An Actual Warren Ellis C/D ILC Thread

Quick! someone hide Kitty!

Ellis is patchy... he has written a lot of stuff, and some of it is good, some of it is great, some of it is vastly overrated (e.g. The Authority) and some of it is dire.

I enjoyed Planetary, even if it ended badly. I don't know how he will do with the X-Men. mmm.

I think Ellis is patchy too, but I trust him on this mainly because his Thunderbolts stuff has been so good.

And really, is there a character in the Marvel Universe better suited to him than Emma Frost?

Yes; Kitty Pryde. Besides Whedon, he's the only person who's done a tolerable version of her since 1995.

I used to have a huge knee-jerk hate on Ellis which I will attempt to reconstruct for purposes of thread balance. My impression of him has generally been:

- cynical recycler of half-digested sci-fi ideas banking on comics fans not reading books (or science magazines) much
- default mode of lame not-very-horrible body horror
- annoying "i'm the superhero writer who hates superheroes" schtick
- doubly annoying creation of mary sue characters to embody this schtick within his comics (eg Pete Wisdom, almost all Ellis-originated Authority characters)
- even outside superhero genre, his ideas of what's cool and what's interesting seem hand-me-down and uninspired
- can't pace a comic well, so most of his stories seem to end with a kind of nihilistic shrug
- has the bad qualities of mainstream British writers (see some of above) but not the redemptive wit or love or schlocky energy

That said I've enjoyed some of his recent stuff - Planetary hit a stride after the first few issues, though got more boring towards the end; his Ultimate Universe stuff was absurdly decompressed but an enjoyable read; not read his Thunderbolts but by all accounts its OK; newuniversal isn't bad. So maybe he's got the terrible comics out of his system. Not especially looking forward to his X-Men, though.

If I were still a 13-year-old Red Dwarf fan, I would probably wuv Warren Ellis. But...

In order (stuff I've read):
1. Transmetropolitan
2. Planetary
3. Nextwave
4. Thunderbolts
5. Pryde + Wisdom
6. The Authority
7. New Universal

Can't judge the super recent stuff (Black Summer, Doktor Sleepless), mostly because I've only read like - an issue a piece.

I don't exactly disagree with Groke and I dislike a fair chunk of what Ellis has done over the years, but I tend to enjoy his mainstream Marvel stuff, so I'm optimistic. Post-Morrison X-Men seems like a comic geared to his strengths.

Is Warren Ellis the Kevin Smith of comics?

** Divisive chubby beardster
** Content with playing to his fan gallery rather than engaging new audiences
** Antiquated, early 90s notion of teenage macho cool, usually involving leather jackets.

Or is Kevin Smith the Kevin Smith of comics?

Also: Disco dad WE vs. Disco dad GM

GM can be disco daddish, but he still has endless ideas (not all well worked out) pouring forth from his bald bonce. Warren Ellis hasn't had many original ideas, and those he does have he uses and reuses into they're run well into the ground.

I'm one of those wh enjoyed Transmetropolitan when it first came out, but enjoyed it less as time went on. The fact that the whole dramatic ending to the thing hinged on the fact that Spider uncovered the President as - gasp! - a paedophile, when Ellis had gone to great lengths to show his future world as amoral, all-sexual-things-are-OK, nothing will shock the population, etc... it seemed pretty piss-weak, basically.

Warren has a book, apparently.

Ellis had the first chapter online; I think I started laughing out loud when the detective was given a fancy mobile phone by the Chief of Staff...

From a Comicon interview w/ Pat Broderick (found via that rumor column that takes way too much credit for OCD-level Googling / message board trolling):

"my all time best series. Doom 2099. All most 3 years later and the world was just fine. Until that British ass hole writer came on board and decided he would change everything that we’d had laid in place. So he got me removed from the series after we had a heated run in. And to my satisfaction the series was cancelled after only five more issues."

ahh, not being v. familiar w/ DOOM 2099, i'd been wondering which particular british ass hole writer he was talking abt, ty

(elephant in room = what a horrible artist PD is/was)

I kind of liked him at the time, but agree with you now. A lot depended on who was inking.

