It’s safe to assume for me that Nextwave is my favorite comic ever. Before I knew anything about it I heard so many great things that I thought the hype would be greater then the actual comic. Thankfully I was wrong as in not only did it exceed my expectations, it destroyed my thoughts on how a comic should be made. I’ve been a fan of Warren Ellis before this series but he made me love him all over again with Nextwave. I learned who Stuart Immonen was with Nextwave and thankfully so did Marvel as he’s become one of their best artists today. So with all of that in mind: You bet you ass I was stoked for this reunion.

Now one thing you have to realize is: This isn’t Nextwave. The tone is different, the style is different, and by all means this could be the ‘tamest’ issue Ellis and Immonen have worked on together. Having said that this was a fantastic issue from beginning to end. There isn’t much crazy ideas in this issue like in the previous five on this title. Sure there are some monsters in the end, but it’s nothing compared to what has came before. What I liked about this issue was that it is a more grounded, personal affair then the rest. Yes the world is in trouble but for the most part it’s Captain America in a room interrogating someone. You get the great action scenes in this and the crazy science; but when you get right down to it Warren Ellis shows how great he is at writing Steve Rogers. Sometimes you have to do the wrong thing in order to get what you need and Ellis pushes that to extremes in this issue. I don’t know if say, Ed Brubaker, would allow Moon Knight to stab a guy for information, but Ellis isn’t afraid to show that. Ellis also gives the cast one moment for them to shine in this issue to give some sort of finality to this run. Sure I would have loved to see a War Machine centric issue by Ellis; but I’m fine with what I got here.

The art by Stuart Immonen is definitely more grounded then in previous Ellis pairings but it’s still all the more gorgeous to look at. The action literally jumps off the page whether it’s explosions, gunfire, or grappling hooks making it a slight to behold. But again when the time comes, the drawings become more grounds and Immonen even changes style during the interrogation scenes. There’s just too much to talk about when it comes to this issue. Again, it’s nothing like you would see in Nextwave or even in Fear Itself; but it shows just how talented Immonen can be when a different situation is called.

This is also the final issue of Warren Ellis’s run on this title. While I could repeat myself over and over again all I’ll just say is that I am going to miss the guy. He made this book relevant, fun, and exciting to read each month. He also got his hands on fantastic artists to make each issue unique and somewhat better then the one before it. Stuart Immonen helps brings this run end on style and I’m happy to say this series brought me much job in an era of the slog of Marvel titles lately. Just like Nextwave, I’ll keep praying this will somehow come back, some day.