Ever remember thinking how ridiculous Cable leader of X-Force, looked with his oversized rifles, which looked more like phallic references than anything else? Did you ever wince at how excessively macho Nick Fury has always been portrayed? Did you ever scratch your head at how many superheroes in comic books in general preface their names with "Captain?"
Did you ever think that this and so many other foibles of comic-book storytelling would be great material for lampooning?
Well, Marvel did, and instead of coming up with one of yet another iteration of the stylistically weak "What The-?" which is kind of like a "MAD" kind of publication, they've come out with Nextwave, which features actual, mainstream Marvel characters, albeit 3rd tier ones, and an actual, topnotch creative team in writer Warren Ellis and artist Stuart Immonen, neither of whom tries to portray their characters with any particular exaggeration from the norm (although Ellis does occasionally).
There's nothing deep or earth-shaking about this book; it's simply about a group of b-list superheroes who worked for a government agency known as the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort (H.A.T.E., for short, a riff on S.H.I.E.L.D., just as its chief, Dirk Anger, is an analogue of Nick Fury, who Marvel wouldn't allow Ellis to use because they have other plans for the character) and decided to go rogue when they found out that H.A.T.E. was actually being funded by a terrorist cell.
There have been seven issues so far, and each story-arc takes only two issues, so each new story is an accessible, easy read. The art is crisp and clean, and it's so...much...fun how Ellis makes fun of Marvel conventions, and so much fun how Marvel allows him to do so. It's a comic book for anyone who's winced at so many of these strange storytelling devices Marvel has evolved over the years, and it looks great too.
And it has a theme song, believe it or not. If you don't believe me, check out myspace.thunderthighs or something like that. It's a scream!
2 comments:
as per your recommendation, jim, i went out and bought myself the first issue of NEXTWAVE. you were right, it's a great read! i always wondered what ever happened to captain marvel of avengers fame - it's good to know she's still around (she was my first captain marvel even before i was introduced to the captain marvel of the Distinguished Competition), same goes for machine man. was never really a fan of the liefeld 'new mutants / x-force' comic and art so boomboom was new to me, as well as the other two (the captain and elsa bloodstone) - but they all jived pretty well. i actually went out today and got myself more back issues - i now have 2-6 and can't wait to read them. thanks for the heads up!
You're most welcome, Carlo! I'm glad to hear you've taken an interest in Nextwave. It's not really one of Marvel's top-selling titles, which is really a shame because it's actually generated quite a cult following among internet critics, so I felt the need to help get the word out. People seem to be more into the big ticket books like Civil War (the next issue of which is FINALLY coming out next week), but I think Nextwave deserves some love from the fans too. Happy reading!
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