Top 10 Warren Ellis Comics

Warren Ellis is one of the most prolific comic book writers today. A writer who has spent his whole career focusing on creating new things. New characters, new ideas, new stories. Unlike many other writers in comics, he didn't grow up reading and loving super heroes, it was a genre he learned to get work in America. Some of his most popular works are super hero tales definitely, but that is not the only place his best work shines. What follows is my top ten list of the best Warren Ellis comics, only two of the picks are filled with characters Warren Ellis didn't create himself, because he is always at his best when creating something new he wants to share.

10) Nextwave. A group of super heroes come together to stop terrorists, blow things up, say catchy phrases, and pose. It has a theme song that talks about things blowing up. It has beautiful art by Stuart Immomen where things blow up. It has a main character get shoved down the pants of Fing Fang Foom and another enter the mouth of Foom and exit through the stomach using sharp pointy things. It was a super hero comic book that took out all that boring talking and just had big fights and posing. It was fun, obnoxious, and screwed up. And that's not even getting to the Nick Fury stand in.

9) Crecy. The battle of Crecy is seen to have been the turning point in modern warfare. In this book we have an English bowman explain just how it all happened, while calling the French a lot of horrible names. When you can make a history lesson this much fun and filled with cursing that would make a sailor turn red, you know it's awesome. The whole thing is so engaging while explaining the importance of the battle of Crecy and how it effects today. I think it was better put together then Frankenstein's Womb which had a similar concept but had a slightly different storytelling technique.

8) Desolation Jones. Los Angeles is really a prison designed for ex super spies. Jones has found a niche of being the detective for this warped community. So what is his first case in the book? Find missing Hitler porn. But just like every great detective novel, there is more to the case then meets the eye. Warren Ellis weaves a tale where Jones meets a new character each issue and the case builds and twists. The violence is rare but brutal, the art starkly changes and it's seen to be real, deadly, and quick.

7) Doom 2099. Dr Doom (the one who fought the Fantastic Four) is still alive in the year 2099 where super heroes are few and far between. So to fix everything and protect his home country of Latveria, he takes over America and it all goes to sh*t. That's pretty much the story. It really paints Dr Doom in a different light and gave a jump start to the dying 2099 line. It also has Captain America back who is used by Doom's enemy. Of course Cap is kept so coked up he can't think straight, but he is just needed as a symbol anyways.

6) Global Frequency. Over the 20th century a lot of things were created that were deadly. Global Frequency was created to keep those deadly things in check. With a thousand special operatives they fix the big problems. The people who work for the Frequency are the best detectives, theorists, killers, and scientists, each with a special skill set and called in to fix the problems. Pretty much this book take Warren Ellis, add some of the best artists in the industry, add in big cool science ideas, and you have this book. Big cool ideas that Warren Ellis finds reading science magazines and checking the net being fixed by cool agents that aren't all James Bond clones. They are experts at various things, and each problem isn't fixed by blowing things up.

5) Fell. Richard Fell is a great detective, yet for some reason he was sent across the river to Snowtown, where things are weird and the people of the city seem destined to self destruct. Think Law and Order or CSI mixed with Twin Peaks and you have Fell. It is the opposite of Desolation Jones when it comes to crime stories. The stories are all done in ones. The city is atmospheric and creepy and though it is thinner then any other book, the art and story takes much longer then a standard comic. Plus it was the book that introduced steady back matter as part of the comic.

4) Ignition City. All the pulp space heroes are stuck on Earth on an island that is the last free space port on Earth. If that wasn't enough it's essentially Warren Ellis doing Deadwood. It is brilliant, had gorgeous artwork and covers, and has one of the best single panels ever, a mad scientist shooting a giant lightning gun yelling "Science will f*** you!" What more is there to know?

3) Doctor Sleepless. What happens when we focus on the mad scientist? Not only is he quite insane, he is over the top on purpose, everyone ignores characters and fictions though they are the ones who change the world now. This is Doctor Sleepless, it's the spiritual follow up of Transmet. It is heavy sci fi and does exactly what sci fi is supposed to, make us look at the present. Oh and the good Doctor is one of the most outrageous characters Warren Ellis has created (which is saying a lot), especially for leads. He's a mad scientist and it went from him being the hero to being the villain of the piece.

2) Planetary. Strange archeology of a weird world of super heroes and pulp fictions. A beautiful analysis of fiction from the 19th century. It was a non super hero super hero book. The book was never about smashing things and looking cool doing it, it was about keeping the world strange and wonderful while taking a look at popular fiction along the way. We get new views of pulp heroes, 50s sci fi, super heroes, and more.

1) Transmetropolitan. A story about a reporter (Spider Jerusalem) who does tons of drugs and is always mad as hell about something. No not Hunter S Thompson though his influence is in there. Warren Ellis used Spider to explore a future world that is fantastic and beyond us yet is just like the one we live in where it all counts. This is THE Warren Ellis book. He designed it so he could write whatever he felt like that particular month, put him on the map and Spider is hands down the coolest character he has ever created.

I didn't put Stormwatch/Authority because although it and Planetary put Warren Ellis on most people's to read list, and helped launch Bryan Hitch, and help bring in cinematic comic books that has given Mark Millar a huge amount of cash, but I think everything he did in those books was done better elsewhere. He's dealt with government and super heroes in Black Summer, cool things blowing up and posing in Nextwave, and even the one off issues near the end of Stormwatch don't hold the weight as Fell or Planetary. But just like every top ten list it's all subject to personal preference.