WildCATs #2: First Class, Up in the Sky…

Matthew Rosenberg and Stephen Segovia are back with the newest installment of the ’90s team that helped launch a comics universe, the WildCATs, featuring names like Grifter and Zealot, up against the Court of Owls, as the team is further integrated in the Prime Earth DCU (or whatever the main Earth is called now. Just check out Dark Crisis: Big Bang, okay?). The creative team’s intent on updating the core concepts, while also maintaining that super sci-fi edge that the WildStorm comics were known for back in the day. So let’s get on with discussing this issue, shall me…

Thirty years ago Image Comics got its start, and it was the WildCATS that was one of those first titles, and it was the success of this title that would be the catalyst for one of the fastest growing comic universes at the time, launching titles such as Deathblow, Gen13, and StormWatch. In the beginning, a lot of these books would seem like stylish copies of other more established groups, like the Avengers or the X-Men. Seeing that their universe couldn’t sustain itself off of flashy knockoffs, Jim Lee and Brandon Choi would extend a welcome to some of the biggest writers in the industry, like Chris Claremont, Ron Marz, James Robinson, and Alan Moore, transforming the WildStorm universe into a world full of aliens and cyborgs, rife full of conspiracies, and clandestine government agencies working behind the scenes to pull all of this off. 

Unfortunately things wouldn’t last. As the speculation boom would begin to fizzle, Jim would scout potential companies to buy the WildStorm universe from him, first approaching Marvel, after the success of the Heroes Reborn experiment, but DC would snag the imprint, and would relaunch its signature book Wildcats, with X-veteran writer, Scott Lobdell, and WildCATs alum artist, Travis Charest, later bringing on Joe Casey and Sean Phillips, while reimagining StormWatch as a futuristic hard sci-fi title that gave bleeding edge a brand new meaning with the Authority, with artist Bryan Hitch. These two books would inspire team books for the next decade, with less focus on the soap operatic style, and going for a more decompressed, cinematic style of storytelling that continues to be popular in today’s cape comics. 

The issue focuses heavily on Grifter, who’s probably been one of the most developed characters that migrated from the original WildStorm universe to the post-Flashpoint DC Comics universe, but little was done with him after the soft boot Rebirth era, until Death Metal, where Grifter and other WildStorm mainstays were reintroduced in the Bat-related titles, giving loads of character development to Grifter as time went on. Rosenberg continues that here, while giving just bits and pieces to the rest of the team, which leaves me a tad unsatisfied with this issue. Hopefully we see characters like Zealot and Voodoo as time goes on, or the team could lose my interest as the issues come on. 

Stephen Segovia is the breakout star with this issue, with his art full of energy, and giving the characters an individuality, and the atmosphere is rich and heady, while each of the characters look recognizable, yet also developed with designs that seem closer to the style of today’s comics. Where Rosenberg falls short on this issue, Segovia more than makes up for it. These two are quite the creative team. I can’t wait to see what these two will come up with next.