Although that is highly unlikely. Because the reason why Marvel Comics never reprinted any of Malibu Comics ULTRAVERSE titles is the same one why it has never used any of these characters since they acquired the comicbook publishing company more than 30 years ago. There are a lot of people online who deny that this is an issue but the fact is that since Malibu Comics had a contract with some creators of the ULTRAVERSE characters that they would get royalties if their creations would be used - be it in comicbooks, games, tv shows, movies etc. - Marvel Comics or better Disney would have to pay them money for using their creations.
Now again, there are statements out there that what Disney would have to pay the creators would be minimal and no reason to keep Marvel Comics from using them but if it's not that then what is the problem ?
One thing that I have to correct is that I mentioned in earlier posts that Marvel Comics bought Malibu Comics because it needed their colouring department to could compete with iMAGE Comics computer colouring.
But after doing some research and watching a lot of videos about this it seems that while that was an incentive to make the purchase it was not the main reason . It seems that Marvel Comics bought Malibu Comics to prevent DC Comics from buying it which could have made DC Comics the number one comicbook publisher in the US. Which was a position Marvel Comics had to retain at all costs because at that time they had already gone public and constantly had to create revenue to the stockholders.
That makes a lot more sense and explains why right from the bat Marvel Comics started if not outright sabotaging the ULTRAVERSE line then at least relegating the series to promote the regular Marvel Comics titles.
It also explains why as soon as they acquired the colouring department they immediately tried to shut it down and it was only through the combined efforts of Mark Gruenwald and Mike Giles - the guy who was running the colouring department at that time - that it didn't happen.
Another thing I have to mention is that I wrote in my last post that to my knowledge there have been no german editions of Malibus ULTRAVERSE titles and I am not sure if that it true. Because according to the internet some of these books have been published in Germany although they can't decide on which ones and by which publisher. The first website stated it was Bastei Verlag who printed some german translations of these comics but that is extremely unlikely because the ULTRAVERSE started in the 90s and while Bastei Verlag published a ton of comicbooks - especially those based on tv shows or cartoons - they were already getting out of making comics by the 90s, only continuing the most profitable ones like Casper, Elfquest, Benjamin Bluemchen, Bibi Blocksberg, Police Academy or The Smurfs and stopped publishing comicbooks almost completely after the death of Gustav Luebbe in 1995 with the only remaining title being cult horror anthology Gespenster Geschichten which continued until 2006.
In 2010 Bastei Verlag moved destroying their complete comic archive.
Another source claimed that ULTRAVERSE titles were published in german by the B & K Comic Verlag but I could find no evidence to prove that on any german comicbook related website. So if any of my german readers know more about this - please do let me know in the comments below.
With that said it is already time to wrap this up but don't worry, there will be more PRIME posts in the future where we can get more into my history with the title. If I remember correctly it was mainly my younger brother who had PRIME - and a few of the other ULTRAVERSE titles - on his pull list and we brothers tried to read as many comics as possible so if one of us had a book on his pull list the others stayed away from that title. It would not be until years later that my appreciation for Norm Breyfogle had grown and I started to seek out his work by any publisher.
One last thing, usually I only use the original artwork in my BLACK AND WHITE posts but since finding material from Malibu Comics ULTRAVERSE is almost impossible I have included some scans from the ashcan edition of the first issue of PRIME. Now for those newer comicbook readers out there who have never heard of an ashcan edition, back in the day comic book companies printed thin pocket sized comics in black and white with pages from the comic, sketches and other behind the scenes material to promote all their upcoming publications before there was an internet.
Those would be included most often than not in issues of comic news collecting magazines like HERO or WIZARD and were very sought after. I remember there was an especially big hype to get the WIZARD issue that included an ashcan edition of Dale Keown's PITT series for iMAGE Comics.
I don't know if they still are of any value ( probably not since nowadays everybody only cares for the so - called " key issues " that are the first appearance of some obscure long forgotten character who may or may not appear in a movie / tv show / cartoon ) but I had dozens of these ashcan editions and other free promotional material that came with american comicbook related publications. Of course I either had to give them away for free of throw them into the trash when I moved to Spain.
But let's not dwell on my misfortunes because then I will only get more depressed and instead enjoy some PRIME artwork by Norm Breyfogle.
it's prime time
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