Warren Ellis is writing a comic about a super hero who kills the president.
Oh, Ellis. He’s so shocking and confrontational. How can you push super hero ethics any further? Oh I know, maybe he could make a comic where a super hero kills thousands of innocent people in order to unite the whole world against a common, but imaginary threat.
Oh, wait…
Seriously, this just looks awful. I don’t see it as being much of a “deconstruction” nor very interesting politically nor ethically. Should a superhero kill the president is right up there with “If you could travel back in time and kill Hitler, would you?” for un-interesting party conversation. It’s just straight-up shock value.
Alan Moore was doing far more interesting things in Watchmen and even V for Vendetta (which is now a major motion picture) over 20 years ago. Moore’s stories pose far more disturbing questions. Ellis is just breaking a taboo.
Comment (1)
Yep. Mark Millar started out his run on the Authority with the superheroes killing a thinly-disguised Indonesian president for attacks on the East Timorese, and ended it with the Authority kicking a thinly-disguised American president through one of their teleportation doors into Iraq. When Ellis is reduced to scrounging plot devices off of the follow-up writer on his best known creation, he’s started to scrape through the bottom of the barrel.