Right from the start, a number of New Universe titles failed to gain suitable support from the fans. Four New Universe books received annuals (D.P.7, MERC, PSI-FORCE, and THE STAR BRAND) but still, that did not guarantee success. As a result, in October of 1987 the number of New Universe titles made available was halved, from the original eight down to only four -- D.P.7, JUSTICE, PSI-FORCE, and THE STAR BRAND. In addition, with issue number seven of Star Brand, this title was now being published on a bi-monthly rather than monthly schedule. It is unknown whether this was done in order to accomodate the creators' busy schedules, or as an alternative to cancellation of a fifth book. After the four books (KICKERS, INC., MERC, NIGHTMASK and SPITFIRE) were cancelled, all characters within them (with the exception of Mark Hazzard from MERC, who was killed in MERC ANNUAL #1) were featured prominently throughout the rest of the life of the four remaining New Universe titles.
 

The very next month, November, was not to bode well for the New Universe or, for that matter, Marvel Comics in general. Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, formerly of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, quit his position due to vehement disagreements with the publishing philosophy of New World Entertainment, a company which had just bought Marvel a few months beforehand. Shooter's replacement as Editor-in-Chief was Tom DeFalco, who retained the position until 1995. DeFalco, together with new New Universe group editor Howard Mackie, had sweeping plans to change the line of books into something extraordinarily different from what Shooter had set up. They brought fan favorite John Byrne on board the NU crew to replace Jim Shooter and John Romita, Jr. as both writer and artist of THE STAR BRAND beginning with #11 in January of 1988. It seemed shocking changes were being put into effect with the decision of Kenneth Connell, bearer of the Star Brand, to go public and become a bona-fide super-hero. But the true changes were just beginning -- and they would take full form in the very next issue of THE STAR BRAND, #12, with the return of the mysterious "Old Man" who had originally given Connell the Brand.

The Old Man had returned to menace Ken Connell as the superhero made an appearance at a local Pittsburgh comic book convention featuring guests such as John Byrne, Howard Mackie and Tom DeFalco. The Old Man destroyed the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, taking the lives of some five thousand people with it, in an attempt to kill Connell and regain the Star Brand. Connell regenerated and found that he had somehow gained memories of the world from the Old Man's point of view. The Old Man had tried getting rid of the power years before, putting it into animals only to see them consumed by the power, and only for himself to be left with ten percent of the original Star Brand power -- ten percent of infinity. On July 22, 1986, the Old Man tried releasing the pent-up energy into an asteroid -- an act which triggered the worldwide "White Event," which in turn was responsible for the development of paranormal abilities on Earth. After Kenneth had determined that his own power was building to dangerous levels, he decided to go to the far side of the moon (to prevent a second White Event, natch) to release the power into a small weight. After reconsidering, he instead released the power ten miles above Pittsburgh. The Star Brand power caused an explosion which killed Connell immediately and instantaneously created a 50-mile wide crater out of what was once Pittsburgh, ending the lives of roughly one million men, women and children.

The aftermath of STAR BRAND #12 was the bookshelf edition known as THE PITT, the whole storyline behind which was a personal attack against Jim Shooter. What better revenge than to destroy the fictional version of his hometown? In any event, THE PITT detailed the events immediately following the explosion in Pittsburgh. The occurrence, which defied scientific law, was referred to as both "The Pittsburgh Effect" and "The Black Event." Nelson Kohler, a paranormal known as the Witness because he can see but never interact with any living person or thing, felt drawn to Pittsburgh just in time to see Kenneth Connell trigger the explosion that ended over a million lives. He floated like a ghost down through the debris, and saw a number of rescue attempts in the surrounding area while battling visions of the people of Pittsburgh who all blamed him for their being dead. The military began an operation at this time to determine who or what decimated Pittsburgh in such a fashion. Several paranormals came to Pittsburgh to help, including the Displaced Paranormals (D.P.7) and Justice. Also non-paranormal help was found in the person of Jenny Swensen and her M.A.X. armor (Codenamed Spitfire). It should be noted that it was also around this time that the decision was reached for the four New Universe titles to be sold at direct outlets only, and the format was to be changed, each issue to be printed on new, special paper, the prices increased to $1.25.

In the aftermath of the Black Event, several things happened in the core books, not the least of which was the birth of Kenneth Connell's mutated child (by his seventeen year-old girlfriend, Maddie Felix). The baby grew to adulthood at an accelerated rate and took the Star Brand away from his newly-resurrected father to use for the good of humanity. In the meantime, Jenny Swensen used her M.A.X. armor to help out D.P.7 when they ran into trouble in the Pitt, where a strange substance which came to be known as Pitt Juice began to form. Later, the substance would be revealed to cause mutations in much the same or even greater degree as did the White Event.

After word of the Black Event reached Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan reacted by asking special operatives to ascertain who exactly was responsible for the catastrophe. Suddenly thoughts of war entered the mind of the President, and he immediately ordered, in the event of war, that the Selective Servce Act be put into effect once more. Thus came the New Universe special entitled THE DRAFT.

