Marvel used to offer up these black and white preview books to retailers called Sales to Astonish. At some point after Marvel bought Malibu, they used the back half of one of these to give the Ultraverse some love. At least that’s what I think happened. I’ve seen a bunch of different copies of Sales to Astonish but this is the only one with a Malibu Flipside. And that’s all I know about this, but at least I have a couple of pictures.
Out of all the titles that were relaunched following the Black September event, All New Exiles was the only book that got an extra variant cover for its Infinity issue. Maybe it was the association with Marvel’s ultra-popular X-Men (their long-time mutant nemesis Juggernaut is featured on the cover … one online retailer describes this as a “guy w/red metal dome on his head reaching out to reader”) that did it.
This is my favorite cover from the relaunch, just a simple design and image that lets you know the Marvel Universe has arrived in the Ultraverse. Or at least on Earth-93060, as the Ultraverse is now known in the shady bottom of Marvel’s dustbin of universes. The All New Exiles only lasted 11 issues (12 if you count the Infinity issue).
It’s not the easiest book to find but it pops up on eBay here and there and never sells for too much.
Issue No. 1 also had an extra variant cover. It’s not as interesting, but $1.50 seems like a pretty good value for a 64-page comic. No extra charge for the Ultraforce story that was included.
This is an easy book to find for a buck or less, though. Check mycomicshop.com if you’re in a hurry.
After Marvel bought Malibu, they decided to relaunch the Ultraverse with mostly the same titles and some cross-over characters from the Marvel Universe. I’m not going to sit here and judge the quality of the stories but it was the beginning of the end for the Ultraverse line. Prime and Ultraforce made it the longest, lasting all the way to issue No. 15 before the plug was pulled.
There were a few bright lights in the relaunch but nothing that really matched the first year of the original Ultraverse. Anyway, the Black September event was the cornerstone moving forward.
There was a thin preview book that profiled the upcoming titles. I can’t remember where I got it, and it’s not too common on eBay but it looks like a comic book so we put it on the checklist.
The Black September Infinity book (I would make an infinity symbol there but I’m not sure how) came in two versions (all of the Ultraverse titles were relaunched with an Infinity issue). One is mostly black (the regular titles were entirely black except for the title) and the other is a regular illustrated cover. These are both common books — don’t break the bank here. I’m not sure if one was printed more than the other, but I think the black cover one feels a little more common.
Now that’s a pretentious-sounding category. And they had a price to match; IIRC these were sold for $40 each (you could also buy a simpler Limited Premium Edition without the signatures and with a different cover for $10). Each book paired an Ultraverse franchise with their Marvel counterparts: Exiles and X-Men, Prime and Hulk, Nightman and Wolverine.
The stories were … well, never mind. The art is straight out of those mid-1990s stylebooks. It’s hard to believe they sold many of these at those prices. Now you can get them cheap, of course. I pay a buck or two when I can. I bought a short stack of the Nightman and Wolverine signed books once for $1.50 each. I see these all the time on eBay for $30-40 BINs, sometimes even over $100. Good luck with that.
The signed versions look pretty nice.
There are two different versions of each, although the only difference is the certificate of authenticity. One was done by Dynamic Forces, the other by American Entertainment. As far as I can tell, the signatures are the same for each version.
Here are the three Limited Premium Editions. These did not come with COAs or signatures.
I really can’t imagine paying $15 for a single comic book, but those were some free-wheeling days.
Still, I would not be surprised if there were several large boxes of these stashed in a warehouse somewhere.
These are pretty cheap now; last time I checked on eBay somebody was selling these in bundles of 25 (and he had several of these for sale) for less than $15 shipped. Maybe he’s the dude with the warehouse.
Once when I was looking around eBay I noticed an auction for one of the Limited Super Premium Edition Prime and Hulk books. But it didn’t say anything about it being signed, and from the picture I could not tell if there were any signatures. What the heck, I spent a few bucks to see what it was.
When I got the book, sure enough it was the version that was supposed to have signatures but the cover was not signed. There was no COA either. This seems like more of a mistake than something that ought to be on the checklist, but I still think it’s pretty cool. Then a few months later I got a similar LSPE Exiles and X-Men with no signatures. I have yet to find the Nightman and Wolverine version, but I’m sure it’s out there.
Ultraverse Flashback 