It’s all about the methods.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Garry Brown
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
What They Say:
From the pages of the critically acclaimed The Massive come Ninth Wave, planet Earth’s first responders! This issue tackles ecoterrorists in Canada’s old-growth forests. Reuniting the entire creative team, The Massive: Ninth Wave is six issues of pure environmental-rescue action.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of The Massive: Ninth Wave clicked well for me because as much as I enjoyed seeing the stories of what the crew and world was like as things went down badly in the main book, I’m really enjoying these somewhat incomplete tales of the time beforehand and what the crew did. Though there’s a sense of urgency about the various situations that they face, it’s more of a holding action and trying to change minds to some degree rather than full on doing something. The incomplete aspect is also appealing because it’s less about the conclusion than the presentation, which is something that you can do a lot more easily with shorter standalone pieces.
While the first issue worked several different angles to tell its tale across various parts of the world, this one is a lot more narrow as it takes us to British Columbia where Callum is staking out an area near where some clearcutting of the woods is going on. With some twenty-thousand acres to be worked over, that’s one hell of a target for ecoterrorism to settle on and one that’s hard to pass up. Callum isn’t there to cause trouble but rather to stop it from happening, though he’s not pleased about the clearcutting going on either. As it turns out, a small group that had joined the Ninth Wave previously did so in order to learn tactics and information before going off on their own more extreme agenda. And he’s intent on stopping that from happening through his own particular non-violent ways.
With that as the backdrop, I really like that it focuses on Callum trying to convince an off-duty and suspended ranger from getting involved while he’s waiting in the trees for his target. Amanda has a real love for the area and doesn’t want either the terrorists that Callum is after or the loggers to be doing what they’re doing, but it’s a matter of dealing with the greater of two evils. The dialogue between the two is well done as they spend some time together and it humanizes Callum more in small ways. For Amanda, it involves a certain level of trust for someone that she doesn’t care much for based on what she knows about him from the public sphere, but it’s an interesting risk she has to take in giving him that trust. Seeing how it plays out is pure Callum however, and while it is the right thing it’s also the kind of thing that makes it harder for people to rally to his side and those that work with him.
In Summary:
I’m really digging this series and its style with what it wants to do. I enjoy the way Wood brings his stories together, coming off of Rebels and moving onto this again after reading some his other works in the last few years. Ninth Wave tickles the right kind of thing for me when it comes to this kind of side story after the main series has finished. What takes it up a whole other level is Garry Brown’s artwork. There’s some real beauty in his designs and camera angles used this time around that has me really loving what he does. Bellaire’s color design is also strong here, especially with so much of it in the deep woods hitting the right kind of color palette used. It’s a beautiful looking book in a way that you wouldn’t normally think of for a series like this and that continues to be very engaging..
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: January 13th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
