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Somebody please, please call... Nextwave!

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Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:45 / 29.11.06

There was a certain Lord of Nothing vibe to the Captain Universe pages. Or a really depressing flip of "Flex Mentallo."

Captain Marvel was my favourite, though the pseudo-Mignola pages for Bloodstone were brilliant.

I concur: best issue to date. I'd totally read a comic starring QRII Pluscommander Mahr Vell.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

22:45 / 29.11.06

Yeah, they should probably have a Civil War tie-in

Did you see next issue's cover inset on the letters page? Good stuff.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:46 / 29.11.06

The Captain Marvel sections, by the way, also remind me of the "hippie" two-parter in Shade the Changing Man 'round about 8 & 9, I think. All the floating eyes. There was a touch of the Bachalo in with the Pope.

23:12 / 29.11.06

I felt there was a bit of overreaching this issue, but it doesn't change my opinion that nextwave is the best comic Ellis has ever written; enhanced, probably, by its finite and soon-to-end life on shelves.

It's a good no-bullshit/all-bullshit ride, one of the few comics that makes any sense at all in pamphlet form - zen dipshittery with world-weary stupidity, broccoli violence, flirtation, and dignified asshole class.

More Alan Moore and Grant Morrison lifts (Tom Strong on Terra Obscura, Mister Miracle), with good Brendan McCarthy Lord of Nothing lift for good measure (though I don't know whose visual style he's hitting for the Captain Universe segment). That shot of the Captain gazing up at the Legion of Legions, who hate him to the last man, is brutal Flex Mentallo come-down material.

The world will be slightly poorer for the absence of nextwave. Nextwave is good.

00:35 / 30.11.06

From: WarrenE@aol.com
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:23:43 EST
To: badsignal@lists.flirble.org

Subject: [BAD SIGNAL] Ah Yes

bad signal
WARREN ELLIS

quick note before sinking back into the work morass to mention that NEXTWAVE #10 comes out in the US tomorrow, and that it's a bit... odd. Um. Yes. It's definitely a bit odd.

I didn't feel quite right in the headguts while writing it. And I think I'd probably just read Brendan McCarthy's issue of SOLO, and... yeah.

Sorry.

-- W

09:29 / 30.11.06

love to see the script on this one. incapacitating superheroes by making them all sixties-and-seventies-(and eighties and nineties)sad?

sad superheroes with existential crises are useless. a-fucking-men.

for me the crowning glory was bits of aaron's scalp flying into the air as he bashed his head to pieces on his own computer.

14:59 / 01.12.06

Immonen has said who he was homaging:

Ellie Bloodstone was Mike Mignola.
Monica Rambeau was Paul Pope.
Aaron Stack was Daniel Clowes.
And The Captain was John Paul Leon.

15:33 / 01.12.06

To be the title of my autobiography: "And The Captain is John Paul Leon"

Is there a date on the second trade, yet?

16:32 / 01.12.06

No, but I'd expect it out roughly 2-3 months after #12 ships.

17:21 / 01.12.06

Truly, this was a thing of glory. And I'm proud because I guessed JP Leon before I saw the list here of the homages.

Tabitha has no brain. LOL.

21:40 / 01.12.06

Immonen has always been a top-notich artist, even since his debut days on Legion of Super-Heroes in the 80s, then his work on the Superman titles, etc. In recent years he's demonstrated his amazing ability to adapt his style for each job he takes on; this issue really dazzled in that dept. (SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY with Kurt Busiek was the first major showcase for this adaptability, and Immonen also does cartoons about the trials & tribulations of being a professional & going to conventions and doing sketches for sometimes rude, not-so-bright or obnoxious fans)

Immonen's next job: taking over from Mark Bagley drawing Ultimate Spider-Man with Bendis writing, of course. It'll be interesting to see what style he uses there. Immonen is set to draw the next Nextwave mini, whenever that happens, as was stated earlier in this thread.

And that concludes your Immonen update!

