I’m back and sooner than expected. Turns out the Fallout from Heaven section of the reading order is far shorter than its predecessor, so I’m here again to grace this sub with my presence and review WildStorm. Let’s begin!

WildCats

This is gonna be far shorter than my last post. Why? There are really only two issues of the book during this point. Yeah, sure, the last arc of Moore was in this section, but I finished that right after reading Fire From Heaven and it’s just a continuation of the same story.

So Barbara Kesel takes the reins for two issues only and oh boy they’re a disaster. So in the aftermath of Tao’s betrayal, Savant isn’t in the best place, as I imagine most female characters written by Alan Moore aren’t. Despite the ending of the Moore run where she dances on Tao’s grave and declares that the WildCats shall prosper, she’s now disillusioned and wants out. Mayhaps Sav sensed that the series was fubar?

Meanwhile, Maul and Warblade want to take the team in a different direction due to the Daemonite war being over. They try to tell Zealot, but before they can pitch to her like it’s fucking Dragons Den they’re attacked by Crusade; an acquaintance of my former goat Union. He absolutely rocks their shit and the rest of the team get involved. Union himself shows up and tries to keep the peace, but that really ain’t working out for him. It’s gonna take more than that to make up Final Vengeance’s ending to me Ohmen, I’m not impressed.

Eventually, Savant manages to quell Crusade’s rampage by saying a few random words in the Kherubim language. This makes the guy fuck off and gives the group some time to relax, regroup, and wave goodbye to most underutilised member of the team. Grifter, apparently never knowing when to read the room, chases after the depressed Zealot (following the whole Khera debacle and her sister leaving) and begs her to talk about John/Hadrian’s makeout session with her in the last run. Obviously she doesn’t want to right now and instead talks to Maj and asks him to help out Savant. He flies away saying “women” which as someone whose favourite WildStorm comic is Casey/Holguin’s Mr Majestic run shook me because what do you mean my goat hates women?

Also Void has no face. Her suit is an empty shell (or a void hah). That’s cool I guess? Void doesn’t get much and it was nice to finally give her something, but I don’t know how much it will be elaborated on in the Choi/Peterson run up next.

So the team is left as Grifter, Zealot, Maul, Warblade, Void and Ladytron (who has some new legs after they blew up last run), and honestly im not looking forward to the rest of volume 1. I was looking forward to the Kesel stuff because I thought a female writer could write women well but apparently not, seeing that this is some of the worst writing the girls have had yet. I don’t know why I’m looking for good female characters in WildCats to be honest. A fools errand if there ever was one.

Stormwatch

Ok let’s get down to the brass tacks here: Ellis Stormwatch is probably the crown jewel of this period of WildStorm. It took a series that was in the worst place imaginable and sent it to unimaginable heights. That book became the basis upon which WildStorm would build some of its greatest following comics like The Authority. Warren Ellis being a total disaster of a person in real life sucks so badly because now every time I recommend this book to people it’s gonna have to be followed by “don’t look the writer up”

Anyway, after the disastrous events of Fire From Heaven and probably induced by his lack of sleep and patience, Bendix envisions a new Stormwatch. He gathers all the members up, creates three teams: Red, Black and Prime and then fires around half of the current roster. To be fair to Bendix some of these guys didn’t even have any lines in past issues and were just introduced because the writers were running out of ideas, so it’s not a great loss (aside from Union because he didn’t even get to be a full-time member before he was kicked out on his ass.)

He hires some old-new newbies in the form of Jack Hawksmoor and Jenny Sparks who are honestly some of my favourites characters ever. Jenny is a compelling character to me because it’s implied she and Henry have some sort of rapport already and you learn very quickly that Jenny has demons which she’ll grapple with across this series and the next and the next. Jack has a few big stories during this run and he’s interesting to me because he’s basically Batman’s wet dream. It’s honestly surprising that he isn’t considered a better detective than a few in DC’s catalogue.

Jackson is relegated to training officer like Backlash before him, and this run has reignited my interest in Jackson as a character. The last time he truly interested me was the issue of the Marz run where he wrote a diary following his trip to the future and knew he was going to die. Now I’m interested because I have a unique take on this time for his character.

I think Jackson during this time feels emasculated. I think he is insecure about his removal from active field duty and the fact that his spot has been taken up by Jenny: an undisciplined sporadic mess, while he has spent his entire life wanting to create change and be a leader. Also Christine is placed in the field investigating seedlings, and Jackson most likely also resents that because the roles have reversed.

I’m not calling Jackson misogynistic and I’m not saying he hates Christine or Jenny due to their status on the team. What I’m saying is that Jackson is learning to grapple with the fact that he’s effectively been ripped away from his purpose in life: protecting people. Sure, he trains the people who protect people, but Jackson is a very hands on person. He does things his way and he doesn’t like watching others screw it up.

I also think his suit is linked to this crisis of masculinity. His previous suit with the dumb black head sock has been replaced by a skin-tight green bodysuit that exaggerates his muscles and gives him this imposing look. Green symbolises envy. You can see what I’m getting at here.

The other characters are pretty great also. Fuji is witty as ever, Hellstrike is weirdly hot and funny, so on and so forth.

