Malibu Ultraverse Omnibus Mapping | 14th Annual Tigereyes Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus Poll

Once every year, thousands of Marvel collectors from around the world gather together online to watch Near Mint Condition and vote on their most-wanted omnibus titles. That time approaches – time for the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 14th Annual Secret Ballot! This post explains every Malibu Ultraverse omnibus map of material that has not yet been collected comprehensively in omnibus.

As one of the organizers of the poll, I work closely with Tigereyes and a team of Mapping Minties to be sure Marvel’s entire publishing history has been mapped, with every issue fitting somewhere into an omnibus volume to fill your oversize Marvel shelf. Then, we’ll kick off the poll on Near Mint Condition on March 22, 2026.

Malibu’s Ultraverse was an independent shared universe that was acquired and then absorbed by Marvel (who was primarily in the market for Malibu’s state-of-the-art coloring process, not their intellectual property).

By all accounts, all Malibu IP remains in long term legal limbo, with Marvel employees staying mum on if we ever could see it reprinted or licensed. However, with books like ROM, Micronauts, and Godzilla recently hitting omnibus, nothing seems impossible!

This is by no means a comprehensive mapping of the Malibu Ultraverse – but, it does include the biggest, longest-running titles with omnibus-lengthed runs. If you see anything I’ve missed, please comment!

Read this post and others in the series for a list of titles and omnibus mappings created by a group of the biggest collected edition enthusiasts on the internet. Every map is informed by Crushing Krisis comic guides and over a decade of polling data as explained by yours truly – keeper of the most-definitive guides to Marvel’s collected editions on the planet.

Even if you don’t own a single omnibus, you can use this post to learn about Marvel’s history of material and find great comics to read physically or digitally!

This post covers the following speculated omnibus volumes:

• Malibu Ultraverse Omnibus Mapping
  • Ultraverse: Mantra (1993 – 1995)
  • Ultraverse: Prime (1993 – 1996)
  • Ultraverse: Rune (1994 – 1996)
  • Ultraverse: UltraForce (1994 – 1996) [includes Phoenix Resurrection]
  • Ultraverse: The Ultraverse Heroes Vol. 1 (1993 – 1996) [compilation of Firearm, Freex, Hardcase, Night Man, Strangers, etc]

Remember: These titles and mappings are a suggestion of how Marvel could assemble these books. They are meant to make the books easy to find and to vote for. Your vote on the poll is a vote in favor of Marvel creating a book with that title or covering that period, NOT an endorsement of a specific mapping. Maps are presented as a proof of concept and to help you build your personal reading list.

Want to check out all of the other voting options for the 2026 Tigereyes Poll? Check out my 2026 Tigereyes poll overview page that explains the poll, how to vote, and lists every title that will appear – including links to all of the posts in this series.

In depth posts like this one are made possible via the support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis. For less than the cost of a single comic issue a month you can fuel some of the most thoroughly-researched guides to comics on the internet, plus gain access to dozens of exclusive collecting guides & reading orders – including all of the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics.

Malibu Ultraverse Omnibus Mapping

Ultraverse: Mantra (1993 – 1995)

Mantra was created and mostly penned by Mike Barr.

She isn’t the most well-known of the supporting Ultraverse heroes – that would be Night Man.

But, she does have the most issues to her name of all of the Ultraverse solo heroes other than Prime. And, when we first added all of Ultraverse to the poll in 2024 as individual books, she clearly defeated every solo hero except Prime. Yes, she even garnered more votes than Barry Windsor Smith on Rune!

This would collect Mantra (1993) #1-24 & Giant Size Mantra, Freex/Mantra Ashcan (1993), Lord Pumpkin / Necromantra (1995) #1-4 (Mantra stories, only), Mantra (1995) #? & 1-7, and Mantra – Spear of Destiny (1995) #1-2

Ultraverse: Prime (1993 – 1996)

Prime was effectively a copy of Shazam! with the serial numbers barely filed off: a 13-year-old boy who could turn into a cartoonishly large and muscular hero.

Prime had the longest run of any Ultraverse character or team. launching early on in the line and lasting until the end of 1996 before he faced cancellation.

