WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: WORKING HARD FOR THE MONEY (THE SOLUTION)

One of the things I liked about Marvel hero teams as a youngster was that each one was unique onto itself. Sure, The Avengers was the classic super-hero team, but Fantastic Four was a family of explorers, The X-Men were a sort of civil rights movement housed in a school, and under Steve Gerber The Defenders was a wacky group therapy session barely held together by Doctor Strange.

The Ultraverse seemed to follow a similar tack. While their classic super-team didn't come together until late in their second year (and we'll get to Ultraforce next time), The Strangers was an affiliation of people brought together by a traumatic experience, Freex was about a makeshift family of runaways, and The Exiles was Steve Gerber mercilessly making fun of X-Men circa the 90's.

The Solution seemed to be a mercenary group on the surface...but James D. Hundall had something more...all over the place in mind.

In the wake of her father's death, Lela Cho is pushed out of the family business by the Shadow Clan. Determined to get what's rightfully hers, Cho gets a wetware makeover from J.D. Hunt to gain control over technology, then forms an outfit to take down the Clan. To keep themselves financed, the group--now called 'The Solution'--hires itself out as troubleshooter. But some of their biggest problems come from the two non-human members, the monstrous warrior Outrage and the albino sorceress Shadowmage and their connection to the Godwheel.

I liked a lot of this series. I really did. While that characters are sort of stock heroes--the technomancer, the general cyberninja, the man who turns into a battle monster, and the hot girl sorceress--the thing that makes this works is the characterization, especially in the relations between them. While I'm sure the 'no one gets along' dynamics of a lot of 90's super-teams, these four characters are tangibly friends, and genuinely like being with each other. I particularly like the relationship between Tech and Dropkick. While the tendency would be to ship them, Hundall gives them an intimate friendship that is close but never acting on the obvious path.

Unfortunately, this is one of the titles where the feature is actually a bug. A large chunk of the series is taken up by having the main thread of the team's story sidelined in favor of Godwheel Shenanigans. Yes, two of the characters come from the Godwheel, but the tale gets molasses slow as Hundall has to stop and explain all this lore about the various races and their culture while also introducing the menace that will lead us into the Godwheel mini--which the Solution plays no part in. I found it very frustrating, as there's a definite forward momentum in the Dragon Clan story that's suddenly put on hold so we can get all this set up for an entirely different storyline the four characters have no representation in.

Then there's the thirstiness that wrecked some of the other Ultraverse titles I've covered. Every time the Dragon Clan mentions their ouster of Lela, they have to also mention they want to assign her to either a low-rent brothel or--god help me--a snuff film producer. And there's just an overall cheesecakiness in the art that makes me uncomfortable--especially in regard to Shadowmage, whose costume must require a ton of boob tape, even though she's dressed in other scenes in some rather attractive outfits. And we will not mention Casino, who is a compellingly fun villain in a compellingly uncomfortable and revealing outfit throughout.

Artwork is initially provided by Darick Robertson and is, not surprisingly, exceptional even if seems he's trying to emulate some serious Image vibes. However, the Ultraverse merry-go-round starts when we get to the story that sketches in the origin of the group, with Alan Jacobsen (#5), John Statema (#6-8, 10-12, #14, 17), Tim Divar (#9), Scot Benefiel (#13), George Dove (#15) and Daerick Gross (#16) each pitching in. More remarkable during this post-Robertson period are the covers, some of which are done by Kevin Maguire and Dan Bereton. While all of the post Robertson artists are adequate, they're nowhere near as spectacular as Darick.

Much like with Hardcase, Hundall brought The Solution to a conclusion, although the last issue promised that the quartet would be back. I have to wonder if this was an indication of his not being willing to continue under the supervision of Marvel that was on the horizon. It is sort of sad that none of these characters appeared to have survived the 'We Have Crisis on Infinite Earths At Home' reshuffling that was Black September, as they were all proven to have decent staying power. Even Shadowmage made a real impression when she became something of a supporting character in Hardcase and was allowed to wear something other than that Spirit Halloween Vampirella knockoff she wore through most of the series.

I may not have liked The Solution as much as a I liked Hardcase, but I liked it good enough. I think that the constant artist switching didn't help it much, and that it might've come out more vibrant if it didn't get sucked into the whole Godwheel thing. As a whole, I can recommend it.

Next time, it's the big one--the title that existed to close a deal on a toyline and a cartoon, and ended up being the most obvious evidence of how the Marvel sale affected the entire line. Join us as a disparate group of characters from the entire Ultraverse line come together to be a self-policing authority for the entire Ultra community and...chaos ensues. We're definitely in the final stretch as we tackle...Ultraforce!

