Customer Reviews

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Ultimate Collection

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The basics: This is an American superhero comic book. It was published by Marvel Comics in 2006-2007, written by Warren Ellis, and illustrated by Stuart Immonen.

Nextwave is a team of superheroes working for H.A.T.E. (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort) and charged with battling a number of Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction, like Fin Fang Foom, the Mindless Ones, and the Ultra Samurai Battle Drone. But H.A.T.E. isn't really what it seems to be -- in fact, H.A.T.E. is actually funded by the Beyond Corporation, which used to be known as S.I.L.E.N.T., a large terrorist group, and the entire purpose of H.A.T.E. is to create more Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction. Nextwave decides that this will simply not do, so they steal a big-ass fancy flying machine called the Shockwave Rider and go on the run, pursued by the frequently suicidal Dirk Anger, Director of H.A.T.E, and his hordes of minions, like the broccoli men, the attack koalas, the Homicide Crabs, and Forbush Man.

The members of Nextwave include:

* Monica Rambeau: Formerly known as Captain Marvel, Photon, and Pulsar. Former Avenger. Straight-arrow leader of the team. Can convert her body into any form of electromagnetic energy.
* Aaron Stack: Formerly known as Machine Man. Has extendo-limbs and all kinds of entertainingly pointy weapons he can extend from his body. Hates the fleshy ones. His robot brain needs beer.
* Elsa Bloodstone: Formerly known as Elsa Bloodstone. Monster hunter with a magic necklace that makes her superstrong and tough. Handy with a gun. Handy with pretty much any weapon, really. Vehemently British. Has high-heeled boots and very important hair.
* Tabitha Smith: Formerly known as Time Bomb, Boomer, Boom Boom, and Meltdown. Former member of X-Force. Possesses the mutant powers of blowing things up and stealing all your stuff. Not real smart. Says "ZOMG!" out loud.
* The Captain: Formerly known as Captain Power, Captain Ron, Captain L. Ron, Captain Universe, Captain Ultra, Captain Avenger, Captain Avalon, Captain Marvel, Captain Kerosene, and Captain CENSORED, a name so foul that it caused Captain America himself to beat the CENSORED out of him, jam a bar of soap in his mouth, and throw him in a dumpster. Totally generic superstrength-and-flight powers. Really kinda sucks at superhero stuff.

Enough of the basics.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most awesome comic in history.

This is not just because of all the explosions. This is not just because of Dirk Anger and his mad rants.

This is not just because of Dread Rorkannu, Lord of the Dank Dimension, who likes cash and the SuicideGirls.

This is not just because the team beats up a cop.

This is not just because of the naked ninjas or the Elvis MODOKs or "tick tick tick BOOM!" or Dr. Headless or the Wolverine monkeys or the Stephen Hawking Attack Squadron or the dancing Mindless Ones or hitting aliens with bottles to see if they'll turn into gold or Fin Fang Foom's burning desire to mate despite his total lack of genitals.

This is not because of the shocking and hilarious and mind-blowingly awesome revelations of the Beyond Corporation's Big Bads.

No, wait, I'm lying. It's because of all those things. Plus other things I haven't told you about because I'm too lazy to type 'em all up.

You need to go purchase it, and if you don't, I will come to your home and urinate on your children.

Review of Nextwave Ultimate Collection
Nextwave is one of those books that made me realize how many comics I've read since I started getting into them a few years ago. I first picked up Nextwave issue 2 and then went back and read issue one (I think I still have those two issues somewhere). I couldn't get into it though so I stopped. I then thought about picking up the trades when those came out but there was other stuff that I wanted to read instead. So finally I picked up this book when they released the Ultimate Collection which collects the entire series. The book is awesome. First off, I'm not the biggest fan of Warren Ellis. I don't have a good reason, except that I just couldn't get into some of the other works that I had read of his. In this book I found his writing to be quite good. He sets up all the characters wonderfully and the pacing for the story never slows. Nextwave keep dealing with one challenge after the other and it makes the book exciting. I feel that by the end, the story reaches a good conclusion but leaves it slightly open-ended so that there could be more stories told in the future.
One thing that is neat about the story is that there are a lot of references to other comics. Having read many comics, I was able to recognize the references and it made me appreciate the book more. Also Nextwave does poke fun at some ideas that occupy many other comics, such as the use of double page spreads. In the end this is a good story, that will make me check out more of Warren Ellis's other works again.
However, the real treat of this book is the art that is done by Stuart Immonen. It is simply fantastic. It's the reason I checked out Nextwave in the first place. His covers are great (Issue 2 was my favorite). The art inside is great. To me, Immonen's artwork is some of the best I've come across my entire time reading comics. It's distinct and it's detailed.
One last thing about the book is the extra content. It collects the letter pages from all the issues. I miss reading letter pages and the comics that still run them are few and far between. The book also includes all the Nextwave Primers before the start of each issue, the pitch for Nextwave, and they threw in the theme song just for good measure. One thing that I would have liked to see for the book was a proper introduction, but that isn't a big deal and it certainly doesn't diminish the overall value in anyway.
To conclude, the story is great and the artwork is fantastic. Throw in some extras and you have a great book from Marvel. Maybe they will make into an oversized hardcover someday. Hopefully they will.

A lot has been said about about Warren Ellis. Not enough, though. He is a famous writer who's proven to be capable of writing about virtually anything. This is his take on once-famous-now-lame superheroes. A comic comic book, if you will.

Actually, I guess this is important to say: this is comedy.

