Ultraforce/Avengers #1

Oct 1995
Warren Ellis, George Perez

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Ultraforce/Avengers #1 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
In the Avengers/Ultraforce 1-shot Grandmaster engaged Loki in 1 of his games with superchar pawns. In this he case pitted a selection of Marvel Earth's Avengers against Ultraforce from Malibu's Ultraverse where Loki currently resides. But it didn't matter who won because it was all a ploy for Sersi controlled by the Ultraverse's 7th Infinity Gem to get close to Marvel's 6 Infinity Gems possessed by Loki. The 7 Gems (re)united to (re)create a being who calls herself Nemesis, who replaced the Ultraverse and Marvel's Universe-616 with a universe of her own creation.

In this new universe 10 years ago a very different barbaric black-bearded Loki materialises over Nevada's Mojave Desert intending trouble for his half-brother Thor who currently masquerades as a human. He decides to pit him against the nearby Hulk (who in this reality is a Hulked-up version of Ultraverse's Ghoul with Bruce Banner's back-story and maddened by continuous pain).

Then in San Fernando Valley teenage Kevin Green reads in the newspaper how Hulk has (seemingly) attacked a passenger train. From what he's read about the Hulk he doesn't believe this so he sends an e-mail to the Fantastic Four asking them to save him from the authorities' response. But Loki stops the FF getting it. We glimpse their bald-headed leader having his pipe lit by a Human Torch while Susan (Storm?) waves her elastic limbs and Mantra does the heavy-lifting in the Thing role (minus the rocky hide).

The villain diverts the e-mail to Don Blake's office where the Doctor gives his Nurse an excuse for him to pop out and become Thor. But the Norse trickster is possibly lacking in Internet savvy because the e-mail also goes to 2 other places. In his Aladdin garage Bob Campbell is working on the prototype of his Prototype armour. Giant-Man (Henry Pym) and Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) are already on their way. Hank warns Jan to be very careful because Hulk is dangerous ...

... but in the desert it's Hank who gets killed by Loki's magic. Campbell's early Prototype suit is as bulky as Tony Stark's 1st effort. This Thor looks as much a barbarian as Loki. The villain protests that his brother was supposed to die, and these other heroes shouldn't have interfered. Thor throws his hammer at him, causing the bad guy to be sent somewhere. Jan promises Hank that he'll be avenged.

Now the Avengers occupy their Stockade in a remote part of Arkansas. Their leader is Alec Swan who regrets leaving his job as British Secret Agent Black Knight for this. He gets a message from Nick Fury (without an eye-patch) of the SHIELD Corporation (with maybe Natasha Romanoff in the background) about a big problem in New York. He alerts Jimmy Ruiz who dons the up-to-date Prototype armour. Topaz steps out of a shower and turns her skin to chrome. Jan has spent the night with Quicksilver but now she gets dressed as (a winged mini-version of) Black Widow. Thor's on hand too.

Swan shows them a scene in the middle of New York of a pile of dead bodies with some hanging from lampposts and traffic lights. And they see that the culprit is Loki (with a patch over 1 eye). Swan starts to call for even more backup but BW stops him with her sting. Thor says revenge belongs to *them* alone. So they all, Alec included, head for NY.

When they get there Loki is hovering in the air and raving as he kills yet more people. He blames Thor for everything and the heroes opine that he's suffered brain damage. Prototype blasts him out of the sky but Loki shrugs it off when he hits the ground until high-speed Quicksilver runs him over. Swan wants to shoot him but Pietro Maximoff gets in the way by going back for another hit. Jan tries to call him off but Quickie is now pounding the villain. However Loki then gives the hero a mighty blow which sends him careening into Proto. Now it's BW's turn to block Swan's shot as she peppers the villain with sting-blasts. And Thor prepares to unleash the storm. But Loki pinches the mini-heroine between finger and thumb and squeezes. Swan shoots the hand but Jan falls and lies still. Now Thor's hammer hurls lightning accompanied by Swan's shots and Prototype's blasts as Jan urges them all on to destroy him. But when the dust settles it seems that Loki has escaped. However Topaz finds him fleeing in his burning ravaged body and prepares to punch him as he tells her that he knows what this world is ...

