Hidden Gems of Comics: Warren Ellis' Ruins

In 1994, Marvel Comic published Marvels, an examination of the universe the company had created from the perspective of an ordinary man, news photographer Phil Sheldon. It captured the wonder and awe of the normal citizens of the Marvel Universe at the super powered individuals that share their world. The mini-series was very well received, winning three Eisner awards and becoming much loved amongst Marvel fans. One year later, a very similar series appeared. Phil Sheldon once again appeared, writing a book on the strange world he lived in, one filled with aliens, heroes and monsters. But instead of the love that the earlier series embodied, a dark mirror was held up, casting the universe in a disturbing new light. This series was Ruins. Written by Warren Ellis, with art by Terese Nielsen, Cliff Nielsen and Chris Moeller, the story is set in a dystopian version of the Marvel Universe, under the oppressive rule of President X. Sheldon's journey begins with the death of the last members of a revolutionary cell known as The Avengers. As he investigates this world of alien concentration camps, scientists turned into a tumor covered monsters, and strange, grotesque powers, he can't help but wonder if it could have being a different place. A world of Marvels. Originally conceived as a parody, the book takes everything we know about the Marvel Universe and twists it a way we never thought imaginable. The Hulk is shown as a mass of cancerous tumors, somehow still alive. Thor is insane and homeless. Mutants are rounded up and put into prisons, where they spend their days tortured. It's a realistic take on the well worn 'superheroes in the real world' idea, but one that is taken to the the extreme. It can be heavy reading, but Ellis crafts a rich story, full of really interesting ideas. It can almost be seen as a draft of his Wildstorm series Planetary. A lot of the same ideas are used, but the later series retains a sense of wonder of the fantastic world the characters find themselves in. Ruins fell under what Marvel dubbed 'The Alterniverse', a banner they used briefly to rename their 'What if...' titles. Only two other stories were published under this banner, Garth Ennis' The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe, and Peter David's The Last Avengers Story. Both were similarly dark in tone to Ruins. It would take 14 years for Marvel to collect the two part series, and then it was as a one shot rather than a trade. This still surprised Ellis, who wrote on his blog of the news: €œSome people got very upset about this book on its original release in the mid-Nineties. I€™ll never forget the mail from a particularly angry man telling me that the book was so sickening and wrong that he threw it in his kitchen bin €• and then felt that it had in fact tainted his entire house, and had to fish it out and return it to the store in order to feel clean again.€ While it may be hard to find, and not to everybody's tastes, it is well worth picking up. As a brave take on an established story, it is a fantastic read, from the shocking opening, to the heart breaking ending.