C.A.T.S , Change and Corporations...

Here's a series that, in my hunger for ever-evolving comics, I decided to takes a bite into. As I've said before in my Spawn retrospective, one of the best aspects in the strongest Image books is that the concept is allowed to fucking evolve. And WildCATs didn't disappoint one bit.

The comics starts with an ages-old war between two alien races called the Kherubim and the Daemonites.The WildCATS are the folks that fight the Daemonites. Some of them are anthropomorphic aliens while others are the half-breed progeny or somewhat normal/modified humans.
While the book was created in the aftermath of Jim Lee's successful run on X-Men, it has a completely different feel and even the way events play out is surprising. Hell, most of the antagonists are either there for an arc or 2 or reappear waaaaaaay later with a different role or agenda.
Now , I shall cover most of the important runs, as well as what I consider the appropriate crossovers and THE Epilogue for me.





PART 1 : START WITH A FLASH

Now the first 20 issues are not the strongest in terms of story and they are mostly a showcase of art and action scenes. Quite funny that we have to wait the 8th issue exactly to properly get a sense of who the different members of the team are as it is the very first time we see them outside their costumes. I find it also weird that Helspont, the first Daemonite lord we meet, will get a proper (and...genuinely good) payoff 2 decades later ! He scarcely ever confronts the CATs for that matter.
There's also the whole Crossover problem. I found that to be one a downside when I read Witchblade, though thankfully WildCATS does get over this particular flaw in its later and stronger eras. A shame though because the James Robinson/Travis Charest run was shaping up rather nicely...oh well.

I'll also that  Chris Claremont did a few issues of this series, with the villainess Tapestry, where the biggest impact was the introduction of new characters ,Savant and Mr. Majestic. More on these 2 later...

How about our happy bunch ? Well, if I had to say something nice , they are not hard to like at all even if most are rather simple.
* SPARTAN (Hadrian): Basically robot-Cyclops (until the 3.0 run... In that one, Hadrian becomes Robot-Cable.But more on that later...) Originally had "human emotions" towards Voodoo (and can you blame the guy ?), can be uploaded into various bodies as long as his CD is not harmed.

* ZEALOT (Lady Zannah): A Kherubim and a Coda warrior.Is the former Majestrix of the Coda (basically another Amazon organization AND to my great dismay the equivalent of the Sentinels in THIS book...) before they turned against her. I'll be honest, while Zealot DOES have her moments, she's not my favorite CATs member. She works far better when she plays off with another cast member as she is a rather weak lead. Kind of suffers from the same problems Claremont's Storm or Psylocke do ...

* VOODOO (Priscilla Kitaen): A telepathic Human-Kherubim-Daemonite hybrid AND my 2nd favorite member in this line-up. Used to be an exotic dancer (Huzzah !) and has the ability to see Daemonites who have possessed humans and can separate them from the bodies they possessed. Voodoo was an exotic dancer before being rescued by the WildC.A.Ts from the Daemonites. Has a costume reminescent of Jean Grey's but a likeness to Rachel in terms of attitude.

* GRIFTER (Cole Cash): A former government operative and member of Team 7. Is the only male ever trained by the Coda (pfff, mysandrist...). Grifter is hands down my favorite character in the team, if not the entire book. Granted his look is similar to Gambit's (Fave X-men ever...) but his character has some major differences. While both are loyal to their loved ones AND extremely protective towards children, Remy is a scoundrel with a heart of silver while Cole is a merc with a heart of Gold. Gambit only makes sense as an X-man when he's with the best team Evah , because for the most part he is fundamentally a devil-may-care thief. Grifter on the other hand, while his solo adventures are okay, shines far more when he's within the WildCATs (even if he's the member that had the most fallouts with Marlow. Understable though they are...). Has a rather complicated relationship with Zealot...

* MAUL (Jeremy Stone): A Human-Titanthrope hybrid scientist capable of increasing his size and mass at the cost of his reasoning capability. The reverse on the other hand, makes said intellectual capabilities faster yet hazardous for his own health.

