Fi.  Please follow me on Bluesky Social @tdeja.bsky.social