Due to a hiatus on the site, this is the first opportunity I've had to review a new issue of Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's Nextwave. And man, have I been itching to do so. Nextwave is the best new super-hero title to hit the stands in some time, and it's already a title to which I look forward every month. Warren Ellis has done for super-heroes what Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis did for the genre almost 20 years ago with Justice League. The style of the writing and manic humor isn't something new from Ellis, but the writer has been allowed to be more extreme with corporate super-heroes on this title title than ever before. Super-hero fans will delight in the unrestrained action and humor, and those with a distaste for the genre or bored with it will be amused by the over-the-top satire. It's got something for everyone.
... Well, except dogs, I suppose. Unless the pages are meat-flavored.
Tear. Munch, munch. Gulp..
No, nothing for dogs.
Some sort of techno-organic device that can transform a living thing into a hulking monster with an appetite for destruction (not to mention tires and tykes) has been loosed by the Beyond Corporation into a small town, and the heroes of Monica Rambeau's Nextwave squad are determined to pick up the trail. They find the creature they're looking for, but they also find a legion of Beyond Corp.'s Human Resources androids. Chaos ensues, mainly due to all of the explosions and beheadings. Meanwhile, Dirk Anger, director of the government-sanctioned spy/cop organization that's in league with the Beyond Corporation, feels sad.
Stuart Immonen's better known for his softer, more realistic approach to comics storytelling. It's on that work, such as his efforts on Legion of Super-Heroes and various Superman titles, that he developed his fanbase and reputation in the industry. His more recent projects, such as Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, have shown a different sort of approach, and it's further developed on Nextwave. His more angular figures and thicker lines suit the more intense and tongue-in-cheek tone of this book. The Dirk Anger scene reminded me a great deal of the style of Amanda (JSA: Classified, The Pro) Conner's work as well. Immonen brings his ability to convey a larger scope to this series, and given the larger-than-life action, that's vital to this humor title's success.
Ellis opts for a different kind of introductory scene, one that flies in the face of the impossible ideas that are to be found at the heart of the plots. His focus on a dirty cop's last day on the job serves not only to show the reader that the "victim" of the Seed deserves what he gets, but to lull the audience, making us prime targets for the cat-creature whammy scene.
The appeal of this title stems from two main sources: the goofy yet creepy sci-fi/spy stuff, and the banter among the characters. The heroes are uber-cool, acting casually about ideas and events that would drive the rest of us mad with fear and putrid with pants feces. Nextwave is really an alternate-reality version of The Authority, a concept Ellis also created. In this parallel reality, things are just a bit funnier, a bit zanier. They're a bit tamer as well, as cursing and sex are clearly toned down a bit for the Marvel audience. 9/10