Let me be the one to say it: TRANSMETROPOLITAN has a moment or two, but is fundamentally bollocks.

You might want to reread the thread there, rog.

I still think that my favorite Ellis thing is his Stormwatch run, followed closely by his Excalibur run (which is why, slow start aside, I have high hopes for his AXM run).

WE's Excalibur run was part of that Counter-X business, right? Or was he on the book leading up to it?

Pretty sure his Excalibur run was well before the Counter-X stuff; in fact, I think it was the Excalibur run that led Marvel to let him do Counter-X.

Hey my name is mud and I just discovered THE INTERNET:

In 1994, Warren Ellis assumed writing duties (issue #83) and, using his dark sense of humor, helped the book gain its own voice once again. Revisions made in his time on the book included reverting "Britannic" back to Captain Britain once more and adding Pete Wisdom, an often-obnoxious British spy, often considered Ellis’ alter ego, who could manifest solar energy, often in the form of 'hot knives' from his fingers. In a bold move, Ellis made Wisdom (an archetypical chain-smoking sarcastic obnoxious Englishman that Ellis writes into almost all his books) the romantic interest of the once young and innocent Shadowcat. At the insistence of Marvel editors, Ellis also added Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), a Scottish werewolf-like young woman from the X-Men spin-off New Mutants and Colossus (Peter Rasputin), a Russian X-Man who could turn his flesh into “organic steel.”

Dan, if you're a fan of Pete Wisdom, you shd definitely check out the Wisdom MAX mini that came out a few years ago.

I might have that...? I dunno, if it didn't come out during one of my self-imposed comic book moratorium periods, I have it.

It had 4 Skrulls posing as the Beatles, and Wisdom making time w/ a with-wings fairy.

Which is to say you'd probably remember it if you did read it.

haha okay I do not have that

Planetary - I think some of the single issues are the best. The big storyline dealing with the Fourth Man is interesting, but I think some of the single issues are really amazing. As amazing as John Cassaday's artwork might be, I kind of wish that Ellis could have done a few more arcs in between with maybe some guest artists to fill in more back story dealing with Elijah Snow, but hey you get what you get and what you get is pretty strong.

Desolation Jones - I think this is my favorite series that Ellis has done. The main character is so damaged. Sad thing is that half way through the second arc which has this killer tie to Philip K. Dick, the series has gone dead letter office. Supposedly it might still get finished and I hope it does, as it was really cool.

Fell - What is cool about Richard Fell as a central character is that even though the situation is totally bleak, the character is a bit more optimistic than your usual Ellis protagonist. This book is also pretty funny at times.

Global Frequency - This is a cool mini-series. Every issue is a stand alone and I think should be given to all newer comic writers, as he packs alot of plot into every issue. I'd love for there to be a bunch more of this book. It also seems like a crossover between this and Planetary would make sense and be awesome if done.

Ocean - This is a scifi action movie mini series with really nice artwork. There are a couple of really amazing scenes in this book.

Red - This the best of all of the short mini-series that Ellis did for Wildstorm in a couple of year period. The story is simple enough, it is pretty much a bad ass evil retired ex-CIA agent gets reactivated and the sXXt hits the fan.

Mek - This one has some interesting ideas, but I did not really like the artwork. Some of the themes of this book are being explored again in Doktor Sleepless.

Strange Kiss- I didn't really care for this one. It was kind of ugly, but not interesting. I haven't really followed up on any of the other Gravel series.

Doktor Sleepless - This book covers similar ideas from Transmetropolitan and other series. It is a slow dense read for a comic, but things are starting to tie together in interesting ways. It is not an 'action' book, but kind of like some of Grant Morrison's comics, it makes you think and I have found myself re-reading them.

