Nextwave

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For the company, see NextWave Wireless.

Creative team
Nextwave
Nextwave #11. Art by Stuart Immonen. This cover parodies Marvel's Civil War
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Onging while in publication
Publication date	March 2006 - February 2007
Number of issues	12
Main character(s)	Monica Rambeau Tabitha Smith Aaron Stack Elsa Bloodstone The Captain Dirk Anger
Creator(s)	Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen
Collected editions
This Is What They Want	ISBN 0785122788
(softcover)	ISBN 0785119094
I Kick Your Face	ISBN 0785128557
(softcover)	ISBN 0785119108

Nextwave was a farcical superhero comic book series by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen, published by Marvel Comics.

1 History
2 Format
3 Plot
4 Awards
5 Theme song
- 5.1 Lyrics
6 Collected editions
7 Other appearances and cameos
8 References
9 External links
- 9.1 Interviews
- 9.2 Reviews

[edit] History

Nextwave debuted in 2006 and was cancelled after issue #12 which was published in February 2007.^[1]

All issues of the Nextwave series were written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Stuart Immonen with colors by Dave McCaig.

Warren Ellis (on his website) stated in October 2006 that he had initially planned to write the series for twelve issues, then pass it off to another writer. However the initial plan was changed and the series was placed on hiatus until Ellis should choose to return. According to Ellis, this was at least partly because monthly sales could not justify keeping artist Stuart Immonen on the project at his then current pay rate. Ellis has stated that "there will be more Nextwave to come, presented as a sequence of limited series".^[2]

With issue #3, Marvel changed the series title to Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Artist Stuart Immonen has stated that the title change was due to trademark issues.^[3]

A variant edition of issue #5, called the "Crayon Butchery Variant", was printed in black and white on newsprint. Marvel (through the website Comic Book Resources) encouraged readers to color the issue with crayons and enter the results, for a chance to win original artwork from the issue. The winner was announced in the letter column of the tenth issue.

Issue #11 contains a series of splash pages that Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen devised so that in order to get the full impact of the scene, a reader might have to purchase six copies. On the last of the pages, a caption reads "Nextwave: Blatantly wasting your money since 2006".

[edit] Format

The series was written exclusively in two-issue story arcs, a choice deliberately bucking the trend in modern American comics toward decompression. Each issue begins with a humorous FAQ, in which questions are answered with enthusiastic marketing copy that veers into the strange or disturbing, also used to answer questions posed by uninformed readers.

[edit] Plot

The Nextwave series features a collection of minor Marvel superheroes, including Monica Rambeau, the former Captain Marvel; Tabitha Smith, formerly of X-Force; Aaron Stack, the Machine Man; monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone; and new character The Captain, previously called Captain ☠☠☠☠ (The obscured words being so horrible that Captain America allegedly "beat four shades of it out of [him]" and left him in a dumpster with a bar of soap in his mouth.). These individuals are assembled by H.A.T.E., the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, to fight Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction (U.W.M.D.s). The Nextwave team learns that H.A.T.E. is funded by the Beyond Corporation©, an organization run by H.A.T.E.'s terrorist enemy S.I.L.E.N.T.; as a result, the heroes leave H.A.T.E., stealing a vehicle called the Shockwave Rider. They destroy the U.W.M.D.s that the Beyond Corporation and H.A.T.E. have hidden around the United States, while pursued by H.A.T.E. Director Dirk Anger, a parody of Nick Fury. The U.W.M.D.s include Fin Fang Foom^[4], Broccoli Men, Ultra Samurai^[5] and the Mindless Ones. Using the Shockwave Rider as a mobile base of operations (the vehicle is larger on the inside than out, much like the TARDIS of Doctor Who), Nextwave is able to rapidly mount missions in widely separated locations including central Illinois, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Nevada.

Nextwave consistently features extreme violence and comedy, and simultaneously satirizes and celebrates Marvel's superhero comics. The series frequently uses flashback scenes in which existing Marvel characters such as Captain America, Ulysses Bloodstone and the Celestials act grossly out of character for comedic purposes. In an interview, Ellis said, "I took The Authority and I stripped out all the plots, logic, character and sanity."^[6] "It’s an absolute distillation of the superhero genre. No plot lines, characters, emotions, nothing whatsoever. It’s people posing in the street for no good reason. It is people getting kicked, and then exploding. It is a pure comic book, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. And afterwards, they will explode." ^[7]