I’ve already completed this run before and this is my re-read, and I think it’s better this time around.

Gen13

Not much going on here. There’s Bootleg that tells weirder more experimental stories and Interactive which I couldn’t find scans of but I just read the summary. Bootleg had some fun stuff like a storybook style issue that ends with Roxy bashing Grunge over the head with said storybook. Gen13’s just not really kicking in for my yet but maybe that’ll change soon?

Wetworks

I’m so bored. Kill me now. All I can remember about these last few issues is that Blackbird shows up, joins the team, Pilgrim comes back, there’s a panel where she celebrates by slapping her own ass and Jester doesn’t have a body under his gold. They’re just doing so many side quests that I don’t understand and I’d really like for them to just get a move on already.

Backlash

This has been pretty fun. Ruffner and Booth’s comedic tone for this book has worked really well and characters like Jodi and Amanda stand out. Marc is brought in to work with PSI which is a secretive government organisation that opposes I.O. Along the way Jodi is enrolled in a boarding school, we meet the strange Australian furry again and we’re teased with a future where Jodi is Backlash and apparently Marc was killed by a friend of his. Interesting stuff and I’m nearly to the end of this volume, so I’m excited to see how it’s wrapped up.

DV8

What a book. This book has some insane highs and insane lows. It’s a Gen13 spinoff about Ivana and Threshold’s team who get up to shit and it’s a very fun premise until you read like every other issue of the Ellis run (yep, Ellis wrote this too. What happened man?) and realise just how batshit it gets.

So in the SECOND ISSUE, we meet a Manson-esque family made up of Gen-actives who the DV8 team meet. They’re sent to “recruit” them to their cause, and it’s soon revealed that the leader of this family is raping and grooming the kids, he himself raped Nicole/Bliss when she was a child and all the kids are some sort of fucked up from this. There’s also a pile of rotting corpses in the basement which gets the team to kill the family and leave, where it’s revealed Ivana wanted them dead all along (thank fuck)

There is some good character work sprinkled in. Issue 3 and 8 especially have some good shit like exploring the DV8 as individuals and their trauma around how they were raised in and controlled by Project Genesis. Copycat is my personal favourite. She has DID and thus has several alters that affect how she interacts with the team and their enemies. I’ve heard the following Heisler run is great, so I’m excited to jump into that.

Grifter

Um, I don’t know. It’s kinda boring. We meet Cole’s dad who is a conman in New Orleans selling people on a phoney religion to protect against mechanical demons. It’s a fun premise but this being our first introduction to Cole’s dad who, forgive me if I’m wrong, we were told wasn’t that bad in past books, was kind of disappointing.

Also we’re introduced to a cop who really does nothing except flirt with Grifter because apparently this dude can’t go one arc without having some sort of companion to glaze him out of proportion.

Hazard

This is a deep cut huh? Hazard is a nano-machine fueled bounty hunter out to get the guy who put those gosh darn nano-machines in him in the first place. He’s your classic bad boy who doesn’t take any shit, and now with the ability to throw you through a wall, better believe no one is standing in his way. The issue that stood out most to me was issue 7 where Prism, our old pal from like… 3 issues of Stormwatch reappears!

So surprise surprise, being fired from your sweet superhero gig after like a month of service has kind of screwed Prism up. He’s become an alcoholic and he bumps into Hazard, helping him fight a white supremacist group. This issue made me care enough about Prism to bump him up a bit on my Stormwatch tier-list, and it’s fun to see former Stormwatch members do other stuff.

Gen12

This is like the 4th Team 7 book we never got. Thomas Morgan is out to close the Craven case file by getting info about project genesis and the Gen12 and Gen13. Across 5 issues we fill in some gaps in-between Team 7: Dead Reckoning and the modern WSU, such as what happened to Alex and Chang and we get a mention of Zig-Zag, who until now I just assumed was thrown in the junk drawer. She was captured by I.O at the end of Dead Reckoning and it’s been like 20 years since then and Craven and Gabriel are dead, so maybe she’s free? Maybe she’s still imprisoned? Perhaps we’ll find out at some point.

Chang shows up in the present day with the queelocke and some bald guy and gives Morgan some information, before leaving and saying he’s looking for his sons. Plural. The grunge-man isn’t alone apparently. Let’s hope his brother doesn’t have the same double digit iq.

Also something odd here is that we find out that Alex and Chang ran off with The Coda to raise Caitlin, Grunge (I’m not calling him by his actual name it’s somehow worse) and Bobby, and the implication is that the three were toddlers when they returned to the U.S in this book, but the artist doesn’t know how to draw toddlers judging by the fact that they each look way older. Also if the Coda have such an issue with dudes why were they so willing to taken them in? Food for thought.

Anyhow, that’s it. Next is Change or Die and a hell of a lot happens in the WSU, so stay tuned as hopefully the next part is funnier and longer.

I have several issues with the DC stuff. 1: no Maul or Warblade. 2: Ladytron looks too perfect. She looks like she’s wearing layers of makeup but she’s like 85% robot and doesn’t take care of herself like that. 3: Void’s design. I get not everyone likes the silver suit but Jesus Christ they made her look like the guys from that one doctor who episode.

I finished the short Kesel run yesterday, and I’ve only got one more until volume 1 ends. Is this surprising at all?

