Before I go into this comic, have to talk about Eclipse Comics for a little bit. Formed in 1977 by brothers Dean and Jan Mullaney (the sons of early electronic musician Dave Mullaney), Eclipse was one of the earliest independent comic book companies. The brothers drew inspiration for the company's ethos from the struggles Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel had with getting recognition for creating Superman in the 1960s. The idea was that Eclipse would respect creator ownership and royalty payments over the standard work-for-hire practices of the "Big Two" (Marvel and DC). Eclipse's name was provided by Sue Pollina, a friend of the Mullaney brothers, and their first logo was designed by Mark Gruenwald.
In the 1980s, with the rise of the direct market, Eclipse published one of the first graphic novels to be sold in comic book specialty stores: Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy. The 1980s would be good years for Eclipse, becoming the third biggest comic book company behind the Big Two. They would also publish numerous creator-owned works, like Steve Englehart's Coyote, Jim Starlin's Dreadstar: The Price, and Steve Gerber's Destroyer Duck. During this time, Cat Yronwode (pronounced 'iron-wood') served as editor-in-chief. Eclipse's biggest claim to fame was publishing reprints of the Alan Moore stories British superhero Miracleman, which was Moore's first experimentation with the deconstruction of superheroes (and new stories would be written by Moore and later Neil Gaiman). They would also go on to publish manga.
Eclipse fall would come about due to several factors. Its market share was overtaken by other companies like Valiant and Image, Jan Mullaney and Cat Yronwode's messy divorce in 1993, the collapse of the direct market post-speculator boom, and a bad contract with HarperCollins. It also did not help that the company's headquarters was damaged in 1986 by the Russian River flooding. Also, several creators, including Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, claimed that the company shorted them on royalty payments. The company would file bankruptcy in 1995. Eclipse's IPs (which were not many as much of their output was creator-owned), would be acquired by Todd McFarlane for $25,000.
The comic we're looking at here is the first issue of one of Eclipse's superhero titles. The New Wave was intended to be the flagship book for a shared universe that would be linked by the Heap. The book's storyline came from an unfinished storyline by Dean Mullaney, two of the characters of the series (Dot and Tachyon) were created by Sean Deming as separate pitches, and the rest of the team were created by Deming, Mullaney, and Yronwode in a brainstorming session. Mindy Newell would be given the task of developing the final concept. This is The New Wave #1!
The cover is a Lee Weeks and Ty Templeton piece. It's basically a pin-up of the team. It kind of reminds me of the iconic cover of New Teen Titans #1 by George Perez. I wonder if this was an homage to it.
"The Man in the Corporate Booth"
Writers: Sean Deming, Mindy Newell (Deming/Newell for story, Newell for script)
Penciler: Lee Weeks
Inker: Ty Templeton
Colorist: Ron Courtney
Letterer: Lee Weeks
Editor: Sean Deming
Editor-in-Chief: Cat Yronwode
The story beings on a space station, floating high above the earth, orbiting it like an artificial moon.
A Professor James Holmes is concentrating on the station's amperemeter. I wonder if the writer meant an ammeter, which is a device used to measure currents in a circuit.
There is a surge of power, but the station's systems seem to be able to handle it just fine. Holmes doesn't like this. You can't blame the guy. After all, it's a superhero universe, it's not like seemingly innocent power surges like this never led to anything big happening.
Another scientist, a woman named Nancy, suggests he needs some rest. He reluctantly agrees, but he'll be back in an hour. As he leaves, another scientist (a brunette woman who is not Nancy) makes a call. Who is she calling? Well, she isn't ordering pizza.
She's calling these guys. You see, this here space station is not some international cooperative between various world space agencies, it's a privately-owned corporate station. And the owners are known only as...the Corporation. Real clever name, guys.
The CEO is a Mr. Cliff Pasternak. Pasternak and the board are discussing what to do about Holmes. Evidently, they consider Holmes a bit of a problem. One of the board members, Trudy Steinberg, suggests removing him from the company...fatally. Pasternak seems more interested in the Sports section of the newspaper and adjourns the meeting to hit the health club. He's eaten like a pig the last week, and he wants to see if he can work off the calories. I know the feeling, the summer fair hit recently. So much fair food...
Anyway, Steinberg points out that they haven't agreed on a solution to the "Holmes problem", but Pasternak points out that killing Holmes is off the table. After all, they're a company, not the Empire from Star Wars or the Mafia. Unaware of this, Holmes heads to his cabin and gets some much-needed shuteye.
Also unknown to Holmes, a gas enters his cabin from the vent system. As this goes down, Trudy and another executive converse, implying that Pasternak is hiding something. In the lab, a sudden windstorm kicks up.
Page 5, Panel 2
"Blast it! Did that idiot Bill turn on the wind machine again?!"
One of the men in the lab leaves to get help but is blocked by one of the station's robotic guards. The lab techs notice something is going on in the booth Holmes was watching over. A blast of light, and something...or someone, appears in the booth.
Page 7, Panel 4
"I knew I should have taken that right turn at Alburquerque!"
This blue fellow is called Tachyon. Pasternak himself comes down to say hello to this visitor from a strange world. The CEO is overjoyed, as he was hoping for something like this to happen.
Pasternak wants a complete workup of this blue dude, but one of the scientists just wants some answers. Why all the secrecy? What is the point of all this? James also shows up, demanding answers himself.
James angrily confronts Nancy and Cliff, accusing them of trying to kill him. They claim he isn't well. Cliff tries to assuage James by saying that they've done it. They've managed to make contact with extraterrestrial life. Nancy is confused herself, as she thought they were working on technology to make a new type of engine for space colonization and exploration. James explains that there is more to it than that. Cliff wants to explore parallel universes. Cliff isn't worried about Nancy blowing the whistle. After all, their work on this new engine is legit. The government will get their engine, but they'll also get a real-life alien being. Talk about sweetening the deal.
Also, ol' Cliffy has dossiers on everyone on this station. It's his way of keeping everyone on the station in line, as the info in said dossiers can be used for blackmail. In Nancy's case, it was because she was involved in laundering money and embezzlement. She points out that she was unaware she was committing those crimes then, but Cliff points out the courts won't keep that in mind. I don't know, I'm not a lawyer, but I can imagine she would likely at least, get a lesser sentence.
The CEO then starts talking about how he will create a "new order" and "unify the Earth". Nancy and James realize that Cliff has gone off the deep end.
Holmes secretly releases works the booth's controls to try and send Tachyon back home and destroy the booth. It half-works.
Page 13, Panel 1
"BORN FREEEEE, AS FREE AS THE WIND BLOWS..."
Yeah, the booth is wrecked, but as you can see, Tachyon is still on the station. Holmes tries to talk to Tachyon, but the station's robot guards fire on the blue-skinned being.
Tachyon rips a computer bank right out of the wall, and presumably tosses it at said robot guards. The being then flees the station by bursting out of it.
Page 14, Panel 4
"The room service here SUCKS! I'm leaving!"
Now that's a cliffhanger for you!
If you want to read this for yourself, you're going to have to hope you find in a comic shop's back issue boxes. The New Wave has not been collected in trade as far as I know. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! See you next time!
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