Ultimate DCU?

I would never have become a regular reader of Marvel Comics had it not been for the Ultimate Universe. It is a great way to reboot an entire line without throwing away everything that came before. With the introduction of the DC Multiverse, what would happen if the company took the Ultimate approach to its universe?

A collection of comic fans have gathered together over at the Newsarama forums and have come up with their take on our favorite DC characters. One of the authors of the Ultimate Batman fan-fiction line is none other than Alex “Salieri” Nuan, who used to spend quite a bit of time on this site commenting on all our stories.

Take the jump for Salieri’s thoughts on the DCU project.

A year or two ago, while trawling the hallowed halls of forum.newsarama.com under the name Salieri, I wrote a quick-shot story idea I called ‘Ultimate Cable vs. Carnage’, a throwaway idea that I thought wouldn’t be too important. However, I was immediately surprised when another ‘Rama poster, Equinox, replied “This is nothing but pure gold”. Taking the initiative, I sent him a Private Message saying my thanks, and we began to exchange ideas on not only it but many other things beside. A friendship was instantly born.

Then, just last year, I returned from a Holiday away from the internet to discover that Equinox had been setting up a new and exciting project. Inspired by Marvel Comics successful creation of the ‘Ultimate’ imprint and all its products, my friend had pioneered plans for an internet-based creation named ‘UDCU’ – like Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, a project that set out to thoroughly reimagine the DC Universe as if created and imagined today; additionally, as we were not writing for money, we would be free of many of the less attractive aspects of writing such as gigantic Crises to re-set continuity and illogical editorial decisions.

Dropping in, I read many of the ideas that had budded from the UDCU writers with a heart swelled with excitement. Hesitantly, I typed in a comment saying that I would be delighted to help out however I could, perhaps on a small miniseries or something similar. I was completely unprepared for his reply: the offer to take the position of chief scribe for the Dark Knight. That’s right, folks: following the first story arc, I would be given Ultimate Batman.

And after reading this reply, I was completely taken aback. Batman…well…he did take up a huge part of my childhood. I mean, my first ever toy was one of those variant ‘Batman’ figures with some sort of mad gadget strapped to his back…and I[‘d always had respect for the tremendous depth of writing in the old Batman Cartoon series. So I did what I believed anyone in my position would have done: I stewed. I thought and thought and thought…and suddenly the seed of an idea that would bloom into my first story arc came across and I knew that this was the project that was made for me.

Replying to Equinox, I gave him my ideas and he gave me some other ideas that he had planned for Issues 1, 2 and 3 of Ultimate Batman…and beyond. Since then, I’ve spent countless afternoons writing down new ideas as they come to me, communicating with the various other talented wonders who supply other scripts as well as illustrating duties; and our projects have done nothing but grow and bloom since then, so that I feel you’ll be truly surprised and taken aback yourself when they come to fruition.

I owe a tremendous debt to all of these people, most especially Equinox, for getting me involved in the glorious UDCU…and I remain ultimately hopeful for the future!

It should be pointed out, that these scripts are only fan fiction pieces and have not been given the blessing of DC Comics.

You can check out Alex’s debut piece at the Newsarama forums. Now if someone would just pen the Ultimate Rockford Files, Ultimate Magnum P.I., and Ultimate Simon & Simon stories, I could die a semi-happy man.