Mills gets you into the story, into the action, and starts playing with ideas from issue one. We don't waste time on long flashbacks or setups, and there's not much expositionary dialogue. I would definitely point to this book as a great example of doing world-building gradually, with the introduction of details that fit together to produce a whole. The series is built on a lot of little references, in-jokes, and subversions, and the minutiae really help to build and maintain the complex world. I knew O'Neill from 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', but he really shines here. Manhattan', Kirkman's 'Omni-Man', Bendis' 'Supershock', or Miller's take on The Man of Steel in Dark Knight. Likewise, his deconstruction of Superman ranks up there with Moore's 'Dr. The way he plays with the cliches of feminist theory versus the symbolic misogyny of comics is amusing and insightful. It's about Empire, about responsibility and power inequality, and Mills never shrinks back from the darkness. The book isn't easy to read, but its enjoyable because of Mills' insights on nationalism, colonialism, dystopia, war, killing, and sexual subversion. He actually makes sex and violence disturbing and difficult to read-in a comic book-an achievement I find it difficult to overstate. Mills keeps the violence of comics, as well as the twisted, overwrought sexuality, but he removes the entertainment value. Like Moore, Mills is showing how ridiculous it is to take superheroism at face value, and trying to show what people would really be like if they had superpowers: naive, amoral rockstars bent on attacking anyone who doesn't agree with them. But while Moore takes a serious, realistic tack in his deconstruction, Mills' satire is much more overt and over-the-top. Marshal Law is a high-octane black comedy, a satire on superheroism which tackles many of the same themes as its contemporary, Moore's much-lauded 'Watchmen'.

Pinhead vs. Marshal Law by Pat Mills