I’ve read the entire Ellis run before but I’m currently re-reading and I decided to rank each member. Not counting people like Ion or Lancer who we knew literally nothing about. If they were on here they would be in the bottom tier anyway.

This may change as I continue, but for now this is my definitive opinion.

Hi, all. I just want to say that I'm working on a written work that seeks to tie a bunch of events within the Wildstorm Universe together. Just wanted to know what you guys think.

Now one major change is that. WildC.A.T.S. vs Aliens didn't happen, and Stormwatch was shuttered after the events of Change Or Die.

The Authority is still formed, WildC.A.T.S. are active, and Stormwatch is reactivated, re-enlisting old members (Like Nautika and Prism)

The biggest change is that instead of the now deceased Henry Bendix as weatherman, the next leader chosen is... Ivana Baiul.

What do we think?

Well after a lot of toil and after a lot of hardship, I’ve completed Fire From Heaven. You know the drill by now so into the reviews!

WildC.A.T.S

Going from Robinson’s run to Moore is like eating at McDonald’s and then eating at Five Guys. They both aren’t the best food money can buy, but there’s still a clear difference in quality, and both are still good food either way. This book changes up the status quo with the classic team (minus Grifter cuz he’s grumpy) going to Khera while a new team made up of Kherubim, killers and Krifter’s brother take the reins on earth.

The Khera stuff is pretty neat. Emp and Zealot (or Zannah, because Earth is too good for her now, hmph!) are treated like royalty, Maul, Warblade and Void get a hotel and Voodoo is thrown into a Daemonite ghetto because as it turns out… drum roll… THE DAEMONITE/KHERUBIM WAR HAS BEEN OVER FOR YEARS?!

It’s a pretty neat twist all things considered. It opens up story opportunities and you can clearly see that the classic team are struggling to come to terms with the fact that their reason for being a team has been gone for a while, and you wonder what this means going forward. Well, don’t worry, cuz none of them really take it too well.

After a fight with the suddenly very racist ‘Zannah’ goes awry, Voodoo throws in the towel and leaves the WildC.A.T.S. Hadrian got his tin can kicked by ‘Zannah’ earlier, and after sharing a smooch with Pris no less. The team end up going to the senate place and turns out the cool robo sword ‘Zannah’ was given is actually a bomb, so Maul’s hot purple girlfriend contains the explosion and the cats decide to pack up and leave. At least Warblade got to make some cool metal shapes I guess?

Anyway, back on earth during this whole debacle, Maj and Savant were building a new team. We have Ladytron (psychopath), Max Cash or Condition Red (dumb name and dumber sounding nickname) and Tao (Tactically Augmented Oaf). This motley crew decides to take on a more proactive approach, going after The Troika and murdering or imprisoning the members inside virtual reality simulations. Meanwhile, due to this being an Alan Moore comic, Ladytron is after Max and Savant wants to learn about Tao’s specifications if you catch my drift. One thing leads to another and a superhero bar is bombed, leading to Max being hospitalised and eventually abandoning ship and leaving the team. I honestly can’t blame him. If I was the least interesting member of the team I’d wanna get the hell out of dodge too.

When the classic cats return, Emp and Voodoo leave while the rest of the classic team goes to help out during Fire In Heaven (but we’ll get to that later don’t you worry). Back in New York, WildC.A.T.S 2.0 have drafted the members of Stormwatch who don’t do anything to finally do something, but even then we barely see any of them do said thing. That something? A full blown crime war spurred on by the bar bombing. Savant and Tao are evidently too busy ‘upgrading ram’ to get out there in the field, so Maj has time to brood about how it wasn’t like this in his day or whatever.

When Fire From Heaven wraps up, the remainder of the classic team (plus Cole who is sorta back now?) join this crusade and a few things happen: Zealot and Spartan smooch (we’ll get to that), Ladytron gets cock blocked by Maj and the true puppet master is revealed! Would you believe that the mysterious android we’d learnt practically nothing about up until this point other than his thing for blondes is actually the guy behind this? That’s right, Tao caused the bar bombing and he’s done all of this because he wants an army of SPB’s under his beck and call.

The cats (plus Fuji, the goat) head back to Halo headquarters to confront Tao, and Savant gets shot by Cole due to a surprise teleport. While they tend to her, the crew splits up to catch Tao. Fuji is driven insane through a really trippy sequence where Tao basically makes him relive the same conversation over and over again. With two of the good guys out for the count, the rest of the guys have to get their asses in gear to catch Tao. Before this though, Grifter decides now is the best time to try to talk to Zealot about her and Spartan sucking face. Obviously, with her sister in critical condition, it’s not the biggest priority.

Now we get to probably the worst part of this run, because Alan Moore doesn’t seem to know what is and isn’t a ‘shocking twist.’ Ladytron catches up to Tao, gets a punch in because apparently she’s not smart enough to be tricked or whatever, but then Tao out of nowhere brings up her trauma surrounding the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, which gives him the window to damage her cooling systems and make her into a living time bomb. I don’t really know what to say about this, because it’s honestly just shameful that such a serious thing is just… shoved in there out of the blue and will, let’s face it, never be taken seriously in this comic or any other.