17:15 / 28.12.06

more explosions, punching and kicking (and hopefully more cool experiments like the draw in different styles thing Immonen pulled off so beautifully) in #11, due out today!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:55 / 28.12.06

The battles seems to be made up by the Many Ages of Marvel, starting with the Fantastic Four (Pinko Commie Super-Apes!) on up. I'm not exactly sure why buying six copies will open up some kind of super-consciousness thingee, but maybe he's just taking the piss with the last issue of Promethea? I dunno. Number None = Cool.

22:29 / 28.12.06

Just bought Issue 11... have I been sniffing too much acetone, or is there a Cremaster-esque Six Organs of Admitance thingy going on in the big battle scene(s)?

Papers, can you maybe delineate your Ages of Marvel idea a little more? I'm having a hard time figuring out what each one of the spreads could represent. The inventory of villainy kind of melts my brains: tubby gargoyles, Elvis MODOKs (my vote for the issue's best moment), are those... yes, mutant chimney sweeps, and (of course) SNAKES ON PLANES!

It's really all too much. Now, why do I need 6 copies? And don't some of these creatures (tigers wearing visors, specifically) look straight out of Gamma World, the early 80s RPG?

So many questions.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

00:55 / 29.12.06

It was just the odd thought...the first spread was Pink-skinned (pinko) Soviet apes (Red Ghost's super-apes), some big monolith men and fat almost-moloids and Kirbian robots -- seemed like big Fantastic Four Foe monsters. Then there were the little Iron Men in leather harnesses and the MODOKs which screamed Avengers, and there was some X-Men crap. It was just a momentary thought that struck me frying-pan-like as I read -- it doesn't really work with all the Stephen Hawking Men and things.

Struck me as being similar to some of Alan Davis's whacked out crosstime phantom scenes in Excalibur, same urgent sense of madness. And, you know, pinko super-apes. Yay.

And, you know, WHAT HAPPENED TO DIRK ANGER. I haven't read Nextwave in quite the same way since that misogyny thread and the bit (whomever said it) about Mainstream Comics being written by Dirk Anger, and this really tweaked in my head on that.

Still doesn't beat the existential horror of Forbush-vision, tho.

02:29 / 29.12.06

Now, why do I need 6 copies?

To line up the gigantic spread, I believe.

12:25 / 29.12.06

Fair warning. They don't really line up (the images don't merge well).

Yes, I tried.

As for the themes. I don't think there is one. It's certainly not chronological, as the latest major meme (SOAP) is on the second-to-last page. Maybe Warren will spill the beans.

16:49 / 29.12.06

I had forgotten about the back-to-back spreads for a moment as I read this and I laughed even more with each successive double-page spread, like "ANOTHER one!?!?" After 4 I felt certain they'd stop...

Loved seeing The Living Robot or whatever that greenish robot thing is from Amazing Spider-Man #4 in 1969 (or thereabouts, where the Robot deduces Spidey's secret ID at a high school event to show off how smart it is, everyone laughs at its conclusion, and then the robot runs amok in the schoool).

The first half of the issue was kind of underwhelming, esp. after the brilliance of #10. The 51st State as floating factory was a fun idea, but Dirk as zombie left me cold. I much preferred him as a suicidal drunken despondent human.

22:10 / 29.12.06

Looks like there isn't really a theme per spread. At least, not based on the script excerpt Ellis posted on the Engine:

PAGES FOURTEEN and FIFTEEN

Pic 1
Aaron is forced to deploy giant scissors to snip in half angry members of an attack-gaggle of Sex Midgets in Iron Man helmets and Iron Man underpants.

Ellie is having to go into hand to hand combat with The Naked Ninjas.

Monica is being surrounded by a troupe of Elvis Modoks, firing off lasers at them even as their metal trunks spit out exploding burgers.

Savage tribal Windmill Men dive at the Captain, their razor-vanes glistening.

Dropping from above: Atom Pirates, packing a nuclear punch in each pegleg, trading explosive bursts with Tabby.

