4,319 reviews368 followers
After reading this, I'm definitely left with nightmare fuel that won't leave my head for a good while. I wanted to like this book more. I don't mind dark stories as long as they're well-done, and this story DID have some good scenes (and some good panels where the art was spot-on) Considering the real-life result of radiation on people, the end result of radiation on various heroes in this book was much more realistic than the more optimistic main universe/Earth-616 reality. Instead of becoming the Hulk, Banner has tumors growing all over his body. The Fantadtic Four's powers kill them (i.e. the Human Torch burns from the inside out) and other Marvel heroes meet some pretty shitty fates - Quicksilver ends up with all four of his limbs amputated so he can't use his super-speed (Yes, you read that right)Wolverine's flesh is separating from his bones because of how toxic adamantium is. Yeah, this book is pretty fucked up and 'Ruins' is a pretty apt title. I could only give this book 2 stars in the end, because it failed to meet its potential. The artwork absolutely sucked in some places, like the artist spilled or smeared paint by accident and didn't bother cleaning up the mess so some of the images are really weird and murky in what feels like a lazy way. Also, some of the fates of the Marvel characters made no sense at all. Like the Baubier twins being conjoined at the elbow, or Jean Grey being a prostitute, or several characters being cannibals. For how spot-on some of the character's fates were, others just felt like they were put in to be edgy/for shock value. It's disappointing, because I really liked the premise, and had high hopes for this story.
- dystopian graphic-novel marvel-comics
A.J.
603 reviews68 followers
An edgy 12 year old rewrites Marvels to be edgy and dark. This literally feels like the product of a teenger thinking of ways to make the Marvel superpowers gross while he’s at the lunch table with his friends. There isn’t even a story here, it’s just fucked up things happening after one another just because. Warren Ellis really is a mixed bag of a writer, and my opinions of how perverted and awful of a person he is has nothing to do with it. Dude just peaked at Planetary & Transmetro, and everything else I read by him is middling or just straight up awful.
Timothy Boyd
6,963 reviews49 followers
Well this was a nice idea, a reverse of the classic Marvels mini series but it failed miserably. The art is horrible and barely viewable and the 2 issues are way to few to tell the story the that needs to be told. The only think that saves this from a 1 star is some of the interesting twists presented in the plot. Not recommended
Mike
1,534 reviews143 followers
This is a weird little artifact, a kind of bleak meta-“What If...?” for all those who need a dash of cynicism alongside their pleasant main course. The art of frankly a wreck, like the artists continues to spill his inks at random and decides to make the rest of the page wrap itself around it. What’s missing is any heart, an appreciation of the subjects - this is ppainful to wade through, makes my Inner fanboy sick with how hard it is to make any sense of the panels. I have to wonder if this illegible scrawl of an art job is a direct parody of Alex Ross’ amazing paint jobs found in Marvels among others - or are the artists just that mediocre? The writing’s not much better - not angry enough to be funny, not so insightful that it tells us much profundity about the Marvel universe. Mostly just scribblings to stitch together a bunch of reveals of Ellis thinking about how a couple of dozen iconic heroes could become something awful.
- angry-satire found-via-war-rocket-ajax oh-well-onwards
Venus Maneater
589 reviews32 followers
Maybe I would've given this five stars if I'd read it back during its first release. But now, now it just feels edgy for all the edge and Warren Ellis's hate and pure despise for mainstream comics and (super)heros leak through. He just sounds so, so bitter. I would've liked it maybe a bit more if the journalist didn't accidentally encounter every.single.marvel.hero. Everyone. Sometimes they just drop dead straight from the sky, bleeding on him. 2.5 stars, because the art is beautiful. That's it. What a waste of time.
- comics
47Time
2,997 reviews91 followers
Philip Sheldon inteds to document what happened with Marvel's superheroes and write a book about it before the infection in his body claims his life. The world was set for a wave of superpowered people, but something happened and it all went wrong. He meets with several characters, heroes and villains in the normal universe. They are all deformed mentally and bodily. He takes an interview from Mar-Vell, a former captain from the Kree, an alien civilization that tried to conquer the world. Their cloaking technology was negated by energy from the dying Silver Surfer, then they were repelled by Earth's nuclear missiles. Fury turned into a cannibalistic anarchist who kills himself in front of Sheldon. Mystique's multiple personalities rip her body apart. A man with a broken Gauss device strapped to his body causes immense destruction in an airport. Cyclops and other X-Men, all a shadow of their former powerful selves, are imprisoned after losing control of their powers and their minds. Basically, everything that could go wrong, went wrong, very much unlike in the normal Marvel universe.