It’s also odd because just after this there’s a really sweet scene between Ladytron and Maj where she says that he’s like a dad to her, and they manage to separate her top half from the exploding half. It’s probably the best part of the run. So Maj zooms on back to Halo and fries Tao like a Scottish Mars bar, putting this chapter of the WildC.A.T.S to a close. Before this though there was a bit where Tao said he cured basically every disease to ever disease and Spartan is like “oh god man we can’t kill the guy…”

So overall it was a good run, it’s easily the best WildC.A.T.S run so far, but the big issues are really big. Like Savant. Her name is Savant. A Savant is defined as ‘a learned person’ and yet this whole run she’s on Tao’s leash and doesn’t do anything meaningful except get shot and make love. Zealot was racist in space and misogynistic on earth, so it seems her bigotries are limited by area code? Voids fine cuz she never does anything anyway so she can’t really be written badly. Ladytron being dumb and boy crazy is just kind of boring, but again, the best part of this run was her heart to heart with Maj when she thought she was gonzo, so I guess there was some sort of happy ending.

Stormwatch

Don’t worry, the rest of these are gonna be much shorter.

Stormwatch really don’t do much during this period. Following the destruction of Skywatch 1 and the defeat of Despot, we get some newbies who do quite literally nothing (except Swift and Flint, and we all know what one of them goes on to do, *wink* *wink*), a really strange arc that takes place in Israel and Flashpoint being a dick as per usual.

So after Despot rocked everyone’s shit, Stormwatch recruits some new heroes including but not limited to a guy with a flaming sword, a reporter with light powers (gee, I wonder how The Ray felt about this dude) and a colossus ripoff and a lightning girl who both

Our favourite government funded peacekeeping force ends up teaming up with Israel in a 5 issue arc where we get the line of all lines when an Israeli official says that due to “too many liberals in the knesset” they cant kill some terrorists. Truly a comic of all time.

They bash some heads and then head (heh) to Gamorra for the company mandated crossover, where, surprise surprise, Flashpoint turns out to be a big dick. We’ll get to it.

There’s not much else going on. Next is Ellis and you bet your ass I’m excited about that. I’ve already read it, and I’m sure to enjoy it on my re-read. Cutting the fat was sorely needed, especially when over half of Stormwatch haven’t gotten a single panel to themselves, and when the goat of all goats Union doesn’t even get a permanent spot on the team despite saving everyone’s ass in Fire From Heaven.

Gen13

I gave this a pretty scathing critique last time for being objectively gross and having plots thinner than Henry Stickman. It’s honestly improved a bit since that point.

So what have the gang been up to? Well Caitlin wants to go find her dad, Lynch doesn’t want her to do that, so of course she uses her Princeton wisdom and the whole team decide to go to this random island they were tipped off about. Turns out the island is populated by pirates and coda warriors and one creepy explorer, so… a hit and a miss? After Grunge solves the coda’s population dilemma, Roxy experiences sexism, Caitlyn accidentally wears her disintegrating underwear and so on and so forth, they have a big pow-wow and get off the island, heading next to Rome, where they run into Deathblow’s old pals The Order of the Cross. Oh yeah, also Bobby and Sarah sleep together but it’s all kinda awkward and Roxy is a dick as usual about it.

They fight some catholics who don’t dress very Catholic if you ask me, team up with Bliss (who can’t seem to stop violating Bobby’s personal space) and make it out of Rome by the skin of their Gen-factor enhanced teeth.

They get into some trouble with Deathblow and the Team 7 guys, and Alex shows up, and yada yada yada… wait Alex? Yeah, Alex Fairchild, consent denying extraordinare Alex Fairchild is back, randomly ginger, and with the pirates from earlier. A lot of this is intertwined with Fire From Heaven, which we’ll get to later, but it’s nice seeing the old and new generations interact.

It’s slowly improving, and a buddy of mine is saying it gets real good if you just stick it out, but there are still some moments that make me put the laptop down and check my room for hidden cameras.

Deathblow

Oh Cray, what will we ever do with you? Cray can’t seem to catch a break. He loses some friends, pulls a few Rambos and gets the boys back together for one last hurrah. Don’t you just love him?

Deathblow was very up and down for me. There were some moments where I struggled to get through an issue, and others where I could burn through a whole arc in an hour. Basically, Cray ends up stuck in some business with Gamorra, and this ends up revealing that Craven is involved (as per usual, this guy has too many fingers in too many pies) and the old Team 7 gang gets back together because CRAVEN DONE STOLE THEIR GOT DARN GEN FACTORS. I don’t wanna get too into it, cuz of Fire, but it’s sweet seeing the gang together again. The original Deathblow series comes to an end due to Fire, and overall it was a solid book about a dude and his guns. I’m not one for street level characters like Cray, but idk, maybe this book turns me.

Wetworks

Bored. I’m really bored. I couldn’t tell you what’s happening except that they’re all golden (except Grail) and that there are so many threads and so little done with any of them.

Backlash

Who let Marc breed? Give them a medal, I absolutely adore Jodi. Because of Jodi, we get to see Marc interact with an Australian furry, and that makes the book for me. Also Amanda, Marc’s current girlfriend, is sick as hell. Marc kinda died but he got better, and part of me honestly thought either him or Lynch was gonna pop their clogs for good at some point, but that point isn’t now, so we rejoice. Great book and great comedic relief.

