The New Universe was initially positioned as entirely unrelated to the existing Marvel Universe and billed as a “world outside your window” which avoided Comic-Book Time and only diverged from the real world when a single Mass Empowering Event - the White Event - granted some people superpowers.
Some titles achieved short-term success, but it didn't last long - four of the eight books were cancelled after a year, with the others continued until 1989, while the setting pivoted away from the "world outside your window" in the lead up to The War, a miniseries that acted as a grand finale.
Some other Marvel books revisited the characters and setting afterwards, though - and by the time of its 20th anniversary and Untold Tales it had been firmly connected to the Marvel Universe (a Retcon which one of the new stories touches on).
Untold Tales of the New Universe was swiftly followed by another, very different, New Universe project - newuniversal, a single series Reboot and reimagining of the New Universe concept.
Untold Tales one-off specials
- D.P.7 ("The Dead Plains Seven"), written by C.B. Cebulski and illustrated by M.D. Bright and John Stanisci, with color art by Studio F.
- Justice ("Who Judges the Judge"), written by Peter David (who also wrote much of the original Justice series) and illustrated by Carmine di Giandomenico, with color art by Lovern Kindzierski.
- Nightmask ("Kingdom of the Gnome"), written by Fred Van Lente and illustrated by Arnold Pander and Kris Justice, with color art by Guru eFX.
- Psi-Force ("An Army of One"), written by Tony Bedard and illustrated by Russ Braun, with color art by Lee Loughridge.
- Star Brand ("Adventures in the Mulletverse"), written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by Javier Pulido, with color art by Lee Loughridge.
Untold Tales back-up storiesThese shorter stories were printed in ongoing Marvel Universe titles.
- Marc Hazzard: Merc, written by Tony Lee and illustrated by Leonard Kirk and Kris Justice, with color art by Lee Loughridge. Published in Amazing Fantasy #18.
- Spitfire ("Danger Zone"), written by Justin Grant and illustrated by Marshall Rogers, with color art by Brad Anderson. Published in Amazing Fantasy #19.
- Kickers, Inc. ("Kickin' it in Hell"), written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by Juan Santacruz and Scott Koblish, with color art by Val Staples. Published in New Avengers #16.
'‘Untold Tales of the New Universe'' provides examples of:
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: Played with and justified in Justice. Rodney Jung's a paranormal who can secrete unique, addictive drugs, injecting them with tiny needles that he can manifest on his palms. The first dose is free and forced on his targets, because the withdrawal symptoms are horrible (sometimes fatal) and the addicts will keep coming back.
- Aliens in Cardiff: Paranormals and undead armies in Keshena, Wisconsin.
- Alternate Universe: Arden, in the Star Brand story, is a visitor from an alternate universe, and compares Ken's decisions to some of his variants elsewhere.
- The New Universe is identified as Earth-148611
- Earth-886's Star Brand is a champion defending her world against "powerful forces" (a giant creature that appears to be undead is shown).
- Earth-723's Star Brand is uniting the world through music.
- Earth-541's Star Brand made himself global monarch.
- The main Marvel Universe, Earth-616, also gets a mention.Arden: Hell, in that universe you shine a fluorescent light on someone for too long and they'll become paranormals. I exaggerate, of course. But, really, you should see some of the personalities from that world.
- Animate Dead: Seka, villain of the D.P.7 story, gains this power.
- Artistic Licence – Geography: In the Spitfire story, Chernobyl is referred to as part of Russia. It’s actually In Ukraine, which would have been the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic at the time, but definitely not Russia.
- Continuity Snarl:
- The Kickers, Inc. story features demons in a setting that doesn’t normally include the supernatural.
- The Spitfire story has a superhuman before the Mass Empowering Event, and long before Jenny meets her first paranormal (in Star Brand).
- The Star Brand story ties the New Universe into the Marvel multiverse in a way that wasn't yet true when they first met in Quasar (and also gives Ken an awareness of alternate worlds and the Star Brand's role in them that doesn't quite match later stories).
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Played with in the Nightmask special. The grand plan of the Gnome, the villain who orchestrated Keith's parents death, is revealed. He was going to use his Dreamwalker abilities to sell corporate ad space in humanity's dreams. He became a traditional supervillain to kill his rivals so they couldn't compete.
- Denser and Wackier: The Star Brand story goes in this direction, with Alternate Universe visitors, The World as Myth revelations, a Frame Break visual and a hefty dose of Take That Us (followed by some level of Mood Whiplash from the ending). Downplayed but still present with some aspects of the Nightmask story as well, which has a rather different tone to the original Nightmask series.
- Faking the Dead: When the daughter of one of his victims shoots him, Justice fakes his own death, blocking the bullets with shields and using ketchup to look like blood.
- Frame Break: In Star Brand, Arden is portrayed as a pure white silhouette, usually rooted in the gutters rather than entirely within a panel, whenever she monitors reality while staying "half out of sync".
- Framing Device: The D.P.7 story is framed by Keso, twenty years later, telling his son the tale of the Dead Plains Seven.
- Fun with Acronyms: D.P.7 ("Displaced Paranormals 7") was the title of the comic book, but never used much in-universe. Untold Tales gives it another meaning, the Dead Plains Seven.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Played with in the Justice story. Tensen hands a gun to his latest victim's daughter, tells he that he will accept her judgement and starts to tell his story, beginning with the "Justice Warrior of the Land of Spring" fake past. She shoots him three times in the chest. And he fakes his death using ketchup and his invisible force shields.
- Loose Canon: Downplayed, but some of the stories are at odds with the original continuity.
- Magical Native American: Menominee siblings Keso and Seka in the D.P.7 story. They're both paranormals empowered by the White Event, but just happen to get powers that fit this trope. Keso can commune with his tribe's ancestors, whereas Seka can create an undead army via Animate Dead.
- Odd-Shaped Panel: In Star Brand, when Arden monitors reality while staying "half out of sync", she's portrayed as a white Frame Break silhouette extending from the gutter between panels. The panel she's watching has its edges reshaped where it meets that silhouette.
- Randomly Gifted: Subverted. Whereas the original books suggested that paranormals were created by exposure to the White Event and, unlike Marvel Universe mutants, weren't linked to family genetics, the Untold Tales don't present it that way.
- Keso and Seka in D.P.7 are siblings and the only members of their tribe to gain powers. Although that might just be coincidence, of course.
- Michael Proudhawk is a paranormal, like Psi-Force's mentor, his cousin Emmett Proudhawk. Not only that, but they seem to have much the same power set, both calling up a Psi-Hawk.
- Real Event, Fictional Cause: Played with in Spitfire. It's not that Chernobyl had an entirely fictional cause, it's that one of the scientists there had a reaction and became a nuclear superhuman, unwillingly adding to the radiation levels.
- Subliminal Seduction: In Nightmask Keith drives Kleinmann, the Gnome, insane by smashing him from dreams down into the collective unconscious. This has the side-effect of starting a global gnome craze that lasts for months.
- Take That Us: In the Star Brand story, researcher Arden gives Ken Connell a long speech about all the things he's doing wrong with his life, and with the Star Brand. It doubles as a criticism of the plotting and direction of the original Star Brand series itself. Even the title ("Adventures in the Mulletverse") carries a little bit of this trope.
- The World as Myth: Used in Star Brand. Argent explains that stories often turn up in Alternate Worlds as comic books, so gets hold of the first ten Star Brand issues from an adjacent universe to research Ken's past and powers.