* WARBLADE (Reno Bryce): A Human-Shaper hybrid capable of transforming parts of his body into any solid weapon and having green hair. Is both an accomplished martial artist and a sculptor. Is despite his epithet a really composed person.

* VOID : Is at first a powerful entity fused with astronaut Adrianna Tereshkova ( though said fusion will come to an end). Has the ability to see the future and teleport herself and others to anywhere on Earth due to her absorption of an Orb of Power.

* LORD EMP (Jacob Marlowe): The Charles Xavier of our merry bunch... that is if Xavier was fun to read about and had the decency to know WHEN to eat a fucking gun !





PART 2 : REPLACEMENT

This is where we reach the Alan Moore part of the CATs... and it is honestly my favorite comics run from British Rasputin. At first there is the team's crossover with Spawn, which I rather enjoyed. Though it's funny that the strongest enemy in terms of raw power is a nigh-omnipotent version of Al Simmons (it does make sense that after THIS particular experience, Spawn would refuse the next opportunity at becoming a God...).

On the actual issues themselves,they are separated in 2 major arcs : Homecoming AND Gangs War.

Homecoming is in many ways the better one due to the impact it had on the 1st team. In fact, it was the first step to give the WildCATs book an identity of its own.
While on earth we have a new WildCATs team assembled by Savant and Majestic,the original (and supposedly deceased) team ,minus Grifter who is still on Earth, arrive on Khera and find out that the Kherubim/Daemonite wars have been over for 300 years. It's just that the Kherubim never bothered to tell the Earth-based team of this little info. Aaaaand, our pals will discover that the High-class Kherubims are utter douchebags : In fact they have them put in relatively nice places (Maul and Warblade discover similar individual to them, Void chills somewhere and Spartan discover that he was not the only android with this particular shape) ...except for Pris who has Daemonite blood in her. And if you got that, it's the Ghetto for you ! Kind of gives a completely different view of Helspont's actions , doesn't it ?
This will lead to some heavy disputes between Voodoo and Zealot and to the former's retirment from the team. When they go back to earth, they are for the most part affected and without a proper purpose (I remind you that the team was mostly there to fight off Daemonites...).

Gangs War now, while still entertaining, suffers heavily from Crossovers disturbance which seems to interrupt the story in its tracks.The second half of his run is mainly about a crime war that erupts in New York City. It is STILL a fun read but it is kinda disjointed. Also the main villain is kinda meh to me (which is why I had no fucking problems, unlike MANY Wildstorm readers, when he got mocked in the 50th issue of Gen-13. Though I'd say people were bitter about that cuz they worship the ground Moore walks on. I don't...Hehehe...BTW he is in this poster. Can you guess who it is ?). However, I'll give THIS villain some credit where it's due : his plan AND motives made a LOOOOT more sense than the one in Watchmen.


Now our second team is more of a proactive anti-criminal squad. This alienated them from many other characters in the Wildstorm universe.

* MR MAJESTIC (Lord Majestros): An extremely powerful Kherubim warlord (among the four that have been stuck on Earth.). Is basically a Superman homage, EXCEPT that characterization wise he reminds more of Jor-El than anything remotely close to Clark Kent. Is a genius inventor and a capable leader. Had 2 on-going series. First is just okay, the second is what I personally see as THE closure for the whole WildCATs book.

* SAVANT (Kenesha): The daughter of Lord Majestros and Zealot (a fact which was only known to Zealot since Savant thinks she is Zealot's sister). What I love about Kenesha is that unlike her fellow Kherubims, she did not seem that interested in the whole Daemonite deal, BUT in adventures AND archeology ON EARTH. While she has the basic  biological powers that come with any Kherubim body, Savy here is more about using a litteral bag of tricks containing most of her discoveries and some advanced gadgets.Tends to be rather reckless and brash when she's on an adventure (kudos to Barbara Kesel on that one...).

