Ultraverse Unlimited #1

Jun 1996
Len Kaminski, Gabriel Gecko

Story Name:

(various)


Synopsis

Ultraverse Unlimited #1 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
This issue is split into 3 chapters and an epilogue. The central chapter is a flashback to ancient times.

Chapter 1: Kindred

At the end of Rune vol 2 #7 the golden Ultrahero form of the Noel Robinson side of Gemini told Los Angeles that he was going to judge the world starting with them. But then the equally-golden Adam Warlock joined him in midair to stop him, and also told him he thought they were 'brothers'.

This issue begins with a slightly different version of that ending. Warlock explains that he's a visitor (from the Marvel Universe) to the Ultraverse (1st showing up in Curse Of Rune #4). He doesn't know how he got here but suspects that it was because he and Noel are somehow related. Noel protests that he was created in a lab. Adam says so was he but his senses tell him their DNA is nearly identical. Noel experiments with *his* senses and comes to the same conclusion. But he interprets it as indicating that Warlock is another product of GENIE, the AI that runs Aladdin, and has therefore been sent to capture him.

(An editorial note reminds us that the twins Noel Robinson and Erik Johnson were created by GENIE to harness the ancient alien power of Shu-Ji. They have since fused as Gemini (in Rune vol 1).) And we see GENIE monitoring the meeting and concurring that they're correct but that Warlock's DNA is an older form. Which is impossible because the twins' DNA come from a source distant in space and ancient in time. It sees Noel attack Adam who seems to judo-throw him out into space where he hits a comms satellite that GENIE is viewing from and then plunges back to Earth.

When Noel regains consciousness he sees Warlock standing over him and is told he's landed elsewhere on Earth where the sun is about to set. So this triggers the emergences of the Rune-like grey-skinned winged vampire form of Erik. But the sight triggers a repressed memory of Rune and the Godwheel.

Chapter 2: The summoning

Adam Warlock remembers how he got to the Ultraverse. His image here has his old Marvel costume and hairstyle.

He'd been searching the universe for the 6 missing Infinity Gems. (As far as he's concerned they were somehow taken from him and the Infinity Watch in their final #42. He doesn't know that Rune was responsible in the Rune/Silver Surfer 1-shot and that the Gems ended up in the Ultraverse. And in fact they returned to the Marvel Universe just as he was emerging from his cocoon in the Ultraverse in Rune infinity.) But he couldn't find them. In particular he couldn't sense where the Soul Gem was, which he had been bonded to almost since he was 'born'. He was disturbed to find that he missed it, despite some of its unpleasant aspects.

Suddenly he was sucked into a spatial anomaly and through a portal to what he later learned was the Godwheel in the Ultraverse, where he was greeted as a Messiah. Over weeks he learned the language of the Dilhaabi Warrior Priests. The positions of the stars told him that he was thousands of years in the past, but an instinct told him this was only an analogue of the Marvel Universe. Which was confirmed by the fact that they'd never heard of him. The priests believed they had summoned him to be their champion against the oppressive hordes of a living Dark God.

He and the Priests fought against the horde and many Priests died. So Warlock sought for the Dark God, but Rune found *him*. Adam fought the Prince Of Void in the air as even more Priests perished. Until they fell to the ground and Rune picked up a sword. Warlock grabbed a wooden spear and they fought through the night surrounded by the dead. Adam had learned of Rune's vampiric appetite for life force, and recognised in him what he might have become if he'd given in to the Soul Gem's appetite for souls. But he was weakened now by not having the Gem to bolster his strength.

Eventually sword broke wooden spear and Rune stabbed Warlock through the heart. He bent to drain Adam's life force but could not. Warlock said he was master of his own soul and Rune would not get it. And he formed his healing cocoon as he died.

Now he wakes to see again the Rune-like Erik. He of course thinks it *is* Rune and that he was awakened from his cocoon in Rune infinity in order to destroy him.

Chapter 3: Souls in collision

Erik is confused by Warlock's claims but isn't going to go quietly. They fight but Warlock soon realises that Erik *isn't* Rune. Erik says he's sort-of Rune's son and Adam admits that Noel seems related to himself. And he enters Gemini's soul to discover more. He learns how the 2 twins were created in an experiment with alien DNA. Later they fused to become Gemini, fighting each other for control of the body. Noel had the spark of nobility but Erik was tainted by Rune's evil. They made a bargain. Noel had control in the daylight and had their shared cosmic power. Erik had the night to slake his bloodlust, but Noel gave him a conscience so he only preyed on the evil. But Noel became a judgemental 'god' while Erik went increasingly insane.

Adam sees the 2 separate souls within Gemini and tells them that the cause of their imbalance is that Noel gave Erik a conscience by transferring his *own* thus losing his humanity. Erik gloats and the 2 fight. But Adam separates them and declares that Erik's madness is now beyond help. And so he casts his soul out of the shared body. Warlock exits Gemini's soul to find Noel apparently human-normal without Gemini's superpower.

Epilogue

Adam and Noel return to Noel's Los Angeles home. They wonder fruitlessly how Warlock's DNA got from ancient Godwheel to Earth and GENIE/Aladdin (long before Aladdin found Adam's cocoon). Warlock announces his intention to return to his own universe and his quest for the Infinity Gems. He leaves and locates the Ultraverse equivalent to the singularity which brought him here. He expects not to suffer the interference of alien mysticism this time. Inside the portal he finds various exits but 1 of them has the pull of familiarity. He passes through it and finds himself once again in the Marvel Universe.

But back in LA Noel contemplates the Rune-like head of the BioCon that Erik decapitated (in Rune vol 2 #7). And we now learn that he was only pretending to have lost his power. He uses the head's hardware to contact cyberspace and send a power surge that overloads and destroys the AI GENIE, ending that menace. And it's not a good look on his face when he contemplates what next to do with his power.

And elsewhere in the city we see the 2 police detectives Jack Mills and Tony Skinner who have been investigating the Gemini/Rune case (since Rune infinity). Erik's spirit has survived because when he gave Noel back the cosmic power that Aladdin's BioCons stole from him (Rune vol 2 #7) he kept a bit. Now he attacks Mills and possesses him, turning him into Erik's Rune-form. And then he kills Skinner and drinks his blood.


 

Review / Commentaries


Ultraverse Unlimited #1 Review by (September 28, 2024)
Andrew Wildman pencilled the epilogue.
Colour design Andrew Corvalt. Colour separation Malibu.

The Marvel Chronology Project places this Rune flashback between his battles with Conan in the Hyborian Age on Earth-616 and his ancient Egypt app in Freex #17.

We learn here that when Warlock traveled from the Marvel Universe to the Ultraverse he wound in thousands of years in the past. When Black Knight and Sersi did the same journey they travelled into the future, and when BK contacted Avengers Mansion in Ultraforce #10 his transmission went into the past. This adds circumstantial credence to my suggestion in that issue that the Space Gem was sent deep into Ultraverse past to become the Roc's Egg.

Adam Warlock will be back in the Marvel U for his 1998 mini-series with his normal costume and haircut, and he'll have got the Soul Gem back.

But for the Gemini twins this is their last app.



> Ultraverse Unlimited comic book info and issue index

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Gabriel Gecko
Stephen Baskerville
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Kelley Jones (Cover Penciler)
Kyle Hotz (Cover Inker)
Micky Rose (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Patrick Owsley.
Editor: Phil Crain.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.


Plus: Gemini, Rune.