Death is everywhere. It's falling on us all. Let me find an answer before I go. Let me show them all how this happened. Please don't let me die in this place.
Appearing in "Men On Fire"
Featured Characters:
- Philip Sheldon (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Kree Liberation Force (First Appearance; Main story and flashback)
- Mar-Vell (First Appearance; Main story and flashback)
- Col. Nick Fury (Only appearance; dies)[1]
- Rick Jones (First appearance; Main story and flashback)
Other Characters:
- Avengers (Only appearance)[1]
- The Man in the Iron Mask / Iron Man (Tony Stark) (Only appearance; dies)[1]
- Giant-Man (Hank Pym) (Only appearance; dies)[1]
- Wasp (Janet van Dyne) (Only appearance; dies)[1]
- Dr. Stephen Strange (Referenced)
- Hawkeye (Clint Barton) (First Appearance; Photo; Death)
- Captain America / America (Steve Rogers) (Mentioned)
- Stark Industries (First Appearance; Photo)
- National Guard (Referenced)
- Matthew Murdock (First Appearance; Photo; Deceased)
- Canuck (James Howlett) (First appearance)
- Black Panther Party (First Appearance; Photo)
- Bobby Seale (First Appearance; Photo)
- Huey P. Newton (First Appearance; Photo)
- T'Challa des Wakandas (First Appearance; Photo)
- Wanda Maximoff-Lehnsherr (First Appearance; Photo; Leaves Avengers)
- Kree Liberation Force (First Appearance; Main story and flashback)
- Supreme Intelligence (Mentioned)
- Numerous unnamed members (Main story and flashback)
- Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) (Only Appearance; Only in flashack; Corpse)
- Daily Bugle (Referenced)
- Ben Urich (Named only)
- Gwen Stacy (Named only)
- President X (Charles Xavier) (First appearance; Photo)
- United States Secret Service (First Appearance; Photo)
- Warren Worthington III (First appearance; Photo)
- Jeanne-Marie Beaubier (First appearance)
- Jean-Paul Beaubier (Only appearance; Corpse)
- Jean Grey (Only appearance; dies)[1]
- "Enchantress" (Amora) (Named only)
- Weekly World Enquiry (First appearance)
- God (Galactus) (Only appearance; Corpse; Photo)
- Victoria Wingate Hellstrom (Referenced)
- Daimon Hellstrom (Referenced)
- Marlo Chandler (First appearance)
- CIA (Mentioned)
- Woodie Guthrie (Mentioned)
- Hulk (Dr. Bruce Banner) (First appearance; Only in flashback)
- Nazi Party (Mentioned)
- Joseph Goebbels (Mentioned)
- Punisher (Frank Castle) (Only Appearance; Corpse)
Races and Species:
- Humans (First appearance)
- Mutants (First appearance)
- Kree (First Appearance; Main story and flashback)
- Zenn-Lavians (Only Appearance; Only in flashback)
- Taa-ans (Only Appearance; Photo)
Locations:
- Earth-9591 (First appearance)
- Solar System (First appearance)
- Earth (First appearance)
- United States of America (First appearance)
- California (First appearance)
- Unnamed bar
- San Francisco (First Appearance; Photo)
- San Francisco City Jail (First Appearance; Photo)
- Haight-Ashbury (First Appearance; Photo)
- Haight Street (First Appearance; Photo)
- Los Angeles (First Appearance; Photo)
- Nevada (First appearance)
- Kree Reservation (First appearance)
- District of New York (First Appearance; Photo)
- White House (First Appearance; Photo)
- Maryland (First appearance)
- Washington, D.C. (First appearance)
- Illinois (First appearance)
- Chicago (First appearance)
- Rick Jones' apartment
- Chicago (First appearance)
- Arizona (First Appearance; Only in flashback)
- California (First appearance)
- Vietnam (Referenced)
- France (Referenced)
- United States of America (First appearance)
- Moon (First appearance; Only in flashback)
- Mars (First appearance; Photo)
- Earth (First appearance)
- Hala (Invoked)
- Solar System (First appearance)
Items:
- Iron Man Armor (First appearance)
- Iron Man Armor Model 1 (First appearance; Photo)
- Iron Man Armor Model 2 (Only appearance)[1]
- Giant-Man's Suit (Only appearance)[1]
- Wasp's Suit (Only appearance)[1]
- Bio-Synthetic Wings (Only appearance)[1]
- Captain America's Shield (Only appearance)[1]
