Something caught my eye in this Marvel.com story about the unveiling of “Asgardia,” the new city designed by Tony Stark for the Earth-bound former inhabitants of the World Tree that’ll debut in next month’s Mighty Thor. Namely, this Matt Fraction quote:
Since we’ve fixed the World Tree on Earth, we’ve created a capitol city where denizens of all nine realms may reside… Everyone’s in it together now, and the cast and flavor of the book is all the more diverse and varied for it. The Nine Worlds aren’t a ladder anymore but a wheel, with no top and no bottom, no paradise and no hell—and Asgardia is its hub.
The Nine Worlds are a wheel? Like… a wheel where gods live? Wouldn’t that make it a Godwheel?
There’s every chance that Fraction’s comment has absolutely nothing to do with the Malibu Ultraverse concept of a “cosmic artifact of tremendous size [that] contains many realms at the same time,” but considering that Thor was the first Marvel character to appear in an Ultraverse title, and that that title was the Godwheel series, that’s a particularly weird, unlikely coincidence, don’t you think?
Marvel has shied away from using Ultraverse characters and concepts since the line died out in the late 1990s, with the reason usually given that there are contractual complications in Marvel’s ownership of the line that prevent anything from the one-time successful line being used these days, so this wheel of gods likely has nothing to do with Malibu’s Godwheel.
But… if Marvel has quietly wrinkled out all the problems with licenses and contracts and whatever, this would be a nice and unexpected thing to reintroduce to the Marvel Universe once the dust settles from Avengers vs. X-Men, wouldn’t it? Never mind “No More Mutants,” what if the combined Phoenix Force and Scarlet Witch hex power can conjure up a new life for the Ultraverse?
…Nah, it’s probably just a coincidence. Right?
January 26th, 2012 at 2:01 am
You never know, stranger things have happened. If they can make new versions and stuff for Crossgen they can do the same for Ultraverse.
January 26th, 2012 at 3:32 am
Given the absolute sincerity with which they have consistently stated their inability to do anything with the Ultraverse properties for the foreseeable future, I can’t help but think that any change in this policy would be very publicly promoted. And if they were going to bring the Ultraverse back in any way, why do it through a stealth reboot of one of the company’s more obscure properties?
January 26th, 2012 at 4:52 am
Here’s what you have to know about those “contractual complications” as Marvel keeps calling them:
The contracts when made up originally with Malibu was that the creators get half of any profits made with the Ultraverse character they created.
Those contracts are still valid with anything Marvel does with them. The creators will not renegotiate (nor should they) and Marvel simply balks at the idea of a creator getting 50% of anything, much less a donut.
So they keep saying there are “problems” but never say what they are and keep the Ultraverse locked away since all they wanted Malibu for was their computer coloring dept at the time.
December 5th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I believe the actual % the creators receive is 5%. Steve Englehart does an nice podcast about Malibu Comics and comments on the black hole these characters will forever be stuck in, check it out @ Alt3red Egos Cosmic Cubecast episode #27.