02:08 / 04.01.07

yeh, i was just flipping thru the spreads trying to work out how exactly they added up. couldn't match them quite. shame. thought of a nextwave splodo frieze in my office was nice for a moment.

09:38 / 04.01.07

I get the feeling Ellis is just dumping ideas on the page now. This was probably the lightest read of the series, and really not all that funny.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

11:45 / 05.01.07

Elvis MODOKS

There is no better reason to read comics.

Hopefully Thunderbolts keeps up the nerdjoy this book gives me.

21:31 / 07.01.07

big honking gorilla-wolverines and wolvermonkeys with claw-sheath boots? dinosaurs with cyclops eyeblast goggles? Elvis MODOKs? Windmill-men? Pirates with explodo peg-leg guns? pink commie supermonkeys in overalls?

oh, i think you'll find plenty of reasons to like this issue if you look hard enough...

17:14 / 08.01.07

I loved this issue! The last 3 issues have had such a distinct structure and narrative vibe that they were fun to experience on the level of craft alone. Here we get a superhero-scifi-horror story that borrows from video games and movies told through 2-d hyperkinetic pop. Each spread has so much detail, the information value alone is incredibly rich. Thanks for the written descriptions provided above, but I had fun pouring through each spread and imagining exactly what must have been in the script. Though most of the gags were visual this issue had Plenty of laughs. And State 51? Brilliant! If this is Ellis dumping ideas, may he never get constipated.

13:37 / 14.02.07

The final (snif) issue is out today, for V-Day love... ah, Nextwave, we hardly knew ye. May ye return in the promised follow-up miniseries in the future...

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:03 / 14.02.07

You know what this means, don't you? DON'T YOU?

I'm going to have to start writing shitty Captain/Aaron slash fiction.

To NUMB THE PAIN.

*sob*

ZOMG Tick-tick BOOM.

17:07 / 14.02.07

Have you seen this preview?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:08 / 14.02.07

Waiting to read it in hand, tomorrow, when I can go to the shop and pick my love off the racks. OFF THE RACKS!

Sorry, I'm a little keyed up this morning.

18:08 / 14.02.07

Whoa, that preview (thanx Mario!!) reveals something most delightful in its final page. SPOILERS for those of you, who ya know, don't want to be, um, spoiled.

19:52 / 14.02.07

Just rereading some old 'X-Factor' comics to see if the guy who launched the series was as bad as I remembered, of if Louise Simonson was just hella better. Little bit of both, but interestingly, Tabby? Boom Boom? She's so much closer to how she is in 'Nextwave' than in the years between. 'S'weird. She's so gloriously trailertrash troublemaker whiner... and they put her in a pink, ribbed bodycondom with a thousand pouches that never held anything and took her seriously.

Thsi truly is 'Nextwave Died Day' isn't it?

13:10 / 15.02.07

I dunno... the ending really skews more towards "The day Nextwave took a brief breather before they went on to further bust shit up."

And: I can't believe how much my esteem for Stuart Immonen has gone up over the course of this book. Before, I thought he was just one in the pack of pretty good artists working for the Big Two. Now I think he's some sort of Comic Force Incarnate.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:15 / 15.02.07

Ellis, as well, has managed to make us care about characters - villains, yes! - over the course of what is essentially a full throttle popcorn comic book.

If there's another mini-series, I totally expect it to send-up his own Authority stuff at some point, just based on that ending.

The villains in this issue were skull-skull-skull-skull-ing amazing.

17:18 / 15.02.07

Well, given recent events in Black Panther, I think we can unfortunately list NextWave as "likely to be ignored".

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:33 / 15.02.07

From Bad Signal: "...the only comic released by Marvel in the last year that is in fact inside the Marvel Universe’s official continuity."

Except, you know, maybe, Katie Power bonding with the Venom symbiote.

13:51 / 16.02.07

huh ? That didn't happen in Nextwave. Would be cool to see, though. If a bit scary.

Also, where is the thread for Ellis' Thunderbolts run. can't find it anywhere...

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