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Ace Arn was an astronaut transformed by chance into Ultra, the Multi-Alien - a being that was four alien races smashed into one.

Captain Ace Arn was a planetary tour guide from the future. While carrying some passengers, his ship was caught in the electromagnetic wake of a passing comet, and the crew abandoned ship. Unable to eject in time, Ace remained on board and the radiation wave carried his ship into another solar system.

He eventually found himself on an asteroid in the laboratory of a deceased alien known as Zobra. The solar system the asteroid orbited was in fact a synthetic one, consisting of four worlds; Ulla, Laroo, Trago and Raagan, each populated by a different dominant race. One member from each world were part of Zobra's criminal gang.

Zobra's henchmen were present and wanted to capture and enslave the astronaut. Each of the four aliens possessed a ray beam that would transform Arn into a duplicate of one of them -- one that would be submissive to their commands. However, all aliens fired at once and four duplicator rays struck Arn simultaneously. He developed powers and abilities characteristic of each of the four races, but was able to maintain full command of his faculties. Ace Arn became known as Ultra, the Multi-Alien.[1]

Ace returned to Earth and wanted to reunite with his girlfriend Bonnie Blake. Blake believed that Ace had died in space and he was reluctant to reveal his true identity to her.

Ultra learned of an alien criminal named Doctor Taxo who had been active on the planet Mars and was responsible for creating a red mist that enabled him to control the minds of any who were within it's sphere of influence. Ultra traveled to Mars to investigate the matter, but Doctor Taxo fled back to Earth where he attempted to use his advanced technology to take control of the citizens of Bonnie Denton's home town. Ultra followed him, but was trapped in Doctor Taxo's red mist. The mist briefly robbed Ultra of his powers, but he slowly regained them and was able to defeat the criminal scientist. He dissipated the remaining remnants of the mist and the people of Earth were safe once again.[2]

Ultra then had to deal with a race of energy creatures who attempted to acquire power from several Venusian rock samples at the World Laboratory. After defeating the energy creatures, Ultra traveled to Venus to learn more about the rock's radioactive properties. He found a criminal named Doctor Dynamo who was using the rocks for nefarious reasons. While fighting Dynamo, Ultra was exposed to a de-moleculizer which turned him back into a normal human. Without the benefit of his powers however, he was helpless against Dynamo's machinations. Regrettably, Ultra was forced to reverse the machine's effects so he could regain his powers, even at the cost of his own humanity. In so doing, he was able to defeat Doctor Dynamo.[3]

Two alien criminals known as Tragg and Craniac learned Ultra's secret identity and traveled to the planet Earth where they kidnapped his former girlfriend, Bonnie Blake. To further discredit Ultra, they created a robot in his likeness which they used to commit various crimes. As such, the real Ultra was captured and arrested by the police. Left with few options, Ultra broke out of prison and tracked Bonnie back to Crainiac's hideout. He was able to fool the criminals by impersonating the Ultra robot thereby getting the jump on them and rescue Bonnie.[4]

A short time later, Ultra attempted an experiment to turn himself back to normal. The experiment failed, splitting him into four separate entities, each one representative of the alien race that first gave him his powers. Mentally occupying the Ulla portion of his anatomy, Ultra went out to capture the other three who were mindlessly rampaging through the city. With the aid of Bonnie Blake, Ultra was able to capture the rogue entities and reverse the effects of his experiments, recombining them back into his body.[5]

Soon after, Ultra learned about two mysterious giants that suddenly materialized on Earth and began wreaking havoc. His initial encounter against the trouble proved fruitless and he was powerless to stop them. The giants stole several objects then suddenly teleported themselves to the planet Mars. Following them, Ultra watched the giants as they attempted to acquire another seemingly unrelated object. Ultra deduced that they were on a scavenger hunt. He then followed them to the planet Pluto where he tricked the giants into fighting one in the hopes that their scavenger hunt would not risk destroying a nearby reactor. When the time limit of their private gamed expired, the giants returned home. By delaying the giants Ultra succeeded in saving the reactor.[6]

It was around that time that Ultra managed to construct a device that could transform him back into Ace Arn. Overjoyed by this discovery, he went to Bonnie Blake under the pretense that Ultra and he were two different people. He told Bonnie that Ultra had discovered him adrift on an asteroid.

