And the angry cop is Tony Soprano... I liked it. Ellis showed a lot of restraint. And, like he said, he let the characters and events tell the story and a very cumfortable, rewarding, intreguing read it was too.(as opposed to his recent Desolation Jones stuff which may as well be "look at me, look at me, I've read some science fiction, aren't I clever. Cleverer than you".)
The only old New Universe stuff I ever read was Spitfire and the Troubleshooters when it was reprinted in Transformers weekly, but I'm really interested in Ellis' revisioning as I'm a big fan of his, but I'm gonna wait for the trade as I'm having to make cutbacks on things due to space. 14 comic boxes and a book unit full of trades is starting to take its toll!
The guy is so far up his own arse it's remarkable he can breathe. After his antic on the Engine, his messageboard thing, which I've stopped going onto because of him, I won't be giving this or anything else from him in future a look.
Like Rising Stars? So, ordinary people with weird powers and discovery. Oh, a superhero type book, but he HATES superheroes with a passion.....and yet here we are, oh and he's also the new writer on Thunderbolts I think it is.
He writes loads of Superhero stuff, he just hates the generic stuff and says that there should be more genres in comics, which is why he writes most of his superhero stuff with a sci-fi slant. And he writes load sof non-superhero stuff.
And Rising Stars was hardly original, New Universe idd it first, which is what NewUniversal is a reworking of.
Ellis is a very good writer sometimes, and this is one of those times. He's dialled back his personality and just used his talent to turn out a very good story.
It's not really fair to say that he hates superheroes either, he's written Planetary, Stormwatch, Authority, WildCATS, Iron Man, Nextwave, Ultimate FF etc. - all books with a certain spandex appeal.
What happened on the Engine that turned you against him, Stephen?
Ellis himself has voiced his negative opinion of superheroes and the writing of on many occassions. Damn that dirty dirty money, making him write them so often.
I think OKComics man is being hard on Desolation Jones. That first arc amply demonstrated that Raymond Chandler really needed explicit pornotalk and sad-little-man-trying-to-be-hard-violence. I don't know what Chandler was thinking! Luckily Ellis has set everything to rights with his lightness of touch. Sadly I am missing the next arc, Is it Philip K Dick but with karate fighting genitals that swear? I hope so.
Wasn't OKMan the one extolling the virtues of Desolation Jones over on the other New Universal thread? How can I take his opinions and recommendations seriously if he chops and changes with the wind?
Ahh, but surely he only hates them because he loves them so much that it causes him real pain to see how they're mistreated.
Picture him sat like spider jerusalem on a bar stool, weeping tears of pure alcohol as he rages against those who have sullied the good name of lycra in the cause of sensationalism. "I'll show them..." His hands raise skywards... "All I need is a publisher ready for the real stuff! Then I'll show them all..."
I loved the first 'arc' (whatever that meens). Just see the new Leeds Guide, it's OK Comics book of the year, and the first issue of the current story was good too, but the latest one just really labored obvious points. Ellis is obviously an inteligent, well read man. But I've found that the wisest men don't have to point out how wise they are. Brian Vaughan is another inteligent, well read writer, but when I read his stuff I just feel like the charcters are smart and it's not the writer showing off. And yes, I did feel let down by Desolation Jones recently, but only because I expect a lot from it. What do you nerds want from me. Honesty? Lies? A Del Boy Trotter hard sell?
I agree about comments on Vaughan. He and Ed Brubaker are my top 2 writers for 2005-2006.
Ellis is a grumpy old man. He has written on many occasions about diversity, he did a column on CBR about it and other things for ages, but he has also said how he HATES superheroes. And yet he is writing a couple. Any book with his name on will sell fairly well for a while, so it's not as if he needs to do it for the money.
The thing that turned me off him personally, and any new work, is him as an individual. He's said a whole host of things that pissed me off on the Engine, but you can't tell him to shove it up his arse, or respond with a more adult response, as it's his box of sand, it's all his rules and it operates on his whims. He can just close threads or ban people he doesn't like, or his enforcers will jump on you if you say anything slighting against him or his opinion.
Didnt like Desolation Jones, gave it a couple of issues. Found it tedious and boring. I will say Planetary was excellent, was being the operative word, as the delays between issues has sucked out all my enthusiasm I once had for it. Once I get the last issue I will shove them in a cupboard for a couple of years and later read them all in one go and then might be a bit more enthused about the book.
which is why he writes them with a more sci-fi angle, or horror angle or whatever. His hatred of "superheroes" is that he says they have killed diversity in "mainstream" comics. So when he wrote, for example, Iron man, he approached it as a sci-fi story about a guy in a big metal suit. So everytime he writes superheroe stuff he is trying to subvert it and open readers eyes to other genres other than superheroes.
On a personal level I try not to let people's views effect me, I just judge their work. Can't stand a lot of Chuck Dixons politics, but El Cazador was amazing. John Byrne can just go jump off a cliff for all I care though.
"John Byrne can just go jump off a cliff for all I care though."
Exactly, my level of distaste, with Ellis, has reached that point. Nothing recently or upcoming of his has made me think, ok I can ignore the man in order to read this book. I think he is a good writer, but not one of the best. More money to spend on other better stuff!
What am I liking right now? Let's see, ongoing wise off top of my head...
Daredevil, Criminal, Captain America (but getting this in trades) Runaways/ Young Avengers is ok, Civil War, Hulk: Planet Hulk stuff, Ultimate Spiderman, Astonishing X-Men, Iron Fist JLA, Green Lantern, will give JSA a try, tried first Action Comics by Donner, liking it so far, Midnighter 1 was fun, The Boys is fantastic, Cross Bronx, Talent, Strangers in Paradise,
Trades I'm reading and am behind on but slowly catching up - Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Ex-Machina.
You should give The Other Side a go. And take a look at Phonogram, Pirates of Coney Island and Nightly News. The best new Marvel comic is Bullet Points.
Tried Nightly News, first issue is interesting, very unique, a whole new concept really, and I'll pick up the next issue for sure. Didn't like Phonogram at all. I get what they were trying to do with it, but it really wasn't my thing, but I'm glad two new British talents got a book with Image.
Hmm, Pirates and Bullet Points, not my cuppa, despite BP being written by the excellent JMS. I might look at it in trade, but not in singles. Is The Other Side is the Vietnam book, by Scalped writer?
When I say "Byrne at the moment" I mean anything he's done since the Spidey Relaunch a few years back. Utter toss!
And I agree it's a great time to be into comics, Marvel hasn't been this good in a long time in my eyes (I'm a Marvel and Indy junkie, never been much into DC stuff other than Batman, or their non-DCU stuff).
