InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "We're jammin'!"

cyberghostface (cyberghostface) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-10-29 11:27:00

Entry tags:

char: angel/archangel/warren worthington, char: black panther/t'challa, char: cyclops/scott summers, char: galactus, char: ghost rider/johnny blaze, char: hawkeye/ronin/clint barton, char: iron man/tony stark, char: kingpin/wilson fisk, char: mystique/raven darkholme, char: nightcrawler/kurt wagner, char: professor x/charles xavier, char: quicksilver/pietro maximoff, char: scarlet witch/wanda maximoff, char: spider-man/peter parker, char: thor, char: white queen/emma frost, char: wolverine/logan/james howlett, creator: warren ellis, theme: body horror, title: ruins

More from "Ruins"

Given the reaction to my post from yesterday, here are some more scenes from Ruins. Each issue was about forty pages. I personally don't understand the plot besides "What would happen if the Marvel universe went horribly wrong", but here are some of the more bizarre scenes with some of Marvel's iconic heroes.

(Post a new comment)

	manofbats 2009-10-29 03:46 pm UTC (link)
	This is bad stuff. (Reply to this)

jlroberson
2009-10-29 03:49 pm UTC (link)

See, yeah. That weird art style change hurts this more than anything else. The sketchy, slashy, indefinite and decaying look of the rest of the art suits the relatively meager ambitions of this well.

Where did this really lose me? I was saying "NonoNOno NO!" about the same time as she was. The first one? Very nasty but no more so than any issue of WHAT IF at one time. A lot of potential and buildup that I kind of liked, actually. But that was not carried through. The second seemed like they'd forgotten till very late there was supposed to be a second part, and it got pulled out of someone's ass.

However, note: the Thor thing above? Pretty much the concept later used in the Ultimates by Mark Millar, correct?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	va1tyr 2009-10-29 05:36 pm UTC (link)
	Not really? I don't think there is an Ult Don Blake - Thor turned up fully formed as Thor, and Loki later claimed him to be Thorvald, a paranoid schizophrenic, and was believed. But he turned out to have faked that. Ult Thor did have some followers, of the militant hippy kind. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	filkertom 2009-10-29 04:10 pm UTC (link)
	I take it this was considered by some -- at least by Ellis -- to be edifying or daring or Art or, FSM save us, entertaining in some way, rather than the ugly, disgusting, annoying, and yet boring mess that it is. Man. Now I've gotta read a bunch of Moore, Wagner, and Foglio to cleanse my soul. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	thandrak 2009-10-29 04:38 pm UTC (link)
	Go grab some PS238. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

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filkertom, 2009-10-30 01:25 am UTC

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thandrak, 2009-10-30 02:19 am UTC

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khamelea, 2009-10-29 06:59 pm UTC

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brandiweed.livejournal.com, 2009-10-29 07:05 pm UTC

	queen_marshed 2009-10-29 04:15 pm UTC (link)
	Huh, this is like: MARVEL UNIVERSE!!! MOAR GRIMDARK AND EDGY AND MISERABLE THAN MAINSTREAM! Honestly not feeling it. :I (Reply to this) (Thread)

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jlroberson, 2009-10-29 04:36 pm UTC

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angelophile, 2009-10-29 11:45 pm UTC

kiplingkat
2009-10-29 04:44 pm UTC (link)

"I personally don't understand the plot besides "What would happen if the Marvel universe went horribly wrong""

Funny, I thought that was what the 616 was doing now?

Honestly (and this is aimed at Marvel Editorial, not the OP) I am really, really, REALLY sick of the non-stop dystopian crap. A little bit is spice of life, and it has to be a good writer to bring it off well. Every single issue for freakin' years just gets boring.