Ultra then fought up against a Venusian criminal named Jar-Rel. Jar-Rel and his henchmen had blackmailed some Martians led by Klu-Kann into stealing a hotel. Ultra succeeded in ferreting out the truth behind the matter, exposing Jar-Rel's plot and returning the stolen hotel back to its proper place.[7]

Ultra then ran afoul of a space tyrant known as the Pluto Piper. Similar to Earth's legend of the Pied Piper, the Pluto Piper used a hypnotic flute to force the people of Pluto to commit crimes for him. Ultra battled the Piper, but the space tyrant managed to escape. Disguising himself as Ace Arn, Ultra pretended to be one of the Piper's many victims. He broke the charade when he learned that the Piper planned on using his mind-control techniques to conquer a neighboring dimension. Ultra fought against the Piper and saved his unwilling followers, abandoning the Piper in an alternate dimension.[8]

At some point shortly following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Ultra wound up in the dimension of Limbo, specifically, a literary realm where he came to realize that he was actually a character in a comic book series. Populating this realm were other forgotten heroes of lore including the Inferior Five, the Red Bee and the Gay Ghost.[9] How Ultra came to reside in this world has never been fully explained. When the architect of this environment ceased to commit himself to the Limbo realm, Ultra and the others returned to the material world.

Ultra later encountered the Space Ranger and shared a ride with him in the Space Cabbie's Space Cab en route to the Karloff Sector. Ultra and the Space Ranger entertained the Space Cabbie with tales alternating perspectives on how the Karloff Sector debris field was formed.[10]

Through an adventure that has yet to be chronicled, Ultra later found himself in the 20th century.

During the Infinite Crisis, Ultra was one of the assembled heroes who protected Sector 2814 and New Chronus from the dimensional rift caused by Earth-Three's Alexander Luthor.[11]

Ultra was one of dozens of individuals to fall sway to an alien influence that sought to conquer the world by taking control of non-Earth-based lifeforms.[12]

At some point, Ultra was captured by the Coluan scientist Brainiac and imprisoned aboard his head ship. Earth's champion, Superman defeated Brainiac and liberated all of his captives including Ultra and the Creature Commandos.[13]

Powers

  • Unique Physiology: Ultra's body is comprised of anatomy pertaining to four different alien species, the Ulla, the Laroo, the Trago and the Raagin.
    • Electrokinesis: Ultra's lower left extremity is comprised of electrical energy and allows him to project blasts of electricity of a high voltage.
    • Flight: Ultra is capable of directional flight and levitation without the aid of external assistance. This ability originates from the lower right quarter of Ultra's body.
    • Magnetic Manipulation: Ultra has the ability to attract and repel quantities of matter similar to a magnet. This ability originates from the upper left quarter of Ultra's body.
    • Superhuman Strength: Ultra's superhuman strength is derived from the upper right "blue" quarter of his body, though his strength level's are likely not isolated to just that location.
    • Electromagnetism: Ultra can generate electromagnetic charges by combining magnetokinesis and electrokinesis.
    • Cosmic Awareness: During his time in Limbo, Ultra became aware of the fact that he was not truly a person, but was in fact, a character featured in a comic book. He was but one of dozens that existed under the whim of "evil mastermind" Grant Morrison.

Abilities

  • Aviation: Ultra could pilot moderately complex space-faring vessels.

Equipment

  • Hyper-converter belt: Ultra had a Hyper-converter belt which enabled him to switch back and forth from his human guise to his heroic identity.


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
  • Ultra was featured in Wizard Magazine's "Mort of the Month", a showcase of comic characters considered to be unpopular or lacking in quality.

Related

Footnotes


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