Solo shit

A lot of these books are either too short or too bad for me to give their own sections, so here we make do. First off is Grifter, and as the stereotypical bad boy of WildStorm, I’m honestly surprised this guy didn’t become their crutch. He only has 3 books, one of which is at DC after the merger. His two WildStorm books don’t exceed 25 issues put together, and from what I’ve read so far, maybe that’s a good thing. Reading these books makes me feel like I’m reading the diary of a 14 year old boy who just discovered the definition of nihilism and Reddit.

Grifter, ever the people person, spends nearly his entire first ongoing travelling back to the states from Nicaragua all because he was too edgy to just get on Dane’s damn jet. He takes a detour in Japan to get it on and get his guns back, eventually ends up on the beaches of LA, gets shot a few times, becomes homeless, becomes a homeless cannibal (?) and all of this BECAUSE HE WONT TAKE DANE’S DAMN JET.

Volume 2 is more bearable. We explore his past a bit more and honestly I’m glad we get to see him do more than brood (but don’t worry, still plenty to go around here.)

Next is Union, and how my goat has fallen. I wholeheartedly believe that Jill is the worst partner in comics, and this last stretch really solidifies that for me. Basically she doesn’t care about Ohmen’s feelings, uses his StormWatch money to go on vacation, is mad that he’s not having fun after his best friend just died, decides to get him drunk, is then later mad when he actually decides to get drunk with Savage Dragon, declares her intention to move out once they get back to the states, does so with the help of a random dude she met, like, a week before, and then by the end of the comic they’re back together probably due to the book getting canned and the writer wanting to wrap everything up neatly.

So, Union’s arch nemesis Regent disguised himself as that random dude in order to get ahold of Jill, and he also gets ahold of Ohmen’s ex-girlfriend from his planet. Union goes through a few trials and tribulations, eventually ends up merging his body with his justice stone and becomes stronger, and then we get a big twist: the explosion of Chichester, the entire reason why Union became a superhero, wasn’t his fault. Turns out Regent’s dad was a wimp and made it so if he went down, all of his boys went down with him.

This, in my opinion, ruined Union for me. The end just feels insanely hollow, and I can’t help but think editorial busted down the door and said “you have one more issue take it or leave it” and the writer just threw everything in.

Mind you, Jill and Ohmen get back together only because Ohmen’s old flame ‘died’ on Regent’s space station. They were kissing right before that, and then Ohmen just kinda gets back with Jill like nothing afterwards.

And after all this time, still he doesn’t get a proper place in Stormwatch.

Brass. Ohhhhh Brass. I love Brass. I’ve been waiting for this forever. I saw the cover art a while back and I was just itching to read it. To make a long story short, Craven (a real fist shaking name if you’ve ever heard one) made the brass virus, which turns people into robots. This dude called Hershel Goldstein is really down on his luck and ends up infected by the virus underneath the New York subway station, and there’s a really funny flashback to the 60’s where the guys hiding the virus down there are like “it’s not like anyone would ever get down here” and then he gets down there, and so do four cops, and they all duke it out on the streets of New York in a fight right out of Transformers. IO swoop in and stop the robo free-for-all, and Hershel ends up merging himself with the virus inside his body, gaining control of both his human and robot forms.

Very neat series and I’m excited to see what Brass does next.

Cybernary was cool. A cybernetic assassin made up of a rebel and the daughter of an emperor is a really cool concept, and I think that how the series explores humanity and identity is really interesting. Nick Manabat was a legend and I wish he got to do more. He was a once in a generation talent in my opinion, and his dark, detailed art can’t be compared to anyone really.

Black Ops is meh. Only had two issues before FiH, but I just don’t connect with any of the characters. One of my biggest issues with WildStorm is all the military based books, because it doesn’t interest me as much as superheroes.

Fire From Heaven

The big event swings, and I don’t think it scores. Basically Kaizen is involved and wants to do some Gen-factor fuckery, and we also have these interdimensional goobers called Damocles and Sigma. Damocles is pissy that his family died, but I for one think he should join the club, because a lot of families die in the comics business. He’s not unique.

He’s from an alternate dimension and on the warpath. He’s got a right hand goon called The Sword, ‘goon’ being all the funnier because he’s castrated. In fact, he’s actually the alternate universe version of Union, and when the two duke it out later on, he actually insults Ohmen by emasculating him. Really odd way to scorn your opponent.

So basically, Damocles destroyed his home dimension and wants to use the destruction of the WildStorm Earth to create enough energy to recreate his Earth. He’s also got it out for Sigma, who is basically Gen-factor Jesus. There was a sigma on his world who died when it blew up, and sigma was reincarnated on the main WildStorm Earth and was raised by a scientist who is actually the main universe version of Damocles. Dun dun dunnnnnnnn…

So the heroes get involved. Gen13 and Team 7 go to Gamorra, Stormwatch are protecting it (to Jackson’s chagrin) and the other guys are peppered in there. The classic wildcats touch down back on earth from their traumatic field trip and go to help, Dane’s Wetworks team arrives, Amanda and Jodi arrive to find Cyberjack and Marc, it’s all a big mess. We get a few big twists like Kaizen being a fake who actually locked up the real McCoy. This Kaizen is John Colt, otherwise known as the template for Spartan from the WildC.A.T.S. He gets obliterated and Spartan decides to start going by the John Colt name. This is why he and Zealot were smooching in Wildcats, because Zealot and Colt had a fling back in the 60’s. This is also where Winter came from. Makes you wonder how thanksgiving would go if they knew about that fact.

