Broken Frontier

Nextwave continues their attempt to stop their old employers newest U.W.M.D., which just happens to be the giant monster Fin Fang Foom.

Nextwave used to work for the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort (better known as H.A.T.E.). They don’t anymore. After finding out that H.A.T.E. (and their parent company, the Beyond Corp.) was actually funded by a terrorist organization, they decided that it would be better to fight against H.A.T.E. and their leader Dirk Anger. Their first stop was a small U.S. town to stop one of H.A.T.E.’s experimental Unusual Weapon of Mass Destruction. Little did they know they’d end up fighting a monster, but at least it keeps them from fighting each other.

This is one of those books that is going to have a completely split audience. Some people are going to love it and some are going to hate it. The simple fact is that this book makes escapism difficult. It is constantly calling attention to itself as a comic book. From the captions to the dialogue (lines like "Death to fleshy ones!" and "Fin Fang Foom put you in his pants!") to the choice of characters and even the "Primer" first page (one that rivals Cable/Deadpool’s recap page for humor), everything is over the top with ridiculousness that you’ll either laugh at uncontrollably or put it down and never pick it back up. Without a doubt, this book proves that Warren Ellis can write anything. His choice of characters is perfect for the story; he’s got them from all over the Marvel Universe and has as much fun with them as he can.

To make a book like this work, Ellis required an artist he knew he could work with. One who was a skilled cartoonist, who could deftly handle the humor that the script called for and make it all work. Thankfully, he’s got that guy in Stuart Immonen. Immonen shows a great amount of skill here. His action scenes are dynamic, vibrant, and easy to follow. He starts the book off at a breakneck pace and the book never loses steam, even when he has to throw in some scenes away from the main action. His character designs are wonderful and bring out both their power and zaniness. This book is just larger than life in every sense of the word.

To sum it all up, there’s one simple way to look at this book. If Machine Man drinking beer and referring to humans as "fleshy ones" sounds funny to you, go buy this book.