Great Comic Book Covers #1: Nextwave #11
Happy New Year! Already 2007 feels like the downy fuzz of a newborn chick. Or something. Anyway - a new feature here on the 'box - comic book covers old and new, the finest of the lot, in yours truly's humble opinion, for your dining and dancing pleasure. Unfortunately I cant seem to get blogger to upload my images this morning and I am rapidly running out of patience - so here is a link to the cover I would have loaded here, courtesy of www.warrenellis.com:
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=3037
Nextwave: Agents of Hate is one of the weirdest comic books ever produced by one of the "big two" comic book companies - Marvel and DC - therefore as you might expect, it is about to end. Basically, five B-list Marvel characters were put in the hands of prolific comic mad genius Warren Ellis and this what came out - five heroes hired by an international conglomerate to fight terrorism, only to discover that the company itself was the terrorist. Breaking away, they are hunted by their former employer's lead wacko, a cross-dressing, suicidal (and in this issue, undead) loony named Dirk Anger. And that's a very thin summary of the story....
This cover relates, of course, to the current Civil War stories occupying the rest of the Marvel Universe, in which the A-list heroes (Captain America, Spider-man, etc.) are lining up on opposite sides of a new Federal superhero registration law. Nextwave has had nothing whatsoever to do with that plot line, which is selling in the bajillions. Nextwave as a series is also ending with the next issue, so obviously they have nothing to lose by openly mocking the sober and serious tone of Civil War (and the distinctive cover design of CW-related comic books) with this gem. (In relation to the above cover, Mark Millar is the writer for Civil War. I hope he is Warren Ellis's friend).
If you are a fan of clever comic book art, I would suggest you pick up this particular issue of Nextwave for the completely over-the-top designs of artist Stuart Immonen. Part of the reason Nextwave is ending is that Immonen has been assigned to take over Ultimate Spider-man soon and can't do both - Ellis doesn't want to continue without him, and for that I am grateful. There are a number of two-page spreads showing the Nextwave team in battle with the bizarre creations of the Beyond Corporation, including giant Wolverine-costumed monkeys, Modok units that look like Elvis and fire hamburgers at our heroes, and a giant purple brachiosaurus that shoots Cyclops-style eyebeams. And so much more. You really have to see it to believe it - any one of those pages could be posters. And hilarious.
As far as how I got into Nextwave, well, as you might expect, there's a Kirby connection. One of the team is Aaron Stack, occasionally known as Machine Man, created by Jack Kirby in 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 about 30 years ago. Here, he is a snarky, irritating comedy relief, annoyed by the "fleshy" foibles of regular humans. Apparently Immonen and Ellis will continue the Nextwave saga in future mini-series and such as time permits, and I for one will be awaiting with open arms.
They are producing trade paperbacks of the series, so if you've missed issues up to this point, you can still catch up.
Next up: New links on the sidebar!
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=3037
Nextwave: Agents of Hate is one of the weirdest comic books ever produced by one of the "big two" comic book companies - Marvel and DC - therefore as you might expect, it is about to end. Basically, five B-list Marvel characters were put in the hands of prolific comic mad genius Warren Ellis and this what came out - five heroes hired by an international conglomerate to fight terrorism, only to discover that the company itself was the terrorist. Breaking away, they are hunted by their former employer's lead wacko, a cross-dressing, suicidal (and in this issue, undead) loony named Dirk Anger. And that's a very thin summary of the story....
This cover relates, of course, to the current Civil War stories occupying the rest of the Marvel Universe, in which the A-list heroes (Captain America, Spider-man, etc.) are lining up on opposite sides of a new Federal superhero registration law. Nextwave has had nothing whatsoever to do with that plot line, which is selling in the bajillions. Nextwave as a series is also ending with the next issue, so obviously they have nothing to lose by openly mocking the sober and serious tone of Civil War (and the distinctive cover design of CW-related comic books) with this gem. (In relation to the above cover, Mark Millar is the writer for Civil War. I hope he is Warren Ellis's friend).
If you are a fan of clever comic book art, I would suggest you pick up this particular issue of Nextwave for the completely over-the-top designs of artist Stuart Immonen. Part of the reason Nextwave is ending is that Immonen has been assigned to take over Ultimate Spider-man soon and can't do both - Ellis doesn't want to continue without him, and for that I am grateful. There are a number of two-page spreads showing the Nextwave team in battle with the bizarre creations of the Beyond Corporation, including giant Wolverine-costumed monkeys, Modok units that look like Elvis and fire hamburgers at our heroes, and a giant purple brachiosaurus that shoots Cyclops-style eyebeams. And so much more. You really have to see it to believe it - any one of those pages could be posters. And hilarious.
As far as how I got into Nextwave, well, as you might expect, there's a Kirby connection. One of the team is Aaron Stack, occasionally known as Machine Man, created by Jack Kirby in 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 about 30 years ago. Here, he is a snarky, irritating comedy relief, annoyed by the "fleshy" foibles of regular humans. Apparently Immonen and Ellis will continue the Nextwave saga in future mini-series and such as time permits, and I for one will be awaiting with open arms.
They are producing trade paperbacks of the series, so if you've missed issues up to this point, you can still catch up.
Next up: New links on the sidebar!
Brought to light by JTK at 10:02 AM
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