Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.: This Is What They Want

All the Disney movies I watched as a kid—from the underappreciated gem Fox and the Hound to the uncomfortably erotic Little Mermaid—and the one line I remember from all of them?

Scar, The Lion King, about his hyenas: "I'm surrounded by idiots."

That's how I feel reading Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Here's Warren Ellis, a phenomenal storyteller with a voluminous knowledge of pulp literature, wasting his time. Maybe it's because this is a side project (from the Latin sideiprojectionius, which means "no standards"), or maybe it's because he's shooting from the hip, where he normally grounds his stories in just enough reality to be believed. Or maybe it's because he's channeling Frank Miller's Peter Pan complex that refuses to accept anything resembling authority.

Nextwave has a dynamite premise: five renegade agents of H.A.T.E., a SHIELD-like organization, fight various threats from the sinister Beyond Corporation. The heroes are mildly interesting, and their former boss—Dirk Anger, a Nick Fury derivative—provides a hilarious commentary on the testosterone high that pervades comics.

Yet, the fast-paced format prevents the characters from any meaningful development. The group dynamics are wanting, too. Nextwave needs a character like Elijah Snow (from Planetary, another—and far superior—Ellis series), a figure who straddles the fine line between authority and rebel, cynical and hopeful. Ellis (again, like Miller) is at his best when he challenges his adolescent comfort zones. Thus, when Ellis takes the time to craft an enigmatic know-it-all like Elijah Snow, the result is sheer graphic bliss. Nextwave, however, leaves a lot to be desired.

Too much of the focus is on gags and jokes. This gives the reader the unfortunate impression that Nextwave itself is just a big, colorful excuse to make said jokes. This is probably a lot of fun for Ellis, but disappointing for readers expecting his usual levels of finesse and brilliance.

Stuart Immonen's art adapts excellently to the breakneck kinetics, but, ironically, he doesn't handle humor that well. The gory-uncomedy of Nextwave, though, can't really work with a comic book style of art. The images come across as too serious, even though Ellis clearly thinks they're funny. To convey Ellis' brand of black humor, one needs an entirely different, more subtle style than comic book art. Charles Addams and Edward Gorey come to mind. Drawn in a comic book, however, jokes about dead things feel more like a cry for prozac than comedy.

Worth the money? Sadly, no. With the right co-pay, 15 bucks gets a lot of fluoxetine…