Ministry of Space - This is a good enough series, not really long enough to have a real dense storyline. The artwork is really killer and the guy can draw some amazing looking space craft. I'd love to read a longer scifi series like this one by Warren Ellis.

Orbiter - This one is a decent read and has some interesting ideas on the concept of 'first contact'.

Down- This is another gangster movie written as a comic. It is an OK read.

Reload - This one has some really nice artwork by Paul Gulacy, but I think the story doesn't quite hold together. I'm going to re-read it again at some point, as I have the issues.

Hellblazer - I liked both of the story arcs he did on Hellblazer. The Haunted one I thought was particularly good.

The Authority - This didn't blow me away as I think it did some others. It has nice artwork some interesting points and is worth reading, I just didn't think it was the best of all of the Warren Ellis that I have read.

Ultimate Galactus Trilogy - First two parts I thought were pretty killer, especially the first part in Russia, but the ending wasn't quite as cool as the start. It is still decent.

Ellis on Stormwatch >>>>>>>>> Ellis on Authority (and I loved The Authority)

seeing as wellis wz my first step back ino reading comics as an impressionable teen (as opposed to an impressionable nine year old) & also the WARREN ELLIS FORUM was one of the first places i spent time BEING ON THE INTERNET (lol 90s) i was quite confused with reading all the work for hire stuff he dismissed so fervently--like stormwatch, which is pretty great in spots--and not wanting to admit to myself it was, largely, better than his 'own' work

ultimate fantastic four = pretty good + a shame they got rid of him on it, i think

From the latest Bad Signal mailout (no, I don't know why I still subscribe to it either):

Also spent three hours writing a single page of FELL script
on Saturday night, which indicates that issue may have
gotten more complicated than it needed to be, ha ha.

Heard from John Cassaday over the weekend -- sounds like
he's about halfway through issue 27 of PLANETARY.

JESUS.

LOVE TAKES TIME

-----------I enjoyed Planetary, even if it ended badly.

I love this line!

His "own" work mostly sucks, from what I've read (a few Avatar things and a couple of Transmet trades, easily enough to put me off any more forevs). Stormwatch, Planetary, Nextwave, all great. He's about the same as Millar, really, far as I can see. So desp to be Grant or Alan he forgets how good he is at writing great "standard" stuff. Prob a horrible thing to say, but that's the impression I've gotten off both their creatory crap. I plan on buying some more Stormwatch tomorrow, actually.

Has anyone else here read Atmospherics? The "twist", the horrible bragging introduction, I didn't buy another comic of his for more than a year after. Thankfully I only paid about $2 for it.

Millar's creator work basically has convinced me he is a wholly repellent human being.

You might want to reread the thread there, rog.

Am I not alone? Reread but still missed it. A comfort nonetheless.

I love this line!

ooh?

and issue 27 of Planetary. mmm.

Well it still isn't out, is it? Last I heard was upthread, also that it's 96 pages or so. As it stands it certainly has a shitty ending, tho.

Aetheric Mechanics - I liked this one quite a bit. I thought it was a fun twist on Sherlock Holmes and some other ideas and I thought the conlcusion worked well. This worked better than some of his other short stories, as it was pretty much 'annual' length at 48 pages.

Anna Mercury - This wasn't bad, it was kind of an modern pulp action movie. The story is pretty much an origin arc setup, but it is pretty good. There are some cool art-deco look to the New Ataraxia world that Anna is trying to save.

Doktor Sleepless has really come together for me. Ellis is taking a different angle in the second arc and I'm really finding it interesting.

You know, on Planetary ending badly - what was so suckass was the way they built up the Four as these incredibly scary bad guys, but then when he met the two remaining ones he was able to defeat them by pulling a fast one on them. Hrrrm.

Works for me, a fast one >> big fighty any time.

Hah, but maybe the Planetary post-end issue will add something... but I doubt it.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/05/25/castlevania-trailer-netflix/

^ classic.