Nextwave Agents of Hate: merciless attack on underwear pervert comics
Nextwave: Agents Of H.A.T.E. Volume 2 - I Kick Your Face is the second (and final?) collection of Warren Ellis and Stewart Immonen's brilliantly subversive kick at underwear pervert comics (a subject both creators have direct personal and bitter experience with). Nextwave are a bunch of angry, potty-mouthed superheros who've discovered that their former employers (ostensibly an anti-terrorist organization) are, in fact, terrorist masterminds. Now they're ronins, fighting HATE (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort) and innumerable corporate spinoffs in a series of adventures that deftly lampoon the finest traditions of the Marvelverse and its many permutations ("Didn't Tabby says that Magik was dead?" "Like that matters. X-Men come back more often than Jesus.").
The visual and verbal gags are thick on the ground -- and chapter ten features a series of brilliant notional other comic book lives for the characters, each one gutting another funnybook tradition.
Nextwave isn't a gentle sendup of the corporation that published it -- it's a merciless assault. It's hilarious, mean and brilliant. Link
See also:
Warren Ellis's NEXTWAVE: subverting the underwear perverts
Warren Ellis' graphic novel FELL #1 online for free
Warren Ellis's Desolation Jones - Savage noir spy comic
Warren Ellis's Mek and Reload omnibus edition
Complete Warren Ellis comic online
Transmetropolitan #1 as a free download
I come to praise Transmetropolitan
the latest
latest episodes
Amusingly, I was ranting just the other day that it totally sucks that Next Wave is wrapped up, finished, kaput after 12 issues.
The comments at the end of the final book did seem to leave the door open to more.
Does anyone know why the title ended? Poor sales figures (I find that hard to believe with Warren Ellis' name on the cover) ? Too little time from the creators? Other?
Nextwave is a fantastic, subversive little book. The big brawl against the Beyond Corporations'(c) hordes of freaky bad guys was hilarious. Elvis MODAKS and killer Stephen Hawkins? Hells yes.
As far as I know it ended just because the creators had other things to do. They got together, banged out a really fantastic twelve issues and moved on. Neither one of them is exactly hard up for work or interesting opportunities. To some extent, I have a lot of admiration for the act walking away from a successful idea just to find something new.
...Wouldn't have been so bad if it was by someone other than Ellis. The guy's ego self-inflation is second only to John Byrne's.
Warren Ellis posted an explanation at the time:
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=3149
Basically it didn't make financial sense to continue it as an ongoing series, but it will return in future minis.
Both Ellis and Immonen only committed to the twelve issues, and they are a self-contained (and very excellent) story, so there's not much to be upset about. It's unlikely that we'll see any Nextwave in the future unless at least one of the creators is involved, but quite frankly I'd much rather see something new from Ellis for his next Marvel project (he's still fishing through the vast Marvel archives for characters and concepts right now). Some of the characters have already been grabbed by other writers : Machine Man is appearing in the Ms. Marvel series now, for example.
On another note, if I could air out a peeve of mine, I am getting more than a little tired of Cory's insistence on using the term Underwear Perverts all the time. Not because I don't think it's appropriate, but because it's a joke, it's not funny anymore, and it wasn't even his joke to begin with. Ellis doesn't use the term anymore--and he never used too often anyways--because he has the good sense to know the mileage he could get from that kind of joke.
Enough already please, Cory. You're beginning to sound like the guy who thinks "We are the Knights Who Say 'Ni!'" is still a good line.
"Brilliantly subversive"? Really? Nextwave's clever enough and a fun book, but It's hardly a seminal work of genius.
And I second the "underwear perverts" thought. It was somewhat amusing the first dozen times Ellis used the word half a decade or so ago, a little less amusing when his fans entered it into their lexicon and at this point, it's just kinda sad.
shortfatsteve is right: I like Nextwave just fine myself, but Ellis has returned to that trough a few too many times to have any cred for a "merciless attack on underwear pervert comics". You want a comic from someone that absolutely hates superheroes and makes no bones about it? Try Ennis and Robertson's The Boys.
Warren Ellis will next take on those "underwear perverts" by writing Astonishing X-Men.
Also: I understand why you don't want to use the term "super-hero", but I have to agree with the other commenters here and implore you to come up with some other way of voicing your dissent.
Ellis is also currently writing Thunderbolts for Marvel, and while it may be a more nuanced study of the genre than you usually get, it is certainly a bona fide super-hero comic. He's not as anti-super-hero as he's been made out to be. Even Nextwave, for all its ribbing of the genre, betrays such an intimate knowledge of all the Marvel super-hero tropes that it could only come from someone who loves the stuff (or who has at least read quite a bit of it).