The consistent way Nextwave portrays established Marvel characters behaving in uncharacteristic ways has given rise to speculation as to whether the stories should be seen as occurring in the main Marvel continuity or not. In a 2005 interview, writer Warren Ellis commenting on his Nextwave stories stated: "I think it has to be a self contained universe. It takes from Marvel history, but I wouldn't necessarily want to drag mainstream Marvel into it for fear of what I would do to it.”^[8] In 2006 Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada stated that "for the time being" Nextwave was to be considered set in a universe separate from the main Marvel continuity.^[9] In contradiction to these earlier statements, recent Marvel publications such as Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and Civil War: Battle Damage Report (February 2007) seem to portray Nextwave's activities as occurring in the mainstream Marvel continuity. To further complicate matters, Nextwave's entry in Civil War: Battle Damage Report states: "Recent intelligence suggests some or all Nextwave members unknowingly had their memories and/or personalities altered by their new employers (H.A.T.E.)". The Nextwave entry in Civil War: Battle Damage Report may be evidence of an editorial decision to include the Nextwave team in the main Marvel continuity in a way that provides a plot device to explain away inconsistencies caused by the previous editorial position that Nextwave was set in an alternate universe. Another attempt to reconcile Nextwave's continuity (as well as other Marvel continuity "glitches") appeared in She-Hulk #21 (2007), where a version of Monica Rambeau, dressed as the Nextwave version, was shown to originate from the alternate reality known as "Earth-A". A joint effort between corporations on Earth-A and Earth-616 (the mainstream Marvel Universe) was offering "vacation packages" to Earth-A natives that not only transported them to Earth-616, but re-aligned their physiology to grant them the powers and abilities of their 616 counterparts. This Monica Rambeau and other Earth-A "tourists" were being rounded up by authorities and returned to their native reality.

[edit] Awards

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has released their Best of 2007 lists and Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. were named among the 2007 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens. Nextwave writer Warren Ellis was happy to learn of the title’s recognition by YALSA. "I do it all for the children," says Ellis. In keeping with the off-beat humor of his book, Ellis added, “It is good to know that the young people of today are ready and waiting for me to form a Church."^[10]

Nextwave also won three Eagle Awards, Favourite New Comicbook, Favourite Comics Story Published During 2006 (for issues 1-6) and Favourite Comics Villain (for Dirk Anger).

[edit] Theme song

The main marketing thrust for this series is a theme song created by series editor Nick Lowe and his brother Matt, by their band Thunder Thighs, advertised on their MySpace page and lyrics printed in the "Director's cut" edition of the first issue. The tabs and lyrics are also in the Volume 1 Hardcover.

[edit] Lyrics

It's like Shakespeare,
but with lots more punching.
It's like Goethe,
but with lots more crunching.
Like Titanic, but the boat's still floating.
No, it's not, the mother☠☠☠☠ing boat is exploding! Nextwave, Nextwave

Dirk Anger is one crazy mamajama.
He leads H.A.T.E., sitting around in his pretty pink pajamas.
H.A.T.E. was formed by the Beyond Corporation.
Purposely to bring about catastrophic devastation!

Nextwave, Nextwave

Do you want a haircut?
The Beyond Corporations gonna help you out.
Do you need a toothbrush?
The Beyond Corporations got an extra one.
Do you have a stepson?
The Beyond Corporation's gonna rub him out.
Do you see a monster, or a pirate, electric emu, a giant sky rat, a midget Hitler or Pontius Pilate?
Don't call your mom or your doctor, just pick up the phone and call

Nextwave, Nextwave

Give us a Nextwave role call
Monica - is gonna microwave your ☠☠☠☠.
Tabby - is gonna steal all your stuff.
Aaron - is going to organize your sock drawer.
Elsa - is gonna speak with an accent.
The Captain - his name is The Captain!

Nextwave, Nextwave

[edit] Collected editions

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E Vol. 1 - This Is What They Want (2006)
- Collects issues #1-6
- Hardback edition: ISBN 0-7851-2278-8
- Softcover edition: ISBN 0-7851-1909-4

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E Vol. 2 - I Kick Your Face (2007)
- Collects issues #7-12
- Hardback edition: ISBN 0-7851-2855-7
- Softcover edition: ISBN 0-7851-1910-8

[edit] Other appearances and cameos

[edit] Civil War

Several members of Nextwave appeared in the background of Marvel Comics' Civil War, having joined Captain America's Anti-Registration side. However, all six main cast members appear on the cover of Avengers: The Initiative, suggesting they are one of the 50-State Initiative teams.

[edit] Black Panther

During the wedding of the Black Panther and Storm, amongst the wedding gifts can be seen a present from Dirk Anger.

[edit] Marvel Zombies

The Nextwave team shows up "in a purely superfluous cameo" in the third issue of the Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness to save Ash from a zombified Power Pack, and are "humiliatingly and ruthlessly dispatched off-panel" moments later. In keeping with the Nextwave book's style, the scene utilises some of the series' stylistic hallmarks, such as ridiculously large explosions.

[edit] Ms. Marvel

Machine Man makes an appearance in Ms. Marvel #18, apparently assigned to her SHIELD team. He appears and acts similarly to his Nextwave incarnation and insists on being called Aaron Stack, rather than Machine Man. His newfound eccentricity has proven somewhat offputting to his new teammates. During a later scuffle, his body is severely damaged, causing him to use a spare 'body' that was modeled after Monica Rambeau's white Captain Marvel costume. Including having a female form.