Minor heroes get ‘Nextwave’ roles

Writer Warren Ellis deliberately reached near the bottom of the barrel to fill the roster of heroes in “Nextwave,” a new series coming this week from Marvel Comics.

Forget about Marvel’s big guns, such as Spider-Man and Wolverine. Instead, Ellis is playing with C- and D-list heroes such as Photon, Machine Man, Meltdown and monster-hunter Elsa Bloodstone.

They’re the superhero version of the little-known celebrities who pop up on TV reality shows. And in “Nextwave,” Ellis is having fun with them.

The new series is not for fans who view their heroes with only reverence and respect. Instead, it’s for readers looking for laughs and things that go boom.

“People get kicked. Things explode,” a joking Ellis said in a Marvel teleconference for the comics press. “What more do you need to know?”

When pressed, the British writer acknowledged there is a plot. The heroes of “Nextwave” have been working for an agency called The Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, or H.A.T.E., with the mission of fighting BWMDs, or Bizarre Weapons of Mass Destruction.

But the squad learns that it’s being used – and that the corporation funding H.A.T.E. is actually a blind for bad guys intent on wiping out American cities and heroes.

Ellis is working to keep the stories as simple and compact as possible – “to make space for the jokes,” he said, and to let artist Stuart Immonen’s work shine.

The cast includes some new characters, including Gen. Dirk Anger, the director of H.A.T.E. There’s also the Captain, a twisted take on all of Marvel’s captains, from Captain America to Captain Marvel.

“The Captain is fun because he’s just barely there,” Ellis said. “He’s quite mad.”

Photon is another of his favorite characters.

“She’s trying so hard to be the moral leader, but she’s got this really bad streak,” Ellis said.

Though Ellis has plucked minor characters from the Marvel universe, “Nextwave” takes place in kind of a world of its own. So don’t expect the X-Men or the Fantastic Four to drop by.

“I wouldn’t necessarily want to drag mainstream Marvel into it for fear of what I would do to it,” Ellis said.

‘Plant Hulk’

Marvel’s Hulk is about to embark on an epic adventure, a 14-part story that will reach into 2007.

The “Planet Hulk” story line kicks off in “Incredible Hulk” No. 92 in February, though the just-released issue No. 91 sets the stage.

The story finds the Hulk battling for his life on a distant, savage planet ruled by an emperor who relishes “Gladiator”-type spectacles.

It’s a “sci-fi world,” writer Greg Pak said – a world not of swords and sorcery but of battle axes and blasters.

“Imagine a world in which a preindustrial culture like ancient Rome began to acquire scraps of 21st-century technology,” Pak said in a teleconference.

The Hulk is used to being the toughest guy around. That won’t be the case in “Planet Hulk,” where he’ll face alien combatants bigger and stronger than he is.

“I think what “Planet Hulk’ is really going to do is it’s going to give us the opportunity to really let the Hulk cut loose in a way that’s very hard for him to do on planet Earth,” said Joe Quesada, Marvel editor in chief.

The central question is whether the Hulk will emerge as a monster or a hero, Pak said.

“It’s a planet that has incredible threats and incredible opportunities for the Hulk,” he said.