I recently read Marvels by Kurt Busiek and was impressed with the originality of the story and the art. I was asked if I had read Ruins by Warren Ellis, which is evidently the sequel but in an alternate universe. Ruins is comprised of two books: “Men On Fire” and “Women In Flight.” Like Marvels, Ruins follows photojournalist Phil Sheldon, who is again trying to write a book about super heroes. In this alternate timeline, instead of documenting super heroes being super, he is trying to make sense of a nightmare world. The book opens:
For every kiss, a bullet in the face.
For every action, a reaction.
For every event, there exists in potential,
A mirror event, an exactly opposite possibility.If the world you know is one of Marvels,
Where heroic women walk invisibly through horror,
And men of fire ride the upper reaches of the air……Then only a misstep or a stopped heartbeat away,
Is a world of Ruins.
Ominous stuff. And for good reason, I guess. This book is very, very dark. How things get to this point is not quite clear. Phil Sheldon has a premonition that something good could have come of all these “paranormal” stories, but instead it has gone terribly wrong. He is dying and racing against the clock to make sense of it all and finish his book.
The story is very fragmented and abstract, jumping from place to place as Sheldon visits the surviving heroes and witnesses. We know there has been a war, that the national guard has killed at least most, if not all, of The Avengers. Professor X has somehow become President (I’m assuming by using his mental powers) and has become evil and reclusive. A lot of the X-Men are mutilated and imprisoned. the Fantastic Four never survived their trip into space. Ellis systematically goes through the list of heroes and shows their bizarre and horrific fates with little to know explanation. Things just didn’t work out. It’s not a nice world.
Cliff and Terese Nielsen handle the art in book one, and Chris Moeller joins them in book 2. The watercolors are well done and give the books a dreamy feel to compliment the nightmare quality of the story. The images are often shocking and gruesome. It is definitely not one for the kiddies. I guess Moeller takes over about halfway through book two, because the style changes. I find that a little annoying. His colors are brighter, which I think changes the feel that has been established up to that point.
There is a strange two page sequence in book two where Phil is all of a sudden beside a lake. It seems like a dream sequence, but again, there is no explanation given. The grass is green; the colors are bright. It is a drastic change from the grays and browns that permeate the books. Phil muses, “These people, these paranormal ruins of men– They were dropped on the world like a stone. Their shockwaves have touched all edges of my world.” He compares this to dropping a stone in the lake and waves slowly making their way to all the shores to make sure we understand the metaphor and theme. A little girl walks up and asks if he is lonely and invites him to a picnic.
That scene sums up the major differences between Ruins and Marvels for me. Busiek’s story was very structured. It flowed through different historical periods, illustrating people’s varying responses to the heroes. The themes were subtly woven throughout narrative. It stood on its own. Ruins, like the previously mentioned scene by the lake, is very scattered and random. The structure emulates the confusion and panic Sheldon feels, but without any background or orienting narrative, it can’t stand on its own. And in order to link it all together with a theme, Ellis has to be heavy-handed (ie- stone thrown in lake metaphor). It was okay because I had already read Marvels and understood what point Ellis has making, but without that reference I’m not sure it would make much sense. I felt the writing just wasn’t on par with Marvels.