- comics-superheroes
Knigel Holmes
Author5 books6 followers
I really wish this comic were longer. It was great and has so much potential.
Eugenio
276 reviews3 followers
3.5 Good story, liked the take throughout with a sick author wanting to write the story of the "ruined" heroes, the end really just fell flat. Adding in 1 last spin and meh. If you like Marvel What if type stories, its fine. If you aren't a fan of a What If, best to look away.
leen
9 reviews
Read
June 15, 2023half of the stories make sense towards the characters and their powers art was creepy tho which aids the story
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the other half were random, and stupid af.
Drew Canole
2,562 reviews13 followers
A really poorly executed look at what the Marvel universe would look like if 'everything went wrong'. We follow a photographer who goes around interviewing superheros and affiliates. This is Ellis's pestimistic alternative world version of Busiek's Marvels which came out the previous year; even the art is a muddy, awful parody of Alex Ross's. We see how heroes went wrong. For example Hulk, instead of turning into the beast we know him as, has his limbs explode and is incredible pain but still alive and locked up in a secret government location. Most of the explanations make no sense. The Silver Surfer decided to commit suicide and in doing so destroyed the cloaking devices of the alien species the Skrulls - so now the skrulls are dying of cancer and are in a concentration camp, or something like that. Stupid. This explores some of the themes that Ellis would take up once again in his masterwork Planetary. Please, please, please read that book instead.
- c-comics
Ashish
631 reviews24 followers
An awesome interpretation of the bright, shiny happy world of superheroes and how it would react with reality... the dark, deranged cousin of Miracleman, this is not for the faint of heart and for those who love their icons too much. Read it prepared to receive a rude reality slap in the face.
It's kind of like watching a massive, elaborate, beautiful sandcastle get washed away by the sea - beauty in destruction.
- comics
Gabe Chaves
114 reviews
A depressing picture of everything in the Marvel world going wrong.
Olav Knardal
17 reviews
I think the art is pretty good and serves well for a comic about a dying world through the perspective of a dying man. Plot wasn't that interesting though, and seemed like it existed just to give a reason to highlight every twisted and disturbing fate that happened to the iconic marvel superheroes. That premise is interesting but the comic doesn't really do anything beyond "damn, wouldn't it be bad if every super hero just died or got horribly mangled?" Check it out if you wanna see some beautifully illustrated body horror 😀
Alec Books
161 reviews
Casi seguro que pudieron haber hecho algo mejor. Solo lo busque porque vi una imagen en Tiktok. Pense que era algo bueno pero no. Es solo una historia confusa y aburrida con datos al azar que no concluyen en nada más que en TODO SALE MAL y en gente con cáncer por todo el mundo. Mutantes siendo literalmente mutantes.
Alex Sarll
6,508 reviews326 followers
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April 9, 2019I don't think I realised Ellis' sulky riposte to Marvels had been collected. Arguably a perfect example of grim'n'gritty going too far, but still very funny in places.
Mischief
20 reviews
Boring but I loved the art style and the horror :3
John Pistelli
Author9 books314 followers
I remember wanting to read this in 1995, but I couldn't for some reason—I think it was sold out at my comics shop—so when I saw that it was collected in The Marvels Companion I sat around and read it in a half hour at the library as a gift to my 13-year-old self. Ellis gives us a gruesomely amusing two-way satire. Its picture of a Murphy's Law Marvel Universe, where the Hulk is a cancer and the Black Panther has been jailed and Professor X is an evil president and radioactive spider bites cause incurable disease, is a nice rebuke to Kurt Busiek/Alex Ross's Silver Age Rockwellian revanchist optimism of Marvels, while Ruins's very excess of violent grotesquery takes to a self-parodying limit the cynical grimness of the British Invasion writers' approach to super-heroes.
