New York City was burning.
Fire painted the night sky in shades of orange and crimson while thick smoke swallowed entire blocks.
Buildings groaned under the strain of collapsing steel.
The streets shook with relentless impacts, as though a giant hammer were pounding the city into rubble.
No one looking at the devastation would have believed they were standing in the heart of Manhattan.
It looked like hell.
Thousands fled through streets slick with blood, stumbling over shattered pavement and abandoned vehicles.
Bodies lay where they had fallen.
Soldiers fought desperately behind overturned armored personnel carriers as tanks rolled into position, their cannons firing one thunderous round after another into the inferno ahead.
None of it mattered.
The monster burst through the flames with a deafening roar.
It stood over ten feet tall, its rough yellow hide pitted like weathered stone.
Jagged spines ran down its back, and its reptilian eyes gleamed with something far too intelligent to be called animal.
Every breath poured from its nostrils like furnace exhaust.
Bullets sparked harmlessly against its skin.
Tank shells detonated across its body without slowing it.
It ripped an armored vehicle open with one hand as if peeling apart a soda can.
A tank was lifted off the ground and hurled into a storefront.
Soldiers scattered in panic as the creature bounded through the ruins with impossible speed, moving less like something of its size and more like a predatory ape.
Another squad vanished beneath its claws.
Inside a mangled military Humvee, one wounded soldier struggled to stay conscious.
Blood blurred his vision as he fumbled for the radio.
“Alpha Squad has been wiped out!” he shouted, his voice cracking.
“Repeat, Alpha Squad has been wiped out!
We need reinforcements!
Heavy weapons!
Anything you’ve got!” A tremendous impact shook the street outside.
The monster had landed beside him.
The soldier turned his head with agonizing effort.
Until now, he’d only seen flashes through smoke and explosions.
For the first time, he looked directly into the creature’s face.
It felt like staring into death itself.
The monster’s burning gaze met his.
Then gravity disappeared.
The Humvee, soldier and all, was hurled high into the night.
High above the city, aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D.
Helicarrier, every communications console seemed to be ringing at once.
Since the creature had appeared in Manhattan, the agency’s emergency channels had been overwhelmed.
Nick Fury stood before the main tactical display, expression carved from stone.
The enormous monitor showed live satellite footage of the yellow monster tearing through another military blockade.
An agent hurried toward him.
“Director Fury, General Ross is requesting immediate contact.” “Decline.” “The Secretary of State is calling.” “Tell him I’m occupied.” The agent nodded and retreated.
Fury turned toward the communications pit.
“Where’s Stark?” A technician adjusted his headset.
“Not in New York, sir.
Mr.
Stark’s still in Washington.
He’s been negotiating with the military over Iron Man technology.” Fury muttered something under his breath that nobody repeated.
Another alert sounded.
“The World Security Council is requesting” “Not now.” Before the sentence finished, another voice rose above the room.
“Director, the President is on the line.
He says it’s urgent.” Fury paused.
“Put him through.” The President wasted no time.
“You’ve seen what’s happening in New York.” “I have.” “Then tell me what S.H.I.E.L.D.
is doing.” “We’re evaluating the situation.” “While you’re evaluating,” the President replied sharply, “people are dying.” Fury remained calm.
“General Ross already has military assets engaged.
His forces have more experience dealing with gamma-related threats than anyone else.
At the moment, I believe” “Director!” An analyst pointed frantically toward another monitor.
“You need to see this.” Fury glanced over.
His remaining eye widened.
For perhaps the first time in decades, Nick Fury wondered whether he was looking at something impossible.
He swallowed before returning to the call.
“…The situation has changed.” “What happened?” “I’ll call you back.” He ended the connection without waiting for a reply.
The entire world saw it.
News helicopters circling above Manhattan had been broadcasting the battle live for nearly an hour.
Their cameras caught everything.
A streak of golden light tore across the heavens.
It wasn’t a missile.
It wasn’t an aircraft.
It blazed through the clouds like a meteor, illuminating the city brighter than daylight before plunging straight toward the creature below with impossible precision.
The monster had just finished tearing apart another armored convoy.
It threw back its head and roared triumphantly, as though nothing alive could challenge it.
Then instinct made it look up.
Too late.
The golden figure filled the sky above it.
The impact came with the force of a falling mountain.
BOOM!
The street vanished beneath a colossal explosion.
A shockwave ripped through the neighborhood, blowing flames away from entire buildings and scattering smoke across several city blocks.
For one suspended moment, nobody understood what they were seeing.
Then the dust began to settle.
A fist.
An enormous silver fist buried deep in the shattered pavement.
Slowly, impossibly, its owner rose to his full height.
A giant of silver and crimson stood among the ruins, towering over the surrounding buildings.
A brilliant crystal set into his chest glowed softly through the lingering smoke, while luminous eyes surveyed the devastated street below.
As he withdrew his fist from the crater, the monster beneath was revealed.
Moments earlier it had seemed unstoppable.
Now it was embedded deep in the fractured roadway like an insect pinned beneath a hammer, unable to move so much as a finger.
The fires still burned.
Sirens still wailed.
But across the battlefield, silence spread.
Soldiers lowered their rifles.
Civilians forgot to run.
Even the news helicopters hovered motionless, their cameras fixed on the impossible figure standing in the center of Manhattan.
No one knew his name.
Not yet.
But this was where everything began.
The moment a new legend stepped onto the stage of the Marvel Universe.
The moment the world first witnessed…
Ultraman.