In the later half of the 80’s Marvel tried to start a comic universe complete outside all the other comic lines at the time. They called it “New Universe” and it was fantastic. It started with an “event” that changed people on earth. — Rising Stars did NOT set the tone in that regard. 

Anywho, Star Brand was my favorite of the bunch. DP7, PSI-Force, Justice were all fantastic books, but Star Brand just had so much intellectual meat to it. A good looking, but average joe from Pittsburgh is handed the most powerful power in several galaxies. Ok, pretty typical right? (think green lantern) Ken Connell (protagonist) is a pretty flawed human being, you’re thinking “uhm.. Hal Jordan..”. Yea, sure, but you know what? Ken is surrounded by fellow flawed, sometimes hilariously flawed human beings. This was actually the core concept throughout the New Universe. The series was rife with fucked up people, honestly - it reminds me of Tumblr.

I was too young to really understand why New Universe didn’t take. I bought every issue religiously, I wrote about a hundred of letters to the editors, some of which got published (I’ll post some later). Sadly, I guess sales just didn’t take and they cancelled the whole thing after about 3 years. Just a few months shy of me joining the Marines in 1990.

So, if you have a chance, check out the series, they can pretty much be torrented. The art is 80’s, Keith Giffen picked up the series eventually and the are really went fugly, but that was the 80’s for you. It’s great to look back and see what we thought about the future through the lens of these books.

 If you have trouble finding, shoot me an ask, I’ll help you out.