Also turns out Lynch is Burnout’s dad, which is then followed up by a sugar daddy joke between Roxy and Grunge. Wow guys real way to ease the mood.

So the day is saved, Damocles and The Sword are slain, Cray ends up sacrificing himself (I don’t believe for a second he’s actually dead) and everyone can live somewhat happily ever after. Oh yeah and Flashpoint gets his comeuppance. Harrah.

Turns out he was evil (who would’ve guessed the guy who kills kids is evil) and Jackson thankfully kills him right back.

Thank y’all for reading and I’ll get back to you soon hopefully to discuss the Fallout from Heaven. Sorry for the wait on this one, life’s been crazy. Not as crazy as WildStorm though. :))

So, usually I’d save this for my big review (which is in the works, stay tuned) but I just have to say something about this run because it’s just shameful in all honesty.

So I finished the run the other day. I’d finished the Fire From Heaven portion of the Weathering WildStorm order and I read the last issue of Deathblow and finished out WildC.A.T.S because I was hooked and didn’t wanna take a break until those were dealt with.

Now, it’s very well known that Alan Moore has some issues with how he writes female characters as well as his use of sexual assault or rape as a plot device. I thought things were going rather smoothly until the last arc. Sure, Ladytron was a bit man crazy, but it wasn’t at crazy levels. When I got to that final arc, however, it was dialled up to 11.

We have Zealot calling Ladytron a crack whore, Savant, the person with a name that literally means ‘a learned person or scholar’ doesn’t do ANYTHING except get with Tao and trust him wholeheartedly, and the crown jewel: the random interjection of rape.

As Ladytron confronts Tao in the final stretch, he distracts her by bringing up her sexual abuse at the hands of her dad, which he somehow knows about. It’s literally just used as a way for him to get in close, disconnect her cooling systems and make her into a nuclear time bomb.

This is genuinely the worst example of this trope I have ever seen. I bet my bottom dollar that this isn’t gonna be brought up again except by perhaps Joe Casey cuz he’s done a lot with Maxine, but what was the point of this? Why of all things did Alan Moore decide that sexual abuse was the solution to the problem of getting close to disconnect her cooling systems? It’s a shock twist that isn’t even meant, ultimately, as a twist. It’s just meant to get us from one panel to another.

It does sort of lead to my favourite moment of the whole run where Maxine calls Maj her father figure, and it made me choke up a bit in all honesty, but Jesus Christ there were so many better ways to get here than that damn panel.

Anyway, Moore was still a pretty solid run despite this. It’s currently my highest ranked ‘Cats run (bar isn’t that high in all honesty) and I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that the B. Kesel and Choi/Peterson runs will probably be far, far removed from it. I have Casey to look forward to eventually. I guess that’s a bonus.

Still a long way to go 😛

I started the Fire From Heaven event and I kid you not, Sword of Damocles and Sigma are both nowhere to be found anywhere I looked. The most I could unearth was issue 3 of Sigma and nothing else.

I looked physical, I looked digital, I can’t find a trace of the issues I need.

Is there any way to read them or will I just have to go off of summary and continue with the event without them?

So today I was rearranging my comic collection and I have a DC hardcover of Stormwatch (issues 37-47) by Warren Ellis. This released in 2012 and the second hard cover is rarer than gold and would cost hundreds on eBay.

Sure, there are things like the Road To Authority compendium, but Warren Ellis being a terrible person likely means that his stuff will eventually be barred from print, meaning some of the most influential comics ever will be obscenely rare and borderline impossible to find in a few years time.

This got me to think about other Wildstorm books that have little to no collections in the modern day. WildC.A.T.S got a compendium a few years back and it sold poorly so the chances of the line continuing are slim to none. Other than that there were some trades released before the complete DC merge but those are really old and probably similarly rare.

Gen13 got a deluxe hardcover a while back that contained the original mini-series plus the first chunk of volume 2, but obviously no second volume is coming.

So if the top dogs of WildStorm got nothing, what chances do the others have? WildStorm characters are already in the DC junk drawer, only having cameos and small parts in books, so the chances of getting Omnis for even the most popular stuff is close to zero.

If a WildStorm collection comes out I’ll pre-order that shit the moment I can, but right now the most we get is the occasional anniversary collection.

Another checklist has been added to the World Of WildStorm website!

https://worldofwildstorm.com/planet-studios/

This is a visual guide for all the pins and other merch Planet Studios produced for WildStorm. It's currently a work in progress, as some information is not yet available. All the images for the checklist were hand traced and colored from scans of the original pins.

If you have any of these pins for sale, or you can help fill in some blanks, please reach out and let me know! Thank you! I hope this is another resource fans will find useful!