- comics twentieth-century
Keith Davis
1,089 reviews14 followers
Ruins is edgelord garbage. The book was created as a sort of counterpoint to Alex Ross' Marvels, but instead of the photographer documenting a world of wonders and optimism he is touring a world of despair and corruption. Ellis takes all the iconic Marvel characters and reduces them to junkies, prostitutes, and twisted monsters. It is a alternate reality story, so I would be fine with the creative decisions if it was in support of a good story, but there is no story here at all. A man travels around and witnesses degrading horrors, that is the whole story. I have enjoyed a lot of Warren Ellis' work, such as Planetary and Nextwave, but this is one of the most nihilistic things I have ever seen and I can't believe someone at Marvel thought it was a good idea to publish it.
- graphic-novels
Ondra Král
1,419 reviews121 followers
Nápad otočit Zázraky o 180 stupňů je fajn, ale provedení příliš nezaujalo. Celé je to jen přehlídka všech výrazných hrdinů v co situacích, kdy jsou buď mrtví nebo zmrzačení (u hrdinů je to většinou originem, u mutantů špatně fungujícíma schopnosti). Až mě to někdy přišlo jako výsledek nějaké debaty v hospodě "Jak by hrdina X mohl dopadnout co nejhůr." Novinář tu pak jen funguje pojítko mezi všemi hrdiny.
Kresba je hnusná.
Johnny Andrews
Author1 book19 followers
This is the most bleakest two issue story I think I have ever read in Marvel. The art work suits the depressing feel as it's kinda a what if ... everything was wrong. Like when Bruce Banner saved Rick Jones and just became this living cancerous being they locked away and Rick through guilt became a drug addict.
Professor Xavier is president. They had to blind Cyclops.
Rather than in Marvels showing a wonderous world it is the polar opposite.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Darren
204 reviews28 followers
How did this even get made? The whole thing is a fuck you to Marvels, and to superhero fiction in its entirety. Which is totally fine and not all that unique, I'm just shocked that Marvel actually got behind it.
Riley
6 reviews
Hoped for more to this story. It seemed just a very dark book with the sole purpose of being “what if marvel was dark.” I wish it would build on this idea of a bleak world, instead the book uses shock value by showing iconic heroes in a grotesque way which does nothing but make the reader go “wow i cant believe Spiderman died of cancer.” The whole story is very forgettable but the art is good
Berslon Pank
215 reviews
Some of this was fun, but not enough of it for me to like it a whole lot.
Drew
203 reviews12 followers
Entertaining as a concept to contemplate, but not actually a fun read in any way. This was blackly humorous at points, but mostly just bleak. Glad I read it, won't read it again.
Peter
31 reviews6 followers
Pretty much the "dark and edgy" trend of 90s comics taken to its extreme in an alternative take on the Marvel universe. Fun enough as a quick read.
- comics
Aidan
40 reviews
My god this was dark... A look at what the Marvel Universe would be like if the age of heroes never began. The sequence of brutal fates for the iconic heroes and villains we know and love was horrifying, with some truly disturbing art to further the story. The story itself is only really an outline. A Daily Bugle journalist who witnesses an explosion which causes the death of the newly formed Avengers, sets out on a mission to discover whether there are any other would-be superheroes out there with a suspicion that the world should be different to this. We see brief nods to characters like the newspaper clippings of Matt Murdock's death, or the Punisher lying dead in the street but generally, this journalist is following up on leads and rumours to investigate particular cases. Highlights here were the disgusting look at an accurately mutated Hulk, the radioactive disease-ridden Spider-Man, and the out of control Magneto pulling in all metal around him - including the iron from his own blood. The story doesn't have to be strong for a short 2 issue run like this, it just needs to support the visuals that we are given. This is essentially an art book of what the most horrifying and true to life fates would look like for these characters. The character that gets the best development is one who we only actually see once, Professor X. In this world, he has become President. You would think this would mean a golden age for Mutantkind but, on this What If world, characters receive only the worst. Highlighting Xavier's manipulative and controlling side. The one that takes advantage of mutants he discovers and coaxes them into a taskforce. Here, he now has Wilson Fisk running a prison for him where they can keep any Mutants they find. X-Men like Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Kitty Pryde are held here as test subjects. In a world where there are no heroes or villains, what use would the X-Men be? This is a world where Professor X takes in Mutants, but has no purpose to train them up for. This world does not need X-Men. So instead, these Mutants are kept prisoner. I thought this was an extremely dark plot but such