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

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: BAD CODENAMES AND COMRADERIE (THE STRANGERS)

Not only was The Strangers one of the three initial publications in the Ultraverse, it could said to be the central text. This series begins with the inciting incident that kicks off the entire universe, even though there is info on events happening prior to that incident in the first issue of Hardcase.

...and I think it might also be a reaction from Steve Englehart to the troubles he experienced in his second tenure at Marvel Comics, which saw one of his books taken away from him abruptly, another book taken away from him before he even began on it, and a third being so interfered with by editorial that he ultimately ended up writing the last few issues under the name 'John Harkness.' And it might explain why The Strangers abruptly ends as the Ultraverse is firmly under Marvel control.

Really abruptly. I mean, the last issue has a 'next issue' caption and covers for the next three issues printed alongside goodbye messages from Englehart and artist Rock Hoberg!

A blast of light? Energy? from the moon hits a cable car in San Francisco full of passengers. Six of the passengers gain super powers, and start investigating first the mysterious magical woman who shows up at the accident site, then whether the other passengers have been similarly changed. Since one of the 'strangers,' a Latina fashion designer who now has a sort of aiming/homing sense, has resources and connections, she forms the group into a marketable Ultra Group...emphasis on the marketing.

I never read The Strangers when it was coming out, although their images were plastered prominently on those Ultraverse subway posters. Back then, unaware of the editorial problems that plagued Englehart over at Marvel, I assumed that it was going to be severely lacking. Visiting it now and I was really shocked at how much fun I had with this title...even though I sincerely winced at some of the character's codenames. Just like with Night Man, the nuts and bolts of living the superhero lifestyle plays a part in the title, but what really is refreshing is how character driven the narrative is.

And make no mistake--the characters are the strength, as Englehart takes what on the surface are stock types and gives them interesting new angles via interacting with each other and other heroes in the Ultraverse. Just look at Grenade, who is introduced as a stereotypical meatheaded jock who naturally gravitates to the hottest woman (kinda...she's actually a custom-made sexbot that gained sentience and electrical powers from the jumpstart and is now having a ball with being alive)...and yet shows true affection towards her and grief over what happens to his best friend. There's also Zip-Zap, who looks on the outside to be a kid that's been beaten down by the streets...and yet is very perceptive, is proud of how he comes up with new stunts with his super-speed, and creates a genuine bond with another member that draws her out of her shell. These are genuine narrative hooks in all of these stereotypical types that drive the title in interesting and intriguing direction, while also providing some nice story beats for the Ultraverse in general. Seeing the one gay character discussing sexual identity with Mantra during a crossover may be one of my favorite moments in the whole line so far.

The book is broken into two major arcs, with a third arc kind of cut off mid-stream by the book's cancellation. The first, where our heroes explore their origins, is episodic but tons of fun, especially in regard to the character interactions. The second arc, 'The Pilgrim Conundrum,' has its moments (issue #13, introducing Powerhouse, a Superman analog who got his powers back during the Golden Age and was promptly sent to an insane asylum for bragging about his abilities, is amusing and issue #17's encounter with Rafferty are both standouts)...but I can't help feeling that the big resolution in issue #18 was a rather big letdown, even if Englehart planted all the clues in the issues leading up to it. Englehart was still in the middle of putting his third act in motion starting with issue #21, but considering it involved a character called Taboo that skirted being a racial stereotype joining enemy super-team TNTNT, it wasn't off to a good start.

Art through the first 19 issues and both the Annual and the Night Man Annual it crossed over with was by Rick Hoberg. I first encountered Hoberg in the 70's when he was providing pencils on both Ms. Marvel and Savage She-Hulk and wrote him off as a mediocre artist...but man, did he improve by the time he started working on this title. Throughout his tenure, his work is fluid, dynamic and a lot of fun. And he manages to pull off some nice moments for these character beats Englehart loves.

Strangers is simply fun. None of the edgelord stuff that sometimes interferes with my enjoyment of other titles. An emphasis on character interaction. Fun set pieces. These all work to give me a fluid, consistent and high energy read even with the less-than-vibrant bad guys that sometimes mar the show. It's a real shame that this title didn't get at least a second volume, because it emphasized what the company insisted the line was all about. At the very least, they should have let those three issues get published as a miniseries.

Now granted, Englehart did try to put together another Strangers series, but we're going to get to that after we finish looking at all the titles. Next time, we'll be looking at the last super-group before we cover the Ultraverse super group as James Hundall puts corporate intrigue, magic, other dimensions, and some perviness into a blender to come up with The Solution!

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

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: MY HEALING IS QUICK (SOLITAIRE)

I think I can safely say that Gerard Jones, as problematic as he has become, had the largest 'footprint' creatively in the Ultraverse. In addition to the three titles I've covered previously, I'm going to be looking at Ultraforce fairly soon, and we're not even counting the number of stories he wrote for the various anthology titles.

