Dark Horse Comics 2015
Created & Written by Brian Wood
Illustrated by Garry Brown
Coloured by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by Jared K. Fletcher
In the pages of The Massive, the Ninth Wave environmental group struggled to define its mission as the world’s systems collapsed. But before that, it was the preeminent global activist force. Here are some of Ninth Wave’s stories.
So this is kind of a Mission Impossible kind of story. Seeing Callum and Mary before the Massive and seeing what they were like and what they were willing to do is great! When the Massive first debuted it was one of those instant hits that when it ended it left something of a void. Now we get to see the world and their place in it before the disaster and hopefully by the end of this run we’ll see the actual disaster itself happen. Brian has one of those minds that I never want to understand how it works i’m just glad it does work the way it does.
So it really is kind of fun to watch Eco-Terrorists at work. I mean when you are willing to go to such extremes to protect the environment and sometimes cause more damage than you’d think you tend to get labeled as dangerous. So seeing what they do in Berlin is incredibly fascinating. I mean seriously a little office damage and burning some paperwork is kind of nothing but what happens with the sewer system that’s something else entirely.
Still with Callum and Mary on the yacht with Bors Bergsen we do learn a lot more about them then we did before. For instance as Bors talks about Callum and what he’s done and how he isn’t afraid of the kind of man he is you really get a sense that while yes he’s an activist he isn’t an extremist. That however changes when Mary enters the picture and it seems it’s her influence that has taken him from vocalist to full blown eco-terrorist.
The dialogue and dynamic of seeing what happens here throughout with the issue between the events in Germany and on the yacht only strengthen what I believe about Brian and what he’s able to do when writing a story. To be perfectly honest I wasn’t sure what to expect from this story I was just happy that Ninth Wave was coming back so seeing this was more than a pleasant surprise. This is the kind of action and adventure and illegal activities that you associate with eco-terrorists.
Garry and Jordie’s work on the interiors is as stellar as always. They really manage to not only set the mood, tone and feel of the book but do this superb job in letting you feel what’s happening. With the reveals to Bors or just watching them work in synch with one another in order to accomplish their goals you get that intense feeling of what they are going through.
This is what I love about comics and now that we’ve seen them after the world changed it’ll be fun to see them as they were before.