* CONDITION RED  (Max Cash): The younger brother of Grifter. For a guy who's said to be a profit-oriented mercenary, he did not seem to be problematic at all to work with. Is mostly in the team to be the straight guy to Ladytron's antics.

* T.A.O.: An artificially produced slacker with the power of Bugs Bunny's convincing back and forth dialogue (You think I joke, but it really IS effective !). Will return much later in the series Point Blank and Sleeper.

* LADYTRON (Maxine Manchester): A cyborg punk who can be summed up as a fusion of Feral, Lobo and Tank Girl. Was captured by the Wildcats and through T.A.O.'s reprogramming convinced to join the team (though it's more of a shady deal than anything else). While she is the obnoxious colleague Savant's team to endure, Maxine works perfectly comedically wise because ...well...all of her teammates try to avoid her ! Is the character that got the most development out of the new team, despite not always being the focus. And that's something to be praised.



PART 3 : NEW WORLD SYMPHONY

Ladies and Gents welcome to the transition era AND what might be my favorite WildCATs saga. This marks the point of no return and the retirement of several members.First arc by Scott Lobdell then continued by Joe Casey and Sean Phillips.

But before that, here's what I think is the prologue of this era , their crossover with the X-men. Since it is in 4 issues , I'll go quickly.
- Golden Age : Good team-up between Wolverine and Zealot against the Kenyan.
- Siver Age : The best issue of the bunch. A nice team-up with a younger Grifter and Jean Grey (O5 era)... my only regret is that there hasn't been a team-up with Grifter and Gambit, cuz that'd have OWNED !
- Modern Age : WildCATs (1st flavor) and the X-men ( Claremont/Byrne line-up...Pfah...) team up against the Hellfire Club...Well an expendable part of the Club anyway.
- Dark Age : UNFORTUNATELY the weakest. It was not horrible but we could've had soooo much more ! WHYYYYYY ?!

Now on the actual 2nd volume. The reason this volume worked perfectly for was that it all about character moments AND to some a proper closure:
* Lord Emp dies during the ascension ritual after having the Kenyan , a criminal that he helped manufacture, killed. Now the Kenyan himself is more of a means to an end than anything else, but I'll say that he was quite the threat anytime he opposed the CATs. As such Spartan inherits his fortune and possessions. Though as robotic Hadrian is, this death definitely shook him up.
* Grifter goes through several mental phases. In fact, with all that was happening around him and his own past, I am amazed he did not end up at a looney bin. He does not really work with the WildCATs anymore (then again, the whole team is dissolved) but can't really let go of his superhero/agent life either. Or of the idea that Zealot's dead (well she is not...). This is the start of a new dynamic between him and Spartan.
* Void finally let go of her human host's soul so that she can rest in peace and the entity will end up fusing with Hadrian  to give him bodyslide powers.
* Zealot is going around killinge the Coda warriors that she helped form... yeah this is frankly the weakest plot point for me. I would have enjoyed Zee a LOT more if she died in the battlefield in the "Street Smart" arc. Why ? Because THAT demise had a huge emotional toll on Grifter and would lead Cole to be ungodly pissed at Lord Emp. So quite honesty I felt that having Zealot survive that bombing to be a bit of a copout.
* Warblade definitely retires from super-heroing despite maintaining some friendly contact with Cole. And I LOVED his spotlight issue more than most people.Him avenging his girlfriend and executing Pike (the fellon responsible for said murder) was great. But the best part ? Despite said vengeance, Reno still felt hollow inside and called it quits.
* Pris and Jeremy start a relationship. She will get a lot more at ease with her Daemonite heritage and he will end up admitting his feelings towards her...Win/Win.

I don't want to give too much , but this volume was great. It was calmer than  what a title with that past would let on and it was building up slowly but surely towards something quite ambitious...



