The Night Man Podcast, Ep. 6: “Ghosts”
This episode: “Ghosts” Issue 6 of The Night Man sees a team from The Strangers’ past getting put on The Night Man’s trail. Also, Night Man appears, sort of, in another UV Continue Reading →
The Night Man Podcast, Ep. 4: “Who Is the Night Man?”
This episode: “Who Is the Night Man?”
In this third episode, the question “Who is the Night Man?” gets asked and almost answered, and Night Man faces a new foe. It’s the first appearance of the NAME Rhiannon…but not the first appearance of the character!
- What did you think of the show? Send questions or comments to: UltraverseNetwork@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you, especially your thoughts about this issue of The Night Man or the character in general!
- You can find other Ultraverse podcasts on iTunes as part of the ULTRAVERSE NETWORK feed. Subscribe and leave a rating and review in iTunes!
Thank you so much for listening!
Ben’s other podcasts:
Jumpstart Your Collection: Pins
Remember these? Of course you don’t, unless you are one of the few people who bought them when they were first offered. There are three different pins featuring Ultraverse characters Mantra, Rune and Prime and they actually look quite nice. I think the term is “cloisonne” which is a French word that means “small metal art for under 10 bucks.”
Ultra-collectability rating: 7
I give these a 7 because although they are a great off-the-beaten path collectible, you just don’t see them very often and there doesn’t seem to be much of a demand. I bought all three of mine for under $5 shipped. I’ve picked up an extra Rune pin for a buck off eBay. See? Cheap. But at the same time, they’re kind of hard to search for. Looking for “Rune pins” turns up all kinds of weird stuff. “Prime pins” and you get Transformers, etc. “Mantra pins” gets you some guitar stuff. Very rarely are these things on eBay; currently there are none.
You will have to be patient to track these down, especially the Mantra pin (the only time I have ever seen one of those is the time I got all three at once). That’s not to say that there isn’t some dude somewhere with a giant box of these in a storage locker, but that is true of a lot of Ultraverse collectibles. It’s hard to tell what is really out there because right now there isn’t much of a market for this stuff.
But someday …
BREAKING NEWS! Spider-Prime Cameo in Spider-Verse #2!
I’m stunned. When we started the Ultraverse Network, I never suspected we’d be posting Ultraverse-related content from a brand new comic! The anthology series Spider-Verse #2 hit the stands yesterday from Marvel Comics, written by Dan Slott, Kathryn Immonen, Jed McKay, and others; with art by Mark Brooks, David Lafuente, Sheldon Vella, and others; and a cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli.
You may find this hard to believe, but the long-lost fan-favorite character Spider-Prime has a cameo appearance in this book!! Check out the page below (click to enlarge)!
Did you see him? No? I didn’t the first time either. How about if we zoom in and circle it for you…
Yup, that’s Spider-Prime! Admittedly, it’s a really brief cameo. Heck, it’s like one-eighth of a cameo, but they managed to sneak him in!
Now, let’s think about this for a minute. It’s been nearly 18 years since we’ve seen our favorite Ultraverse characters in print. We started this Network just about three months ago, and now we’re suddenly seeing the return of an Ultraverse character?!??! Coincidence? I THINK NOT!! … okay … it’s totally a coincidence, but it’s still fun to claim it was our influence. 🙂
If you are an Ultraverse completest (and I know there are a bunch of you out there), be sure to pick up Spider-Verse #2, in stores now! You’ll find the cover below.
My thanks to Steven Boyd of the Facebook Ultraverse Group for the image and the heads-up!
The End of the World! Sort of.
The Strangers # 11
“Detour”
Written by Steve Englehart
Art by Rick Hoberg & Tim Eldred
Edited by Roland Mann
As the title suggests, this story veers away slightly from the main arc surrounding Yrial. That’s not a bad thing, however, This issue not only features some amazing artwork from Hoberg & Eldred (particularly in depicting the various locales our heroes find themselves in) but Englehart’s character work truly shines — especially with Zip-Zap.
In this story, The Strangers have escaped from the world of demons they were in last issue, only to find themselves on an odd planet composed of pieces of many different worlds. Zip-Zap not only saves the team from certain death at the beginning of the tale (borrowing a gimmick from The Flash) but he then puts the together the true nature of this world, befriends some locals and even challenges The Entity who gave them their powers to actually do something useful. We really get a good feel for something that I’ve always felt to be the case — Leon is the heart of this team. I’d argue that Candy, ironically, is the “soul” embodying their mutual desire to figure out who they are and what they can be but Leon is the kindest of them all. To him, nobody is truly a Stranger — they’re just somebody he hasn’t gotten to know yet.
