Upcoming Ellis project for Marvel: Nextwave

[Velorath]

Interview with Warren Ellis here.
Interview with artisit Stuart Immonen here.

I figure since there are some fans of Ellis here from his work on Transmet and Planetary, they might be interested in hearing about Ellis upcoming Marvel comic coming in January, 2006. 

Nextwave is an elite superman task force organized by the government agency known as H.A.T.E. (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort). Their mission was to stop superhuman terrorists, but when they find out their own organization is the one behind a conspiracy aiding villains in taking out small towns in rural states where heroes never venture, they have to stop it.

The basic premise sounds sorta cheesy (there's more to it in the article), and the characters (Captain Marvel/Photon, Boom Boom, Machine Man, Ellie Bloodstone, and a new character called the Captain) are all b or c-listers.  The art almost looks like it came out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the '70s.  But this is Ellis, so I'm guessing this comic is going to end up a lot different than it sounds.  This seems to be getting a lot of early hype, so I excpect it will see some good numbers when it's released.

[schild]

Ellis is doing a comic about a group called hate that looks like a saturday morning cartoon from the 80s. I imagine a smart superheroesy version of Happy Tree Friends. I could be wrong. I'd read that though. Thanks for the information.



Heh.

[Arnold]

H.A.T.E, lol.  That shit is just bad.  I already came up for the leader of their group.  It was a character I was going to make if I ever played CoV.  JIHADJI!

[Velorath]

Dirk Anger is my new hero.

[HaemishM]

H.A.T.E. has the best drugs. Because H.A.T.E. loves me.

And I love H.A.T.E.

Beautiful. It's like Nick Fury shit out a satirical evil twin clone of himself.

[HaemishM]

Just got finished reading the first issue. If you liked Transmet's sense of humor at all, get this book. It's fucking hysterical.

Machine Man has been recast without the old purple exoskin as a robot who calls humans "Fleshy ones." The old female Capt. Marvel from the Avengers has been given some badassitude. Boom Boom from New Mutants/X-Force is here as well. The other characters I don't recognize. They fight against FIN FANG FOOM, a giant Chinese dragon who is wearing purple underpants.

It's almost totally nonsensical and just damned funny. Read it.

[Velorath]

Just got finished reading the first issue. If you liked Transmet's sense of humor at all, get this book. It's fucking hysterical.

Machine Man has been recast without the old purple exoskin as a robot who calls humans "Fleshy ones." The old female Capt. Marvel from the Avengers has been given some badassitude. Boom Boom from New Mutants/X-Force is here as well. The other characters I don't recognize. They fight against FIN FANG FOOM, a giant Chinese dragon who is wearing purple underpants.

It's almost totally nonsensical and just damned funny. Read it.

The Captain is a new character.  Ellis says this of him:

“The Captain is every generic Marvel superhero with the prefix Captain ever. There's loads of them. Captain Kerosene. Captain Rectitude. Captain Avalon. Captain Avenger. I'm making none of these up. He was all of them. He changed names every few months. One of his names was so obscene that Captain America beat him up for it.”

Ellie Bloodstone is the daughter of C-list character Ulysses Bloodstone.  She had her own mini a few years back.

[Llava]

“The Captain is every generic Marvel superhero with the prefix Captain ever. There's loads of them. Captain Kerosene. Captain Rectitude. Captain Avalon. Captain Avenger. I'm making none of these up. He was all of them. He changed names every few months. One of his names was so obscene that Captain America beat him up for it.”

That is hilarious.  Ellis rules.

[Velorath]

For those who don't know, Ellis will also be recreating Marvel's "New Universe" in an ongoing title called Newuniversal which launches this Summer.

[Margalis]

New Universe was pretty damn awful. I don't think the world really needs Kickers and DP7 again.

[Raguel]

I think there was some cool stuff to come out of NU. It was the first time i read anything by Peter David ("Justice"?), or Fabian Nicienza  (sp) (Psi-Force). Starbrand was pretty cool, until Byrne came on board and screwed with the character in an apparent petty vendetta against Jim Shooter.

[HaemishM]

New Universe was pretty damn awful. I don't think the world really needs Kickers and DP7 again.

Kickers, probably not. But DP7 was really the best thing the universe had going for it. Had they ever been given artists of a decent caliber, as opposed to the very mediocre art the book got stuck with, it would have probably taken off. Had Starbrand not been written by Shooter (at first) fresh off the suck that was Secret Wars 2, and then Byrne (who has plenty of petty vendettas these days), it would have been better.

But really, Kickers Inc. was just silly.

[Margalis]

How long did DP7 last for? I have the first 8 issues or so.

[HaemishM]

I think into the 20's. Not much more than that. I believe I read it for the 10-12.

[Raguel]

I can't even remember what Kickers was about lol. Was that the one where pro athletes get super powers?

edit:  wiki

kickers were a pro football team that got super powers, apparently.

haha the other ones I forgot were: Spitfire and Marc Hazzard.

[HaemishM]

Spitfire and Marc Hazzard definitely did not need to be there.

[Velorath]

I think Spitfire was the first one canceled.

[Simond]

I am honestly laughing out loud right now.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, just read Nextwave #2. This shit is great fun, especially when it gets to the parts where all the characters are doing something and their dialogue is their action.

Captain: Kick.

Elly: 'Splode.

Le awesome.

[Velorath]

Father Blood Drench Robo Crush simply has something in his lens.

Leave Father Blood Drench Robo Crush alone now, fleshy.

[Velorath]

Issue 3 was a pretty quick read.  Nothing in this issue that's as funny as anything from the first 2 but this is still a solid read and was probably the best book that came out this last week that I read.  Conan #26, Captain America #16, and Ares #3 were all strong contenders though (X-Factor #5 was a bit dull, taking a break from the main story).

[HaemishM]

HE WILL PEEL YOU WITH HIS ROBOT BITS!

[Velorath]

Cops - - The most annoying fleshy ones of all.

[Samwise]

Anyone have any guesses when this might be coming out in trade paperback?

[Velorath]

Amazon is pre-selling the hardcover for $12.99.  Looks like it's scheduled for late August at the moment.  No word on when it's coming out in TPB form but it likely wounldn't be much cheaper than $12.99 anyway

[Velorath]

RELEASE THE DROP BEARS!

[HaemishM]

Tabitha! Quickly to me, my X-bait!

Help me lift my GUN! Techno-organic prolapse iminent!

God, this book has such quotable lines.

[Velorath]

Tabitha! Quickly to me, my X-bait!

Help me lift my GUN! Techno-organic prolapse iminent!

God, this book has such quotable lines.

And yet this book is selling in the mid-20k range while New Avengers is selling at around 120k.

[HaemishM]

There's no accounting for taste.

[Velorath]

There's no accounting for taste.

Oh, there'll be an accounting...

[HaemishM]

I want me some homicide crabs.

[Simond]

With a side order of atomic puppies?

[Velorath]

Ellis brought up the fact that after creating New Avengers and reinventing the idea of superhero teams, Brian Bendis was disappointed that no one else had stepped up to the bat and tried to reinvent team comics as well. That sentiment helped fuel the creation of Nextwave. "How can I really horrify Bendis?" said Ellis. "What could I do that would just scare the s--- out of him and make him utterly regret saying that. So I took The Authority and I stripped out all the plots, logic, character and sanity. I just cut everything back until I was left with pure superhero comics."

Link to full article

[Simond]

Nextwave is now officially part of standard Marvel continuity. 

[HaemishM]

Le awesome. Nextwave is the best thing Marvel has going right now.