ULTRA, THE MULTI-ALIEN (Ace Arn)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Dave Wood and Lee Elias

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Ace Arn
Occupation: Spaceship pilot, adventurer
Homeworld: Earth
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Bonnie Denton Blake (fiancée)
Base of Operation: Mobile, mostly Dalesville, USA, sometime in the near future.
Gender: Male
Height: 5'10" (as Arn); 6'2" (as Ultra)
Weight: 157 lbs. (as Arn); 163 lbs. (as Ultra)
Eyes: Blue (as Arn); Black (as Ultra)
Hair: Brown (as Arn); Half bald, half green, later half bald, half white (as Ultra)
First Appearance: Mystery in Space Vol. 1 #103/3 (November 1965)
Creators: Dave Wood and Lee Elias

HISTORY

Although it has never been determined exactly when the adventures of the hero known as Ultra, the Multi-Alien take place, it is said to be part of our near future. At that time, Earth has successfully navigated the solar system and developed a business in shuttling tourists between its planets.

During one such routine trip to Jupiter, pilot Captain Ace Arn's ship was caught in the magnetic field of a comet. After successfully evacuating the ship, Arn found himself trapped in the cockpit and unable to avoid crashing into an asteroid. To Arn's surprise, he survived the crash and learned the asteroid was hollow, serving as the secret base for an interstellar criminal organization led by the scientific genius 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 had invented a weapon that would transform whomever it was fired at into a duplicate of the being firing the weapon. Each of Zobra's four alien lieutenants was armed with one such weapon, allowing Zobra to complete his plans to blackmail the four planets.

While gloating over his plan, Zobra accidentally unleashed a poisonous gas which killed him. The four surviving gang members each raced to the asteroid to gain control of the blackmail plans, each hoping to rule the group.

Into this mess, Arn's spaceship crashed. He found the blackmail plans and tried to decipher the alien writing. As he emerged from the lab, the four aliens fired at him at precisely the same moment, thereby transforming Arn into a freakish multi-being, a conglomeration of the four races. Using the powers he gained from the transformation, Arn defeated the four, then used their superior intellect to repair his ship, and returned to Earth.

On Earth he began a successful crimefighting career, opposing villains such as Doctor Dynamo and the Pied Piper of Pluto, using as his alias an anagram formed of the names of the alien worlds - "Ultra". While his heroic acts were highly regarded by the public, Ultra was constantly remembered of what he had sacrificed for it: his humanity and the love of his girlfriend Bonnie, who believed that Arn had died in the accident that transformed him into Ultra.

Arn devoted much of his time finding a cure for his transformation. During a battle with Doctor Dynamo, Ultra discovered that a part of the criminal's technology, called the "DeMoleculizer", could restore his true form. However, Arn had to regain his Ultra form to defeat Dynamo, during which time the villain managed to destroy the DeMoleculizer, again trapping Arn in his inhuman form.

This event led Ultra to conduct a series of experiments to duplicate the effects of the DeMoleculizer. After many disappointments, Arn was finally successful, building a "Hyper-Converter" allowing him to revert from Ultra to human at will.

Arn returned to his hometown of Dalesville, and was happily reunited with Bonnie, explaining that he was rescued from a remote asteroid by Ultra. However, Bonnie had already begun to suspect that Ultra was really Arn. After this "happy ending", Ultra the Multi-Alien continued to successfully combat evil throughout the solar system.

Ultra was last seen sitting in a Space Taxi, together with fellow adventurers Space Ranger and Space Cabby, which would indicate that the he was active in the 22nd century, the era of the latter two. However, he also stated that he was working for the Space Museum at the time, which confuses things since the Museum was founded in the 25th century.

Ultra has also been seen in visions of the future event known as "Kingdom Come", suggesting that the adventures of Ultra take place circa twenty years from now. Whether this is really Ultra's time period, or if this was a glimpse of an alternate future, or a possible future that will not be, or even if he has been displaced in time, remains to be seen. After all, Hypertime is not that a reliable state of reality.

POWERS AND WEAPONS

Ultra's body comprises of four alien beings, each with an individual ability which, when combined, makes him a formidable force for justice.

His upper left side has magnetic abilities that allow him to repel or attract objects. His upper right side has incredible strength, equal to that of several humans, and invulnerability. His lower left side is composed of solid energy which can generate bolts of pure energy. The lower right side gives him the ability to fly. To this you can add an increased level of intelligence, combining the brains of the four races.

Ultra can also keep his super-energy channeled from one quadrant of his body to another, or contain an injury or poison to one quarter of his being.

Ultra's Hyper-Converter Belt allows him to change from Arn to Ultra and back again, as often as he wants to, without any known side-effects.

Ultra also has has the powers of telescopic vision and super-speed. Which of his alien quadrants gave him these powers is not known.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Ultra, the Multi-Alien in chronological order click here

PROFILE REFERENCES

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #24 (February 1987)

Who's Who in the DC Universe #4 (November 1990)