how is it that his superhero works is so much better than his non-genre stuff?
Planetary, Authority, Ultimate Galactus - all good.
Transmet, Mek/Reload, Global Frequency, Apparat - all mediocre.
Transmet was pretty good. Just a tad derivative.
Have you been reading Desolation Jones or Fell? They are both great, and not super heroey at all.
I would also say that Transmet was better than average, and calling Planetary a super hero book is pushing it a little.
I’d put Transmetropolitan above any of those comics, except maybe Planetary. And I agree, calling Planetary a superhero comic is pushing it. It’s got a lot of people in it with super powers, but I wouldn’t call anyone in it a superhero.
First Amongst Daves. As others have pointed out, Planetary isn’t about superheroes per se so much as its a deconstruction of pulp/superhero mythos within a host of linked genres, like Japanese monster movies, Wold Newton family conceits, 50s sci-fi iconography, superspy adventures and 19th century pulp heroes and the like, wrapped in the mystery of the Fourth Man, Ambrose Chase and the archeologists of the fantastic.
Similarly, Ellis’ The Authority is about as anti-superhero as you can get, excepting what Mark Millar did with his Authority run and his Millarworld Wanted mini-series. I’ve said on these boards before, merely possessing superhero trappings does not make one a superhero, it’s your behavior that counts. The Authority are NOT superheroes.
Similarly, the sensibilities of the Ultimates characters under Ellis’ scripts aren’t very superheroey, either. Consider how they behaved in Ultimate Nightmare and Ultimate Secret and Ultimate Vision.
Transmetropolitan is easily among Ellis’ top three works, ever.
No love for Ellis’ Hellblazer run, eh?
Ellis’ Hellblazer run was very underrated, and I don’t just mean the controversial and unreleased “Shoot.” I liked the idea of short, stand-alone Constantine stories, and Ellis is definitely an expert at writing uncomfortable horror and “hard man” protagonists. In fact, it’s probably my favorite of any Hellblazer runs after Garth Ennis (but I hated Azzarello’s run and haven’t read Carey’s).
Put me down as another big fan of Ellis’ Planetary, Stormwatch, and Authority, although as far as I’m concerned, Authority was a 12-issue maxiseries by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, that was never continued or followed up on or seen again.
Yeah, I don’t get people who think Transmetropolitan is anything other than a top of the heap book. To me it’s one of the all time greats.
Seconded, although check out his Ruins series in the Marvel U–biggest evidence that he hates superheroes, IMHO. 
Eeeeep! Transmet, mediocre? As others have already said, I think it’s one of the best things he’s done.
I loved his Authority/Ultimates/Planetary stuff, but of the other stuff I’ve read, I loved Orbiter. Really enjoyed that story.
His JLU episode was good too…
Transmet…good but not great.
I HATED Ruins, although the art had a lot to do with that. Honestly, if I had been the editor at Marvel, I wouldn’t have accepted that when Ellis and the artist turned it into me. It was obviously a piss-take at Ross and Busiek’s Marvels, but it wasn’t funny, wasn’t cool, and just wasn’t good.
I agree, his JLU “Hell” miniseries was, I thought, quite good, especially since they showed bits of the JLA I hadn’t thought of. I’d argue that the Authority were heroes, but not here. Ellis is good at creating big threats and painting a picture of scary people, and his sense of humor is a lot of fun, too.
That’s just funny.
That is awesome. Where is that quote from?
Also, for those of you who like Ellis at his more esoteric, I got him to give me a Blue Beetle series pitch a few years back. I thought he was going to say horrible things about me and my fondness for doomed fourth-tier “pervert suit” superheroes, but he obviously gave it a lot of thought, and wrote back with a beautiful pitch:
http://www.geocities.com/bigbadvoodoolou/bluebeetle.html
(Toward the bottom)
Briefly, I was raised on an IV of Hunter S. Thompson. His limo ride with Nixon, talking bout Football outmatches anything Spider did with the Smiler.
…without being overly negative, I’m surprised anyone could say Transmet was anything other than mediocre.
Certainly the first couple of arcs were spectacular, but the series took huge a nose dive about half way through and then limped to the finish. When it ended on such a weak note, I was upset I’d invested so much time in the whole thing.
If we’d only had the first few arcs, I’d concur with the lovers, but really, it wasn’t terribly grand when viewed as a whole.
Then there’s the issue of it ‘not being superheroics’. Honestly, Spider Jerusalem has a non-typical, non-‘normal’ name, he wears a funny outfit (the tattoos are part of his ‘costume’) and he has cool gadgets with which he punishes evil doers.
Transmet should have been a fascinating journey into tomorrow, examining the impact of journalism on our view of the world, but it was really about a costumed protagonist running around and yelling at bad people.
Back to the issue at hand, Ellis on Superheroes. Lou, I think Ellis says it most concisely on your BB page,
I don’t think he hates superheroes (despite his oft-hilarious ranting against the genre), au contrare, I’m supposing he loves superheroes but hates the way the genre is so rarely engaging anymore.
I think Warren Ellis is fascinated by super-characters with extranormal abilities as compelling protagonists, but he hates the boring, convoluted behavioral limits conventional superheroes abide by. Superheroes adhere to this weird set of behaviors, including apolitical doctrines, that no one else in their right mind would. None of Ellis’ heroes – or I should say, protagonists – act like typical superheroes.
Spider Jerusalem is NO superhero. He curses, drinks, smokes, does illegal drugs, kills people (including his ex-wife), watches porn, tapes himself having sex, engages in all sorts of suspect activities from eating human meat to abusing animals: he lies, cheats, steals, blackmails and manipulates people and pushes his body to toxic limits beyond self-abuse and worse. I think the more you identify with Spider Jerusalem’s crusade, or he and Yelenda’s relationship, or even the bizarreness that is The City, the more likely you are to rate Transmetropolitan “great.”
He sounds exactly like Deadpool. 
Hee. He also said
and
I’m not one to hide a new source of joy, so I’ll confess: I found all of these on Wikiquotes.
All attributed to him, but they do SOUND authentic, no?
heh heh, I was going to say the same. This discussion could divert into a debate on ‘superhero behavioural norms and variances from the mean’.
I know Spider Jerusalem is prone to anti-heroic behaviour, but then Wolverine engages in murder and bloodshed regularly, he also smokes, drinks, is apt to a little self-abuse from time to time, and he hangs around with teenage girls. Q.E.D, Wolverine is not a superhero.
I’m also fully aware that it could be argued that ‘Spider Jerusalem doesn’t wear a cape or fly, and he swears, a lot, so he can’t be a super hero, cos super heroes don’t play that!’, but I’d still take the personal stance that Spider J IS a superhero, albeit not a normal one.
Sorry, I digress, I agree with Askia.
… about Ellis being fascinated with the mythic nature of the superhero, but bored by the humdrummery (is that a word) that has become standard story telling. Or rather, I would say, had become the standard, because I would also argue we’re seeing much better superheroic fare these days than we’ve seen in a long, long time.
And yes, Desolation Jones was lots of fun.