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Underground > Comic Books >

Somebody please, please call... Nextwave!

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13:16 / 09.01.06

didn't see a topic here, and as #1 is about to be released...

from interview with editor Nick Lowe [with preview pages]:

"If every other super hero comic is 'Die Hard', then 'Nextwave' is a mix of 'Kramer vs. Kramer,' 'Bad Boys 2,' 'Parent Trap' and 'Naked Lunch,'" explains Lowe. "Seriously though, do you remember the time when you were a kid, reading comics or watching cartoons (for me it was X-Men, G.I. Joe and Transformers) and all kinds of nutty stuff would happen for no real reason, but logic couldn't get through the ecstatic joy you had reading and watching them? 'Nextwave' is an attempt to do that, but with attitude. So many super hero books these days are very, very serious, dark and a bit depressing. 'Nextwave' is the tonic for this. It's full of explosions and kicking and fun, fun, fun!"

Writer Warren Ellis' choice for the cast of characters, a veritable "Who's Who?" of Marvel's C-List characters, befuddled many and while Lowe didn't have any input on the character selection, he's happy with how they're developing. "Warren had the series fleshed out in his head when we started the book up, but I couldn't be happier with the cast. I love Monica (Captain Marvel, Photon) Rambeau from back in the day with the Avengers. Boom Boom is my favorite super hero name in the history of comics from its sheer oddness and silliness, and I loved when she was in 'Uncanny X-Men' when Joe Mad was drawing it. The biggest surprise for me was Elsa Bloodstone and how awesome she is in this book. She is the coolest, funniest character. Machine Man, as well, has some of the best bits."

Nextwave Theme Song!

lyrics here.

I'm in for this.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:20 / 09.01.06

This is the first thing Ellis has done in about a very, verrrry long time that has me interested.

Say no to po-face in 2006!

14:09 / 09.01.06

It seems like Ellis being Morrison, while Morrison is being Ellis over on Wildcats.
Despite having read neither book I stand by my poorly thought-out opinion!

16:45 / 09.01.06

I don't get a Morrison feel to this, I get an "Ellis going crazy and goofing around with C-list characters he can do whatever he wants to" feel to it. I'm very much looking forward to the first issue. And the art looks fantastic - I like Immonen's stuff a lot.

17:03 / 09.01.06

I'm getting "Spider Jerusalem as Nick Fury" vibes. But then, I'm a cynic.

17:25 / 09.01.06

Finder, if you ever read Morrison/Millar/Yowell's fun mini SKRULL KILL KREW then you know from where Bizunth is coming.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

17:54 / 09.01.06

Page 4 FTW.

20:34 / 09.01.06

I'm glad he's using "Dirk Anger" rather than Nick Fury as intended. It lets him be more over-the-top with it. Beating meat to death with his hands and taking HATE drugs. I laughed me arse off.

04:13 / 10.01.06

from Mike Avon Oeming's new interview column @ Buzzcope that launched with Ellis on the other seat:

M: I hate editorial input, and I do a lot of licensed projects that drive me crazy, but I do find by making me work harder I actually do write better work. Its a cliché, but do you find it’s true that obstacles can actually make your writing better?

W: They'll lead you in new directions, to be sure. The most recent was not getting to use Nick Fury on NEXTWAVE, and having to create Dirk Anger in his place, which just let me loose. Dirk Anger is Nick Fury having a massive nervous breakdown, and the gags I get out of that are some of the best pages in the book.

the rest of their talk is a pretty fine read, for those like me who are interested in the craft and other general Comics backstage info.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:19 / 25.01.06

OH. MY. GOD.

spoilers:

Fing Fang Foom! And, of course, Machine Man.

18:27 / 25.01.06

I need more.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

18:38 / 25.01.06

That was fucking insane.

Now, is it Captain Shit or Captain Fuck? There were several contextual instances pointing to both.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:40 / 25.01.06

I went with Captain Motherfucker, for some reason.

The abrupt drop into Fin Fang's perspective was lovely. And Dirk Anger's weird telephonic psychic connection device!