Elena also comes out and makes a strong statement about being the leader of the team in this issue — and nobody challenges her on it. In fact, Bob seems to endorse the idea and they two of them sneak away for some alone-time, which doesn’t go unnoticed by others. We get some more Hugh & Candy loving, as well, while Dave obviously feels left out as the group is breaking into little romantic cliques.
While the issue doesn’t progress the Yrial storyline very much, I still really enjoyed it. Englehart is at his best at times like this — multi-issue epics where he can mix-and-match the heroes in different settings and get deep into their emotional connections. While I wouldn’t put this story on the level of something like The Celestial Madonna storyline from Avengers, I can’t help but see echoes of such in this issue and others.
A truly fine example of why this title deserved a much longer lifespan!
Jumpstart Your Collection: Ultraverse Premiere #0
Ultraverse Premiere #0 (remember the zero issues?) is a book that was forged in the fires of early 1990s comics gimmickry. It also went hand-in-hand with the early days of the Ultraverse, and the only way to get this book was to send in five coupons cut (or copied) from Prime #1, Hardcase #1, Strangers #1, Wizard Magazine #23, and Malibu Sun #26; you could also pick up a “wild coupon” from Freex #1 and Mantra #1 if for some reason you couldn’t find one from the other books. Once you had all the coupons you would mail them away and a couple of months later you’d get a comic in the mail. Nice!
This book featured a collection of short stories for all of the early Ultraverse books and also had a cover by superstar artist Jim Lee. It’s a nice-looking book, kind of hard to obtain and plenty of talented artists and writers were attached.
Collectible, right? Not really.
Ultra-collectibility rating: 3/10
Don’t get me wrong, this is a cool book to own and a nice piece of Ultraverse memorabilia. But even though it seems like it should be rare, eBay has been clogged with this issue for years. At any given time there are 10-15 listed, often for a buck or two. The only recent sales since October were for $1.45 and $2.04. Mycomicshop.com has one listed for $1.10. Mile High Comics has a NM copy for $7.70, although you could probably knock a few bucks off that with one of their codeword sales. But why bother? This is a book you can find on the cheap pretty much anywhere you look and for a lot less effort than it took to clip and mail in all those coupons back in 1993.
Ultraverse Podcast: Prime of Your Life, Episode 06 – Freex CD-Romix
It’s the sixth episode of ULTRAVERSE PODCAST: PRIME OF YOUR LIFE!
In this very special episode, we share an audio adaptation of Freex #1 from the CD-Romix! Happy New Year!
- What did you think of the show? Send questions or comments to: UltraverseNetwork@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
- You can find other Ultraverse podcasts on iTunes as part of the ULTRAVERSE NETWORK feed. Subscribe and leave a rating and review in iTunes!
Thanks for listening!
Happy New Year from the Ultraverse Network!
Happy New Year from all of us Ultra-Fans! To celebrate, we’re presenting the cover to Ultraverse Year Two! Enjoy!
Okay, sharing this cover is a bit of a cheat. The Ultraverse Network is technically starting it’s second calendar year, but we’ve really only been around a few months.
Regardless, have a very Happy and Ultra New Year!
Break-Thru Crossover w/ Comic Book Time Machine
On Ben’s other comic book podcast, he tackles the topic of Sludge, covering the first three issues of Steve Gerber’s Sludge, exploring the themes, stories, differences between Sludge and Man-Thing, and, of course, the way that Sludge fits into the Ultraverse’s first big crossover event, Break-Thru!
You can listen here: http://comicbooktimemachine.com/sludgeUV
Ultraverse: A New Twist!
Interested in seeing a slightly different twist on our favorite Ultraverse heroes? Then definitely check out the Ultraverse: A New Twist Fan Fiction site.
There’s some great stuff there!
Ultraverse Podcast: Prime of Your Life, Episode 05 – Hardcase CD-Romix
It’s the fifth episode of ULTRAVERSE PODCAST: PRIME OF YOUR LIFE!
In this very special episode, we share an audio adaptation of Hardcase #1 from the CD-Romix! Happy Holidays!
- What did you think of the show? Send questions or comments to: UltraverseNetwork@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
- You can find other Ultraverse podcasts on iTunes as part of the ULTRAVERSE NETWORK feed. Subscribe and leave a rating and review in iTunes!
Thanks for listening!
Next week: The CD-Romix adaptation of FREEX!