Warning: contains spoilers for WildCATs #1! DC’s new WildCATS title is proving that the publisher’s New 52 reboot failed its WildStorm characters. In 2011, the publisher used the New 52 initiative to integrate the characters into their universe - to mixed results. Whereas the WildStorm line had once been the vanguard of cutting-edge superheroics, the New 52 did away with this, favoring more conventional approaches, but 2022's WildCATs #1 changes that, showing the best way to incorporate these characters into continuity.
In late 1991, seven prominent Marvel artists, including Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee, left the company to start their own line of comics, declaring that the then-current system was not fair, and did not allow creators appropriate control over their work. These artists formed Image Comics, which launched in early 1992 with the publication of Liefeld’s Youngblood, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and Lee’s WildCATS. WildCATS was the flagship title of Lee’s WildStorm line, which would grow to include other heavy-hitting titles such as Stormwatch, Wetworks, Gen 13 and The Authority. The WildStorm line was sold to DC Comics in the early 2000s, and in 2011, the characters were consolidated into the mainstream DC Universe at the conclusion of Flashpoint. A month later, three former WildStorm titles: Stormwatch, Grifter and Voodoo, were launched to mixed reviews, but all three titles were canceled within two years. Some WildStorm characters, such as Midnighter and Apollo, made appearances over the years, but the characters ended up playing second fiddle to DC's more classic heroes.
In this comeback issue, the WildCATS, working for the Halo Corporation, conduct a raid on a H.I.V.E. testing facility, looking for a scientist who may hold the key to a war that has been raging for millennia. The team's boss Marlowe orders Grifter to take a unit - including Deathblow, Zealot and Fairchild (from Gen 13) - to another facility. When they arrive, they are ambushed, finding themselves face to face with the Court of Owls. The issue is written by Matthew Rosenberg with art by Stephen Segovia and is colored by Elmer Santos and lettered by Ferran Delgado.
The New WildCATs is a Promising Start
One of the challenges facing the publisher when it was decided to incorporate the WildStorm characters was how to make them work in the DC Universe. Prior to their integration, the WildStorm Universe had built its own mythology, one stretching back thousands of years and into prehistory. Trying to reconcile that history with that of the DC Universe’s proved to be difficult. Some attempts, such as making the Martian Manhunter part of Stormwatch, were made, but these were quickly undone. Yet Rosenberg and Segovia manage to integrate Grifter, Zealot, Deathblow and the rest firmly into the DC Universe. The team takes on H.I.V.E. one of the many evil organizations in the DCU, and the book features cameos from Green Arrow, Nightwing and the Court of Owls. These cameos do nothing to detract from the hard-hitting action that WildCATs is known for. Although the book is only one issue in, WildCATs shows a lot of promise, as an engaging title that recalls the best of WildStorm.
DC has plans for the WildStorm characters in the months ahead, such as Waller vs Wildstorm, which puts the Suicide Squad’s formidable boss against Grifter and the rest. Hopefully the book will capitalize on the promise of the new WildCATs, which is showing how DC failed the WildStorm characters in the New 52 era while doing the exact opposite.