CBI Archive
Nextwave #6 Review
- by Brian Cronin
- in Comic Reviews
Saturday, June 28th, 2003 at 3:17 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 3:21 PM EST
After a couple of slightly lackluster issues, the Nextwave we have all come to know and love is back, and in full effect!
Here’s just a quick glimpse of the coolness of this issue - in the opening, with Elsa and Tabitha squared off against a pile of evil robots, Elsa comments, “I count six apiece.” Tabitha proceeds to berate her for trying to impress Tabitha with “her English counting. You know I growed up in a trailer park. Let’s just kill ‘em.” That was so beautiful - it almost brought a tear to my eye.
The issue has Dirk Anger throwing everything (and we mean EVERYthing) he can think of at the Nextwave crew, and it is to no avail. However, everything he throws at them is awesomely cool, and it gives Stuart Immonen lots of crazy crap to draw, which he takes in stride (although I must admit, the art seemed a bit…looser than normal. I was particularly impressed in the early issues by how Immonen was cartoonish while having a very detailed style as well - not so much in this issue).
My pal Jake has a theory on the relative coolness of Nextwave. He thinks that the issues where Dirk Anger gets off great rants are the good ones, and he may very well be right, as this issue was great, and Dirk Anger basically spends the WHOLE issue ranting! It is awesome - total stream of consciousness, only shouted as orders. Beautiful.
Meanwhile, upon being shot last issue, Monica also seems to flip a bit, as we see her go crazy with her powers in many amusing ways.
This leaves just the Captain and Aaron, but fear not, for they both have great moments to shine.
This is just the kind of crazy, action-packed rollercoaster ride of a comic book that everyone should enjoy.
A great comic book.
Recommended without reservation (I always find myself short of words to describe Nextwave…weird).
4 Comments
Erik
June 28, 2006 at 3:17 pm
It’s actually “You know I growed up in a trailer park.”
Bad grammar = better trailer park joke.
Brian Cronin
June 28, 2006 at 3:20 pm
You are correct!
T.
June 29, 2006 at 5:17 am
I actually didn’t like the joke. It was kinda trite, plus after 6 issues would it kill Ellis to have a joke at the expense of his oh-so-perfect British protaganist for once? Maybe something about cradle-to-the-grave entitlements, demand for excessive vacation time, even the reliable standby of bad-teeth?
Omar Karindu
June 29, 2006 at 6:18 pm
I gotta say, I loved the first four issues, but at this point the jokes are getting a bit tired — we’ve now had three “harmless animal as killer cyborg” gags (koalas, homicide crabs, and atomic puppies) and two “Dirk Anger eats/drinks weird lizard-related stuff” gags within two issues. And the penultimate gag seems to be no different than the ending of issue #4.
That said, I have a feeling Elsa will be on the receiving end of it fairly soon — the pattern so far seems to be that one issue of each arc contains a flashback that utterly takes the piss out of one of the leads. In issue #2, it’s Monica proving to be a sanctimonius nitwit regarding her “no-killing” policy. In #3, it’s the Captain’s wonderfully crap origin. And in #5, we got Aaron taking smack-talk from unusually chatty Celestials.
So by #9, we should see the anti-Elsa scene. I have a feeling it’ll be more a jab at her Buffy-clone nature or at the silliness of the monster books Bloodstone descends from, but it’ll happen.