18:40 / 25.01.06

Captain Felch?

18:49 / 25.01.06

can't wait to read this. Ellis gave an interview I hadn't seen before in Comic Shop News, that free newsprint weekly giveout thing, where he says that when he first started writing for Marvel (doing those X-books a while ago), some asst. editor photocopied the entire Marvel Universe Handbook and sent it to him. Ellis was flabbergasted by some of the sillier characters that had somehow made it to being published, saying maybe the asst. who sent it to him wanted to give Ellis brain damage. Ellis cited a voodoo character who seemed to be dressed up like a chicken as one of the concepts he couldn't believe actually got published.

He was so revolted and delighted with all these ridiculous characters that he felt he just had to use them in Nextwave. What's cool about a book like this is it's all C-listers, so Ellis can pretty much do anything he wants with them. And a humor-driven Ellis superhero book, without any pretense to be anything other than that, sounds fun to me.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:03 / 25.01.06

I really enjoy Aaron's telescopic eyes. At first I thought he had on frame-less shades, but then one of them extended. And then I remember the old Kirby Machine Man and...well.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

04:03 / 26.01.06

Elsa Bloodstone is likely from Blade. I don't know.

What I can't believe is that goddamned BOOM-BOOM is a member of the team!

Captain **** (pretty sure its fuck...though I love the mystery of the unknown curse word that makes Captain American beat you up) was hilarious.

Monica annoys me (except with the little flashback).

There are many things I had not realized about this book. I'd thought it was basically its own independent universe thing. Thsi is just...gah.

Dirk Anger's speech to the new HATE recruits is pure gold. Dirk Anger is the new Chuck Norris ("Dirk Anger went back in time and crotch-kicked Adam. That's why all men are afraid of being kicked in the crotch. Oh, and he banged Eve while he was there and raised a secret race of supermen.").

The one thing I remember Ellis saying about the project was that he wanted to get back to the old style of comics from the 70s and 80s where things didn't have to make sense.

I still cannot get the NextWave song out of my head. The book IS indeed like Shakespeare...but with lots more punching.

09:30 / 26.01.06

Elsa Bloodstone is a retconned-in daughter of the old 70's character Ulysses Bloodstone. She had a miniseries a year or so back.

13:03 / 26.01.06

Captain **** (pretty sure its fuck...though I love the mystery of the unknown curse word that makes Captain American beat you up) was hilarious.

I think Cap could tolerate a Fuck,I think it would depress him rather than actively piss him off. but perhaps not another word that rhymes with hunt.

13:10 / 26.01.06

Best line, from Tabby about her superhero codenames: "And they all SUCKED!!"

Also, pretty much everything about Fin Fang Foom and his underpants. ("Oh, you cannot imagine how annoyed he is.")
I also loved the repeated 'FIN FANG FOOM!' trumpeting before each caption on that page.

The only joke that I found very lame was 'this is my running away song so scary girl does not kill me'. Everything else was pretty great, and loads of the kind of fun we were promised by this book.

Love Immonen's art; the cover is beautifully designed.

13:26 / 26.01.06

oh, and the other Warren Ellis joke I am tired of in every book it appears is the 'I will kill you/throttle you/whatever for coffee/beer'-type joke.

13:34 / 26.01.06

>> If every other super hero comic is 'Die Hard', then 'Nextwave' is a mix of 'Kramer vs. Kramer,' ......

I wonder where 'Kramer vs. Kramer' comes in? Mismatched personalities who bicker at each other...?

Next issue : Elsa Bloodstone vs. Broccoli Men. I am so totally there.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:55 / 26.01.06

I'm not sure I like how Immonen draws Tabby on the cover. Something awkward about her pose/facial structure there.

The first page has a fairly basic structure, panels/camera angles-wise, but the simplicity is quite pleasing. The Captain reminds me of Ben Stiller's character from Mystery Men, but is almost bordering on parody of the Ultimate Cap. Just without the compromising Forties values and culture shock.

