Ministry of Space


Darque Edge

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Anybody read it? A story about how Britain becomes the worlds superpower after WWII, rather than America, and how they run a minsitry of space. Nice art, brilliantly written, and a fantastic ending. I heart Warren Ellis, even if he did turn me down for an interview.

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I'm a big fan of Warren's work. His run on Authority is the only one that counts in my book. Planetary and Global Frequency are really solid works, too.

I had some mixed feelings about Ministry, though.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Chris Weston should be the only artist allowed to draw the British. I don't know why I'm saying it. Just read Grant Morrison's The Filth and you'll understand.

I really liked the concept. Much like in Orbiter, Warren shows his firm belief in the space program and how much can be gained with the exploration of our solar system.

The flaws I saw in it were few but they stuck out enough to annoy me.

First off is the "anti-American" issue. I'm not saying that Warren hates the US or anything as asinine as that. It's just that some of his work (stormwatch, authority, ministry of space) casts a poor light on the US. Perhaps this is some strange sense of patriotism, or whatever, but seeing those GIs at Peenemunde<sp?>, you know, the ones from the Overtly Western Hillbilly Battalion, get bombed by the British really struck a cord with me.

Not only that, but the fact that it took almost 60 friggin' years for the US and Russia to finally start getting into the Space not-so-much-a Race. How does that work? Apparently having one Nazi scientist and an over-confident project leader will ensure that you'll be in the Buck Rogers Age by 2001.

The issue here is believability. Even with their "special funding" I don't see Britain attaining as much as they did in that little amount of time. I understand it's fiction but damn that Warren for setting those goals so high! :P

Warren really does make you dream of a time where such a utopia is possible and I love that. The only problem is that the catch didn't get me (I actually guessed it after reading the first issue way back in the day but that's not the point). I ended up agreeing with the main character in the end. Who cares?

Overall, a great work that's worth getting in TPB, despite the "flaws" which are probably just my nitpickings.

BTW - Darque, what was your impression of the last panel of the last issue. Private message me, please.

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