This miniseries is BONKERS and one of THE BEST MARVEL SERIES OF ALL TIME. Ahem. Sorry for shouting. This is a crazy, mixed up comic … And it’s canon!
A bunch of unknown heroes are hijacked by Dirk Anger, Director of the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort (H.A.T.E.) and become a team. He sits on a giant gun.
Only we, the readers, have no idea that this is what’s happened. We’re all wondering what the Hell is going on. The whole series was later retconned as canon.
Machine Man’s personality is quite different from the past here. He calls human’s “fleshy ones” and has a superiority complex.
Why is he so different? Because he’s not the real Machine Man! This is another retcon committed when Marvel decided to bring Nextwave into Earth 616. He IS from Earth 616, like most of the team, and he is delusional: He believes he is the original Machine Man. But he’s not.
He gets a character arc that pays tribute to the classic Vision story, “Even an Android Can Cry.”
Tick Tick Boom is here, too, and this series really defines her as a character.
In fact, she’s the team’s biggest badass.
BLOODSTONE
Elsa Bloodstone is on the team as well, and she’s dating a new character named “The Captain.” His origin is that he hit a leprechaun on the head for gold but it ended up being an alien who gave him powers.
He curses a lot.
He’s not really cut out for leadership, so Monica Rambeau decides to be the leader because she was once an Avenger.
She constantly reminds them all of her history as a superhero who was on The Avengers.
The team, though, being full of egos, constantly refuses to take direction.
At first, H.A.T.E. appears to be a government group, and the team takes missions from the organization. Like fighting homicide crabs.
H.A.T.E. is later revealed to be owned by The Beyond Corporation, which causes the super-team to leave H.A.T.E. and strike out on their own. They take on the Beyonder Corp. and a series of threats.
Most, like Fin Fang Foom, aren’t character tagged because they are the versions of the characters from this alternate reality.
I also didn’t tag Forbush Man.
I did tag The Mindless Ones, though, because they’re from an alternate dimension and therefore they might be the same ones who appear in Earth 616 stories. Alternate dimensions are confusing.
Plus, they’re fantastic.
I also concede that the dimension they come from is ruled by someone who is clearly not Earth 616’s Dormammu.
I also didn’t tag The Ultimates, who appear, because so far I’ve decided not to cover that universe.
Every issue of this comic turns up the volume on crazy. The momentum keeps building and it gets crazier and crazier. In addition to being funny, the book made artistic impact as well, thanks to Stuart Immonen. Issue #11 was all widescreens.
Page after page of complete, double-spread madness. Flying spiked wheelchairs, apes in aprons, and…Elvis Modoks!
After fighting their way through all the Beyond Corp. soldiers in #11, they finally meet the big bad: Baby MODOK.
Nextwave, as a group, end the book as a standalone super-team.
n every issue, Ellis would write a little blurb on the last page. These were often hilarious….
From #1:
From #2:
From #3:
From #4:
From #6:
From #7:
From #8:
From #9:
From #10
From #11
And from the final issue…
This is a book that doesn’t matter because it takes place in an alternate timeline, but it stars 616 characters whose experiences in this timeline are valid. I’m covering it for that reason and because it is simply amazing. It must be read to be believed.
Nextwave was Warren Ellis’ magnum opus. Ellis did some great work for Marvel, including the Iron Man: Extremis storyline that changed the MU forever, but his greatest was this brief, hilarious book about a bunch of C-listers who join a global anti-terrorism agency only to find out that it, too, is a terrorist agency.
In 2014 came the retcon that brought the team to Earth 616. I’ll be covering that quite a long time from now…
Unfortunately, we never really got the suggested revival of the team.