- Mjolnir (Only appearance)[1]
- Several copies of the Daily Bugle
- First appearance; Photo
- Marvels (Mentioned)
- Silver Surfer's Surfboard (Only in flashback)
- Power Cosmic (Only in flashback)
- Gamma Bomb (Only in flashback)
Vehicles:
- Quinjet (Destruction)
- Numerous Kree ships (Only in flashback; Destruction)
- Silver Surfer's Surfboard (Only Appearance; Only in flashback)
Events:
- Vietnam War (Referenced)
- The Big War (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "Men On Fire"
Ruins follows former Daily Bugle reporter Phil Sheldon as he explores a dystopian alternate Marvel Universe where, in his words, "everything that can go wrong will go wrong"; a world where the myriad experiments and accidents which led to the creation of superheroes in the mainstream Marvel Universe instead resulted in horrible deformities and painful deaths. The narrative follows Sheldon as he tours the country investigating the after-effects of these events, researching a book about the strange phenomena in order to prove that the world has taken a wrong turn somewhere and hoping to complete it before he dies. As he journeys across America, the nature of the world is gradually revealed in the form of both interviews and cameo appearances from various figures from the Marvel Universe.
In the first issue, after witnessing the destruction of the last Avengers Quinjet (in this reality a radical secessionist rebel group rebelling against an oppressive American government led by 'President X', who have all either been killed or imprisoned), which has killed both Captain America and Iron Man, and encountering a decaying Wolverine, whose flesh is slowly falling off from the toxicity of his adamantium bone structure, Sheldon proceeds to a Kree internment camp in Nevada, which is situated on a nuclear test site, where the last survivors of a Kree invasion fleet are imprisoned and slowly dying of cancer. Clad in a radiation-proof suit, he interviews Captain Mar-Vell, one of the Kree prisoners, who tells him why their invasion failed; the Kree came upon the Silver Surfer, who had gone mad and torn open his own chest in a futile attempt to experience respiration once again, only to discover that the Power Cosmic emanating from the Surfer's body had been interfering with their scanners, preventing them from detecting a nuclear barrage which destroyed ninety percent of the warships. In Washington, D.C., Sheldon arranges a meeting with government agent Nick Fury, who attacks and almost shoots him, insisting that 'proved he was clean' and claiming that Captain America introduced him to cannibalism. They are interrupted by Jean Grey, here a prostitute, who offers herself to the two men for twenty dollars; but Fury shoots her dead and then kills himself. After his encounter with Fury, Sheldon visits Chicago and interviews Rick Jones, a morphine addict living with fellow addict Marlo Chandler, who tells the story of when Bruce Banner saved him from a gamma radiation blast; however, instead of transforming Banner into the mighty Hulk, the radiation transformed Banner into a monstrous green mass of pulsating tumors. Leaving the apartment, Sheldon trips over the corpse of The Punisher in the snowfall, and the issue ends with him on his knees as he begs to be allowed to show the world how this state of affairs came to pass.
Notes
After the first page showing the death of the Avengers one of the soldiers found Captain America's shield among the wreckage. We can assume that Cap was in the explosion that killed the Avengers although he was never seen. Thor's hammer is also seen held by a soldier, although it is not stated how the soldier passed the worthiness enchantment, if there is one, and the appearance of a version of Donald Blake in the next issue contradicts this.
See Also
- Write your own review of this comic!
- Discuss Ruins Vol 1 1 on the forums
- 49 Images from Ruins Vol 1 1
Footnotes
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