This would collect Prime (1993) #½, 1-26, & Prime: Gross and Disgusting, Ultraverse Double Feature: Prime and Solitaire (1994) #1. Power of Prime (1995) #1-4, Prime (1995) #? & 1-15, Prime / Captain America (1996) #1, Prime vs. the Incredible Hulk (1996) #1

Ultraverse: Rune (1994 – 1996)

Rune often felt as though he wasn’t a part of the same world as the rest of Ultraverse. This creation of Barry Windsor-Smith and Chris Ulm looked and felt like something that might fit in better with what Valiant comics was doing at the time – mature, eldritch, and bloody. That made him a terrific counterpoint to the sometimes rubbery and bright superhero world of Malibu.

This would collect Rune’s introductory back-ups (back-up stories from The Night Man (1993) #1, Hardcase (1993) #5, Ultraverse Year Zero: Death of the Squad (1995) #2, Sludge (1993) #1, Freex (1993) #4, Prototype (1993) #3, The Strangers (1993) #5, Exiles (1993) #3, Firearm (1993) #2, Mantra (1993) #4, & The Solution (1993) #2); Rune (1994) #0-9 & Giant Size Rune (1995) #1; Godwheel (1995) #0-3, Rune (1995) #? & 1-7; Rune/Silver Surfer (1995) #1; Curse of Rune (1995) #1-3; Rune: Hearts of Darkness (1996) #1-3; Rune vs Venom (1996) #1.

It might also collect a crossover from Conan (1995) #4, Conan Vs Rune (1995) #1, and Conan the Savage (1994) #4, but Conan’s rights issues add even more complexity on top of Malibu and its crossovers with Marvel!

Ultraverse: UltraForce (1994 – 1996) [includes Phoenix Resurrection]

Ultraforce were the JLA or Avengers of the Malibu Universe – a who’s who of their heroes, even with the JLA/Avengers pedigree of George Perez on art on the early issues.

This would collect UltraForce (1994) #0A, 0B, & 1-10, UltraForce/Avengers (1995) Prelude [AKA UltraForce #11], Avengers/UltraForce (1995) #1, UltraForce/Avengers (1995) #1, Black September (1995) #?, UltraForce (1995) #? & 1-15, UltraForce / Spider-Man (1996) #1.

It might also include Ultraverse Year Zero: The Death of the Squad (1995) #1-4, The Phoenix Resurrection (1995) Genesis, Aftermath, Revelations, and crossover backups reprinted as The Phoenix Resurrection (1996) #0 (from Prime (1995) #2, The Night Man (1995) #2, Siren (1995) #2, Mantra (1995) #2, The All New Exiles (1995) #2, Rune (1995) #2, UltraForce (1995) #2), and Foxfire (1996) #1-4.

Finally, it could optionally the entirety of the “Black September” event issues that followed UltraForce/Avengers (1995) #1 –
Black September (1995) #?, Ultraforce (1995) #? [already listed above], The All New Exiles (1995) #?, Prime (1995) #?, Mantra (1995) #?, Rune (1995) #?, The Night Man (1995) #?, Siren (1995) #?

Ultraverse: The Ultraverse Heroes Vol. 1 (1993 – 1996) [compilation of Firearm, Freex, Hardcase, Night Man, Strangers, etc]

This would be an omnibus line to collect a number of Ultraverse heroes with runs shorter than 30 issues. We have found in past years that none of these do well on the poll on their own, so they work best grouped together so you can indicate your interest in any/all of them.

Volumes could be focused on specific titles, groups of titles, or even anthology style – it’s up to you!

This would begin to collect remaining Ultraverse material, outside of the major lines and heroes, including:

• Break-Thru (1993) #1-2, an event book
• Codename: Firearm (1993) #0 & 1-18 and Codename: Firearm (1995) #0 & 1-5
• Eliminator (1995) #0-3 (which was entirely part of the lead-up to the “Black September” event)
• Exiles (1993) #1-4, The All New Exiles (1995) #? & 1-11, The All New Exiles Vs. X-Men (1995) #0
• Freex (1993) #1-18 & Giant-Size Freex
• Hardcase (1993) #1-26 & 0 and Hardcase Premiere Edition
• The Night Man (1993) #1-23 & The Night Man: The Pilgrim Conundrum Saga (1995) #1, The Strangers: The Pilgrim Conundrum Saga (1995) #1, The Night Man (1995) #? & 1-4, The Night Man vs Wolverine (1995) #1, The Night Man/ Gambit (1996) #1-3
• Prototype (1993) #1-18 & 0 and Giant-Size Prototype (1994)
• Siren (1995) #? & 1-3
• Sludge (1993) #1-12
• The Solution (1993) #1-17 & 0