It's the penultimate day of Acronym Week. The funny thing is, I could've sworn I had a different idea for today's entry, but I completely forgot what it was. Then again, I could've just deluded myself into thinking that. I have no idea.

Luckily, there are loads of good acronyms in the comics medium. Take today's entry, for instance:

1/19/07

19. HATE

Click to embiggen:



HATE stands for Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, though that's a crock. You see, HATE is funded by the Beyond Corporation, which is run by the terror cell SILENT. The leader of hate, however, is Dirk Anger, and he's too busy with his own mania to care.

Yeah, those of you who didn't read Nextwave (shame on you, by the way) probably have now realized HATE is a thinly-veiled parody of SHIELD and that Dirk Anger is a silly, over-the-top version of Nick Fury. And it's all true. Marvel wouldn't let Warren Ellis use SHIELD because Nextwave was, I dunno, too insane. But it is also one of the few comics Marvel put out in 2006 that was any good. So good, in fact, that it was too good to live.

Nextwave is the Chuck Norris of comics. It has done every awesome thing imaginable. Nextwave: Curing scoliosis, one kick-to-the-spine at a time.

The Nextwave squad worked for HATE, y'see, until they found out their evil orgins. And so Dirk Anger dedicated himself to hunting the team down. And he used HATE's aeromarine (not helicarrier, no; far crazy-cooler than that!) to do it.

Dirk Anger is loaded with mental problems. Insane. Suicidal. Masochistic. Sadistic. Multiple addictions. Basically everything. He is also totally awesome, though you'd never want to meet him.



I hate to use vastly overused terminology, but I'm going to anyway: HATE is SHIELD on crack. And acid. And speed. And numerous other kinds of dangerous and illegal drugs. After all, what other comics organization would attack their enemies with such things as broccoli people, robot samurai, pterodactyl men, killer koalas, homicide crabs, Mindless Ones, cyborg Steven Hawkingses, Elvis MODOKs, Fin Fang Foom, Forbush Man and the cast of Not Brand Ecch, and, of course, snakes on planes?

HATE gave us a hilarious comic that lived fast and died young (well, there's an issue to go, but, you know, it's basically dead. Though future mini-series may be likely. That'd be nice). Go HATE!

Tomorrow, for our final acronym, I've come up with something I don't think you'll be expecting. That'll be the end of our first theme week. So now I wish to poll the readership:

1. Is there an acronym that didn't appear that you think is too awesome not to show up? I'm sure I've missed out on several really good ones. Remind me of them.

2. Would you like to go back to random stuff or jump right into another theme week?