Years ago, I fell in love with Warren Ellis's writings in Transmetropolitan and soon scurried out to pick up all of the stuff by him I could find, including the superhero team book, StormWatch. So I've had it all in single issues for the longest time. In an effort to consolidate, I've been buying tradepaper back editions so I can rid myself of the single issues.
Which brings me to Stormwatch: Force of Nature. This is the tpb covering Ellis's first story arcs on the title, though not the first tpb to be printed. Picking it up allowed me to re-read these arcs and remember what excited me so much about it in the first place. Here's an international superhuman police agency, deciding that they've had enough of running after escaping villains hollering, "Stop or I'll ... say stop again!" So the group's leader, the Weatherman, Henry Bendix, makes a number of team changes.
He fires characters who, one presumes, Ellis hated. He changes roles for characters, gives them new tasks, new responsibilities, shuffles the love stories out of the spotlight, and gets serious about making a difference. Changing the world, as it turns out, is hard work. Hard, bloody, sardonic dialogue laced work, to be exact.
I gather this tradebound is being marketed to people who didn't notice Ellis until The Authority as it touts this being the first appearance of Jenny Sparks and Jack Hawksmoor, who continue on in that title. [Yes, yes, I know that I'm one of those people who didn't notice Ellis until Transmetropolitan, put away your nerdier than thou pitchforks.] Which is fine, it's true, this is where we first meet the Spirit of the 20th Century, the girl who is electricity, as well as the God of Cities, involuntary recipient of alien organs. But there's more here than that.
There're screeds about the imposition upon the normal majority by the paranormal minority, a Nietzsche quoting ubermensch with no face, an eyeless Japanese doomsday cult, drinking, sex, poor work attitudes, the New World Order, and high order bluffs. It's a breezy little rip through the countryside with the goggles off and well worth reading, but if you're not already an Ellis fan, it probably won't make you one. So if you're looking to join the cult, start somewhere easier, like The Authority.
posted at 19:15 PDT (-0700) (comments disabled) permanent link
