Posted in: Comics, Current News, Marvel Comics | Tagged: adam worlock, marvel, marvel unlimited, Rune, ultraverse

Marvel Comics Just Brought Back The Ultraverse But No One Noticed

Who is Adam Warlock #1, a digital release exclusive to Marvel Unlimited, includes the first Marvel Universe reference to an Ultraverse character in decades.

In 1994 Marvel bought the Ultraverse, a superhero universe originally published by Malibu Comics, after Image Comics left, supposedly for Malibu's colouring studio and maybe for The Men In Black. And at first, Marvel was okay with having these two universes, and would have them crossover and reference each other. But since Marvel ended the Ultraverse line in 1997, they haven't referenced or used any Ultraverse characters in their comics. One character turned up in Thor Ragnarok, which may well have been a mistake. They also renamed a promotion to avoid using an Ultaverse name. The ban is seemingly due to NDAs revolving around original Malibu Comics founder Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. There have also been reports of issues involving different royalties regarding Ultraverse characters, which were meant to be creator-participant deals. But the truth is no one really knows why Marvel doesn't use the Ultraverse – they even use CrossGen occasionally after that comics publisher was bought by Disney. But the Ultraverse remains below the surface.

The recent release of Who is Adam Warlock #1, a digital release exclusive to Marvel Unlimited, was published alongside the recent Guardians Of The Galaxy to explain to people who Will Poulter's character in the movie was based upon, with a history of Adam Warlock in comic books. And it includes the first Marvel Universe reference to an Ultraverse character in decades. Marvel veteran Ralph Macchio wrote Who is Adam Warlock #1, which is an overview of Adam Warlock's backstory from his original creation to the present day, drawn by Damian Couceiro done in the vertical scrolling Webtoon format that we know they really want to call Mar-Verticals but don't.

After recapping his origin, and the events of Infinity Gauntlet and the subsequent Infinity Watch storylines, the comic briefly references the events of Rune/Silver Surfer #1, in which the Ultraverse character Rune, named above and created by Barry Windsor Smith, travels to the Marvel Universe and steals the Infinity Gems. That story would lead up to the Warren Ellis/George Perez Ultraverse/Avengers crossover, which featured both teams in a battle for the Infinity Gems, and has remained out of print for decades.

Did editor Mark Basso realize what Ralph Macchio snuck in? Or did Ralph even know that he shouldn't have referenced the Ultraverse characters at all? Should we expect to see this digital comic get edited in the near future? Or is this a sign that Marvel may be testing the waters about possibly reusing those characters and concepts again? Or will it be seen as so small that it doesn't really count.

If this wasn't a digital exclusive comic,  I might suggest that you might want to buy a copy for future investment purposes. Maybe take a screenshot instead? Like I did?

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