a true visual to the darker sides of these well loved characters. This book comes at a time where comic readership was at an all time low and Marvel were nearing bankruptcy. A book this dark is clearly aimed at adult readers who loved comics as children but have since dismissed comics as childish and moved on. Whether or not that worked is one thing, but I have only come to it due to its reputation. Published before the Marvel Knights relaunch or the adult-oriented Marvel Max print, this gets the ball rolling for more shocking directions for Marvel characters. In Frank Miller's Daredevil run, there was the implication that Karen Page had become a prostitute, but such topics are said outright here. Jean Grey has become a prostitute, Enchantress a porn star, Rick Jones a junkie. I appreciate when Marvel comics aren't afraid to shy away from topics like these and face them head on. This is one of the weirdest outliers for Marvel comics, but one that I greatly enjoyed. Its story is bare bones, but that isn't really the point here. This is a What If story but without the What If tag. An elseworld where the worst possible outcomes befall all. A world where God is dead and there is no hope. (Quite literally, as the discovery of Galactus' corpse floating through space leads to speculation that this is the dead body of God). My only complaint would be the timelines don't quite match in that Matt Murdock is a child, but the Punisher is already fully functioning. Or that the Avengers are newly formed but Thor and the Hulk aren't members, yet Scarlet Witch is already a retired member. Things don't quite add up, but that doesn't matter too much. For me, this is an art book imagining the worst scenarios for our favourite characters, and the art here is incredible. Some of the best I've ever seen in comics. So on that level it works. Having recently read both 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘒𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 books and now 𝘙𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘴, my only worry is what it says about me watching my favourite superheroes die in increasingly disturbing ways.
- graphic-novels
Vigneswara Prabhu
404 reviews38 followers
Well, that was, Dark to say the least. But still, there is something about this story, that makes it appealing. Similar to some other titles I've read, such as, Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe #1 or Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. I wonder what it might be. Other than that, can't say I'm a particular fan of this fade away, blurred, air brush manner of artwork. Perhaps the head honchos didn't want to show the body horrors presented in too much clarity. Other than it being a macabre fever dream of some crazed homicidal serial killer, the plot doesn't have much to speak of it. Just a series of vignettes, presenting the next freak show waiting in line.
- comic-book fantasy horror
Harold Smithson
154 reviews24 followers
Ellis' incredibly dark and cynical take on the Marvel universe oscillates between pointlessly edgy and grimly poignant. The darkness frequently seems layered on for its own sake, but eventually there is a point to most of it. Some people have suggested that Ruins is evidence that Ellis hates mainstream comics, but here I actually saw a very spirited defense of Marvel's output. His entire point is that the inspiring figures of comic book heroes are a source of hope in a world where the potential of individuals frequently goes unrealized through no fault of their own. That Ellis acknowledges the world can be very dark, arbitrary, and disappointing is the book's primary strength. It's also really short, which is nice.
- comics
Flo Price
3 reviews
Above is what I originally wrote before I looked it up and realized this was intended as a cheap parody of the much superior Marvels. My interpretation is giving the writers far too much credit. The hand-painted art is obviously gorgeous and does a fantastic job getting dark and gritty with the story, an inverse of Alex Ross' art with Marvels, which highlights the fantastical nature of the story.While it may have a reputation for being "edgy" nowadays, I think this short run does an amazing job critiquing a lot of cynicism in today's superhero genre. Where shows like The Boys flips the genre over to show you its seedy underbelly, Ruins asks why you'd want to see that at all. Why live in a pessimistic world where everything goes wrong when you could have something "Marvelous".
David Muñoz
205 reviews3 followers
ONCE AGAIN, LET ME START THIS BY SAYING- WARREN ELLIS IS A PRETTY BIG LOSER. As for this story, it kinda stinks. It's supposed to be Warren's take on "Marvel's" by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. Only his version is a twisted and dark version on what the world could be. It's an interesting idea but terrible and confusing execution. Warren's writing comes off very cringe like edgy and the story feels rushed and all over the place. Cliff and Terese Neielsen do the artwork which I guess fits the visions, however the story just RUINS the whole read. (PUN FULLY INTENDED)
All in all this was poo