It's hard to believe, but it is now 25 years since the launch of the New Universe. I remember how it was a pretty big deal and some friends and I went to the local newsstand to see how many of the titles we could pick up. I was too late to get Star Brand #1, which was the series that launched the line but I did find most of the other first issues as they came out. The titles were: Star Brand, Spitfire And The Troubleshooters, Justice, DP 7, Psi Force, Marc Hazzard: Merc, Nightmask and Kickers Inc. I have issues of all eight series. Nightmask didn't catch my interest and I never made it past the first issue. Kicker Inc. struck me as a lame Fantastic Four knockoff, sort of if the Fantastic Four played football and I didn't go far with that series either. Star Brand was not a great comic by any means but I ended up with a fair number of issues. I did like Merc, the main character didn't have super powers but was just a well-trained soldier, who was as the title stated, a mercenary. Spitfire was sort of an Iron Man knockoff, albeit a female lead. It was a good series and I still have most of the issues. I liked Justice about a New York cop who gained superpowers due to the same "white event" that led to Star Brand getting his powers. That's another comic I stuck with to the end. DP7 and Psi Force were both variations of the X-Men but I liked both series a lot. They were my favorites of the New Universe line. I stuck with them to the end. DP7 had the benefit of being written by Mark Gruenwald, one of my favorite Marvel writers and one of the writing heavy hitters until his untimely death about fifteen years ago. He stuck it out to the end of DP7.
It was not a good sign when, a year after the launch of the line, four of the eight series were cancelled and no new series came into being. Spitfire, Nightmask, Kickers Inc., and Merc all got the ax. Star Brand went to bimonthly status and Jim Shooter was gone as Editor-In-Chief of Marvel, strongly rumored to be out because of the less than stellar success of the New Universe. He has an interview about the whole situation here:
A last ditch effort was made to save the line with the introduction of the one-shot issue, The Pitt that featured a supposed nuclear strike (that turned out to have been caused by the powers of Star Brand by accident) destroying the city of Pittsburgh, leading to World War 3 and the subsequent one-shot, The Draft and then the four-issue limited series, The War and tying together all of the remaining series. The angle didn't work as the line limped on to cancellation in early '89. Entertaining stuff however, an idea with lots of potential that didn't live up to its promise it still is worth checking out in the back issue bins. All can be had for cheap. Funny how my friends and I thought that Star Brand #1 was going to be worth a fortune!