The narration is sort of fun, although at times it's too meta and other times it seems contextually to be Aaron's thoughts. But I loved the random precis halfway through the story of what Nextwave was.

Human Resources robots fell a bit on a rough note. Yeah, as above, "Scary Girl" doesn't do it for me either.

15:17 / 26.01.06

The silly letters page was fun, too (seemed to be written by Ellis). The Gutenberg letter especially made me chuckle.

16:02 / 26.01.06

Well, I passed this book by today but having read this will probably give it a shot. The concept seems to have echoes of Keith Giffens J.L.A. and that's ALWAYS a good thing for me.

16:39 / 26.01.06

I actually didn't love this book -- Immonen is phenomenal, and that cover's fairly gorgeous, but the writing just felt like the same old Ellis-by-numbers to me. The only difference was that he'd reconfigured his schtick to fit in Ha-Ha Mode, as opposed to WIRED Magazine Reader Mode or I Am Writing Scary Horror Mode. There were a couple of funny gags -- "In NEW JERSEY! For H.A.T.E.!" made me laugh, if only because, for some reason, it's funny to think about Warren Ellis even thinking about New Jersey -- but overall, all the humor was pretty much there in the press release. And yes, if he ever writes one more "I will do violence for booze/drugs" joke, I will spit blood with wrath. I'll read #2 when I find it, since they're two-issue arcs, but if it hasn't made with some serious and vaguely original funny by that point, I won't bother tracking down the future issues.

12:31 / 27.01.06

I agree about the New Jersey bit.

And the giant phone on Anger's head was just silly. Like something you'd see in Austin Powers 3 in Dr. Evil's lair.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

14:10 / 27.01.06

And the giant phone on Anger's head was just silly. Like something you'd see in Austin Powers 3 in Dr. Evil's lair.
But that's the whole point! The whole thing is colourful, nonsensical fun! And furthermore, that bit was fantastic purely for the expression on Dirk Anger's face - he just looks so incredibly annoyed that he has to use this ridiculous technology. Also, the FIN FANG FOOOOOM! section had my SO, myself and my friend laughing hysterically for several minutes. Even the "used as a bucket by giant weasels dressed as cheerleaders" bit was funny again because of its total irrelevance to everything else. Furthermore: "Bad doggy go fizzle pop".
Immonen's art is astonishingly beautiful in terms of line and form, although in comparison to the pencil samples of this issue I've seen, Wade von Grawbadger's (fantastic name)inks seem somehow a little clunky. Actually, now I think about it, NEXTWAVE reminds me of the joyfulness of early Transmet - there are so many different elements to each page, each with a bit of bizarre braindump informatino or a joke of some kind, but devoid of the "Warren Ellis! Grumpy SERIOUS SCIENTIST! I smoke a lot and say 'bastard'!"
persona - in a way, it's pointing out the inherent ridiculousness of the genre, but devoid of the customary viciousness.
I really, really *like* it, because it made me laugh and was bright and happy. Which isn't a critical opinion, exactly, but I feel that that's the way NEXTWAVE is meant to be received.

On another note, I'm amused by Finder's dismissal of the giant telephone thing as "ridiculous" in a comic featuring FIN FANG FOOOM! and his giant.purple.underpants.

14:38 / 27.01.06

My particular faourite bit there was the closing caption "Oh, you cannot imagine how annoyed he is."

Also, the robokelp's special runaway song was great. Just putting English together in certain, wrong ways guarantees a laugh from me; see also Qalyn's Green Arrow/head/hat bit in the Convo. Or 'Engrish'.

This's long-overdue self-parody, I rekkin.

Actually, two comics I bought this week provided several laffs, the other being Plastic Man, and I don't think this is a bad thing.

15:06 / 27.01.06

From today's BadSignal:

Someone in email called NEXTWAVE
"joycore," which made me laugh.
But I think maybe there was space
in the superhero market for
something that wasn't all about
grim fin-headed arserape, and
Immonen's demented action-
cartoon style really sealed the deal.
I just tried to write something I'd
want to read.

So, alright, which one of you was it? Fess up.

