So my friend and I were browsing through a Comic Store In Town, primarily to see what “old” comics were up on the wall for sale. While we waxed nostalgic looking at all the old classic silver age covers, my eyes dropped down to the current comics, and I almost had a heart attack when I saw THIS sitting on the new release shelf:
WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS? Was this a reprint of the old NEXT MEN Strips? Was this a clever repackaging made to promote the "Trade Edition" collections that IDW was releasing? Or….Hope ABOVE HOPE…Did John Byrne FINALLY get around to CONTINUING his Next Men series after ALL THESE YEARS?!
I couldn’t believe THAT possibility, and decided that when I got home, I was going to have to go online and find out just WHAT the heck it was that I saw at the comic store! I felt SURE that they were only reprints, but why did Bethany and Jasmine have new costumes on the cover? Dare I hope that it was something NEW?
Going onto Wikipedia, I quickly scrolled through the fact page…and…HOLY CRAP! Unbelievably, It WAS a NEW SERIES! Byrne had FINALLY picked up where he’d left off and STARTED IT UP AGAIN! HOW IN THE WORLD DID THIS THING COME OUT WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE?! It was already up to issue 7...that meant SEVEN WHOLE MONTHS that it was out and I never had an INKLING of its existence!
Oh My GOSH, you best bet I RAN my BUTT back to that comic store and SCOOPED up those issues, but QUICK! Took a lot of driving and visits to three (!) comic stores before I finally got all 7 back-issues, but once I did, it was WELL WORTH IT! Diving in, reading NEXT MEN again was like slipping on a comfortable old show-I felt at home!
 |
Now, truth be told, I’m not sure exactly WHERE the storyline is going, and there’s admittedly a lot of “it was only a dream/illusion” jerking around going on, but like I’ve stated before, the characters have always been more important to me than the actual storyline, and in THIS regard, Byrne is moving along SWIMMINGLY! Not only have we been reintroduced to the characters, but he’s made great strides developing Federal Agent Toni Murcheson and the continued story of Jack’s religious awakening!
The others are there as well, with both Nathan and Jazz storylines involving them fighting their way out of the muddled past and nice developments for my beloved Bethany. In fact, at the moment, Danny’s the only one who still hasn’t been covered yet…wonder if there’s gonna be some big secret unveiled soon?
We’ll have to read and find out! Byrne has stated that he’s got about 50 issues worth to tell the whole story, and I sincerely hope the comic can LAST up until then- I would HATE to have the Next Men pulled out from under me AGAIN!
