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From: guest
, 105 months, post #1 |
Hi
I cant seem to find any links to download Mantra comics anywhere, I
am looking for issues 17-20, if any of you could help I'd be very
grateful.
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From: Holly Dunn
, 105 months, post #2 |
Were there that many? I thought the comic label went belly up early
into that series.
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From: guest
, 105 months, post #3 |
Direct links are not allowed, but the full Mantra run is available
in torrent form. Mantra is part of the Ultraverse; if you Google
"ultraverse" and "torrent", you can find every comic set in the
Ultraverse, including Mantra.
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From: Dale Ribbons
, 105 months, post #4 |
In response to Holly Dunn: I know the Mantra series reached at
least 22 issues as I just bought # 22 at a used bookstore.
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From: Holly Dunn
, 105 months, post #5 |
ah. cool. ty for the info Dale.
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From: Random
, 105 months, post #6 |
Mantra vol1 reached 24 issues, plus one Giant Size issue, plus a
two issue mini-series. She also had numerous appearances in other
Ultraverse comics of the time(they were really pushing the shared
universe thing at the time). I think she only showed up in the
first couple of vol2 of Mantra(after the Marvel purchase).
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From: Holly Dunn
, 105 months, post #7 |
It's been a long time since AI have seen Mantra, but didn't the
Ultraverse fold, someone bought them, and they replaced the male
soul in Mantra with a female one? It seemed like there were only
about 8 or 10 TG Mantra comics if I can remember that far back.
Please correct me if I am misremembering (though misremembering
will qualify me to run for Congress in 2016.)
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From: guest
, 105 months, post #8 |
That's mostly correct, Holly, except that the series ran for 24
issues before it was rebooted with a new born-female character.
There's a page here, made by a TG fan, with a ton of information if
anyone's interested:
http://www.mantraverse.com/
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From: Random
, 105 months, post #9 |
There were the 24 vol1 Mantra comics that contained the TG
character(for the most part. There was a brief time in the comic
where he managed to give back the body to the original owner and
moved his soul into a clone body or something, but stuff happened
and he ended up as a woman again). Then, IIRC, Malibu got bought by
Marvel, and they tried to connect the Ultraverse into the Marvel
continuity, and when they restarted Mantra they had the original
Mantra give up her powers to her student/secretary/something. That
was vol2, and that didn't last that long.
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From: guest (charliesorrell)
, 105 months, post #10 |
marvel comics(which i love) killed Mantra. so much potential
there...........
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From: guest (Aladdin)
, 105 months, post #11 |
Mantra is one of my favorite subjects. I've had hours of phone
interviews with Malibu people who worked on MANTRA. Mike Barr was
particularly generous with his time. I did this research in order
to build the "book" that would allow a person to write the most
informed fan fiction he possibly could. (My stories so far are at
Fictionmania (and a couple of the early ones at Mantraverse), and I
have another full length fan novel in the writing.
Back then I asked a lot of questions about how the new Mantra
related to the old Mantra. Not even the author knows what took the
old Mantra's powers away (he did it because he was told to get her
out of the comic book. The former editor said it was done to
replace her with a less sexually controversial character. (What
controversy? He didn't even realize that Dax was a successful
character in Malibu's licensed series in "Deep Space 9"). Maybe
Mantra would be more acceptable to editors today, with societal
evolution (Even in 1995 Malibu ignored the fact that Mantra always
ranked at or near the very top of their sales).
But the new Mantra, Lauren, did not gain Mantra's powers. She was
born with her own posers, like Eden Blake (old Mantra) was. A demon
decided to use Lauren as a weapon against Mantra and stimulated her
latent powers. After Lauren reconciled with Mantra and the demon
was banished, her powers became latent again. During the night of
Black September something, either from a self-protective response,
or in response to the wild magic that was abroad that night,
Lauren's powers came back suddenly. With Eden's powers suppressed
after an injury, Eden let Lauren do her own thing while she tried
to make the best of the life left to her. She acted as a friend and
mentor to Lauren until Mike Barr left the company. She made one
last personal appearance in a Malibu micro-story in a late
Ultraverse issue.
The new crew that took over when the old Malibu gang was fired by
Marvel soon realized that Black September was a terrible mistake
and their plan was to minimize it and make it pretty much
irrelevant to their ongoing Ultraverse. Unfortunately, the number
of comics they had to work with were very few and they could not
move the restoration along very quickly. Then, at the start of
1997, Marvel shut down the whole line. The chief editor has since
made public excuses why they don't revive the Ultraverse, claiming
that to pay royalties under the old contracts would be too
expensive. But some of the most successful Marvel Comics have been
published under the royalty system, such as Conan the Barbarian.
Royalties didn't stop them from publishing the Amanda Blake
stories. There is something else at the root of the intransient
attitude of the Marvel editorship. The Marvel staff as a whole was
very hostile to the Malibu staff back in 1995-1996. They didn't
want to work with Malibu as an equal. When Malibu wanted to bring
in some Marvel characters, all they got (until it was too late) was
the Black Knight. The Black who?
