DV8: Neighborhood Threat [Paperback]

Warren Ellis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

From red-hot creator Warren Ellis and fan-favourite artist Humberto Ramos comes a story of a superteam with a serious difference: they're not exactly the 'good' guys...Meet Threshold, Evo, Sublime, Bliss, Powerhaus and Copycat - products of the same programme which produced the Gen 13 kids (who can be seen in Superman/Gen 13), and under the combined mentorship of the beautiful, evil Ivana Baiul and the barking mad Sideways Bob. Super-powered, super-cool, holed up in luxury apartments in a run-down part of New York City, they're entering a world they think they can understand...but do any of them truly realise what they've gotten into?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Warren Ellis has worked for Marvel Comics on X-Men, DC/WildStorm (The Authority, Transmetropolitan and the award-winning Planetary) and on an array of titles, including Ministry of Space, and the forthcoming Morning Dragons and Orbiter. Humberto Ramos has illustrated a wide variety of bestselling titles, including JLA: World Without Grown-Ups, Crimson and Impulse. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Wildstorm (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563899272
• ISBN-13: 978-1563899270
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,889,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bad People Doing Bad Things To Other Bad People., November 15, 2002

By 

Daniel V. Reilly (Upstate New York, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: DV8: Neighborhood Threat (Paperback)

What would a group of super-powered teen-agers REALLY be like? Certainly not fresh-faced do-gooders, as Gen13 or Generation X would have us believe. But I'd hope they wouldn't be QUITE as bad as The Deviants, the protagonists of DV8: Neighborhood Threat. As portrayed by Writer Warren Ellis, The Deviants are foul-mouthed, immoral, murderous, horny, incestuous, lazy, greedy punks, at the mercy of their handler, Ivana Baiul, and her crony, the crazed Sideways Bob. Ivana has her own mysterious agenda, often sending the kids on suicide missions just because she can. As bad as The Deviants are, though, the people they come up against are even worse, and it does provide a vicarious thrill to see The Deviants dish out a well deserved serving of comeuppance to these baddies.

Ellis' stories are compelling, and the characters are all nicely developed by the end of the collection. The art (By Humberto Ramos) is nice, but at times it's hard to make out what's going on in a panel. (This is some of his earlier work.) The book also includes a new introduction by Ellis, and a cover gallery of the reprinted issues (#'s 1-6, and the special Wizard #1/2 issue), including the "Seven Deadly Sins" variant covers for issue #1.

Overall, it's a fun read for people with strong stomachs. Here's hoping DC collects the rest of Ellis' DV8 run.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Ellis' best..., April 13, 2010

By 

grifter78 (Fort Worth, Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: DV8: Neighborhood Threat (Paperback)

I read this trade in anticipation of Brian Wood and Rebekah Isaacs' Dv8: Gods and Monsters mini-series coming out in April. Wood has stated that the only reference he pulled from was this initial Dv8 run by Warren Ellis and Humberto Ramos. As much as I usually like Warren Ellis' stuff, I have to say I wasn't that impressed with this run.

I never followed Dv8 when the series was running. I have issue one but I probably picked it up because it's the "Sloth" Variant by Jim Lee. As I reread it, it must not have impressed me back then because I never followed the series after that. I think back then I was still focusing more on the artists than the writer. So the fact that Ellis wrote this wasn't enough to keep me on the title. Add that to the fact I was never a big Humberto Ramos fan and it's easy to see why I didn't follow this series.

Ellis has a little introduction to the trade that makes it hard to decipher how he actually felt about the book. He says that initially he didn't want it but it wasn't until Jim Lee compared it to the film "Kids" that he agreed to do it. "Kids" was definitely a messed up movie and that seems to be the theme of this arc. I guess what I miss here that Ellis usually does is give us an over-arcing story. These issues are very much stand-alone and therefore seem disjointed a little. There is a thin thread of a storyline in that the kids are kind of coming to depend on one another (some of them anyway). But that's quickly dropped on the last issue, almost as if Ellis realized what he was doing and decided he had to drop that idea quickly before he left the book.

The fact that these characters are messed up was not enough to make me want to read about them. It was the idea that despite the fact they're messed up, they can still come to rely on each other, even if it's while still committing evil. That kind of conflict is interesting because you know that they weren't born evil, so there's a part of them deep down that struggles with what they do. On the flip side, there are some like Ivana and Bliss who no longer have anything deep down inside to struggle with and are more self-absorbed which in turn fuels their evil acts to satisfy their own desires.

Overall, I'd say it was a decent read but it's not one of Ellis' best. But I am excited to see what Wood does with these characters because they do have potential and it'll be cool to see where he takes them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Three and a half stars, December 16, 2007

By 

M. Vasiljevic "Marko V." (Belgrade, Serbia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DV8: Neighborhood Threat (Paperback)

It would be real boring to read comics about do-gooders only , no?
Dv8 is some kinda sarcasm pointed to nice guy comic teams like Gen13 or Teen Titans.

Maybe they are what Claremont would write if he had been born some 20 years later? Remember how first version of X-men were team of people some of which were problematic, like all time angry Wolverine, frustrated and too responsible Cyclops, Jean Grey who got corrupted by too much power and little help by Mastermind?

Here we have a guy who lives for weightlifting and watching sports, otherwise he is dull person, deviantly Bliss who uses her pleasure-center stimulation powers on literally EVERYONE she wants to manipulate, feral Evo who is some kinda meaner Wolverine with no morale and less guts, alcoholic Powerhaus who makes himself numb in order not to absorb surrounding emotions, and worst of all, their boss Ivana who manipulates kids because she know each of them has dirty secrets she can use against them.

I got Dv8 in spanish, lost it and got complete run except some annuals and crossovers. I think first 12 Dv8 issues are GREAT, although only first eight were written by Warren Ellis. I think this comic has more 'heart' then Authority and Stowmwatch and more humour, although maybe it is not so critically acclaimed.