New Universe Publishing History
This page examines the publishing history of the New Universe titles as its own imprint. All dates are the cover dates of the issues. To get the actual release dates, subtract two or three months.
- October 1986
-
The first New Universe titles are published:
- Spitfire and the Troubleshooters
- Star Brand
- November 1986
-
The rest of the New Universe titles begin:
- D.P. 7
- Justice
- Kickers, Inc.
- Mark Hazzard: Merc
- Nightmask
- Psi-Force
- March 1987
-
Star Brand goes bi-monthly with #6. (Issue 7 is dated
May.) - April 1987
-
Kickers, Inc. gets a new logo with #6. - July 1987
-
Spitfire and the Troubleshooters gets a revamp and is renamed
Codename: Spitfire with #10. Naturally, it gets a new logo as
well. - October 1987
-
The covers of all New Universe titles get a minor facelift except
Codename: Spitfire, which is canceled with #13. The black
border around all four sides is dropped, but the New Universe logo
across the top, underlined, is retained. Justice also gets a
new logo. In addition to Spitfire, Kickers, Inc.,
Nightmask, and Mark Hazzard: Merc are all canceled with
#12. Merc was actually killed in Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual
#1, which is set just prior to #12 of his series. This leaves only
four titles left under the New Universe banner: D.P. 7,
Justice, Psi-Force, and Star Brand. - January 1988
-
Star Brand becomes The Star Brand and gets a new
logo with #11 when John Byrne is brought in as writer and penciler to
revitalize the title. The same month, Justice is revamped as
the original, extra-dimensional premise is proven to be a
hallucination in #15, in which Peter David scripts Mark Gruenwald's
plot. David takes over full writing duties next month with
Justice #16. - February 1988
-
Psi-Force gets a new permanent writer in Fabian Nicieza with
#16. (He had previously written #9 and #13.) At this point the
writer of each New Universe title will finish out their respective
series. Mark Gruenwald (D.P. 7) will be the only writer to
handle the entire run of a New Universe series. - April 1988
-
The Pitt one-shot is published, in which Pittsburgh is
destroyed. The "world outside your window" concept is completely
abandonded. D.P. 7 #18, Justice #18, and Star
Brand #12 are tie-ins to the event. - May 1988
-
The remaining four New Universe titles all become direct-only,
meaning they are only sold in comic book specialty stores, not
newsstands, grocery stores, etc. D.P. 7, Justice, and
Psi-Force get new logos with #19. The New Universe logo is
reduced and moved to just under the Marvel logo on the top, right
corner of these three as well, while on Star Brand it is
removed altogether with #13. The corner box featuring a character
from each comic is removed on all four titles. - July 1988
-
The Draft one-shot is published, featuring characters from
Nightmask and D.P. 7, plus some new ones. - June 1989
-
All New Universe titles are cancelled. As something of a joke,
D.P. 7, Justice, and Psi-Force have "#32 IN A
THIRTY-TWO ISSUE LIMITED SERIES" across the top. Star Brand,
due to its bi-monthly schedule, says "#19 IN A NINETEEN ISSUE LIMITED
SERIES". This is the common trade dress for all of Marvel's
non-squarebound limited series at the time.
The first issue of the four-issue limited series, The War is published, featuring characters from The Draft plus Jack Magniconte of Kickers, Inc.. It will become the final appearance of the New Universe characters in their own book. At least for the 20th century.
- May 2006
- Marvel published the "Untold Tales of the New Universe" event. There were five one-shots (D.P. 7, Psi-Force, Star Brand, Nightmask and Justice) plus backup tales in Amazing Fantasy (Merc and Spitfire) and New Avengers (Kickers, Inc.). More information on each title can be found at the Untold Tales page. This is a prelude to Warren Ellis' launch of newuniversal, an ongoing series reinventing the New Universe from the beginning.
For information on further appearances by the New Universe characters, see the Checklist.