Nextwave #1-12

Nextwave #1-12

Originally released in 2006

Written by Warren Ellis

Art by Stuart Immonen

Today is my 100th day of writing this blog, so I wanted to do something special for it.  Whenever possible, I try to recommend Nextwave to people, because I read through it when I first got Marvel Unlimited and I really enjoyed it.  However, I haven't read through it since, so I figure this is as good of an excuse as any to go back through it and see if it holds up.

Nextwave consists of a ragtag group of heroes - former leader of the Avengers (which she reminds everyone about every chance she gets) Monica Rambeau, monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, former X-Force member Tabitha Smith, machine man Aaron Stack, and the Captain, who is only known as the Captain after finding out that most other names with "Captain" in them were taken. (and the one name that wasn't taken that he could think of wasn't exactly appropriate)

They discover that their employers, the government agency H.A.T.E., are being funded by the Beyond Corporation, which is secretly the terrorist group S.I.L.E.N.T., so they go on the run with an experimental aircraft, trying to stop the Beyond Corporation while H.A.T.E. pursues them.  Originally, H.A.T.E. was supposed to be S.H.I.E.L.D., its leader Dirk Anger was supposed to be Nick Fury, and S.I.L.E.N.T. was supposed to be HYDRA, but Marvel refused, forcing the name change.

I wonder what their problem with the portrayal was.  Anyway, the Beyond Corporation is finding or creating Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction, which starts with Fin Fang Foom and broccoli men, and only escalates from there.

The series is irreverent, absurd, and a ton of fun.  The humour can be dark, to say the least, and its relationship with canon is questionable at best, but I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read.  I'd normally try to summarize the plot for each issue, but there's not a ton of plot to speak of - the team works their way through the Beyond Corporation's list of unusual WMDs, with each threat lasting two issues.  As a result, the series is a very quick read. (I read through the whole series in an hour and a half)

In addition to the aforementioned alien dragon and broccoli men, the team also faces a police officer who's been mutated into a cyborg (though don't feel bad for him - the first half of the issue makes it clear that he's utter scum), carnivorous koala bears, pterodactyl men, the Dread Rorkannu (not to be confused with the Dread Dormammu - totally different other-dimensional being), and the most horrifying being of them all: Forbush Man.

It all culminates in an attack on the Beyond Corporation's headquarters, where half of the second-to-last issue is double page spreads like this one:

Throughout the issues, we get brief glimpses of each character's backstory, and they're as insane as the rest of the series.  A few examples include:

I was worried that it wouldn't hold up, but thankfully, I still found it as funny and absurd as when I first read it.  Some of the jokes (particularly surrounding Dirk Anger's increasingly creative ways of attempting to commit suicide) can be a little tasteless, but I enjoyed it and I'd still highly recommend reading it, just to see how absurd it gets.