Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Warren Ellis
Pencilled by: Stuart Immonen
Inked by: Wade von Grawbadger
Colored by: Dave McCaig
Lettered by: Christ Eliopoulos
Editor: Nick Lowe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
There should be no doubt in your mind that Warren Ellis can do funny. Check out Planetary’s Elijah Snow (especially in the beginning) and you’ll be reading a wit so dry, you’ll feel parched. Or, better yet, read any of Thor’s dialogue in the in later chapters of Ultimate Secret. Now tell me, honestly, did you laugh at least once? If you said no, my friend, you may want to check your pulse, because you may be dead.
No, the question of Nextwave is whether or not Ellis can do humor in a completely disposable, wildly over the top, unapologetic punching and kicking comic. The simplest answer is: yes.
Nextwave is a light, frothy concoction full of tart Ellisisms and random silliness. Yes, it is Ellis so it is ironic about this silliness, especially in any of the passages about Fin Fang Foom. However, the book winks at the comic bookishness of it all, it never sneers. This is irony with appreciation, if you will.
Ellis is ably abetted in this effort by Stuart Immonen’s art. Immonen can do scenes of overblown action, legitimate destruction, and countless stunned reaction shots with equal aplomb. To have given this book to an artist that was too much of a “typical” action comic book penciller or too much of a “typical” funny comic book penciller would have derailed this book by tipping too clearly into one camp or the other. The key to the humor is the way it still mimics the conventions of superhero action comics.
There are highlights a-plenty that I want to call your attention to without ruining so I’ll just bullet them off
-Photon’s (formerly Captain Marvel, currently Pulsar) trademark expression and her “secret” origin (and yes, it violates continuity…sorry)
-Dirk Anger doing Nick Fury turned up to 11
-Aaron Stack (Machine Man) talking…any time really
-The Captain’s “real” name and what happened when he told Captain America it. Have fun guessing what that second word is.
-The robot lackeys’ dialogue
And
-any of the aforementioned Fin Fang Foom related captions.
Long-term, however, this book could run into problems. For one, despite its non-stop action creed, Ellis’s pacing is still glacial. That does not tend to bother me, but it does a lot of people and I’m not sure if they’ll feel suckered by the solicitations or be distracted enough by all the pretty colors and explosions to notice.
The second is everyone’s “voice.” It is distinctly/stereotypically Ellis. Photon is the grizzled vet who is too good for the room with a dash of Jenny Sparks. Elsa Bloodstone is pretty much Jenny. Aaron Stack is aloof and disinterested (think early Elijah Snow). And so on. It’s funny because Ellis has the patter down to a science but I can see the fun turning to grinding disinterest if the characters aren’t given at least a smidgen more of personality as time goes on.
However, for now, I’m digging it. It’s not high art, but it is pop art, and exactly what I was looking for. Provided the kinks get ironed out in the next 4 or 5 issues, this is going to be one fun book.
