The Specialists

Warren Ellis is one of the biggest names in comics these days. He’s the creator of Transmetropolitan, Planetary, The Authority, and Global Frequency, among others, and has had writing stints on Wolverine, Iron Man, Hellblazer, and Excalibur, just to name a few. He’s no slouch. So it’s hardly surprising that his webcomic, FreakAngels, is one of the best on the Internet.

FreakAngels takes place in a flooded, post-apocalyptic  London. It’s protagonists are a group of twelve young men and women who were all born at exactly the same moment, and who have amazing psychic powers. They’re also responsible for the end of the world. I’m not spoiling anything, because this fact is revealed early in the comic. It then teases out the details of how this came to pass over the next several hundred pages.

Twelve protagonists is a lot for a writer to handle, especially when they have so much in common. But Ellis manages to give them each a distinct personality, and to weave a complex web of alliances and rivalries within the group. Not all of the FreakAngels are likable, or even good. And even the good ones are complicated and flawed.

Unlike a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction, FreakAngels manages to avoid nihilism. This is not simply a story of survival in a ruined world, but of people who actively try to improve the living conditions of those around them. It’s a surprisingly hopeful story, even if the setting is dire.

The artwork, by Paul Duffield, is beautiful. He uses a muted color pallet that contributes to the bleakness of the setting , as does the attention to detail in the ruined buildings of London.

FreakAngels is updated every Friday, and each week brings a new six-page “episode.” There are currently 111 episodes, for a total of 666 pages. But don’t let that intimidate you; each page contains no more than four panels, so you can catch up on the archive within two or three hours. But you definitely need to start at the beginning. This isn’t the kind of story that provides easy entry points.

A couple caveats: The navigation is not very intuitive. There’s no convenient “next” link to get you from page to page. Instead, you must click the page numbers below the current page to get though each episode, and then click a link for the next episode to get another set of page links. Also, you should be aware that the comic is definitely R-rated, and may not be safe for work. There is harsh language, some nudity, and quite a bit of graphic violence.

Shawn

Thanks to Paul (aka AZCOBound) for the recommendation!