Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen collects issues 1 through 12 of Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

Nextwave is a group of C-list superheroes that worked for H.A.T.E (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort), but broke off when they found out that H.A.T.E was sponsored by the Beyond Corporation, a front for a terrorist organization called S.I.L.E.N.C.E. Nextwave then looks for the weapons of mass destruction developed by the Beyond Corporation and tries to destroy them, in the way they accidentally destroy cities and run into all sorts of trouble. The group gets to fight a giant dragon, a corrupt Transformers-like cop, mindless lava beasts, a dinosaur, snakes on a plane, hamburger-shooting-Elvis-clones, among many other crazy over the top villains.

One thing I like about the comic, is that its story arcs are two issues long. While there is an overall story arc for the 12 issues, each adventure takes two issues. It is nice to read a comic that doesn't stretch (decompress) its stories. The comic also plays a lot with its medium, there is a sequence where we get six double-splashes in a row, not only displaying the great artwork by Immonen showcasing hundreds of funny villains, but also making fun of the overuse of double splashes in some comics. I like how it makes fun of titles, by sometimes having the tile of the comic multiple times throughout the issues. The issue with the 6 double-splashes has the tile at least 8 times (one for every double-splash, one at the beginning and one at the end), while other issues also have it 3 or 4 times.

The art is really good. I like that Immonen has a loose style but is still able to show a lot of detail. The scenes are very clean and they have a very nice cartoon look. A great artist was needed to make all the goofy villains work. I really like the designs for the villains.

Overall, this is a very funny comic that makes a lot of jokes about the medium and tells good stories. A great comic.