WILDCATS #1 Annotations

WILDCATS #1

A Halo 'Round The World

Written by GRANT MORRISON; Art by JIM LEE; Cover & Sketch variant by JIM LEE; 1:50 Variant cover by TODD McFARLANE

Wildstorm, December 2006, FC, 32pgs, $2.99

Jim Lee makes his triumphant return to WildCATs, and he's bringing along an impressive new collaborator: superstar writer Grant Morrison! The man who redefined the JLA and Superman - and created groundbreaking works The Invisibles and WE3 - now brings his considerable talents to the WildCATs.

In the aftermath of the events in Captain Atom: Armageddon, the WildStorm Universe has undergone a shift that will affect characters big and small. This first issue will reintroduce the Wildcats you know and love - but how will they differ? Be here in September to see the star-studded premiere of the all-new, bimonthly WILDCATS!

Commentary

Worldstorm was the line-wide Wildstorm reboot initiated in the final issue of Captain Atom: Armageddon by Will Pfeiffer, a kind of micro-Crisis on Infinite Earths for the then-ailing Wildstorm universe.  In theory, the Worldstorm was planned as a year zero style approach, one that would get the titles back to basics so any A-list talent hired for the books wouldn't be bogged down with the wealth of confusing and poorly thought through backstory that plagues the Wildstorm universe - and if anyone takes umbrage with that wholesale damning of Wildstorm's output, I suggest they try and read the following annotations with a dispassionate eye: Spartan's history is one of the most convoluted and illogical stories I've ever had the pleasure of trying to summarise.

In practice, the Worldstorm failed dismally.  As it transpired, most all of the Wildstorm titles carried on where they'd left off, with only a handful of characters returning to or from the dead, mostly without any logical explanation.

Morrison's proposal for this series can be read here.  Its certainly pretty light content wise, but thematically it sets up some good possibilities that were never to be explored.

Morrison's stated aim of a superhero Mission: Impossible is nowhere to be found in this book.  The whole first issue is set explicitly before the Worldstorm, so its difficult to say what impact the event would have on the title after it.  It would seem fairly unusual to totally change the status quo of a book so early into its run though - why not just launch after the event if it will make such a big change?  Its not unheard of, (see the 'Superboy no longer exists' debacle forced upon Keith Giffen's 'Five Years Later' Legion of Super-Heroes for example) but it is unusual.

Annotations

Page 1 - President Chrysler first appeared in Joe Casey's WildCATs 3.0, a distinctly corporate, consumerist take on the traditional superhero.  This is a world ruled by the power of the corporation, though in keeping with Morrison's own worldview, not necessarily in a cliched 'evil big business' manner.

Kaizen Gamorra was the big bad of the Wildstorm universe from the very early days of WildCATs v1.  He is a modern-day Fu-Manchu, a racist caricature Oriental warlord who runs his historic homeland Gamorra as a terrorist haven, the threat of Al Quaeda given nation status.  Though referred to many times he didn't appear until James Robinson's? run on WildCATS, where it was revealed he was actually an imposter and really the man/ancient alien warrior whom Spartan's personality is based upon.  Even this early in the game, I'm sure you can see what I mean about a convoluted continuity.

Warren Ellis re-introduced the 'real' Kaizen Gamorra in Stormwatch #40, only to kill him off in the first arc of The Authority.

Underwater cities, asylum ghettos; Morrison immediately rubbishes the Wildstorm principle of 'realism' compared with the regular DC Universe.  Wizard, once upon a time, would often wax lyrical about how 'realistic' Ellis and Millar's Authority were. Morrison's Wildstorm universe (certainly here in WildCATS anyhow) has no pretensions to mirroring our reality ala the Marvel Universe, it is, right from the get go, a very different place.

"A corporate jihad from New Gamorra", "radioactive suicide men", Morrison transplants the conflicts of the real world into insane, four-colour superheroics

Spartan was created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee for the first issue of WildCATs back in 1992.  He's a robot imbued with the personality of an ancient and benevolent alien warlord named Yohn Khol, from a race known as the Kherubim.  Khol was immortal and spent millenia on Earth battling his ancient enemies the Daemonites, before seemingly being killed in the 1930's by his fellow Kheran, Lord Majestros.  On his death, his personality was transplanted into a Spartan Guard, robot soldiers employed in the war against the Daemonites.

Eventually the real Khol regenerated and, now insane, secretly took the place of terrorist warlord Kaizen Gamorra.  He was eventually killed again by Mister Majestic, super-hero avatar of Majestros.

The Spartan android gradually became more human over time, developing a personality and affection for his teammate Voodoo. He took on the human identity of Jack Marlowe and vowed to use his vast alien intellect for the good of mankind, using his Halo Corporation to bring on the future.

Morrison takes Spartan to the logical conclusion of the super-scientist archetype, think Reed Richards or Tony Stark conquering the world though technology.