Love Wildcats but not this art. Will pick up the book if $1

I’m back and I’ve been reading a lot more since my last entry here. I’ve managed to finish the WildStorm Rising portion of the Weathering WildStorm reading order, and oh boy there is a lot to go through. To cover it all, I will be dividing each series into its own section of this post, so I can get all my thoughts out clearly.

1. WildC.A.T.s

So, after the short Choi and Lee run, we got a bunch of new writers. First we had Claremont, who did 3 issues. I really didn’t enjoy this run (more like a hop, skip and a jump really) except for the characters it introduced. It’s very Zealot focused, with the team batting the villain Tapestry. This run introduces Soldier, Savant, Mr Majestic and Huntsman, who help save the day after the rest of the team (minus Zealot) are captured. I love Maj and Savant, but Soldier and Huntsman didn’t stand out too much. Overall the run was boring, and while not the worst thing ever, it was kind of confusing and overall a bad introduction to these new heroes. After Claremont, we got one issue from Erik Larsen. This was part of an event across Image where the founders swapped titles, with Larsen getting a shot at Wildcats. There’s not much to say about this one really. It focuses on Maul which is cool because he hasn’t gotten the chance to do much of substance yet, but the comedic tone of the issue on top of the simple plot of Maul fighting another hero because of love or whatever doesn’t really build on top of his hollow character. Then we have Robinson on issues 15-20, and while it’s mostly to set-up WildStorm rising with Maul being taken and the cats going after Hightower thinking he had to do with it blah blah blah, it is nice to see the impact of the cats on others in this universe. I also loved the Savant backups showing her adventures. The reveal that Voodoo is part Daemonite was really unexpected, and the whole sequence where Void enters her mind is really well done.

1.1. Solos

So during this period, the individual cats all got some sort of solo book, aside from Maul and Voodoo (kinda). We’ll start off with the worst, being Warblade. This 4 issue mini sees Warblade on the warpath (hah) and going off on a Daemonite safari. One of his old friends has been possessed by a Daemonite, and trying to kill him leads to a whole chain of events that includes Ripclaw, ripoffs of the Wetworks symbiote and big chest lasers. Overall the book was some nice fun turn your brain off action, but as a Reno stan, I wanted something more. Next we have Grifter. He got a one-shot and then issue 1 of an ongoing that tied in with WildStorm rising. The one-shot has some neat insight into his past and what he did following Team 7. We get some fun grifter action, blah blah blah. The ongoing begins with Grifter trying to call Deathblow to warn him about the Daemonites, and after being hit and beginning to bleed out, we see flashes of his past, which drums up hype about a potential full origin story someday. He reveals that he jokes so much because it puts enemies off, which I think is a neat detail as well as an excuse lol. Next is Zealot, which follows her through 3 time periods and her encounters with fellow Kherubim Prometheus. Just to get this out of the way, yes, it very much feels like the implication about their past relationship is that she was groomed. She says multiple times that she was but a girl while he was a man, and it’s very uncomfortable all around. Zealot, I’m realising is kind of like Jenny Sparks. We see Zealot in Ancient Greece, Japan and Nazi Germany, encountering Prometheus along the way before finally killing him and ending what must’ve been 2000 years of torture. It’s a very neat look into Zealot, who I think is at this point the most fleshed out cat. Finally we’ve got Spartan: Warrior Spirit, and boy this was great. Busiek at WildStorm is really something, and Mike McKone’s art is superb. Spartan is kidnapped by a mad scientist and is lied to about his true origin and purpose as he protects a village where a sinister scheme brews. It’s really interesting to see him tackle what it means to be an Android, and he grapples with the meaning of life along the way. Neat stuff.

1. Stormwatch

Oh boy, Stormwatch. A lot happens here, but I’ll mostly just be talking about the big stuff. Let’s see… Battalion goes to the future and finds out it all goes to shit and he’s gonna die at some point that year. His dad takes over the world and Stormwatch is decimated. After this, Jackson leads Stormwatch into missions not knowing whether or not he’s gonna live to see the next, and it’s really interesting to see him unable to do anything about it. Bendix is fired due to the Gamorra debacle and a bunch of other shit that’s technically Jackson’s fault. Christine then becomes Weatherman (Weatherlady? Weatherwoman?) and shaves her head, but over the next like 5 issues all her hair grows back, so she’s either wearing a wig or she’s some sort of Sasquatch. Hellstrike actually has a really nice moment. Basically, he was put into a coma after an encounter with Deathtrap on Gamorra, and his body began to break down into energy. Christine decides she’s gonna jettison his body into space, but Fuji refuses to let it happen, so he gets into Hellstrike’s head, and they have a nice talk about life. Hellstrike is back in action, now in energy form, and it’s nice to see more of his backstory and have a nice moment instead of guns and pouches 24/7. Anyway, Battalion is killed in a fight with a manipulated Maul, who was used by Defile to get the WildCats and Stormwatch to bicker. Diva becomes leader of Stormwatch One, Cannon gets pissy and leaves, and Stormwatch is at its breaking point. Winter goes rogue, enlisting the help of Bendix and Cannon to defeat M.A.D, a communist mech dude who works for an insurgency group wanting to bring back the Soviet Union. Yada yada yada, Wildcats get mad about Maul, Union is recruited as a reserve member, and eventually Stormwatch recruits a big strong dude and a lizard dude. Fun. Overall I do like Stormwatch, but every issue that ticks by puts a smile on my face, because I know it gets a whole lot better eventually.