Mr. Ellis put these forgotten Marvel characters together to fight lame villains - old Marvel characters, Not Brand Echh comic characters, doubles from lame characters - in an extremely successful attempt to mock the very comic book industry he is writing for.

Stuart Immonen draws fantastically well. In fact, it seems he was having a lot of fun designing and drawing everything, as if he had been finally "unleashed" to show his talent.

Different from the two TPB previously released, this Ultimate Collection brings also the H.A.T.E.Mail section of the original series.

After the end of the series, Marvel, in an attempt to correct the Marvel Universe, rushed to say that everyone involved in the Nextwave comics were either cloned or had their memories erased or had had drug-induced experiences. But fear not, for the Ultimate Collection is here not to let YOU down!!!

Nextwave is a group of C-list superheroes that worked for H.A.T.E (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort), but broke off when they found out that H.A.T.E was sponsored by the Beyond Corporation, a front for a terrorist organization called S.I.L.E.N.C.E. Nextwave then looks for the weapons of mass destruction developed by the Beyond Corporation and tries to destroy them, in the way they accidentally destroy cities and run into all sorts of trouble. The group gets to fight a giant dragon, a corrupt Transformers-like cop, mindless lava beasts, a dinosaur, snakes on a plane, hamburger-shooting-Elvis-clones, among many other crazy over the top villains.

One thing I like about the comic, is that its story arcs are two issues long. While there is an overall story arc for the 12 issues, each adventure takes two issues. It is nice to read a comic that doesn't stretch (decompress) its stories. The comic also plays a lot with its medium, there is a sequence where we get six double-splashes in a row, not only displaying the great artwork by Immonen showcasing hundreds of funny villains, but also making fun of the overuse of double splashes in some comics. I like how it makes fun of titles, by sometimes having the tile of the comic multiple times throughout the issues. The issue with the 6 double-splashes has the tile at least 8 times (one for every double-splash, one at the beginning and one at the end), while other issues also have it 3 or 4 times.

The art is really good. I like that Immonen has a loose style but is still able to show a lot of detail. The scenes are very clean and they have a very nice cartoon look. A great artist was needed to make all the goofy villains work. I really like the designs for the villains.

Overall, this is a very funny comic that makes a lot of jokes about the medium and tells good stories. A great comic.

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E is one of my favorite comic book series of all time, and here it is, collected in its entirety in a sturdy paperback featuring all twelve issues as well as the H.A.T.E Mail letter columns!! Plus, the paper is glossy and the colors pop off the page, so Stuart Immonen's art has never looked better. And don't even get me started on the writing of the esteemed Mr. Ellis. Not only is this probably the funniest thing he's ever done, but it's also the most banal (well, except for Transmetropolitan, that is).

In a nutshell, Nextwave are super agents who rebelled against their anti-terrorism employer H.A.T.E when they inadvertently discovered that instead of fighting terrorism they were working for a company PROMOTING terrorism by releasing prototype WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) on an unknowing American populace. Now they're fighting against their former employer with all the mad powers at their disposal. The team includes Monica Rambeau (formerly Captain Marvel), Machine Man (Awesome Kirby creation), The Captain (Who???), Boom Boom (X-Force) and Elsa Bloodstone (British Monster Hunter). All of them are over the top and ridiculously funny. I nearly cried when I finished reading the last issue, simply because I couldn't believe that I would never read about these hilarious characters and the insane situations Ellis put them in ever again. Buy this ultimate collection and watch the Nextwave squad take on Fin Fang Foom, the Broccoli Men, a metal-eating suicide cop with a faceless cat in his chest, a Dormammu pastiche, The Homosexuality, The Vestry, the Surgery and last but not least, H.A.T.E itself, led by the greatest villain of all time: Dirk Anger, Director of H.A.T.E!

Seriously, you can't go wrong with this collection. If you like crazy superhero battles and humor that detonates in your head with a witty BANG! then this book is for you.

Occasionally a work of seemingly divine inspiration and genius will come along and change your worldview, leaving you whimpering in its wake. This is not that book. NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. does something far more important: it reminds us that comics can (and perhaps should) be fun!

I love a good team book, especially one so offbeat and with such wonderfully mismatched characters that it cannot help but make perfect sense. Take away the plot, character development, and seriousness of such wonderful books as Secret Six, Guardians of the Galaxy (the modern incarnation), and Peter David's X-Factor and crank the up the humor, wit, and charm to eleven and you will have only an inkling of the greatness that is NEXTWAVE.

NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. ranks easily amongst of the most enjoyable comics that I have ever read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Warren Ellis is at the top of his game here (all hail Internet Jesus), as is artist Stuart Immonen. Containing all twelve glorious issues of laugh out loud goodness, this is the Elvis of snack food. Now READ THE BOOK!

Possibly the thing that I loved most about this book was the team itself, it really was a mix n match of obscure characters (and most surprisingly, the women out numbered the guys on the team, not at all common in super-hero comics). Somehow the Nextwave bunch is way more interesting to me then some of the more established groups (Avengers, FF etc...) I thoroughly enjoyed this- it was clever, full of humor and the art is great (the color really compliments the lines).

What can I say about Nextwave beyond the fact that it is pretty much the single greatest comic book experience of my lifetime. During the year it was being produced, I inhaled it like so much graphic methamphetamine. It was always on the top of my new comic pile. The world is a sadder place without it. BUT now you can at least collect all the issues in one place. The only thing that could make this book better is a crossover with Howard the Duck and Spider-Ham, but that might just be me.