PART 4 : WORLD WITHOUT LOGOS

Ladies and Gents , say hello to what many consider  to be the seminal WildCATs run. And I have to say, Joe Casey did one fine job in this along with Dustin Nguyen!
This book has some "adult" elements to it (the rating sense of the word adult) and it is great to see some of our folks in completely new situations and with a new hand to play with ! And that's exactly what I call a good CHANGE. Everyone we've seen before is recognisable  but used for completely different tales... well except maybe for the last arc. The Coda War part that concludes the Wildcats3.0 volume is good in terms of action but not as impressive or gripping as the former arcs in it.The first arcs have a dark sense of humor and various unorthodox situations for our heroes. We will focus our 2 heroes, an information broker, an employee that was not really on board with the whole action part of his job, BDSM Mercs, a Terminator and an utter asshole. Though the book's biggest problem is that it got cancelled too soon. Once I finished it, I kept wanting to read more. Apparantly , it got cancelled due to poor sales performance...Drat !

The only returning folks in this book are Spartan (under his Jack Marlowe moniker), Grifter and Zealot.
Here, Spartan is now what'd happen if Nathan Summers' idealism took human form and became a CEO. Plus the direction he is leading the HALO corporation towards is NOT something your average company would accept. In fact his goal is not profit-oriented at all : He wants to sell everlasting batteries to the general public. And that would be the very first step to lead the world to self-improvement. Cus let's be honest, if you sell a product that does NOT need replacement, you'd better have another business running in parallels...
Grifter at first works as a field operative FOR HALO, but after the 1st arc he's confined to a wheelchair until his legs heal (and no it won't happen here...). Still eager to fight the good fight, Cole at first would try to force Edwin Dolby to replace him as Grifter and THEN will borrow Ladytron's robotic body in order to kick ass in the battlefield once again ! Huzzah ! Though honestly he should have
As for Zealot , I refer you to the Coda War...

New members ? New members ...

* GRIFTER II/GRIFTER FOR 1 ISSUE (Edwin Dolby): Jack Marlowe's main accountant and right-hand man in the Halo Corporation. Cole wanted Dolby to be the second Grifter after learning of his natural aptitude for markmanship. The problem ? Dolby ain't a killer but an accountant ! Woops ...  Will come back from a mental breakdown after the best motivational speech ever about HALO's mission.

* AGENT WAX: Started as a good guy antagonist in Volume 2 , he became Jack Marlowe's mole at the National Park Service, a government agency tasked with monitoring superhuman activity. Problem is, in THIS Volume, Wax is basically Mesmero with a chouia more restriction.
 Here's the thing :His boss, Agent Downs, kept harassing and forced him to take a desk job AND to become his wife's driver. This pissed Wax off a LOT. Understandable. So Wax uses his powers on Downs' obnoxious wife to have her STFU.Logical. Then he forces her to give him hea...HEY NOW ! So as you can see, Wax is, despite showing regret later on , an utter asshole. I wonder what would have happened if Spartan or Grifter heard about that had Casey continued his book...

* C. C. RENDOZZO (Cecilia Rendozzo): An information broker who knows about Jack Marlowe's alien origin and reminds me a lot of Emma Frost personality-wise. Made a pact with Jack for her silence so that he rescues her son, who had been kidnapped by his government agent father. Said rescue proved rather easy but the kid himself was a huuuge pain in the ass later on...

* AGENT ORANGE : A modified FBI agent who is basically a Terminator without the memorable one-liners. Starts as a thorn on the CATs (especially Grifter's legs) side, he is later reprogrammed by Jack to become his mole. Could easily become a multi-function star product on his own right !

* THE BEEF BOYS:  Two powerful mercenaries in S&M fetish gear (BRILLIANT !).Glenn, never speaks, while Cedric, is quite eloquent and the kind of guy anyone would like to get a drink with. Are good friends of Grifter but that does not surprise me. What actually surprises me is that I am not at all surprised by this fact !


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