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[bryant]

Those of us who miss the Warren Ellis who wrote Stormwatch, Excalibur, and Transmetropolitan should check out Ultimate Fantastic Four. I, obviously, already have. The run starts with issue #9 and it is superb. Ellis likes to dislike superheroes, which is a real pity, since it's his best genre. He's doing cool things with the Fantastic Four which boil down to "what if they transformed while they were kids," and it's working very well.

Comments

[gentlyepigrams]

My friend drelmo has been SCATHING about this run over on Howling Curmudgeons. I can't speak to the series, since I haven't read it, but his comments about it have left me cold on the idea of picking it up if I started getting a pull again.

[bryant]

Huh. Well... I don't think making fun of the name "Fantasticar" qualifies as open contempt for superhero comics. I think it's a goofy name. I also note that Elmo was ready to hate Ellis on the book before he started reading it, and I have to wonder if that pre-biased him.

I mean, yeah, I agree that Ellis has not been good lately. However, I read his UFF without thinking too hard about the Ellis who's obsessing about camgirls and porn, and I liked it a lot. It is funny and touching and you can feel the FF developing into a family, even though they aren't there yet. Reed is not perfect but he is exceedingly smart. Ben hates being big and orange. Reed and Sue really like each other. Doom is shaping up as the big bad enemy.

It took him a couple of issues to get comfortable, but man, this arc is rocking.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It's hard to say that Ellis hasn't been good lately if you're comparing everything to the glory of Transmet. Sure, he's been uneven, but Switchblade Honey was very good, Red was excellent (the only one of his 3parters that delivered on early promise), Orbiter was superb, and Scars was devastating.

[bryant]

Hm. I didn't think Orbiter followed through well enough, although I'd agree on Red. Mind you, both of those were over a year ago.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I guess this year he's been slaving for Marvel, as well as enduring delays on other titles due to missing artists. I'm glad, because it means i don't have to spend a bucketload of money on everything he's putting out.

Tokyo Storm Warning was really wretched.

[bryant]

Lengthier reply over there.

[bryant]

Doh! Issue #7.

[multiplexer.livejournal.com]

I really really really really want to get it, but like all things, comics have fallen off my priority list. It makes me very sad, for I love comics. Foo.

Maybe someone around here has a copy of the run I can borrow.