Ruins (comics)

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title = Ruins


imagesize = 200
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schedule = Monthly
format = Mini-series
publisher = Marvel Comics
date = August-September 1995
issues = 2
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writers = Warren Ellis
artists = Cliff & Terese Nielsen
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"Ruins" is a two-issue comic book mini-series, written by Warren Ellis with painted artwork by Cliff & Terese Nielsen set in a dystopian version of the Marvel Universe. The main character, Phil Sheldon, is also the central character of the "Marvels" series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, and this series can be seen as a darker retelling of this story. Like "Marvels", the comic was published in prestige format, with fully-painted artwork and acetate covers, further creating the impression that it is a more twisted companion piece.

ummary

"Ruins" follows former "Daily Bugle" reporter Phil Sheldon as he explores a dystopian alternate Marvel Universe where, in his words, "everything that can go wrong "will" go wrong"; a world where the myriad experiments and accidents which led to the creation of superheroes in the mainstream Marvel Universe instead resulted in horrible deformities and painful deaths. The narrative follows Sheldon as he tours the country investigating the after-effects of these events, researching a book about the strange phenomena in order to prove that the world has taken a wrong turn somewhere and hoping to complete it before he dies. As he journeys across America, the nature of the world is gradually revealed in the form of both interviews and cameo appearances from various figures from the Marvel Universe.

In the first issue, after witnessing the destruction of the last Avengers Quinjet (in this reality a radical secessionist rebel group rebelling against an oppressive American government led by 'President X', who have all either been killed or imprisoned), which has killed both Captain America and Iron Man, and encountering a decaying Wolverine, whose flesh is slowly falling off from the toxicity of his adamantium bone structure, Sheldon proceeds to a Kree internment camp in Nevada, which is situated on a nuclear test site, where the last survivors of a Kree invasion fleet are imprisoned and slowly dying of cancer. Clad in a radiation-proof suit, he interviews Captain Mar-Vell, one of the Kree prisoners, who tells him why their invasion failed; the Kree came upon the Silver Surfer, who had gone mad and torn open his own chest in a futile attempt to experience respiration once again, only to discover that the Power Cosmic emanating from the Surfer's body had been interfering with their scanners, preventing them from detecting a nuclear barrage which destroyed ninety percent of the warships. In Washington, D.C., Sheldon arranges a meeting with government agent Nick Fury, who attacks and almost shoots him, insisting that 'proved he was clean' and claiming that Captain America introduced him to cannibalism. They are interrupted by Jean Grey, here a prostitute, who offers herself to the two men for twenty dollars; but Fury shoots her dead and then kills himself. After his encounter with Fury, Sheldon visits Chicago and interviews Rick Jones, a morphine addict living with fellow addict Marlo Chandler, who tells the story of when Bruce Banner saved him from a gamma radiation blast; however, instead of transforming Banner into the mighty Hulk, the radiation transformed Banner into a monstrous green mass of pulsating tumors. Leaving the apartment, Sheldon trips over the corpse of The Punisher in the snowfall, and the issue ends with him on his knees as he begs to be allowed to show the world how this state of affairs came to pass.

Issue two starts with Sheldon sitting on a plane with Mystique, who begins to shapeshift against her will; as she is taken off the plane, a security guard bumps into Magneto, damaging a magnetic dampening device that Magneto had under his jacket to nullify his magnetic powers, which causes every metal object within radius (including the plane) to attach itself to him, killing him and several others. After this, Sheldon visits a special prison wherein many mutants, including several of the X-Men (including Scott Summers, Kitty Pryde, Kurt Wagner and Quicksilver, all of whom have been mutilated and deformed in an effort to control their powers), and is given a tour by the warden, Wilson Fisk who informs Sheldon that the only reason he was allowed to see the prison was because President X knew he was dying, and wanted to grant a dying man his wish. After witnessing a carnival show with Johnny Blaze, who commits suicide by setting his skull on fire as part of a carnival stunt, and interviewing Ben Grimm, who describes the deaths of the rest of those who would become the Fantastic Four and Victor Von Doom when their space ship flew through a cloud of radiation (as Grimm refused to pilot the ship due to safety concerns, Reed Richards hired Von Doom instead), Sheldon decides to begin writing his book (which he will title "Marvels"). However, he discovers that he has run out of the medication he has been taking; he has been infected with a virus given to him by Peter Parker, who had worked at the "Daily Bugle" with Sheldon and had attempted to give himself super powers by irradiating a spider and allowing it to bite him, only to die in the attempt. The virus overcomes Sheldon, killing him; as he falls to the ground, his notes are scattered in the wind.