Deal with it.
Terse prose.
#11: Done. I used to be disgusted, but now I'm just amused.
I too have long tired of the underwear pervets term.
It was (sort-of) funny the first couple of times. Now its just irritating, and it has made me not bother finishing more than one of the posts that insist on using it.
#14,
You made me literally laugh out loud. Not so much with you. Cheers.
*sigh* Can we PLEASE retire the phrase "underwear perverts"?
NEXTWAVE is awesome, btw.
Does The Oldest Joke In The Marvel Universe qualify as deft lampooning, or just lampooning?
Actually, "Hulk______!" is probably the oldest joke in the Marvel universe, but X-men back from the dead jokes are a close second.
i kick your face.
I agree, "underwear perverts" is getting old.
I also agree that neither Warren nor Stuart are really all that bitter about superhero comics, this is just a place to blow off some steam. I highly recommend Thunderbolts, BTW, it's a great superhero book, and a great look at the Marvel Universe gone bad.
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And yet, you keep reading. And whining. And reading. And whining. Do you live in Antarctica that you don't have anything else to do but read BB and complain about it?
Cry s bynd rprch, flls.
One of the cool things about Nextwave is that Aaron Stack's awesome characterisation has been carried over to his appearances in the Ms Marvel series. I love Nextwave. :)
Cory is beyond reproach, fellas.
I only read about a third of the posts on BB because the rest don't interest me. Steampunk and underwear perverts are meaningless to me and conveyor belt airplanes and Cloverfield visual gaffes give me a headache, so I move on to the more political ones. Even though some posts don't interest me, the comment threads are a fascinating window into the world of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. "Cory, you're boring ME." "Cory, I'M not into that anymore." "Cory, that doesn't say steampunk to ME."
So go entertain yourselves already.
"The comment threads are a fascinating window into the world of Narcissistic Personality Disorder."
Says the compulsive BoingBoing commenter - dude, you're, like, up to four comments in this item alone. And that makes you the only person to post more than once. And you're daily average is approaching, like, dozens.
I've only posted once and it's to tell you you're not getting invited to the man's birthday party.
Open comments is open comments, dude. Cory gets that, if bluntly. You're just pounding sand. Save yourself the ulcer.
Vive le pervertis de sous-vêtements!
meh.
DrTart:
I'm not sure what you mean by "open comments." The only thing I'm sure Cory and the other boingers get, or rather got, is a moderator.Hiya.
Antinous's comments are generally clear, well-written, thoughtful, and on-topic. Anyone who does that is welcome to post as often as they want.
Shall I pass you the sand?
Onward, to a general observation:
ShortFatSteve, at comment #6, makes a number of points, then mentions that he's tired of the term "underwear pervert," and that it's been used too often.
Then we get one of the classic Boing Boing pile-ons. When someone says something critical about Cory, as many as a dozen other commenters will pop in to say the exact same thing. It doesn't make them look intelligent, or brave, or thoughtful, and it sure doesn't make them look original. Frankly, it comes off as attitudinizing. Ghod knows why they do it. It's a real conversation-killer.
The reason I have to say something this time is that what we've got here is a string of pile-on comments that criticize Cory for saying the same thing too many times. That is: for being repetitious. Do you guys have no sense of irony?
ShortFatSteve starts the meme, then SmoovyG seconds it. (Halloween Jack is exempted; he's quoting Cory, and is making an original point.) Then Jason Pitzl-Waters agrees, then Fernando, then Dan, then LB, then Sixtoe.
Only Jason mentions that there's a reason Cory's avoiding the term "superhero." Not one of the comments suggests a preferred term.
I can think of several different one-word summaries with which I could end this comment, but none of them are polite.
The thing I really like about Nextwave is that Ellis' primary target is his own work -- his runs on StormWatch and The Authority (and likely the imitators that followed) are being skewered utterly mercilessly.
Dr. Tart,
Fine, you're right. I was cranky and probably should have left it alone.
I've only posted once...
Feel free to kick in an idea, a link or some humor. That's why the comments are here.
...and it's to tell you you're not getting invited to the man's birthday party.
There's a difference between defending something enjoyable and sucking up. Comments have been disabled before due to incessant whiny complaints. It could happen again.
I hate parties.
Hey, nice review, but Immonen's name is actually "Stuart", in the article says he's "Stewart"...