New Universe

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "New Universe" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The New Universe is an imprint from Marvel Comics that was published in its original incarnation from 1986 to 1989. It was the first line produced by Marvel Comics utilizing a pre-conceived shared universe concept. It was created by Jim Shooter, Archie Goodwin, Eliot R. Brown, John Morelli, Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco, and edited by Michael Higgins.

In 1986, in honor of Marvel Comics' 25th anniversary, Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter launched the New Universe line of comics. This was to be a distinctly separate world, fully divorced from the mainstream continuity of the Marvel Universe, consisting of its own continuing characters and stories in a more realistic setting. There would be no hidden races, gods, mythological beings, magic, or supertechnology. Superhuman characters and powers would be limited and thus more subdued in their activities, yet their actions would have more realistic consequences. This was in contrast to the traditional Marvel Universe, which always purported to take place in a mirror of the real world where public knowledge of superheroes, supervillains and their activities had little effect on normal day-to-day business.

Adding to the sense of realism, the New Universe titles were designed to operate in real-time: a month would lapse in the universe for each month that passed in reality. The limitation of fantasy elements, and the low-key nature of the characters' activities in the New Universe, gave the imprint verisimilitude, to seem like "the world outside your window", which was the imprint's catchphrase.