Wednesday 18 June 2014

So I Read Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

A 250 word (or less) review of Nextwave 
by Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen, and Dave McCaig; Marvel Comics



There are some comics so brilliant, so experimental, that they cast a shadow on the entire medium. Most of these remarkable comics are meticulous constructions that perform astonishing feats of wizardry with plot or characterization or theme and provide insight into the human experience and what can even by done with a comic. Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. is an essential, revolutionary comic that says fuck all that let's punch weird stuff. Essentially, Nextwave is a superhero comic that excises plot and character development and melts down the remaining action in a crucible of madness. And the resulting comic, instead of being a drooling lobotomy moron, is fucking transcendental comics alchemy. In Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., a superhero team made of sometime-Avenger Monica Rambeau, monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, ornery robot Aaron Stack, kleptomaniac celebrity mutant with pyrotechnic powers Tabitha Smith, and The Captain, who is just kind of an asshole, fight the living weapons of mass destruction produced by the Beyond Corporation. And yeah, that's basically the comic: misfit superheroes with personality disorders punch, kick, and blow up really weird and silly monster-things in a stripped-down, hyper efficient comic drawn by a genius-superstar artist. Which is the fundamental unspoken core of superhero comics made explicit and also shut up, it's fucking awesome. Go read it.

Word count: 214

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