Hellstorm de Warren Ellis Omnibus

Hellstrom (Collected editions)

by Warren Ellis

In his first American Marvel comic, rising superstar Warren Ellis made one hell of a debut! Now, rediscover his edgy and unsettling tales of Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan himself! Daimon is on the hunt for a serial magician murderer alongside his ally Isaac Christians, the Gargoyle. But who is Jaine Cutter, and what is her role in the delicate balance between Heaven and Hell? What terrible fate lies in store for Daimon's ex-wife, Patsy "Hellcat" Walker? And what happened to Daimon in his fateful confrontation with his demonic father? Ghosts, demons and things that go bump in the night all await - as does the truth about Satan himself! Plus, Ellis revamps the sorcerous Dr. Druid...and takes on Satana, daughter of the devil, in a never-before-published story! COLLECTING: HELLSTORM 12-21, DRUID 1-4

Genres: Comics, Horror, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Anthologies, Superheroes, Collections

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 2018

About the author

Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.

The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.

He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.

Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.

A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.

Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.

Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.

Reviews

[Dan]

Absolutely dreadful. And not in a good way.

As always, Warren Ellis has groundbreaking ideas to burn, but this early 90s book was written by an Ellis who was so green that he had no idea how to implement those ideas and concepts, instead populating his comic book with some of the most unlikable characters that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. Daimon Hellstrom was never a warm and fuzzy kind of guy, but to bring home a woman he just met and have sex with her while his wife lies in bed one floor away, a mindless vegetable...? This is a new level of coldness. Every character is an asshole, and they all speak in the EXACT...SAME...VOICE.

There's a lot here that drove me nuts. The lack of form or direction could have been molded by a good Editor, which Marie javins was not. She could also have stopped the maddening Briticisms, which no American character would say, like how everyone calls TALK SHOWS "chat shows".

Instead, Ellis seems to have been left to his own devices, which results in a completely incomprehensible storyline, which mostly finds him trying to ape Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. He's grown to be pretty much in their league. In 1994, he wasn't even close. The muddled, formless art of a young Leonardo Manco doesn't help matters any.

This books collects the entirety of Ellis' HELLSTORM run, as well as his DRUID mini-series, and some work from his aborted SATANA mini-series. DRUID is such a piece of garbage that Ellis can't resist shitting on the book himself, by having the title character killed on the last page, then stuffed into a trash can and set on fire. I wish I could do that to this omnibus.

[Alex Sarll]

Finally, a collection for some more of the excellent work Ellis did before he was famous. The downside of those years could sometimes be the editorial meddling, but that was also the upside, with little leeway for the longueurs and self-indulgences sometimes found in his later work. So for all that it wasn't offically Mature Readers this was very much a Marvel take on the dark, sexually-tinged horror strain in comics which would also give us the early years of Vertigo. Sure, the characters tended to have worse hair, but hey, even Dream could be a bit mullety sometimes - it was the nineties. As well as the Hellstorm run, I believe this volume contains the Druid miniseries. So apart from anything else, finally a wider readership can enjoy the scene in which the perpetual also-ran of Marvel mystics ends up dead, on fire, in a bin. Fun times.

[Shannon Appelcline]

The heart of this omnibus is the ten issues of Hellstorm by Ellis, which marks some of his earliest comics work. The issues are clearly the work of an amateur, with very sloppy plotting that goes all over the place and that just barely finishes up with the final issue, and there's never any indication of what Ellis' Hellstorm is about, but nonetheless it's a delightful comic. It feels a lot like a Marvel Vertigo, with Hellstorm occasionally acting as a Constantine-like fixer of supernatural problems, but that's intriguingly mixed with his role as Prince (King?) of Hell. Overall, it's unlike anything else that Marvel was doing in 1993 and still is an interesting read today. (It also is a nice follow-up to The Defenders of a decade early, with its inclusion of Daimon, Gargoyle, and Hellcat ... even if the last is dealt with in an extremely off-hand way) [4/5].

The short-lived Druid series that follows isn't nearly as interesting; in fact, it's just barely comprehensible and it's hard to like when Druid is such a distasteful character (let alone the fact that it seems barely in continuity with past uses of Dr. Druid) [2/5].

It's nice to also get the unfinished Satana, which looks like it could have been interesting ...

