Ruins (comics)
Ruins | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
Schedule | Monthly |
Format | Limited series |
Genre | |
Publication date | August – September 1995 |
No. of issues | 2 |
Creative team | |
Written by | Warren Ellis |
Artist(s) | Terese Nielsen Cliff Nielsen Chris Moeller (issue #2, last 17 pages only) |
Letterer(s) | Jonathan Babcock |
Colorist(s) | Terese Nielsen Cliff Nielsen Chris Moeller (issue #2, last 17 pages only) |
Editor(s) | Tom Daning Marie Javins Carl Potts Polly Watson |
Ruins is a two-issue comic book miniseries, written by Warren Ellis with painted artwork by Terese Nielsen, her husband Cliff Nielsen, and Chris Moeller, who took over for the last 17 pages of the second issue.
The series, conceived by Ellis as a parody
In the Marvel Multiverse, the Earth of the Ruins universe is listed as Earth-9591.
Plot
Issue #1
Former Daily Bugle reporter Phil Sheldon explores a dystopian version of the Marvel Universe where in his own words "everything that can go wrong will go wrong." In this world, the myriad experiments and accidents which led to the creation of superheroes on Earth-616 have instead here resulted in horrible deformities and painful deaths. Sheldon tours the country, investigating the aftermath of these events and researching a book about the strange phenomena in order to prove that the world has taken a wrong turn somewhere.
In this reality, the
Sheldon proceeds to a Kree internment camp in Nevada, situated on a nuclear test site, where the last survivors of a Kree invasion fleet are slowly dying of cancer. Sheldon interviews Captain Mar-Vell, one of the Kree prisoners, who tells him why their invasion failed: the Kree had encountered the Silver Surfer (who had gone mad and torn open his own chest in a futile attempt to experience respiration again) only to discover that the Power Cosmic emanating from the Surfer's body had disabled their cloaking devices and interfered with their scanners, allowing humanity to detect their ships and preventing the Kree fleet from detecting a nuclear barrage which subsequently destroyed ninety percent of their warships.
After his interview with Mar-Vell, Sheldon goes to
Issue #2
Sheldon is seated on a plane next to Raven Darkhölme, who has developed dissociative identity disorder from assuming too many different identities through her shapeshifting abilities. Having neglected to take her prescribed pills, she begins shapeshifting uncontrollably and dies. When the plane lands, government agents take her body away while a protest against President X's government is underway. An agent bumps into a hippie named Max Eisenhardt, damaging a magnetic dampening device that he carries to nullify his powers, which causes all metal objects nearby to attach to him, killing him and several others and inflicting massive damage to the airport and plane.
Later, Sheldon visits a special prison in
Sheldon visits a carnival where Johnny Blaze performs and commits suicide by setting his face on fire. Sheldon interviews Ben Grimm, who describes the painful deaths of this world's counterparts of the Fantastic Four and Victor von Doom when their spaceship flew through a cloud of cosmic radiation: Grimm had refused to pilot the ship due to safety concerns, so Reed Richards hired von Doom instead. Sheldon decides to begin writing his book, which he will title Marvels. However, he discovers that he has run out of the medication he has been taking; he has been infected with a virus passed on to him by his former Daily Bugle co-worker Peter Parker, caused by an irradiated spider that Parker experimented on that resulted in a highly infectious rash developing over his entire body. The virus kills Sheldon, and he is ignored by passerby as his notes scatter in the wind.
Fates of other characters
Throughout the story, there are breaks within scenes that briefly describe the lives of other would-be Marvels; such as a version of Dr. Donald Blake, a cult leader who believes he can channel the entity
Collected editions
In 2009, the series was collected into a single volume.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b Ellis, Warren (21 October 2008). "Ruins to be collected". warrenellis.com.
References
- Ruins series at the Grand Comics Database
- Ruins one-shot at the Grand Comics Database
- Ruins at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
External links
- Ruins at the Marvel Database Project
- Warren Ellis’ not so Mighty World Of Marvel, Forbidden PlanetInternational Blog Log, May 27, 2009