Malibu Comics was a comic book publisher in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. The Ultraverse was a shared universe much like the real world, but in which a variety of characters - known within the comics as "Ultras" - acquired super-human abilities. Their headquarters were in Calabasas, California.
History
The company was founded in 1986 and made a name for itself publishing a combination of new series and licensed properties such as the classic Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, and popular TV/movie/video-game tie-ins. They served as publishers-of-record for the first comics from Image Comics in 1992, giving the upstart creator-run publisher access to the distribution channels. The Bravura line consisted of creator-owned titles.
The Ultraverse line was launched during the "boom" of the early 1990's, roughly concurrent with the debut of publishers such as Image and Valiant, and new superhero lines from DC and Dark Horse (Milestone and Comics Greatest World, respectively). They boasted improved production values over traditional comics (especially digital coloring and higher-quality paper), and a roster of respected and/or talented new writers and artists. Emphasizing the tight continuity between the various series in the Ultraverse line, Malibu made extensive use of crossovers, in which a story that began in one series would be continued in the next-shipping issue of another series. Various promotions for special editions or limited-print stories also encouraged readers to sample issues of the entire line. Many fans loved the scope of storytelling this approach allowed; others complained of being coerced to buy too many books to keep track of it all. Regardless, the Ultraverse line came to dominate Malibu's catalog.
As sales declined industry-wide in the mid-1990s, Malibu cancelled lower-selling series. The company was purchased by Marvel Comics in 1994. Reportedly Marvel made the purchase to acquire Malibu's then-ground-breaking in-house coloring studio and/or its catalog of movie-licensible properties. Others believe that Marvel simply wanted to put a significant competitor out of business. Marvel cancelled the entire Ultraverse line, but re-launched a handful of the more popular titles, this time with ties to the Marvel Universe, starting with "#∞" issues. These "volume 2" series were themselves cancelled a short time later.
Titles
Some of Malibu's titles included:
Ultraverse
- Break-Thru (a crossover mini-series)
- Firearm
- Exiles
- Freex
- Hardcase
- Mantra
- The Night Man
- Prime
- Prototype
- Rune
- Sludge
- Solitaire
- The Solution
- The Strangers
- UltraForce
non-Ultraverse
