Ivan's War

## Plot

A late teen or early 20's kid named Ivan is given an opportunity to become a monk in the Ultraverse where he must serve with the monks and protect and defend the Ultraverse and universes from interuniversal threats. At the same time, Ivan tries to learn the truth behind his strange past, his yin-yang obsession, his father's disappearance, and what his purpose is in the grand scheme of things. Ivan does all of this with Safron, a punk girl that has a mad crush on Ivan, Dirk, a school "bully" that joined them because he had nothing better to do, and Ultraverse Keith, Mason's former rival from Jason and Mason. Ivan and friends experience all the dangers and horrors of the Ultraverse and the several universes.

## Development

These are the words from Ray Phoenix himself:

> The first initial concepts for Ivan’s War were conceived around 2015 when I was looking for ways to expand the universe of Jason and Mason. I envisioned there being smaller properties set in the same universe but they would not be a series. They would serve as single stories that give the readers/viewers more insight into other things that could be going on in the universe of Jason and Mason. I then came up with an idea about a conflicted high school kid that always gets the bitter end of the stick because he is related to an infamous dictator that runs an evil empire that is taking over the world. This kid would learn about this relative and he would go against him and destroy his empire. This story didn’t really go anywhere. I tampered with the idea for a bit and then I shelved the idea for years afterwards.
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> In 2017, I started expanding on stories of things that could be happening in the overly vast Ultraverse. The Ultraverse is supposed to be a place filled with an infinite amount of marbles that contain different universes. A universe alone is a place rich with stories and content and an Ultraverse has even more content than a universe. I started to write about what the Ultraverse is, and I established that it has a main city that is very large and filled with its own inhabitants as well as people from other universes. I then wrote that Keith (Mason’s rival from Jason and Mason) gets stuck in the Ultraverse. At first, I wrote that he became his own vigilante style hero that dresses in poorly made robes and arms himself with a sword. I later established that Keith joined an order of monks that serve and protect the Ultraverse. Keith would go on adventures in the Ultraverse where he would learn to redeem himself and he would find things about his past that all rest in the Ultraverse.
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> In 2018, I started to incorporate these ideas of Keith’s adventures in the Ultraverse into the main Jason and Mason series. Several of the Jason and Mason episodes I came up with at the time involved this Keith that lives in the Ultraverse (known as Ultraverse Keith when Mason’s rival, Keith is around) visiting Jason and Mason to assign them missions which would involve bringing them into the Ultraverse. These ideas were wild and filled with possibilities. Keith would come across some of the vilest enemies in the Ultraverse that ranged from, anthropomorphic rectangular prisms, a self-entitled ball lady that has anthropomorphic balls as her minions, interuniversal bounty hunters, greedy kings that get unlawful amounts of power, corrupt magistrates, the list went on.
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> I would continue to constantly conceive more stories like this throughout 2019. Jason and Mason has already well established itself as being a series about twin brothers that live with each other due to housing in San Francisco being too expensive. Jason and Mason would go about their regular everyday lives and they would find themselves engulfed in the crossfire of some conflict that they must resolve. It would often involve them having to team up with their old superhero friend, Captain Fusion. Jason and Mason already had a lot going for it and these Ultraverse Keith stories would deviate far from what the main Jason and Mason series is supposed to be. I then thought of making this idea a series of itself but it seemed incomplete. It lacked a driving force. Keith’s story is pretty good but it would work better in a more larger picture with more characters and stories that would be set in the Ultraverse. Also around that same time but unrelated to these Ultraverse Keith stories, I conceived another idea based around the idea I had years earlier of the kid that is related to the dictator of an evil empire. This story would just be a single movie story to expand the universe of Jason and Mason and Odyssey of Oddities. It would be about a strange kid named Ivan that has overstayed his welcome in high school and has a strange fascination with the yin-yang. He would be a punching bag for his principal that somehow knows Ivan’s secret and wants to make Ivan’s life a living hell as much as possible. Ivan would go to war with this principal and he would team up with a skater punk girl that has a mad crush on him as well as a stereotypical bully kid that got held back way too many times. I had Ivan introduced in a large Jason and Mason crossover story I came up with called, Jason and Mason Coalition. It is a large crossover with Jason and Mason and Odyssey of Oddities and it would introduce Ivan and set up the events that would later lead to this new story that I called, Ivan’s War. As Ivan’s War was being developed, I later found that these characters hold strong potentials and it