[OmniBen]

(Zero spoiler review) 4.5/5
Whilst I can appreciate that this is very much not for everyone, the current score of 3.3 really does feel unnecessarily harsh. If this was Warren Ellis' first foray into the world of published comics, then you can definitely see why he went on to be a big name and a mainstay in the industry. The man has written his share of middling tripe, though he has written some absolute bangers as well. And as you can see from the score I've given it, Hellstorm firmly falls into the category of 'holy shit, that's some damn good comics'.
Despite Ellis' expertise, it's Leandro Manco who absolutely steals the show here. His 90's, moody, sketchy style is nothing short of gorgeous. I mean, this guy was in his early twenties when this book was coming out. I would have swore this guy had done some Sandman issues, but alas, he didn't. his style would have effortlessly suited Gaiman's seminal work. the artwork, like the story itself won't be for everyone, although if it clocks for you like it did for me, then you'll fall in love with it. It's just a shame he didn't do every issue here, as despite the three back up artists all turning in excellent, if disparate work, none of it comes close to Manco's brooding, dark drawings.
The only few missives I have with this is the miniscule length of the main series. It just kind of ends, as if Ellis didn't quite know how to end it. Or perhaps it was canned without giving him the chance to end it proper. Either way, I wanted, no! Needed more of this. And the four issue Druid series which rounded this off was great for being all drawn by Manco, but wasn't as good as the series proper.
Either way, if you're sick of superheroes, and want to delve into something very dark and gloriously unsettling, then pick this up before Marvel refuse to reprint another Warren Ellis book ever again. 4.5/5


OmniBen.

[Kurt Lorenz]

Hellstorm: Prince of Lies #12-21 ☆☆☆☆
Druid #1-4, ☆☆☆
Satana proofs and art, ☆☆☆☆☆

This is some of the best back-up material I've seen in an omnibus. All previously unreleased art and proofs from a Satana series that was never published. The first issue is almost fully available to read and shows that the quality of writing and art would have surpassed Hellstrom and Druid. Greatly disappointing it was never finished.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García]

Una cosa que siempre me había llamado mucho la atención era que no terminaba de entender por qué en su momento desde Marvel no se habían seguido los pasos marcados por DC en la línea Vértigo. Personajes tenía, y de hecho, en los primeros 90 había habido un relanzamiento de las franquicias sobrenaturales con el evento El Ascenso de los Hijos de la Medianoche. Motorista Fantasma, Morbius, los Cazadores de Vampiros y los Redentores de Darkhold tenían chicha más que suficiente para haber iniciado un camino hacia la oscuridad, y lo mismo ocurría con Daimon Hellstorm, el Hijo del Diablo. Y de hecho, en su momento me pareció que con Hellstorm se daban unos pasos interesantes en este sentido. A mediados de los 90, Forum publicó una mini de seis números llamada Hellstorm: El Hijo de Satán, con guión de Rafael Nieves y dibujo de Michael Bair, y que en su momento, me resultó fascinante. Hellstorm había sido uno de esos héroes estrambóticos que habían surgido de la Marvel de los 70 y que había formado parte del desquiciado no grupo de los Defensores, incluso había pasado por las páginas de los Vengadores Costa Oeste en pequeñas apariciones, y había contraído matrimonio con la pintoresca Gata Infernal, Patsy Walker.

Pero Rafael Nieves y Michael Bair convertían a Hellstorm en una criatura oscura, desaliñada y violenta, aunque la serie no tuvo demasiado éxito, y en España se canceló en el sexto número, una historia de terror llamada Lisa que ponía los pelos de punta. Lo que yo no sabía es que en Estados Unidos la serie había continuado y había supuesto la llegada a Marvel del que sería uno de los más polémicos guionistas surgidos de Gran Bretaña, el controvertido Warren Ellis, que junto a Leonardo Manco, se encargaría de relanzar esta colección, y su etapa había permanecido inédita en España hasta ahora. Y sin duda, es lo más Vértigo que he visto en Marvel, y me ha recordado muchísimo a los primeros números de Hellblazer en manos de Jamie Delano, o algunas de las imágenes que Gaiman o Morrison tendían a utilizar en ese marco poético y siniestro que envolvía las obras de ese desembarco de autores británicos que había vivido el cómic americano. Ellis va a presentar un punto de ruptura y va a llevarnos a un Daimon Hellstorm que ha derrotado a su propio padre y se ha convertido en el señor del Infierno. Aunque mantiene a la Gárgola como compañero de Daimon, Ellis rompe con el pasado de Daimon, incluso saca del tablero a la propia Patsy Walker y presenta un nuevo interés romántico, una especie de guerrera gótica llamada Jeine Cutter. Junto a Jeine, Gárgola y el lider luciferino Anton Devine (obviamente inspirado en Anton LaVey), Daimon va a tener que hacer frente al Cielo y al Infierno, interviniendo en la guerra entre ambos para que la Tierra no caiga en manos de ninguno de los contendientes. Una historia oscura a la que el dibujo de Leonardo Manco le va como anillo al dedo, aunque debo reconocer que a mí me convence bastante poco, pero sí lo veo muy apropiado para la histioria que cuenta Ellis.