And even I didn't remember this title.

Considering how many people called Night Man the Ultraverse's Batman, I'm shocked no one called Solitaire the Ultraverse's Batman....although I could see people also comparing him to the Punisher. But after reading the twelve issues that make up the series--there were two miniseries promised, but only one surfaced as a three-parter in the second volume of Prime--I think Jones' influences reach further back. While Nicholas Lone has experienced the same kind of loss Bruce Wayne and Frank Castle went through, the whole rest of the premise is pure pulp hero. A little bit of The Shadow, a little bit of The Spider, a dollop of Doc Savage and Fu Manchu...that's our guy.

Nicholas Lone is the son of Anton Lone, a black marketeer/crime lord disguised as a generic industrialist. He witnesses his mother's murder as a child, and learns of his father's scummy evil nature as he comes of age. Rather than live with the knowledge he's the son of a monster, Nicholas drives his car off a cliff in a suicide attempt...but Anton brings him back using nanotechnology, giving him enhanced abilities and highly accelerated healing. Nicholas takes off on a worldwide tour of debauchery--but it's all a ruse, Instead, he builds a network of operatives and trains to take on his father's criminal empire as Solitaire...you know, because he has to always be alone.

This is the most 'meh' of Jones' titles under the Ultraverse banner. I can see what he's doing, attempting a modern take on the classic pulp hero that pre-date comics while also attaching tropes from more modern 'men's adventure' heroes (think Don Pendelton's Executioner or Warren Murphy's Destroyer). And in most cases, he sticks to his guns--no pun intended. For the most part, the stories are the kind I would expect to come across in such media with an emphasis on action and detective work. Even the villains, while somewhat exaggerated, would fit into these lurid boundaries--a sex trafficker in issue #1, a moon worshipping cult in #2 and an arm-dealer with some...borderline racist overtones and an affection for monkeys in #3 and 4. And when Solitaire turns his attention to his father, he deals with the most intriguing antagonist in Jinn, his father's right hand man who partially trained Nicholas. Later in the series there's The Degenerate, a nihilist anarchist who's building a child army and an agent of Aladdin named Serena who is teased to be a love interest.

Where the series falls apart is when Jones brings Solitaire into the mainstream Ultraverse soap operatics. This begins when our hero encounters the sword wielding vigilante Double Edge, who feels he has to balance his every good deed with a bad one in issue #7. But then we get Anton Lone trying to cut a deal with Atalon of the Fire People from Ultraforce and it just goes off the rails. By that time the series starts to lose its grit and film noir trappings, bringing in villains from Prototype, some weird cult(?) of nanotech designers responsible for the tech that gives Nicholas his abilities and secretly reprograms his personality, and a plan by Anton to bring his boy back to him. And I think it's telling that once this stuff's going down the series starts being numbered as "__ of 12." Now I don't know if Solitaire was always meant to be a maxi-series or not, but it certainly makes it clear that an endpoint was on the horizon beginning with issue #8.

The art is mainly by Jeffs Johnson and Parker. I had first encountered--and fell in love with--Johnson's pencils when he and Jones had teamed up on the 90's Wonder Man series, and if anything his minimalist, sparse linework fits what this series is trying to achieve. Parker's work is a little simplistic and not really to my taste, but I do appreciate how he gave a continuity; yes, the change still could be noticeable, but I suspect you'd have to be looking for it. Both artists are very good at action sequence choreography, something brought home by the stunt of having the covers of the first six issues being put together to make the opening action sequence of issue #7.

In the last issue of Solitaire, two minis are announced that will continue Nicholas' story. Solitaire: The Perfect Man, which saw him encounter a cult led by a woman named Agave, never saw light of day. However, Prime and Solitaire: Exordium did show up as a three issue arc in the second volume of Prime. But, barring a short from Ultraverse Double Feature that I've already discussed that seems to more successfully capture what I think Jones intended for the character and short cameos in some other titles, that was it for Nicholas Lone's career...

...and that might be for the best. Throughout my reading of Solitaire, I felt this was another title that didn't feel like it quite fit in the Ultraverse. The concept of a pulp/men's adventure hero dressed up in super-hero mufti had potential (Hell, it worked out pretty well for the Punisher, didn't it?), but the more Jones leaned into the 'super-hero' part of the equation, the less engaging it became...and considering how it wasn't all that engaging to begin with, I'm not surprised it didn't go any further.

Next time we finally come to the last of the initial three titles that ushered in the Ultraverse, the one that acted as the centerpiece of the line's lore. Join Steve Englehart and Rich Hoberg in San Francisco as the Jumpstart affects 52 people on a cable car, granting them amazing abilities (and in the case of some, awful taste in codenames) and making seven of them...Strangers!

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

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?