(Reply to this)

	lencannon 2009-10-29 04:45 pm UTC (link)
	The real problem is that it isn't even a story. It's just a bunch of sick jokes over and over again until you feel disgusted. (Reply to this)

	oldmanrain 2009-10-29 04:56 pm UTC (link)
	"What would happen if the Marvel universe went horribly wrong" Did anything else happen? Seems like such a pointless comic book (Reply to this) (Thread)

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filthysize, 2009-10-29 09:14 pm UTC

	d_benway 2009-10-29 05:09 pm UTC (link)
	I greatly enjoyed the title. While it may have some flaws, it is nicely dark and twisted. Also, the second artist (Moeller) has done much better work on books that he wrote himself. (Reply to this) (Thread)

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benedict, 2009-10-30 12:45 am UTC

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benedict, 2009-10-30 12:47 am UTC

	ex_darkblade992 2009-10-29 05:09 pm UTC (link)
	I might have liked this if it had an actual plot as opposed to a bunch of random cameos by twisted forms Marvel characters one after another and less of a WTF ending where our narrator for these random scenes just drops dead from a virus we didn't know he had before. (Reply to this)

	va1tyr 2009-10-29 05:38 pm UTC (link)
	I don't really see much of a point to this, although some of the art is lovely. I laughed at 'God found dead in space', though. (Reply to this)

	mullon 2009-10-29 05:39 pm UTC (link)
	That was just awful to read. (Reply to this)

	generalfreedom 2009-10-29 05:41 pm UTC (link)
	God this... this is just awful. (Reply to this)

	ulf_boehnke 2009-10-29 07:10 pm UTC (link)
	"I feel compelled to point out that RUINS was a comedy." Warren Ellis @ here (Reply to this) (Thread)

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ex_darkblade992, 2009-10-29 07:18 pm UTC

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sailorlibra, 2009-10-29 07:52 pm UTC

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every_piece, 2009-10-29 09:55 pm UTC

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angelophile, 2009-10-29 11:56 pm UTC

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ex_darkblade992, 2009-10-29 08:12 pm UTC

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wizardru, 2009-10-29 09:09 pm UTC

(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2009-10-29 09:47 pm UTC

Mod Note -

sandoz_iscariot, 2009-10-29 10:10 pm UTC

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blake_reitz, 2009-10-29 08:42 pm UTC

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wizardru, 2009-10-29 09:10 pm UTC

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benedict, 2009-10-30 12:48 am UTC

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khamelea, 2009-10-30 03:27 am UTC

	xlineartx 2009-10-29 08:42 pm UTC (link)
	That was horrifying, depressing and disturbing. Can someone please post some Marvel Adventures to get this bad taste out of my mouth? (Reply to this) (Thread)

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tacobob, 2009-10-30 03:01 am UTC

	punishermax 2009-10-29 08:58 pm UTC (link)
	Hahahahahaha Jesus Christ. You people think DARK REIGN is depressing? Haahahahahahahahahaha (Reply to this) (Thread)

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icon_uk, 2009-10-30 12:22 am UTC

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psychop_rex, 2009-10-30 09:18 am UTC

	freezer818 2009-10-29 09:16 pm UTC (link)
	Is there a trope for something that's worse than Crapsawk World, but not quite Hell On Earth? Becauae Ruins would be the Trope Maker, I think. (Reply to this)

d_benway
2009-10-29 09:25 pm UTC (link)

The comments here seem to be revealing a cultural fault line. Not being American, I often find that DC and Marvel comics impose certain tacit conditions on how characters behave, how narratives unfurl, and how the world works in general. In Ruins, Ellis has written a story which breaks many of those rules just for fun, which is why I like it and why I suspect that it inspires revulsion among those who enjoy stories which don't break those rules.

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janegray, 2009-10-29 09:36 pm UTC

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every_piece, 2009-10-29 09:57 pm UTC

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xlineartx, 2009-10-30 12:43 am UTC

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khamelea, 2009-10-30 03:33 am UTC

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icon_uk
2009-10-29 09:47 pm UTC (link)

I'm not seeing some of the criticism made here. People are taking this seriously when, whilst not a comedy IMHO, it's NOT serious, it's a deliberate grotesquerie.

This was essentially made as the Anti-"Marvels", Busiek's marvellous story of a photographer somehow always being in the right place at the right time to experience a breathtakingly large number of significant MU events first hand.

Yes, the story lacks narrative cohesion, but I don't think that's the point. Instead of being awed and impressed by the wonders of the MU, in this universe, a more depressingly real-world situation where being bitten by a radioactive spider will most likely poison you, and passing your atoms through solid matter is dangerous...

