DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
character, originally the first superhuman on Earth Prime. The original first appeared in ''
Justice League of America
The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in '' The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceive ...
'' #153 (April 1978), he was created by
Gerry Conway
Gerard Francis Conway Thomas, Roy. "Roy's Rostrum" ("Bullpen Bulletins") in '' Marvel Super-Heroes'' #43 and other Marvel Comics cover-dated May 1974. (born September 10, 1952) is an American comic book writer, comic book editor, screenwriter, t ...
Justice League Quarterly
''Justice League Quarterly'' (''JLQ'') was a quarterly American comic book series published by DC Comics from Winter 1990 to Winter 1994; it lasted 17 issues. It had a variable cast, pulling from the Justice League membership. The title centred o ...
'' #13 (Winter 1993), written by Kevin Dooley and drawn by
Greg LaRocque
Greg LaRocque (born February 24, 1954) is an American comics artist best known for his work on the ''Legion of Super-Heroes'' and ''The Flash''.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, LaRocque worked as an assistant teacher at the Professional I ...
. A new version of Ultraa appears in
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, humanist philosophy and countercultural leanings. Morrison has written extensively for th ...
's ''
The Multiversity
''The Multiversity'' is a two-issue limited series combined with seven interrelated one-shots set in the DC Multiverse in The New 52, a collection of universes seen in publications by DC Comics. The one-shots in the series were written by Gran ...
'' project.
Fictional character biography
Ultraa (Pre-Crisis)
Ultraa's origin was very similar to Superman's, in that he was born on an alien world, and sent to Earth to escape its destruction. He landed in the
Australian Outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...
and was raised by
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
. In his first appearance, Ultraa plans to go to the
United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
and become a superhero. As he runs across the ocean, he is detected by the US Air Force, which sends a plane after him. Ultraa retaliates to this attack, and is mistaken for a villain by the Justice League, who are visiting from Earth One. Ultraa eventually decides Earth Prime was not ready for superheroes and accompanies the League back to their world.''Justice League of America'' #153
Ultraa next appeared following a battle between the League and the Injustice Gang which threatened civilians, deciding Earth One was also endangered by the presence of superhumans. He uses a ray gun to create a feeling of apathy in both the League and the Injustice Gang. It works on the heroes but has the opposite effect on the villains. Ultraa attempts to fight the Injustice Gang single-handedly but fails. After the JLA overcome the ray's effects to defeat the Gang, they question whether they can trust Ultraa any longer.
As a result of their second encounter with Ultraa, the League imprisons him in a "stasis cube" prison of Superman's design. He is later released by an alien hive mind entity disguised as a human attorney. The alien entity helps Ultraa take the Justice League members who imprisoned him to court for wrongful imprisonment, but it is later learned that the trial is meant as a distraction to keep the JLA from noticing that the bulk of the hive mind entity, known as the Over-Complex, was stealing the hydrogen atoms from the world's oceans.
After this, a dispirited Ultraa adopts the civilian guise of Jack Grey and lives a simple life as a busboy in Atlantic City where he is manipulated by a down and out former opponent of the Justice League, but a heart-to-heart talk with Hawkman convinces him to break off the attack and Ultraa subsequently decides to live out his life among Earth-1's Australian aborigines. This is his last pre-''Crisis'' appearance.
Ultraa (Post-Crisis)
Following the ''
Crisis on Infinite Earths
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" is a 1985 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics. The series, written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, was first serialized as a 12-issue limited series from April 1985 to Mar ...
'', the original Ultraa was
retcon
Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subs ...
ned out of history, along with Earth-Prime. In ''Justice League Quarterly'' #13 (Winter 1993), Ultraa is reintroduced as a native of Almerac and the betrothed of Queen Maxima. He arrives on Earth to look for her, and gets into a long and brutal fight with
Captain Atom
Captain Atom is a superhero appearing in American comic books, first in the 1960s by Charlton Comics before being acquired in the 1980s by DC Comics. Captain Atom has existed in three basic incarnations.
Publication history
Captain Atom was crea ...
. Captain Atom briefly gains the upper hand and nearly kills Ultraa, but then realizes that he himself is behaving as brutally as Ultraa and decides to throw the fight in order not to set a poor example (that might is right) for an onlooking boy. Ultraa in turn starts beating up Captain Atom, but Maxima intervenes and tells him to leave. Maxima then tells Captain Atom he can stop pretending he is unconscious and the two walk off together.
Ultraa later appears as a member of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
-funded League Busters in ''Justice League International'' #65 (June 1994).
Ultra Comics (Multiversity)
In
The New 52
The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Following the conclusion of the " Flashpoint" crossover storyline, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new serie ...
, Earth-33 is introduced in the eighth installment of
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, humanist philosophy and countercultural leanings. Morrison has written extensively for th ...
's ''
The Multiversity
''The Multiversity'' is a two-issue limited series combined with seven interrelated one-shots set in the DC Multiverse in The New 52, a collection of universes seen in publications by DC Comics. The one-shots in the series were written by Gran ...
'' series, ''The Multiversity: Ultra Comics'' #1, as the additional designation for Earth-Prime. This Earth continues the tradition of having minimal superhero activity – in this case, the minds of Earth-33's comic book readers have empowered a superhero named "Ultra Comics". Ultra Comics is the only metahuman on that world, fighting the encroachment of the "Gentry" (the series' lead villains) by confining their presence on 'our' world to the pages of an 'entrapment' comic book built around the title character of the comic book. He is described as a self-aware idea, a hero created by the "Memesmiths" of Earth-Prime to defend us from the Gentry. As flesh-and-blood superhumans don't exist here on Earth-Prime, Ultra only exists in the form of a "cybernetic comic book" that is, the comic books themselves are his "body" and he gets his powers from the minds of his readers, suggesting that we are empowering, and essentially becoming, him whenever we read his comic. Within the story, he is depicted as a superhero created in a laboratory and sent out into battle against the Gentry, eventually facing off against the Post-Crisis version of Ultraa.''The Multiversity: Ultra Comics'' #1 (March 2015)
Powers and abilities
* The original Ultraa could not fly but had super speed, supersenses, and super strength. He could run fast enough to pass over large bodies of water. This Ultraa's only weakness was targeted
ultrasonics
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies fr ...
.
* As a scion of the Blood Royale of Almerac, the modern Ultraa commands a vast array of powers that come from years of selective breeding and gene therapy. Like Maxima, the current Ultraa has incredible strength, telepathy, telekinesis and flight.
* As a narrative construct, Ultra Comics also possessed a vast array superhuman powers—all completely fictional and generated by readers. Ultra Comics demonstrated superhuman strength, flight, and other abilities gifted to him by the "Ultragem", a crystal consisting of pure imagination.
Notes
* The Pre-''Crisis'' version of Ultraa was the first superhero to appear on his particular parallel Earth. The second was
Superboy Prime
Superboy-Prime (Clark Kent, born Kal-El), also known as Superman-Prime or simply Prime, is a DC Comics superhero turned supervillain and an Alternative versions of Superman, alternate version of Superman. The character first appeared in ''DC Comi ...
.
* An alternate version of Ultraa from one of the Earths in the post-
Infinite Crisis
"Infinite Crisis" is a 2005–2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, ...