would be a waste to have them as one-time-only characters in a single movie story. I thought it would be better if they became characters in yet another series of mine. I then wrote that this movie story would instead serve as the first episode of the series, Ivan’s War and Ivan and his new friends would get a link into the Ultraverse where they would become monks. Ivan and his friends would often be left having to team up or go on a mission with Ultraverse Keith and they would explore and battle evil in the Ultraverse while Ivan would discover the truth and unravel the mystery of his yin-yang obsession and the bizarre powers it has given him. I then realized that if I merge this Ivan’s War concept with the Ultraverse Keith concepts, I now have a new complete premise for a possible long running series at par with Jason and Mason and Odyssey of Oddities. Ivan’s War became a series that would seem like a straightforward premise involving Ivan having to discover his truth but it is filled with twists and turns as the series progresses. It is also much darker and grimmer and not lighthearted as Jason and Mason and Odyssey of Oddities. The series would be filled with action and deep stories much like that of, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, and Xiaolin Showdown. Ivan’s War mostly serves as a parody of Star Wars prequel trilogy expanded universe lore. It makes a mockery of prophecies, politics, customs, and wars with other people. Despite this, Ivan’s War is not a comedy. Parodies do not necessarily have to be comedies. Parody is really a Greek word meaning “to mock” which is what Ivan’s War does with Star Wars prequel lore. Parodies are not necessarily compelled to be comedies but most parody movies are which is why they are closely associated with comedy.
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> The title, Ivan’s War reflects on the main premise of the series which involves Ivan going to war with a certain villain, entity, or even, an evil organization. Ivan is strange and awkward and his oddness gives him a unique philosophy on the Ultraverse. He has no sense of gender awareness or gender expectations. Some would say it is a flaw in his character but others may say it is actually a plus side of his character since it makes him disregard gender stereotypes and expectations and allows him to view people for who and what they truly are. I designed the new characters using my existing art style from Jason and Mason and Odyssey of Oddities. The series has a cute art style despite the fact it is a dark and grim series. Xiaolin Showdown is not a comedy and it has a whimsical art style and Ivan’s War pays homage to shows like Xiaolin Showdown. I designed Ivan after Raimondo from Xiaolin Showdown mixed with Eiji from Battle Arena Toshinden and Lennie from Robotboy. I originally gave Ivan a curved vertical rectangle for a head which was a new head shape I was working with at the time. I did an art trade with someone in 2020 and they drew Ivan with a more rounded head shape with a groove near the mouth and with eyes that are round at the top and are long and flat at the bottoms. I realized I loved this look more than the look I gave Ivan before so I went with it. This became the first art trade I ever did that resulted in a design change of one of my characters. I went on to design more of the characters after other people and characters. Safron was a character that originally started off as a skater punk character I came up with for a scrapped Jason and Mason prequel called, The Anti-Gruzzards. Safron was a skater metalhead that would ride a skateboard and have an edgy personality. The story may have been scrapped but I really admired the character so I redesigned her and rewrote her as being the modern punk Safron seen in Ivan’s War. She is mostly based off Avril Lavigne. She is the most tomboy punk anyone in the Ultraverse could think of. She has a rough and rugged personality and she would fight tooth and nail to defend Ivan at all costs. I designed Dirk after a bully kid that appeared in an animated commercial for Cheese Nips from 2000. Dirk is simply labeled as a bully kid simply because he looks like one. Dirk at first seems like a standard buff sidekick for Ivan but Dirk has his own story arcs. Dirk is a pure example of an anti-stereotype. Dirk may seem like a thug type character but he is actually an average kid that got a bad hand dealt to him. His evil nerdy older brother would traumatize him with his nerdy plans to rule the world. Dirk would later end up in a plotline where he would be faced against his nerdy older brother. This time, a seemingly bullylike guy is actually the hero against the nerdy villain. Dirk’s character is multidimensional which is somewhat of a rare thing for fictional characters or for characters associated with a certain trait such as the stereotypical rugged thug kid.
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> Real life people have different sides of their inner characters and Dirk reflects on this. The Ultraverse is infinite and so is Ivan’s War. Ivan’s War possesses an endless possibility of hazards, heroes, villains, complexities, and more. I have already written more than a quarter of a hundred stories and there will be more stories for years to come. The Ultraverse has way more than its fair share of, terrorists, demonic creatures, evil dictators, Karen principals, links to other Phoenixverse series, and more. The possibilities of the Ultraverse are vast and infinite and Ivan’s War is a series that reflects on how vast reality really is.
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