One might have hoped that the Disney connection might have
overruled such prejudice, but nothing has happened. But that
follows a pattern. What has Disney done with the great Crossgen
line since they bought it? With all their money, no one could meet
the price that they'd be asking to set these super comic lines
free, I'm sure.
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From: guest (Kara)
, 105 months, post #12 |
Actually, I seem to recall Malibu using the Marvel version of Loki
in a few crossovers...and magic-wise, he was a top-tier villain.
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From: guest (Aladddin)
, 105 months, post #13 |
True. But as I said, "until it was too late." According to my
information, the then-top management at Marvel was committed to the
success of Malibu, because the purchase had been their own project.
They wanted a good outcome to make themselves look good. Marvel
corporate schemers never seemed to realize at the outset that the
purchase would never work. The reason that many fans were reading
Malibu and not Marvel was that they couldn't stand Marvel (and
maybe DC, too.) When Marvel barged into Malibu, many of these fans
were appalled and dropped their support for the whole line. Those
fans who still followed the UV blamed everything that they didn't
like in the developing Malibu universe on Marvel
interference/dictation. This wasn't true the true state of affairs.
Like, the changes in the Freaks were made not because of Marvel
personnel or directives; the changes were made because Freaks was
one of the titles that was suffering in the bad market that
followed the collapse of the comic collector market. Whether the
changes in Freaks were good or bad, it didn't matter to many fans.
They suspected (even assumed) that Marvel was behind it, and they
shunned the Freaks in protest.
As the sale of Malibu comics shrank, there was increasing pressure
put on the Malibu management to improve things. Marvel was not
worrying about any specific plot line, such as Mantra being a male
soul in a female body. The bottom line was the only thing that
mattered to New York. What the Rosenberg, Ulm, Mason and the others
should have done was to go to the Malibu creator staff, put their
cards on the table, and ask for their help. But this was not done.
Instead the publishers, who had never created or written any
successful comic book, decided that they knew how to craft better
story ideas than Malibu's team of experts. They would have an
attention-grabbing "big event". It was called Black September.
What BS really seemed to be was an excuse to rewrite the whole
Ultraverse, seeking to fix any perceived problem without any regard
to the established history of the universe. The problem was, what
they perceived to be wrong was misguided. It was all the result of
a bad market combined with an unpopular merger. And even if they
had known what the problems were, the solutions they offered were
ridiculous.
A couple of great UltraForce characters were banished (like
Contrary and Hardcase) and two newly minted nobody heroes were
plugged into the UF, as if they had always been there. Mantra, one
of the most popular comics and characters, was deactivated for
being controversial and an untried teen heroine was put in her
place, seemingly calculated to be like every other teen heroine
that had been stultifying comic book readers for decades. Most
ongoing titles were cancelled and their creators were not given new
assignments, but were laid off. No-names were brought in from
nowhere to write new comic titles. There was a new comic, SIREN,
but why was this mess foisted on the UV? Siren was only a
background character the UF before, and her short-lived comic
showed that she should have stayed a background character. Nightman
was allowed to limp on for a half dozen more issues, but it
apparently was never intended to continue on longer. Why not? The
things that unfolded with the consumation of Black September were
unremittedly painful and conceptually awful.
You cite the appearance of Loki, Kara. That was a late move, like
the appearance of the Avengers in the last days of the Ultraverse.
It was a desperate measure to draw attention to Malibu. Apparently,
the Marvel leadership had ended the stubborn resistance of Marvel
editors by fiat and and handed the characters that Malibu wanted
over to their use. It was like handing out the parachutes when the
plane is already reaching sea level. "Black September" was ginned
up as a revolutionary change and the Avengers/Loki were meant to
dress up the days leading up to it. These Marvel characters
vanished from the UV when the changes of Black September were
actually established, in the September 1995 issues.
After that point, hardly any of the old Malibu fan base was still
reading. The Marvelization of the Malbu univese had not drawn in
Marvel reader because these fans couldn't spread their
discretionary income far enough to include a whole additional comic
line.
With Malibu readership now in ashes, the friendly Marvel leadership
(those who had wanted the merger) were fired. The new management
turned against the original deal and saw Malibu only as a source of
red ink that had to be gotten rid of. At Malibu the blood letting
was complete. No major exec was kept. A lower echelon editor from a
non-Ultraverse line of Malibu was promoted, but the general layoffs
were so brutal, especially among the writing staff, that the
offices were left almost empty. This wasn't reorganization; it was
wanton destruction. They actually had to hire new people to bring
the staff up to the level of a skeleton crew. For several months
the label was allowed to limp along with only 3 or 4 titles, until
the end of 1996 when the final kill order was issued in New York.
Marvel itself was in bankruptcy and Malibu was considered only part
of the dead weight that had to go.
I really enjoyed the appearance of Loki in Mantra Magazine. It was
one of Mantra's best issues. That issue, written by Mike Barr,
showed what the new union of Malibu with Marvel could have been,
should have been. But it was the product of Malibu's amazing
creators. Except for the doomed leadership at Marvel, the Marvel
rank and file never showed Malibu anything except scorn. Why? I
think it was a club mentality. Old blood doesn't like new blood.
Dumb and lazy Marvel was too big to fail; brilliant, innovative
Malibu wasn't.
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