Ultraverse

Malibu Comics was a comic book publisher in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. more...

The Ultraverse was a shared universe much like the real world, but in which a variety of characters - known within the comics as "Ultras" - acquired super-human abilities. The company's headquarters was in Calabasas, California. Malibu also owned a small software development company that designed video games in the early to mid-90's called Malibu Interactive.

History

The company was founded in 1986 by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and made a name for itself publishing a combination of new series and licensed properties such as the classic characters Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, and popular TV/movie/video-game tie-ins. They served as publishers-of-record for the first comics from Image Comics in 1992, giving the upstart creator-run publisher access to the distribution channels. The Bravura line consisted of creator-owned titles was soon started. In 1992, heroes from Centaur Publications from the 1940s that were in the public domain were revived in the form of the Protectors, Airman, Amazing Man, Aura, Arc, Arrow, Ferret, Man of War, and Mighty Man, among others. Several of these characters had short-lived spin off titles of their own.

The Ultraverse line was launched during the "boom" of the early 1990's, roughly concurrent with the debut of publishers such as Image and Valiant, and new superhero lines from DC and Dark Horse (Milestone and Comics Greatest World, respectively). (The line was in part intended to fill the gap left by Image's independence.) They boasted improved production values over traditional comics (especially digital coloring and higher-quality paper), and a roster of respected and/or talented new writers and artists. Emphasizing the tight continuity between the various series in the Ultraverse line, Malibu made extensive use of crossovers, in which a story that began in one series would be continued in the next-shipping issue of another series. Various promotions for special editions or limited-print stories also encouraged readers to sample issues of the entire line. Many fans loved the scope of storytelling this approach allowed; others complained of the effort and cost of buying the issues necessary to keep track of it all. Regardless, the Ultraverse line came to dominate Malibu's catalog.

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