# Warren Ellis re-works Wildstorm Comics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2017, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-ellis-re-works-wildstorm-comics/780930 "2017-02-27T07:24:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TYphoonSignal8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@TYphoonSignal8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TYphoonSignal8)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2017, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-ellis-re-works-wildstorm-comics/780930/1 "2017-02-27T07:24:18Z")
I was quietly excited about news that Warren Ellis would be Jim Lee’s old Wildstorm panoply of characters, which I assume is part of DC’s Rebirth continuity rebooting. Ellis did a nice job on The Authority back in the day and I was looking forward to seeing more of that. Even better, Ellis has become more acerbic over the years and his snarky wit mouthed by the likes of Grifter would have been fun But then, I read this: > **[No Capes Here: The Wildstorm #1 (review) - World Comic Book Review](https://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/2017/02/27/no-capes-wildstorm-1-review/)** > > The Wildstorm #1 DC Comics, April 2017 Writer: Warren Ellis British writer Warren Ellis has been tapped by DC Comics to redevelop the stable of superhero characters which it acquired in 1999 from artist Jim Lee. Mr Lee's business was known as... So it seems that Ellis is sneaking the characters into a spy/science fiction and the masks, capes, some of the superpowers and all of the back history is mopped away. Not sure how I feel about that. Has anyone read it? ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2017, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-ellis-re-works-wildstorm-comics/780930/2 "2017-02-27T12:39:23Z")
> [@TYphoonSignal8](#): > > I was quietly excited about news that Warren Ellis would be Jim Lee’s old Wildstorm panoply of characters, which I assume is part of DC’s Rebirth continuity rebooting. Ellis did a nice job on The Authority back in the day and I was looking forward to seeing more of that. Even better, Ellis has become more acerbic over the years and his snarky wit mouthed by the likes of Grifter would have been fun > > But then, I read this: > > [No Capes Here: The Wildstorm #1 (review) - World Comic Book Review](http://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/index.php/2017/02/27/no-capes-wildstorm-1-review/) > > So it seems that Ellis is sneaking the characters into a spy/science fiction and the masks, capes, some of the superpowers and all of the back history is mopped away. > > Not sure how I feel about that. Has anyone read it? History? Weren’t those characters ridiculously derivative to begin with? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2017, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-ellis-re-works-wildstorm-comics/780930/3 "2017-02-27T18:50:27Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > History? Weren’t those characters ridiculously derivative to begin with? Hey! Midnighter was the MOST original character EVER! No matter what Doc Savage or The Shadow or Batman say! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2017, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-ellis-re-works-wildstorm-comics/780930/4 "2017-02-27T18:56:12Z")
I think I see the critic’s point. Ellis doesn’t seem to be taking over the characters because he likes them; he appears, rather, to be taking them over so he can destroy them. It’s a bad attitude to begin writing a series with. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-ellis-re-works-wildstorm-comics/780930/5 "2017-02-27T20:31:12Z")
I read the first issue and it was dull. Really, really dull. I might read issue two, but unless there’s a huge upswing in quality, I’m quitting with the next issue. Life is too short to read boring comics. ---
**Author:** ![TYphoonSignal8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@TYphoonSignal8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TYphoonSignal8)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-ellis-re-works-wildstorm-comics/780930/6 "2017-02-28T01:18:28Z")
That bodes poorly. > [@G0sp3l](#): > > Hey! Midnighter was the MOST original character EVER! No matter what Doc Savage or The Shadow or Batman say! > > 🙂 Midnighter is certainly a variation on a well-worn theme. But the character’s spectacularly imaginative brutality and penchant for torture, sardonic sense of humour, and, of course, that he is openly and happily gay, sets Midnighter apart from the black-clad flock. **Go\_Arachnid\_Laser** - The Engineer wasn’t especially derivative. Angela Spica was a well-adjusted individual who happened to have a few litres of nanotechnology in her blood. The character’s personality reminded me a little of 1980s Donna Troy. The power-set was pretty unique. Grifter was a happy-go-lucky freebooter, quite a different beast from fellow gun-wielding psychos like The Punisher, Deathstroke and Bullseye (who now seems to have his own series?!). Granted, Zealot was certainly a cookie-cut “bad tempered girl with sword”, and Voodoo was pretty one-dimensional. But not all of the Wildstorm characters were thus.