Wondercon coming soon

i know i know i know. i've been pretty distracted lately and haven't read much in a while. just a few late eighties marvel titles. nothing too important to comment on. but wonder con is coming up next weekend. pretty pumped about that. more soon. soonish. i hope.

Ocean 1-6

by Warren Ellis and Chris Sprouse, Wildstorm 2005

Yeah another one by Warren. What can i say, my stack has gotten high.

Must say I really enjoyed this. We have a very cool, very Ellis cast. Very smart, super-cool geeks that save the world. Nathan Kane is a Uniter Nations Weapons Inspector. One hundred years from now, he is called to travel out to Europa, Jupiter's moon, to report on something that has been found under Her shell of ice, in Her ocean. A billion year old, early human species is hidden there, in deep suspended animation. And they have guns. Big fuck-off, world ending ones that can crake planets in half or stellify them.

So that's where the adventure comes from.

But the real treat here is classic Ellis education by way science fiction. He takes real science and futurist ideas and births out new technologies. Nothing here is groundbreaking, but its all really fucking cool. There is a Microsoft-like corporation, Doors, that has a station in orbit around Europa. All of the employees abroad have been given "corporate personalities" uploaded into their brains. They are essentially drones, wi-fi'ed corporate memos directly into their brains. The station manager describes the "web of liquid computer" in his head that hasn't been updated in over a year. Lots of little bits like that.

And then there is the heart that Warren puts into everything he does. Genuinely good people in fucked up situations, trying to save the world so that they can just be normal again. yeah, good stuff. Go get the trade, i'm sure there is one by now.