17:32 / 27.01.06

wasn't me.

I really liked it, specially for the AND THEY ALL SUCKED/NEW JERSEY/ROBOT PRIDE/RUN AWAY SONG bits. but not much for the rest. something's lacking. Dirk Anger's persona is a very played out Ellis template by now, but given it's self-parody it's cool.

very fun book. not so much for the oh-so-self-aware-of-its-satirical-potential-captions. Oh-Kay, we know FFF is stupid and wears ridiculous purple underpants, no need to mention it AGAIN. that's what kills things like SNL for me, as [/scriptcounselingclass]a good laugh relies always on not having the audience expect the punchline[/scriptcounselingclass].

the concept itself, the giant phone thing and 'animated Immonen' are surely to make everybody come back for more of this late Friday night bong-fuelled fun. is Captain Fuck/Cunt/Shit a new character? hm, more Machine Man bits would be good too.

18:34 / 27.01.06

I liked this a lot. Yes, Ellis has a schtick, but when it's done well it's a good schtick, and this was it done well.
Favourite bits include Captain Fuck recounting his "team-up" with Captain America, Dirk Anger's rant at the rookies and of course FIN FANG FOOM! Immonen's art is pretty damn good as well. I've been undecided about him: his UFF work was nice, but I didn't like his UXM stuff as much, but he knocked it out the park with this.
I personally love goofy superhero comics, and there seems to be a bit of a resurgence in those at the moment, and this is Ellis doing his version.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

19:09 / 27.01.06

I found that Fin Fang Foom's underpants scared me a little more when I found out that it wasn't Ellis that designed him that way.

While I admit that Dirk Anger is that pretty standard Ellis-Bastard character (in the tradition of Spider, Elijah, the main character in Strange Kiss, the general in Orbiter, Jenny Sparks, Dr. Angel from "Angel Stomp Future", and Frank Ironwine...errr...), his speech was just so over the top that I'm willing to just ignore that part. Anger's rant reached proportions that we didn't see in Spider even in his strangest manic phases, and the head telephone...I mean...shit.

To be honest, the head telephone IS something I think you'd see in 60s and 70s comics. I mean...c'mon. These were comics that introduced villains like The Hoopster! I'm willing to let it slide.

I do agree with Papers, though, on the subject of Tabby. Its Boom-Boom, but the character is drawn to be virtually unrecognizable from her previous appearences. Its not costume or hair, is that her entire body type changed. Back in her days with New Mutants/X-Men/X-Force/X-Factor/Excalibur/on-her-own (wasn't she also an Avenger at one point as well?), she had a very tight, slim build. Immonen's artwork makes her look signifigantly closer to how Elsa is drawn in terms of body-type, and I think that contributed to why a lot of readers didn't recognize her until her name was given in the caption.

"NEXTWAVE is the story of five people who have just minutes to stop the town from being destroyed by a giant lizard in purple underpants."

If he does that definition caption every storyline (NEXTWAVE is the story of five people...[insert strange plot]), or even every issue, I will be happy and very amused.

I'm currently waiting for the midget Hitler and Pontius Pilate that the song promised me. And Dirk Anger's "pretty pink pajamas".

21:17 / 27.01.06

>> On another note, I'm amused by Finder's dismissal of the giant telephone thing as "ridiculous" in a comic featuring FIN FANG FOOOM! and his giant.purple.underpants.

Yeah, I know they're both equally ridiculous....I guess I was just talking about what I found truly funny as opposed to what I saw that was meant to be a joke and made me groan. But that's humor, very subjective, and there was definitely enough humor that I thought was very funny humor here to keep me coming back for more and more. (i.e. I thought the running away song wasn't very funny but others loved it, to me it just seemed like a lazy unfunny rip off the Monty Python "Run awaaaay!" bit, but that's just me.)

What matters is that the comic is bright, funny, silly, ludicrious in all the right ways, and often elicits great laughter, even if different people laugh at different things. And that in just one issue.

21:34 / 27.01.06

plus, you gotta love "Healing America by beating people up" as a slogan.

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