New Universe Profile Index

The New Universe possesses interesting temporal characteristics. The White Event occurred on September 4, 1986, after which events moved in real time, at least up to the War, sometime in later 1989, or early 1990. They interacted with the Marvel Universe in 1991-1992 of real time, and were last seen in 1994, at the conclusion of the Star Blast saga. It's unlikely that the characters of the NU will be seen again (a true shame), but I'd like to think that they should somehow stay in real time. In addition, as the Prime One points out, since the Living Tribunal has isolated them from the rest of the Universe, they should be isolated from Eternity as well, meaning they won't be a part of 'Marvel Time' (or lack thereof).--Snood.

Added by David Zuckerman:

Prime Eternal's New Universe Primer

The New Universe, launched in 1986 with eight titles-- Starbrand, Spitfire and the Troubleshooters, Nightmask, Justice, Psi Force, DP7, Mark Hazzard: Merc and Kickers Inc. -- was the brainchild of then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, and was conceived of as the ultimate project to celebrate Marvel's 25th anniversary-- by creating a "new universe" where there would be a greater emphasis on reality than even the Marvel Universe had seen before. No aliens, no undersea civilizations, no other dimensions-- the New Universe was, "the world outside your window", until "the White Event". After the White Event, "paranormals" began to manifest powers. It was to be stressed that these were ordinary people with extraordinary powers, reacting to a world not unlike our own.

The problem was, not all of the New Universe writers were made to understood this facet of the universe they were writing in, so greater-than-20th century-level technology appeared in Spitfire, other dimensions appeared in Justice, and football players played super-heroes in Kickers Inc. At the end of the New Universe's first year, Jim Shooter was gone, and so were Nightmask, Spitfire, Mark Hazzard, and Kickers Inc. It was time for a change.

In the second year of publication, only DP7 creators Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan were retained, while John Byrne, Fabian Nicieza, and Peter David took control over the remaining titles. All four writers felt that it was time for the New Universe to live up to its potential, and mid-way through year 2, the graphic novel The PITT was released, in which Ken Connell destroyed Pittsburgh, plunging the earth (and the stars of the four titles) into chaos. This in turn led to The Draft graphic novel, in which a paranormal platoon was prepared for World War 3.

Unfortunately, by then, New Universe readership had already been conditioned against these drastic changes. Readers had been mistakenly led to believe that "the world outside your window" meant that the New Universe had to always remain the world outside their window, and felt that the creative teams had betrayed Shooter's vision, which was not the case. After 33 months of publication, the New Universe came to a halt in 1989. The four-issue limited series The War tied up the World War 3 threads, and the New Universe drifted out of the memories of general readers.

But Gruenwald, Nicieza, and David refused to forget what they had produced. David brought Justice into the 2099 universe as "Net Prophet"; Nicieza gave the Starbrand a cameo in Gambit, and was connected to a potential New Universe revival only 3 years ago; Gruenwald never stopped utilizing the New Universe, and brought its cast into the Marvel Universe via Quasar#31, which later led to the Starblast crossover.

The New Universe is not gone. For now, it's simply resting. -Prime Eternal

Prior to Starblast, the NU did not appear to have any similarities to the universal structure and hierarchy of Earth-616 or similar worlds, andwas thus outside of the mainstream Multiverse, but within the greater Omniverse. It has been suggested that there may be one more division present between Multiverse and Omniverse, to link asociated worlds, such as those linked to Marvel, and to keep distinct from other such groupings, such as those associated with DC or other titles. Thus worlds like the New Universe or the Shadowline might be contained within the Marvel Megaverse. Sounds good to me!
- Snood

Since the New Universe's Earth was physically removed and taken to the universe of the Earth-616 Marvel universe that may explain why it became a part of the Amalgam universe.
- Per Degaton

The New Universe was given the core continuum designation of Earth-148611 in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.

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