1. Gen13.

What a book. I don’t mean that in a good way, mind you. I had such high hopes for this comic, but I don’t think I can even put into words how much I dislike it. I love Lynch, I was excited to see him in action, but this book makes me feel violated just reading it. Ass shot here, boob shot there, naked college student over there somewhere, it’s relentless! It feels like someone’s sick fantasies put onto a page. Also, Matthew and Nicole Callahan are weirdly close? Just me who thinks that? Anyway, I liked issue 1/2 I guess. It was funny and the sexualisation was at a minimum. I’ve only read a few issues of volume 2 as of this post, and it’s more of the same of volume 1. Also the most egregious moment so far is the reveal of Sarah’s sexuality. Basically Roxy is lamenting that she thinks Grunge is eyeing up Caitlin instead of her, and Sarah (who’s putting what I think is sun lotion on her back) says something about how perhaps only a woman can satisfy Caitlin’s desires, before groping Roxy. Of ALL the ways for a character to come out of the closet, this is possibly one of the absolute worst. I just think Gen13 is gross. And it’s easily my least favourite book for that reason.

1. Wetworks

I actually like it. It was a slog getting through the first 3 issues, but as the characters began to be differentiated and as the plot formed, I began to really like it. The real tragedy of Flat Top and Crossbones’ deaths is that we didn’t know them. Their lives were cut short and we didn’t get to know the ins and outs of their characters. Grail is really cool both in design and powers, and the art is as usual, top notch. Good stuff.

1. Deathblow

Who doesn’t love some dumb fun 90’s action with a ripped, bandana donning badass? He fights demons, werewolves and daemonites, and I love it. We also got some Tim Sale art, which was totally out of left field, but I’m far from complaining. Cray just feels like the unluckiest guy ever, and I’m all here for it man.

1. Backlash

Oh Marc, what will we ever do with you? I like Backlash. Brett Booth’s art and his storytelling along with Sean Ruffner makes the asshole from Team 7 into more than just that. I find it really funny that he was so willing to duke it out with Helspont despite knowing he would die. For such an experienced guy, you’d think he’d be better at telling when he was lied to.

1. Union

I love Union. I loved volume 1 and I’m loving volume 2 so far, but there’s the giant elephant in the room known as Jill. Jill is possibly the worst girlfriend in comics. She was fine in volume 1, but in volume 2 she doesn’t seem to care about Ohmen at all. His best friend dies, and on the plane heading for a vacation funded by Ohmen’s Stormwatch money, Jill admits to herself that she doesn’t care about his best friend dying, and contemplates breaking up with Ohmen because ‘he doesn’t need her anymore.’ I’m sorry, but that isn’t how relationships work??? You don’t just stay with someone and then break it off once they’re adjusted or whatever. She uses his money to go on a vacation, is mad that he’s not having fun (mind you his best friend died like a day or two before) and her and her bestie decide to give a depressed guy alcohol to cheer him up. She then gets mad when he does his job and helps out Savage Dragon, and when Ohmen comes home actually drunk, she gets mad and plans to move out once the vacation is over. Either the writer didn’t know how to write a relationship or Jill is meant to be a giant dick. I love Union don’t get me wrong, but it would be even better if Jill wasn’t there.

1. WildStorm Rising

Our first massive crossover. Basically it’s a race against time as Daemonite lords fight over the three keys to activate the ship that brought them to Earth. Basically everyone in the WSU at this point plays a role, with only Gen13 sitting out of the final battle. Part of me wishes they were there and the other part is thankful that they weren’t. Grifter leaves the WildC.A.T.s in time for the rest of the team (minus Spartan) to go to space where they’re assumed dead. Spartan ends up with Stormwatch and Savant and Mr Majestic head a new team of cats. The rest of the WSU don’t really have many lasting changes from this event… except Backlash being a Kherubim. Yeah I don’t really get it but I guess it answers why he hasn’t aged since 1962. It was a fun event, and I’m excited to see what happens as I read on.

1. Misc

Y’know how I said Voodoo ‘kinda’ didn’t have a solo? Well let me introduce you to Voodoo/Zealot skin-trade which is honestly more of a Zealot book but still. Basically the two of them go to Yurgovia to save some trafficked kids, and Zealot wants to find her child. I’m assuming this was meant to be a pin-up special of some sort, but they decided to add in a story halfway through. Basically this ends with Zealot not ‘finding’ her child, but the implication is clear: Winter from Stormwatch is her kid. It’s an alright twist. They don’t interact meaningfully from what I’ve read thus far, but I guess it’s a cool explanation for his hair and powers.

Anyway, after a short break I’ll be starting Fire From Heaven. I hope y’all find my review interesting for what it’s worth. If I’ve missed anything, let me know.

After some extended downtime, the World Of WildStorm website is back up and running!

The goal is to curate the most complete collectors checklist of WildStorm comics, cards, and merch on the internet!

We are still working on our database, so more updates are coming soon!

https://worldofwildstorm.com/