I used to be a big Warren Ellis fan, back when Planetary was still in its stride and he'd come out with series after series of interesting sci-fi concepts, which, admittedly, underwhelmed in their closing chapters (well, those he actually did finish). And then something happened. His comics work has suffered since he began writing novels. Moon Knight was good fun, but that's about it in recent years. Trees was another cool concept bogged down by its mediocre art and obnoxious decompression.
I recently read Ellis's first foray into James Bond fiction. VARGR was a bit of a letdown. It read like a generic Bond movie and only on one or two occasions throughout the 6 issues, did Ellis seemingly remember the format he was telling the story (those bullet frags were pretty cool). The story could have been told in 4-issues. I also found the art less than stellar. The artist did great work with static depictions of architecture, automobiles, and the battleship, but his faces were rather lackluster.
So, does anyone enjoy Ellis's recent work more than his older stuff or am i hitting the nail on the head here?
>>82441186
Well, I liked Moon Knight and Injection (the last issue was pretty funny) but that's about it.
The problem with a Bond story is it always follows the same beats and so it all has to come through in the execution. This is why it works so well as a film franchise because every director can put their own cinematic stamps on the character while following the steps you need to keep it in the formula.
This is why a lot of the Bond books/comics/whatever are mediocre because there's kind of only so many ways you can write that kind of pulp unless you want to go full James Ellroy experimental. I wouldn't blame this on Ellis.
>>82441186
The problem is that James Bond is boring. Not Ellis' fault really, however his recent work is very hit or miss.
>>82441186
Considering how bad Blackcross was, I'm pretty disinclined to read more of Ellis' new stuff, particularly Dynamite work.
how was supreme blue rose
>>82441186
>Trees was another cool concept bogged down by its mediocre art, obnoxious decompression, and delays.
Fixed
>>82441290
i think there are plenty of great stories to write about or including Bond as the protagonist. however, it could be because it's a licensed property, they have instructed Ellis to tone his stuff down or present them more palatable to what they perceive as the Bond demographic. I liked the ideas behind VARGR but the way the story was told was neither innovative nor all that compelling. i guess there is plenty of blame to go around.
>>82441581
>i think there are plenty of great stories to write about or including Bond as the protagonist
The issues is all the avenues for the character have kind of been exhausted. The entire Craig series has been about deconstructing the entire franchise and seeing what makes it tick, and once you get beyond that it's just more straightforward narratives which like I pointed out before are hard to make distinctive outside of a movie.
I mean I love James Bond but he's a formula character, it just comes down to how well the formula is executed.
>>82441389
I did not bother with it, to be honest. it just didn't appeal to me.
>>82441412
I read good things about it but i haven't read past the first issue. it was okay, but i've drifted away from superhero stuff in recent years and have no real desire to read it.
>>82441437
Did it experience multiple delays? i read the first arc in one go and enjoyed some of the concepts, but thought the narrative did not merit such a decompressed structure.
>>82441186
With a couple of exceptions, Ellis post-2009 is mostly shit.
>>82441636
Indeed. However, like any good new rock n roll song, an exhausted avenue of pop music as there ever was, a well-composed tune can be as refreshing as any old Led Zep song, and a well-written story including Bond can be just that. i'd say my one of my favorite stories recently that could very well be a Bond tale was Ales Kot Zero. well, at least those first few issues before it goes gonzo. formulaic yet still refreshing.
>>82441186
I honestly enjoyed VARGR and look forward to Ellis' next Bond story. The book has a very Fleming vibe to it, which wasn't there in all the recent Bond movies.
>>82441186
His health got worse, not sure what happened to him but all that shit lifestyle caught up to him and he went off the internet for a long ass time and just recently came back, posted a picture of himself and he looked like shit.
His written had started to decline before that but it just went really down after this happened to him.
>>82444242
oh wow, i had no idea. i figured he shifted his focus away from his comic book work to the novels and movie pitches/screenplays. to be fair, Ellis does tend to lose interest in series after the first few issues or arcs, and he has also abandoned more than i care to count and i highly doubt these can be attributed to poor health. anyways, i hope he's doing better these days and returns to form soon.