In THE DRAFT, it was revealed that Keith Remsen, AKA Nightmask, was affected adversely by the Black Event and the death of so many people. It caused him to suffer a peculiar manner of psychosis which made his Nightmask dream persona act irrationally whenever he entered the dreams of other paranormals. However, the sheer psychic force of the Black Event sent his sister Teddy into a coma from which she would not soon awaken. Remsen, once the Draft went into effect, enlisted along with other men of his age. Included as participants in the Draft were Jack Magniconte, formerly of Kickers, Inc. but now forced into working for the CIA; David Landers (AKA Mastodon), Randy O'Brien (AKA Antibody), and Jeff Walters (AKA Blur) of the super-team D.P.7; Gaylord Picaro, AKA Pit Bull, a paranormal from the wilds of Pennsylvania; Chris Barrett, AKA Metallurgist, a paranormal who can manipulate metal; Garth Mengeling, AKA Gridlock, who can project special geometrical constructs; and Harlan Mook, AKA Blowout, who can explode and then reappear in a different location, similar to teleportation. What they and countless others who enlisted did not know at the time was that the true objective of the Draft was to seek out and find as many paranormals as possible and assemble them into an army, the sheer might of which would be enough to take on any who opposed the plans of the United States of America.

Meanwhile, changes continued to occur in the lives of those who had been exposed to the strange "Pitt Juice" at the bottom of the crater that was once Pittsburgh. Jenny Swensen, who had been in possession of the M.A.X. armor, now found herself transformed into a being of living metal. Randy O'Brien, who had encased himself in one of his Antibodies in order to save his teammate David Landers from certain death, was sprayed with a geyser of Pitt Juice and discovered he was merged with this Antibody now and forever, trapped inside it, only able to create small, foot-tall Antibodies rather than full-size creatures. The government even took control when a family who had been immersed in the Pitt Juice mutated into a single being who devoured anything in its path. Many mutants emerged from the bottom of the Pitt, as well as a fast-growing plantlike organism which was killed by the baby which carried the Star Brand power. In the wake of the plantlike organism's death, a volcano began to form at the base of the Pittsburgh crater.

The 1988 Presidential Election came, and with it there would be a new President to replace Ronald Reagan (who had hismelf been discovered to be a paranormal with the ability to withstand incredible devastation). This new President was Democrat Philip Nolan Voigt (code-named "Overshadow"), an evil paranormal with the ability to mimic the parabilities of any paranormal he is near, and enhance those parabilities to a greater degree than their originator could. With this ability he held the paranormals who wished to stop him at bay while he manipulated the USA into something which he saw as his own empire. He would be stopped by Jacob Burnley, an older man whom the Star Child had seen fit to give the Star Brand, when Burnley showed up at the White House and battled Voigt. When Burnley gave Voigt all the paranormal powers on Earth, the strain was too great and Voigt lost his parability, apparently never to regain it again. He would remain as President, however (with Michael Dukakis as Vice-President), even when the capital was relocated to Denver, Colorado due to the air and water pollution caused by the Pittsburgh disaster. He longed for a chance at power once more.

The situation, in the meantime, went from bad to worse for the members of Psi-Force, who suffered the loss of one of their teammates, Anastasia Inyushin, a paranormal healer. As a result they only had four of the five psionics needed to summon Psi-Hawk. Lindsey Falmon, a psychic who could see into the future, provided the fifth and final piece of the puzzle and made it possible to summon Psi-Hawk to combat the evil Russian paranormal known as Rodstvow, only to have Psi-Hawk killed at the Russian's hands. The resulting psychic feedback rendered the five teammates comatose for a few months, after which they finally defeated Rodstvow with the help of Justice and the undercover group called Medusa Web.

Members of D.P.7 encountered a paranormal known as "The Cure," whose paranormal power was the ability to cure other paranormals of their abilities. This "Cure" was instrumental in the formation of the new religion of the White Eventists. A few members of D.P.7, including Mutator, Sponge and Scuzz, were cured by this paranormal before his abilities were rendered inactive. The White Eventist movement, however, continued.

The four core titles of the New Universe folded in June of 1989, with issue #32 of all titles except THE STAR BRAND (which ended with #19). The mysteries surrounding the Star Brand were finally revealed at the end, where the Old Man, Kenneth Connell, and Connell's son were all revealed to be one and the same being -- that all were victims of the Star Brand, which had been created spontaneously! The three needed to form a Moebius loop to seal up the Star Brand in a fixed point in time, outside of which it would never again be a danger to humankind. They did so, but a residue of the Star Brand energy was left with Lieutenant Robert James Hanrahan, who had been healed using the Star Brand a few hours prior to the final accounting.

The last New Universe miniseries, THE WAR, began the same month as the other New Universe titles ended their runs. It featured Jack Magniconte, Pit Bull, the Blur, Blowout, Metallurgist, Nightmask and other paranormals fighting World War Three in South Africa against the supposed paranormal force which caused the Pitt. The truth, however, was that one man, Lieutenant Oort, had plotted to start the third World War and blame it all on the paranormals. The war involved the U.S.S.R. and Cuba, both Communist nations, and on the other side were the United States and South Africa. Nuclear missiles were sent to South Africa and to the White House, but what no one had known at the time was that the Star Child (in an appearance clearly before STAR BRAND #19) had disabled all nuclear weapons. Soon afterward he put an end to World War III almost singlehandedly.  One could tell that Marvel did not put much faith in the New Universe by this point:  The first three volumes of THE WAR were released monthly; however, the final issue of THE WAR did not appear in stores until almost one year after Book Three.

After THE WAR, the New Universe faded into obscurity. It had been promised in 1989 that there would be more special editions, the first of which would focus on D.P.7, coming in 1990. However, fan support had dwindled so much by that point that Marvel didn't even bother continuing the storylines beyond the end of the series. Mark Gruenwald, writer of D.P.7, went on to write QUASAR after the cancellation of the New Universe, and although he had stated definitively that there would never be a crossover between the New Universe and the Marvel Universe proper, the possibility was too good for him to resist, and the New Universe would return in a big way in 1992.

D.P.7 #19-32

THE DRAFT

THE PITT

PSI-FORCE #24-30

THE STAR BRAND #11-19

THE WAR #1-4

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