Stuffed Puffin

For many people who don’t read comic books, comics is largely about superheroes.  In some cases, there have been sci-fi subplots to create superheroes (Fantastic Four, for example), but until the recent crop of Marvel movies featured a band of merry space adventurers (Guardians of the Galaxy), the mainstream saw comics as fantasy with weird people having weird powers, beating the crap out of each other.  Those who read comic books knew better, though: science fiction elements have been an integral part of comic universes since its classic days, even if we disregard Superman as being an alien whose space ship crash landed on Earth.  Jack Kirby created the New Gods of the DC universe in 1971: an alien race of superpowered beings.  Marvel has multiple alien races.  The Skrull were created in 1962; the Kree in 1967, just to name the most prominent ones.  However, all those comic worlds are still at heart about superpowered beings, no matter how they gained their powers.  The work of Warren Ellis is different.  It focuses on sci-fi elements, explores futuristic societies and often features normal, or only mildly abnormal humans.  More importantly, his books are fun and insightful at the same time and should be considered among the best sci-fi works in comics.

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