Además de esta etapa de Hellstorm, en el tomo vamos a encontrar la serie de cuatro números Druid, que también estaba inédita en España, y en la que Ellis y Manco repitieron la fórmula de Hellstorm para recuperar al Doctor Druida, un personaje secundario del universo Marvel que en los últimos 80 había pasado a formar parte de los Vengadores, y que había muerto no recuerdo muy bien si en los propios Vengadores o en Defensores Secretos. Druida había sido un personaje bastante... cantamañanas, por ser sutil, pero Ellis lo convierte en una criatura terrible, un heredero de los antiguos cultos druídicos (enfocados desde la parte más sangrienta de estos), y en el que recurre a otro secundario habitual del mundo Marvel, como es la sacerdotisa Nekra Sinclair, habitualmente relacionada con el Segador. Cuatro números muy Hellstorm, en los que Manco mantiene la costumbre de dibujar pocas camisetas y mucho pelo, trazos rápidos y diseños que recuerdan una extraña mezcla entre Sienkiewicz y Jae Lee, por nombrar dos autores que me vienen a la cabeza de golpe.

En resumen, el tomo no es demasiado brillante más allá de la labor experimental de trasladar el espíritu Vértigo a Marvel, y la curiosidad de ver cómo fue el primer trabajo de Ellis en el mundo Marvel. Pero es una experiencia de lectura interesante y que dudo que deje indiferente a nadie.

[Lucy Batson]

Extremely early Warren Eliis work that fits comfortable alongside Garth Ennis's Demon, Hellblazer, and other pseudo-Vertigo works of the time. More interesting than good, though the Druid mini-series is a little bit more promising. Fantastic art all around from Leonardo Manco and others.

[Tomczi]

3/5 for Hellstorm run
4/5 for 4 issues Druid mini series which is included

Manco's art was very good, though it might be not everyone's cup of tea. Hellstorm run suffers from being prematurely canceled, what forced Ellis to finish and wrap it in rushed manner. It's also disconnected from other Marvel titles, so for example question how "Satan" here relates to Mephisto or how Hell/Heaven and demons/angels interact with magic users (with one exception) are left unanswered.

Druid on the other hand is a great example of Warren's tight, short but on-point, densely packed creative and climatic worldbuilding brainstorm.

[Sebastian Lauterbach]

This is terrible and actually worse than the first 11 issues, collected in Hellstrom: Prince of Lies.

A really thin omnibus, consisting of issues #12-21 of Hellstorm, 4 issues of Druid and the draft of 3 Satana issues, that were never finished. All of it is written by a young Warren Ellis and most of it is pencilled by Leonardo Manco. The first thing that bothers me here, is that the first 11 issues are not collected here, but in another book. There'd been more than enough room in this thin omnibus.

The biggest problem of this book though is the hideous artwork. This is a title outside of the superhero genre, that caters a more mature audience with horror, misery and violence, which calls for a more gritty art style. Yes, but the artwork is not just gritty, but ugly and amateurish, such that I can't tell what is shown on a given panel. Characters always need to be named, because they knew that readers couldn't identify them. This becomes even more apparent, when there is a fill-in artist in two of the issues, that are the best in this collection by default.

Aside from the artwork, the writing isn't much better, unfortunately. The book has no direction, the story seems random and many of the characters define themselves by just killing without reason. Demons are nasty, humans are nasty, angels are nasty. Yawn. I was more interested in the connection to the Marvel Universe, which is almost non-existent, sadly.

I haven't even mentioned the awful Druid mini series yet, which makes even less sense than the ongoing, has an even more unlikable protagonist and ends in the most bizarre way imaginable.

I considered a 1 star rating, but the few issues by guest artists actually made me interested, as I could see an interesting book hidden beneath multiple layers of bad characterisation and sloppy writing. I'd advise to avoid this one like the plague.

