A few decades ago, Marvel decided to create a new line of comic books to celebrate their 25 years on being Marvel (hoooray) and that line, ladies and gentlemen and various asexual beings, was called New Universe.
It would have no connections with the regular MU, where Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men live and do something that it wasn’t done before back then, give super powers to regular humans, like you, me, the sexy girl that lives next to you, the plumber, the delivery boy and it would be extremely realistic, with seeing the protagonists of each series living their daily boring lives, doing their daily boring jobs, and while they would be fighting villains and such, it wouldn’t be the main focus. And let’s not forget the event that gave those people their powers, the so-called White Event, where the sky went complete white and those super-powered humans, called parahumans, were born.
One of the titles of this line and the biggest one was Star Brand. Here, our main character, Ken Connell, was driving his bicycle doing stuff when he notices a crash and when he went there, he finds a dying alien, and in his dying breath(TM), he gives him the ULTIMATE WEAPON OF THE UNIVERSE, which is a fucking tatoo. I suppose it’s better and more efficient than a ring, since you could lose the ring, while a tatoo is permanent on your body, especially when said tatoo can be moved to any part of your body you wish to be.
Anyways, Ken gets powerful tatoo, buries alien and goes on with his boring life, working on car repairs and going dates with two hot chicks and trying to nail one of them. Oh, and somewhere in the between of those, he fights some people and one or two aliens. OK, as I said above, the whole thing it’s not about seeing big superhero/supervillain fights, like with the regular Marvel titles. It’s more seeing the hero’s daily life, a concept that was never done back then. It’s more or less how this new power affects his daily life with his work, his love life and his social life, which it can be a good thing.
The artwork is done by John Romita JR and it’s great as always, but sometimes some lines, especially in the faces seems to fade. I don’t know if it was drawn like that even back then, or it was the printing of the TPB, but it can be a minor annoyance. I don’t have many complains on the artwork.
This particular TPB contains the first seven issues and it can be a pretty decent read, especially if you get it cheap. I got it for 7 euros from the discount boxes of the comic book store, and I swear to God if I paid full price for it, it would feel like a rip-off. I wish it had some sort of intro to the concept of the New Universe line, how the character’s idea was concived, various drafts and many more extras that would fill the TPB, since it’s kinda dull and many people will see this on the shelf and ignore it. Also, it doesn’t help the fact that they don’t publish the rest of the issues. The whole Star Brand series has 19 issues and 1 annual. I hope we see the rest of it being published, along with the other New Universe titles, or better an omnibus of the entire New Universe line.
How much I recommend it? Well, like I said, get it cheaply, but only if you are interested to see something different being brewed back in the 70s, and was gone due to creative teams being changed constantly, missing the point of the line and low sales.
It would have no connections with the regular MU, where Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men live and do something that it wasn’t done before back then, give super powers to regular humans, like you, me, the sexy girl that lives next to you, the plumber, the delivery boy and it would be extremely realistic, with seeing the protagonists of each series living their daily boring lives, doing their daily boring jobs, and while they would be fighting villains and such, it wouldn’t be the main focus. And let’s not forget the event that gave those people their powers, the so-called White Event, where the sky went complete white and those super-powered humans, called parahumans, were born.
One of the titles of this line and the biggest one was Star Brand. Here, our main character, Ken Connell, was driving his bicycle doing stuff when he notices a crash and when he went there, he finds a dying alien, and in his dying breath(TM), he gives him the ULTIMATE WEAPON OF THE UNIVERSE, which is a fucking tatoo. I suppose it’s better and more efficient than a ring, since you could lose the ring, while a tatoo is permanent on your body, especially when said tatoo can be moved to any part of your body you wish to be.
Anyways, Ken gets powerful tatoo, buries alien and goes on with his boring life, working on car repairs and going dates with two hot chicks and trying to nail one of them. Oh, and somewhere in the between of those, he fights some people and one or two aliens. OK, as I said above, the whole thing it’s not about seeing big superhero/supervillain fights, like with the regular Marvel titles. It’s more seeing the hero’s daily life, a concept that was never done back then. It’s more or less how this new power affects his daily life with his work, his love life and his social life, which it can be a good thing.
The artwork is done by John Romita JR and it’s great as always, but sometimes some lines, especially in the faces seems to fade. I don’t know if it was drawn like that even back then, or it was the printing of the TPB, but it can be a minor annoyance. I don’t have many complains on the artwork.
This particular TPB contains the first seven issues and it can be a pretty decent read, especially if you get it cheap. I got it for 7 euros from the discount boxes of the comic book store, and I swear to God if I paid full price for it, it would feel like a rip-off. I wish it had some sort of intro to the concept of the New Universe line, how the character’s idea was concived, various drafts and many more extras that would fill the TPB, since it’s kinda dull and many people will see this on the shelf and ignore it. Also, it doesn’t help the fact that they don’t publish the rest of the issues. The whole Star Brand series has 19 issues and 1 annual. I hope we see the rest of it being published, along with the other New Universe titles, or better an omnibus of the entire New Universe line.
How much I recommend it? Well, like I said, get it cheaply, but only if you are interested to see something different being brewed back in the 70s, and was gone due to creative teams being changed constantly, missing the point of the line and low sales.
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