... and a voiceover says that environment parameters have been breached and initiates closedown. Their reality crumples and they fall through it. They see visions of the previous 1-shot:- Grandmaster and our Loki and their Avengers and Ultraforce pawns, and the Godwheel upon which it happened all also being destroyed. Then reality returns and lets them back in.

They are feeling the after effects of what they've just been through. Then they notice still-warm civilian bodies slightly protruding from the surroundings, sometimes impossibly. And we see signs that they are actually on Ultraverse Earth. Alec Swan can't contact Fury or their own Stockade. Jan sees somebody in the shadows and assumes it's Loki so she tries to fly to the attack ... forgetting that 1 of her wings was damaged by Loki. Pietro saves her from falling.

But then she and everyone see Giant-Man (wearing his current costume) (and the woman with him we recognise as Contrary of Ultraforce). Jan runs towards him but he tells her he's not *her* Hank. Contrary is even more blunt when she claims that Jan isn't *real*. She explains to them all what I wrote in the 1st paragraph. But she adds that what Nemesis initially created was only a small flat universe (which has the shape of the USA). Swan protests that he came from England, and Contrary says that Nemesis created temporary other places as required for the ongoing 'story' while the original Avengers and Ultraforce watched from stasis.

She claims that when Topaz physically made contact with Loki from a different continuum it broke the fragile construct. And also broke the Godwheel where Nemesis and the others were. Nemesis teleported them all to Ultra-Earth which is where they are now. And then Giant-Man appeared from the Avengers' Earth. Swan reckons that the foe will be a massive energy source, and he and Prototype scan the city and find it. Quicksilver leads the charge.

Elsewhere in the city Crystal has stumbled upon her once-love Black Knight (Dane Whitman). He warns her to stay away from him because he's got a parallel-world version of his Ebony Blade. He explains that he saw a version of old foe Proctor (who was a parallel-world version of BK himself) pointing a gun at him and responded instinctively. Then he realised that this Proctor was as dead as *his* Proctor because he sticking out of a wall. However the Ebony Blade had still drawn blood and now he was bonded to it (and its curse) as he used to be to his own Blade.

At this point a skinless version of Vision walks through the wall and Proctor's body, and through that of Crystal. He apologises and continues on his way. They theorise that Nemesis has damaged the walls between parallel worlds. At which point Crystal sees her ex-husband Quicksilver run past and follows him. BK picks up the Ebony Blade figuring he might need it.

We follow the 'unreal' Quicksilver too as he sees the 'real' Thor in the sky heading the same way. He doesn't believe it's him because he hasn't got his Thor's barbarian look. He also sees a priest flying through the air carrying a large wooden crucifix. Alec Swan's still trying to contact anyone and gets Captain America who's been joined by Wasp from Marvel Earth. And other chars fly past above them all. Cap calls them to a gathering that is forming including the rest of Ultraforce (Ghoul, Hardcase, Prime, Prototype (Jimmy Ruiz), Siren and Topaz) and Black Widow, Iron Man, Sersi, Starfox and Vision to complete the roster of Avengers from the previous 1-shot.

Nemesis, with the Gems in her crown, has gone mad. The 6 Infinity Gems interfere with the 7th Gem's desire to create a new universe. Now everyone attacks her. The 1st wave is a plethora of Thor's hammers (and the priest's cross). But the attacks are uncoordinated and fail. Crystal sees (the 'unreal') Quicksilver die. Followed by many more.

Soon only the 'real' Avengers and Ultraforce are left (quelle surprise). Dane Whitman arrives with the Ebony Blade and ask the others to distract their foe so he can get close to chop the Gem crown from her head. They reluctantly agree to his suicide run. He says goodbye to his 2 loves Crystal and Sersi. Everyone attacks again. Giant-Man, Hardcase and Prime manage to knock Nemesis down. But she repels them all and swears to wipe out the whole universe. But then BK strikes with the Blade to free all the Gems.  But Nemesis explodes destroying everything ...

... and it all begins again. The Ultraverse is recreated and evolves much as before. 60,000,000 years ago a damaged spaceship leaves a device on the Moon before crashing to Earth. Eons later its nanites turn a primitive shaman into Rex Mundi. Elsewhere the Godwheel exists. Much later on Earth the device on the Moon causes jumpstart effects to create Ultras. We see Siren and the duplicate Night Men, plus a different Mantra. The Avengers are returned to Marvel Earth, much to the relief of the 'real' Quicksilver (who wasn't involved in any of the Avengers/Ultraforce crossover). We see that 1 of the 2 Night Men has been sent to Marvel Earth too. (And later we'll learn that Siren's here as well.) Meanwhile on the new Ultra-Earth we see that Black Knight is still with Ultraforce. But Contrary's not with them and Prototype has been replaced by the original Bob Campbell.


