| Ruins | |
|---|---|
 Cover toRuins #1 -Men on Fire, art byTerese Nielsen | |
| 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 | 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-issuecomic bookminiseries, written byWarren Ellis with painted artwork byTerese Nielsen, her husbandCliff Nielsen, andChris Moeller, who took over for the last 17 pages of the second issue.
The series, conceived by Ellis as a parody of theMarvels series byKurt Busiek andAlex Ross,[1] is set in adystopian version of theMarvel Universe. LikeMarvels, the comic features reporter Phil Sheldon as the main character and was published inprestige format, with fully painted artwork and acetate covers, further creating the impression that it is a more twisted companion piece.
In theMarvel Multiverse, the Earth of theRuins universe is listed asEarth-9591.
FormerDaily Bugle reporter Phil Sheldon explores a dystopian version of theMarvel Universe where in his own words "everything that can go wrong will go wrong." In this world, the experiments and accidents which led to the creation ofsuperheroes onEarth-616 instead 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 to prove that the world has taken a wrong turn somewhere.
In this reality, theAvengers were a radicalsecessionist rebel group fromCalifornia rebelling against an oppressiveUnited States government led by 'President X'. Sheldon witnesses the destruction of the last AvengersQuinjet with aPatriot missile, killingCaptain America,Ant-Man, theWasp, andIron Man. He encounters a decaying alcoholicWolverine, whose flesh is slowly falling off due to the toxicity of hisadamantium skeleton.
Sheldon proceeds to aKree internment camp inNevada, situated on a nuclear test site, where the last survivors of a Kree invasion fleet are slowly dying of cancer. Sheldon interviewsMar-Vell, one of the Kree prisoners, who tells him why their invasion failed: the Kree had encountered theSilver Surfer (who had gone mad and torn open his own chest in a futile attempt to experiencerespiration again). ThePower Cosmic emanating from the Surfer's body disabled the Kree's cloaking devices and interfered with their scanners, allowing humanity to detect their ships and prevent the Kree fleet from detecting a nuclear barrage which destroyed ninety percent of their warships.
After his interview with Mar-Vell, Sheldon goes toWashington, D.C. He meets government agentNick Fury, who attacks and almost shoots him, insisting that he 'proved he was clean' and claiming that Captain America introduced him to cannibalism. They are interrupted byJean Grey, a prostitute, who offers herself to the two men for $20. Fury murders her on the spot before shooting himself. After his encounter with Fury, Sheldon visitsChicago and interviewsRick Jones, a morphine addict living with fellow addictMarlo Chandler, who tells the story of whenBruce Banner saved him from a gamma radiation blast—the blast transformed Banner into a monstrous mass of tumors. Leaving the apartment, Sheldon trips over the corpse of thePunisher in the snow. Sheldon begs on his knees to be allowed to show the world how this state of affairs came to pass.
Sheldon is seated on a plane next toRaven Darkhölme, who has developeddissociative identity disorder from assuming too many different identities through her shapeshifting abilities. Having neglected to take her prescribed pills, Darkhölme 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 ahippie namedMax 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 inTexas run byWilson Fisk which houses manymutants.Scott Summers was blinded in order to control his eye beams,Kitty Pryde died after attempting to phase through the bars of her cell only to become stuck,Kurt Wagner is self-cannibalizing, andPietro Maximoff has had his limbs amputated to prevent him from using his superhuman speed. Fisk informs Sheldon that the only reason he was allowed to see the prison is because President X knows he is dying and wants to grant a dying man his wish.
Sheldon visits a carnival whereJohnny Blaze performs and commits suicide by setting his face on fire. Sheldon interviewsBen Grimm, who describes the deaths of theFantastic Four andVictor von Doom when their spaceship flew through a cloud ofcosmic radiation: Grimm had refused to pilot the ship due to safety concerns, soReed Richards hired von Doom instead. Sheldon decides to begin writing his book, which he will titleMarvels. 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 formerDaily Bugle co-workerPeter Parker, caused by an irradiated spider that Parker experimented on that resulted in an infectious rash developing over his entire body. The virus kills Sheldon, and he is ignored by passerby as his notes scatter in the wind.
Throughout the story, there are breaks within scenes that briefly describe the lives of other would-be Marvels; such as a version ofDonald Blake, a cult leader who believes he can channel the entityThor through his body after becoming addicted tofly-agaric mushrooms.Warren Worthington III serves President X in exchange for keeping his mutant nature a secret.Bucky Barnes,Jack Monroe, andVictor Creed are part of a fascist cannibalistic militia fromOklahoma.Matt Murdock died as a child after a crashing truck caused radioactive material to strike him in the face.Doctor Strange, a founding member of the Avengers, is missing. Beaubier twinsJeanne-Marie andJean-Paul are homeless and fused together by their elbows; Jeanne-Marie is unaware that her brother is dead.Amora is aporn star accused of killing her producer with "magic".Emma Frost owns the Church of the Next Generation, where she legally adopts the children of her followers and has them undergo surgery to unlock their "psychic abilities".Zelda DuBois is a circus performer who performs illegal acts with apython.Hawkeye is executed due to being a member of the Avengers.T'Challa is imprisoned due to his affiliation with theBlack Panther Party. TheScarlet Witch (a former member of the Avengers) betrays the Avengers for government protection after turning in state's evidence against the team.Galactus, who is thought to have been a god by the media, is found dead nearMars.
In 2009, the series was collected into a single volume.[1]