It seems like only a few years ago that Warren Ellis was encouraging everyone to take up self publishing instead of servicing trademarks for the major publishers.  These days, he still has his creator-owned books, but he's clearly relaxed the line on trademark service.  Nextwave saw him reworking a cluster of C-list Marvel characters.  Now, in newuniversal, he takes on an even bigger challenge - the New Universe.

Younger readers may not remember the original New Universe titles.  Launched amidst a blaze of publicity in 1986, it petered out in around three years, and ended up as an obscure continuity backwater.  The high concept was that the New Universe's world was exactly like ours up until the White Event, which randomly gave some people superhuman powers.  In theory, the world should otherwise have been exactly like ours.

In practice, a lot of writers didn't get the memo, and so we ended up with Star Brand (aliens!), Spitfire and the Troubleshooters (slightly toned down Kirbytech!), and Justice (alternate dimensions!).  But sometimes they got it more or less right - DP7, for example - and even some of the off-balance books had potential.  The New Universe was an imprint that tried to the basic concept of superheroes without following all the usual genre conventions.  With the benefit of hindsight, it was about 15 years ahead of its time.  Normally it would seem a bizarre move to relaunch a concept which failed so comprehensively the first time round, but with the New Universe, there may actually be an idea worth revisiting.

Rather than revive any individual New Universe concept, Ellis has instead gone for a reboot of the whole universe.  Presumably that's because he's more interested in the idea of the White Event, although he's also taken some steps to mess about with the back story of this Earth before things get under way - the Soviet Union is still around in 2006, Paul McCartney got shot instead of John Lennon, and so forth.  Basically, though, it's the normal world and then the White Event hits.  Rather than shoving all the New Universe characters into the mix, the book focuses on Ken Connell from Star Brand, Justice, and Nightmask.  Apparently Spitfire is coming in future issues, which seems an odd choice, but kind of fits with Ellis' usual futurism obsession.

I wasn't expecting all that much from this book, but it turns out to be a pleasant surprise.  One advantage of getting Ellis to work with pre-existing characters is that it forces him away from his usual selection of stock protagonists, and moves him into different territory.  Instead of turning the New Universe into a Warren Ellis comic, it reads like an attempt to go back to basics and do the New Universe right, in a way that the original, last-minute-rush version never got to do.

It helps that Ellis has been coupled with Salvador Larocca on art.  Larocca's got the sense of scale to pull this off, but also gets to show off his range by moving away from the usual superhero material.  There are still big visual moments for him to draw here, and he makes the most of them, but it's an unexpectedly good showcase for Larocca's art (if you can get past the adverts, at least).  It's crisp and clean, but doesn't look quite like his normal superhero work, and nor does it feel anything like the typical Warren Ellis comic.

This is a very promising set-up issue which suggests that there could be a lot more to look forward to in this project than I'd been expecting.  It's not perfect - there's a really awkward exposition scene with two archaeologists telling one another why they're in Latvia which sticks out like a sore thumb.  But as a reinvention of the New Universe, it looks like a success.

Rating: A

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