As for whether I, as a Brit, find it funny... no for the most part. A certain grim black humour throughout (and the image of a deranged Xavier waving his dick at the x-men shouting "You came from this", is faintly amusing to me for some warped reason)

(Reply to this)

	auggie18 2009-10-29 11:21 pm UTC (link)
	At first, I was intensely disturbed by this. I've heard about it before and it was seemed unpleasant. Now that I know it's a parody of sorts, I get it. I still don't think it's funny, but I get it. It reminds me of those kids who are always drawing pictures of Barney on fire. (Reply to this)

	tacobob 2009-10-30 02:54 am UTC (link)
	Don't laugh! I've managed to get myself out of four boring airplane conversations doing that. And didn't they just do a Ruins II? I believe they managed to make it even more depressing than the first one. It just shows random characters handing kittens or puppies to the Hulk, and just like the poor bunny in "Mice & Men", it gets nasty. (Reply to this)

	Corps of supreme being? (Anonymous) 2009-10-30 03:15 am UTC (link)
	Corpse of copy editor. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Corps of supreme being? -

citygod, 2009-10-30 11:06 pm UTC

psychop_rex
2009-10-30 09:54 am UTC (link)

Oh, this is depressing. Ye gods, this is depressing. This is horribly, horribly depressing.
You know what? In regards to various people saying 'it's a comedy; it's not meant to be taken seriously', I DON'T CARE. It's still bad. I can appreciate a bit of black humor as much as the next guy, but humor, any kind of humor, needs a punchline to be funny. Sometimes the gag IS the punchline, like a 'Far Side' cartoon, but eighty pages of black-humored gags? No punchline equals no POINT, and no point equals 'the writer woke up one morning feeling vicious, and decided to take out his bad mood on the readers'.
I own a comic that has a very similar effect on me. It's an issue of 'Tom Strong's Terrific Tales' - I don't remember which one. Now, I am a big fan of Tom Strong, and of Alan Moore in general, but this particular issue made me horribly depressed. The first story ('TSTT' is an anthology comic) is an alternate universe kind of thing where Tom Strong is really just an actor who used to portray the character on TV. What's the story? The story is that his life sucks, his wife hates him, his daughter is smoking crack, and he spends most of his time contemplating the decrepit ruin that is his life, and pondering how he was never that happy in the first place. Also, he's friends/casual acquaintances with a lot of other fictional characters who have the same sorts of problems. This includes Kool-Aid Man. KOOL-AID MAN. You know what? Up until I read that story, I could have given a rat's ass about Kool-Aid Man, but the whole thing was so depressing that I swear-to-the-Gods almost cried when Kool-Aid Man was revealed as a homeless, ranting bum who loses his balance and shatters to pieces on the sidewalk. Yeah, I know, it sounds funny in concept, but in execution? It's NOT. This story is so depressing in every single way that I have not read the issue since. I haven't even LOOKED at the issue since, and that's a shame, because there are two other stories in it which are quite good. But this story just pollutes my soul whenever I so much as get a glimpse at the artwork, and 'Ruins' affects me in much the same way.
Now, maybe it's just me, but I simply don't see the reason for this sort of thing. I mean, I understand that not all humor has to be happy-friendly. I get it; I do. I understand sarcasm and irony and gallows humor and tasteless jokes. I do, really I do. But what I do NOT get is why some people seem to view ripping the heart out of everything that people take innocent enjoyment in to be the height of humor. I mean, it's so EASY to do something like that. These are not masterful jokes, these are cheap shots. Cheap, easy, and with no intelligence. These are not the work of a mature person; they are juvenile in the worst sense of the word. MATURITY DOES NOT MEAN 'GOOD THINGS ARE STUPID, EVERYONE DIES'. Maturity means taking the good with the bad, seeing the whole spectrum of things, not just the bad side.
I could go on, but it'd take too long. I just don't get it. I'm depressed, and I don't get it. This comic has brought me no joy, no laughter, not even an eye-roll. I'm sitting here in front of my computer and I feel cold and empty. That's all it's brought me. Sadness and depression. Ha frickin' ha.

(Reply to this)

	Ahh (Anonymous) 2009-10-30 10:11 am UTC (link)
	god I love threads like this, little microcosms for the greater neuroses of the fanbase (Reply to this)