[Devero]

Questo omnibus è abbastanza particolare, in quanto la serie Hellstorm, quando Warren Ellis ne prende il timone, era giunta al dodicesimo numero. Qui si ristampano i numeri della gestione Ellis, senza i precedenti, quindi molte cose non si capiscono granché, specialmente se uno aveva conosciuto il personaggio in passato. Ecco, i numeri qui non ristampati sono quelli che preferivo. Quelli di Nieves e Kaminski, quelli che davano un senso al sottotitolo della serie, "Prince of lies".
Con Ellis la serie perde quel tono di ambiguità che aveva prima, quel senso di estraniamento che il personaggio, gestito da loro, ti dava. Con Nieves e Kaminski non capivi mai quale era la vera scelta morale del Figlio di Satana che stava dietro alle sue azioni, nemmeno dai suoi ambigui baloon di pensiero.
Con Ellis invece la scelta è chiara. Daimon fa quello che fa per tenere al riparo la Terra dalla lotta tra un certo inferno e un certo paradiso, rafforzato in questo da un personaggio punk estremo come Jaine Cutter che diventa la sua partner.
Anche a livello di disegni credo di preferire Bair e Gross al pur bravo Manco, il cui tratto a mio parere è invecchiato meno bene. Ma mi fermo qui, perché mi accorgo di non stare giudicando l'Omnibus per quello che è, bensì come confronto diretto con le storie che lo hanno preceduto.

Dopo c'è la ristampa della mini Druid, che ho già giudicato negativamente nello spazio apposito.
Infine c'è il vero motivo per cui ho acquistato questo Omnibus: la stampa dell'abortita serie dedicata a Satàna, sorella di Diamon Hellstrom, le cui vicende erano iniziate già nei primi numeri della serie Hellstorm ma che sono rimaste sullo sfondo. Questa serie, che fu annunciata, venne poi bloccata dopo la produzione quasi completa del 1° numero (mancavano i colori) e a matite e chine quasi complete del 2°, col 3° appena abbozzato.
Decisamente la parte più intrigante dell'omnibus.

Comunque nel complesso è una buona lettura che sarebbe stata da 5 stelle se avesse ristampato anche le storie precedenti a quelle di Ellis, senza restano 3 stelle e mezza.

[Hugh P.]

I really enjoy Warren Ellis' writing (comics in particular; his prose, which I do read, is a bit more of a mixed bag).

Picking this book up, once I found an affordable copy, was a no-brainer for me, since it is both Ellis and the type of stories (Urban fantasy / off-brand John Constantine) which I often enjoy as well.

However, one has to go into this knowing that it is very EARLY Ellis (in fact, I believe his first mainstream work, or at least U.S. work).

It's decent... it's entertaining... but the ideas aren't fully formed. This is like reading what you know will become the Ellis that we now know, but isn't anywhere near there yet. Too many things are started, show the potential, but then dropped or just really very rushed through. It's mostly ideas and concepts without fulfillment, and so are a bit disappointing.

Still a fun read, but not worth it (in my opinion, but then, this is a review, so it's all my opinion) unless you find it cheap.

Bonus points for some background characters that appear for only an issue, or sometimes only a single panel, but that I want to see more of.

Extra bonus points for an appearance by Planetary's Jakita Wagner in one panel, though it's really in name only. He just must've liked the way it sounded...

[Victoria]

I really wanted to like this book i knew pasty walker dies in this book .i am a pasty fan i knew santanna was in this book also like her so i was excited to pick this up. but then santna is hardly used so we can read about the very 90s pasty replacement i mean its even brought up in the book jane cutter a lot of the page count is devoted to trying to make her stick but they knew they had to turn the book around so rather then having the far more intresting subplots go anywhere were treated to gargole from the defenders acting like the buttler and lots of brooding by hellstorm,. oh and lots of jane. the druid series is pointless and other then being a spin of of sorts hold zero value. A lot of the themes are used much better in the fantastic netflx castlevania show I wish santnna had been finished insted of the guy who was awful on the avangers druid that actully looked ok.

[Davide Saladino]

Storie macabre, oscure e, a tratti, disgustose. Personaggio molto carismatico che, grazie ai testi, riesce a trasmettere la propria psiche.
I disegni sono eccelsi e perfetti per le storie trattate.
La parte su "Druid" molto meno affascinante e un po' noiosa.
Molto interessante la storia finale, mai pubblicata, in b/n sulla sorella del protagonista.
La storia sarebbe da 3 stelle, ma i disegni sono da 5.
4 stelle buon compromesso.

[Jimbo]

Although this comic was a bit out there, not really a super-hero comic, both issues 1-11 (Hellstrom Prince of Lies) and Warren Ellis's 12-21 (Hellstrom Prince of Lies), plus Druid 1-4 made of unique and cool storytelling.

Dark and strange, mostly beautiful art work, this book delved into the demonic Hellstorm and Druid.

Worth reading. Too bad it didn't last more than 21 issues.

[Rob Saucedo]

Still on my HELLSTORM/HELLSTROM bullshit. I didn’t enjoy Warren Ellis’ run as much as I liked Len Kaminski’a THE SANDMAN-lite approach, but I have grown a big fondness for the Satan’s dork son. I guess I’m reading THE DEFENDERS and WEST COAST AVENGERS next.