 

Review / Commentaries


Ultraforce/Avengers #1 Review by (September 7, 2024)
This is cover-billed as Countdown To Black September part 5 of 5.

The creator list suggests to me that Warren Ellis and George Perez shared plotting.
Larry Welch did some background pencilling.
Paul Neary and Art Thibert were the main inkers. But there's a long list of additional inkers:- Ken Branch, Dennis Jensen, Karl Kesel, George Pérez, Robin Riggs, John Statema and Al Vey.
The Malibu colouring credits Robert Alvord & Emily Yoder for colour design with another long list of colour separators:- Andy Walton, Scott Cattanach, Serina Sahakian, Joe Allard, Rebecca Maiden, Robert Park, Carolyn Shaver, Noel Aragon, Fergus Hernandez, Edie Moses, Fernando A. Mico, Kim Pettijohn and Carlos Guevara, Jr.

Anybody who doesn't recognise the origin of the Avengers at the start of this issue should hand in their Merry Marvel Marching Society card immediately.
Ultraverse's Kevin Green plays the role of the Teen Brigade's Rick Jones, but there's no indication he was also involved in this Hulk's origin.

Possibly this Fantastic Four have a bit of the X-Men and DC's Doom Patrol mixed in.

Bob Campbell was the 1st user of Ultra-Tech's Prototype armour. But after an accident he was replaced by Jimmy Ruiz. He later worked for the shady Aladdin organisation as Ranger.

Alec Swan is Ultraverse's Firearm.

Topaz and Loki's physical contact breaking the world because they were from wildly different continua doesn't make much sense. Surely whatever else is true the construct Loki is from the same place as the construct Thor, and presumably Topaz and Thor have been in physical contact at some point in this Avengers' history.

Black Knight gave up using his cursed Ebony Blade (for the nth time) in Avengers #343 and replaced it with the photonic sword (ie light sabre) he's been using in the Ultraverse. The curse is that if you kill someone with it (or it seems even just draw blood) it will start to infest you with bloodlust.

The mighty gathering includes some otherwise unknown alternate Marvel chars (who may have been part of Nemesis' 'sketch' reality):- Ultron(?) on a Silver Surfboard, Ant Spider-Woman, Nazi Captain America & Bucky, an Ultraforce Thing and more less identifiable chars. There are also many chars from other comic companies (including Marvel's Epic Comics).

Sersi is shown returning to Marvel Earth without Black Knight. But the Black Knight: Exodus 1-shot will say that she stayed in the new Ultraverse with BK until they return to the Marvel U then.

This is the last app for Contrary and Prototype (Jimmy Ruiz). Hardcase also goes missing. Ultraforce v2 #14 will confirm that that they don't exist in the new Ultraverse and its inhabitants have no memory of them. But Hardcase returns to the Ultraverse in that issue and is somehow able to show Ultraforce an image of their predecessors.

The following Black September 1-shot effectively occurs within the instant that the Gems are separated from Nemesis in this issue.

The 7th Gem still hasn't been called the Ego Gem. That will happen retrospectively in Black September.




> Ultraforce/Avengers comic book info and issue index

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(The Boy Wonder)

George Perez
?
?
George Perez (Cover Penciler)
George Perez (Cover Inker)
Malibu (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Plot: . Letterer: Todd Klein.
Editor: Hank Kanalz.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Knight
Black Knight

(Dane Whitman)
Black Widow
Black Widow

(Natasha Romanoff)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Crystal
Crystal

(Corystalia Amaqulin Maximoff)
Giant-Man
Giant-Man

(Hank Pym)
Grandmaster
Grandmaster

(En Dwi Gast)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Loki
Loki

(Loki Laufeyson)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Starfox
Starfox

(Eros)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)

Plus: Contrary, Ghoul, Hardcase, Nemesis, Prime, Prototype (Jimmy Ruiz), Prototype (Bob Campbell), Siren, Topaz.

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