Page 2-3 - A double page spread showing the main protagonists of the new and improved Wildstorm universe.  Top left are, I think, Wetworks, but I'm not sure who they are individually.  Beneath them at bottom left are The Authority, from left to right The Doctor, The Engineer, Swift, Jack Hawksmoor,  Jenny Sparks, Apollo, and Midnighter.  Top right are the WildCATS, from left to right Voodoo, Zealot, Warblade, Grifter, Spartan and Maul.  Bottom right, I have no idea.

Page 4 - Cole Cash is Grifter, a founder member of the WildCATS created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi, who first appeared in WildCATs v1 #1. He is a former criminal turned special forces operative who was subjected to drug experiments that gave him the powers of telekinesis and telepathy.  He was trained by alien Amazon's the Coda to be the ultimate human fighting machine.  He is also the team's token Batman/Wolverine badass.

Page 5 - Emilio Machado is a real-life friend of Morrison's.  He gets a 'thanks' in the credits box of the Atom 1,000,000 story 'The Divided Self' from the DC One Million Eighty-Page Giant.  He was also involved in Citizen Death, Morrison's as yet unrealized Grand Theft Auto-esque comic book/video game project

Page 7 - "I'm the best at what I do, and what I do ain't pretty" a famous quote by Marvel's premier mutant bad boy, Wolverine, here twisted around to gently poke fun at Grifter's badass nature.

Page 8 - Priscilla Kitaen, also known as Voodoo, was an exotic dancer who could see where shape-changing Daemonite agents were hiding.  She, like Grifter, is also trained in the alien Amazon martial arts of the Coda.  Created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee, she first appeared in WildCATs v1 #1

Halo Solutions is Spartan/Jack Marlowe/Hadrian's globe spanning corporation, inventing and marketing 3D phones and personal robot assistants like it ain't no thing.

Page 9 - The Spartan androids resemble the robots in Alex Proyas' 2004 film version of I Robot

Page 10 - Hadrian is Spartan/Jack Marlowe/Yohn Kohl/John Colt's 'real' name, or at least the name Voodoo knows him by.

Page 11 - A cameo from The Authority's parallel universe spanning ship, The Carrier.

Page 12 - "...without all the noise and damage" a return to the covert approach, as signifed in the team's name.

Widescreen battles and public displays - a commentary on The Authority, at this point the much more successful Wildstorm book of the previous ten years, and, not coincidentally, also written by Morrison at the time this issue was published...

"The semiotic resonance of superhero", a phrase from the original proposal.  Emphasis on the hero part perhaps?

"How would truly adult superheroes behave?" The key phrase from Morrison's series pitch.

Page 13 - The Daemonites are generic bad aliens whom the Kerubhim, and by extension the WildCATs - who all have some convoluted connection to the Kerubhim - have been at war with for millennia.  Morrison posits them in his proposal as a sort of hive mind whose leader, Hellspont,spontaneously generates when the race feels threatened.

The Omnia Codex is some sort of alien Bible.  Frankly I don't have the willpower to read anymore overlong and confusing pages of Wildstorm history.

Page 14 - "Cutlery kid to tin man", 'Cutlery kid' is Warblade, another founder member of the WildCATs, presumably undercover in deep space. Spartan, for obvious reasons, is the tin man.

"technopaths", presumably some sort of machine telepath.

The ominous return of Kaizen Gammora.

Page 15 - The Daemonite fleet and their leader Hellspont.  Hellspont first appeared in WildCATs v1 #1 and was created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee.

Page 16 - Zealot and her sisters in arms are The Coda, Amazon types who first appeared in WildCATs v1 #1 by Brandon and Jim.  The planet Khera is where all of these Kerubhim/Daemonite shenanigans began thousands of years ago.

Page 18 - Lord Majestros, (sort of) like Spartan, is an immortal Kerubhim High Lord.  He, as Majestic, is another founder member of the WildCATs and first appeared in v1 #1.  He also goes by Majestic and Mister Majestic and is, according to Superman Beyond, one of the Wildstorm universe's Superman analogues.

Page 20 - The Tropic of Capricorn, runs through many South American countries, but as far as I can tell there are no shanty towns on the Tropic itself.

In the Wildstorm universe, smoking is still cool.  Those were the days...

Page 21 - "Grifter! Grifter ist verwirrung! Grifter ist tod! Grifter ist verwirrung! Grifter ist chaos! Unt tod! Unt tod! Unt tod! Das ist Grifter!" translates from the German to "Grifter! Grifter is confusion! Grifter is death! Grifter is confusion! Grifter is chaos! And death! And death! And death! That is Grifter!"

Finally some undiluted Morrison magic; the man's fighting prowess can only be described in repetitive German exclamations.  Great stuff.

The henchmen are, of course, Daemonites, leaving us with a cliffhanger that will likely never be resolved.

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