WILDCATS #14

Here's a random issue from the backlog. No idea where (or why) I bought this.

Title: WILDCATS
Issue: #14
Publisher: Wildstorm / DC Comics
Date: October, 2009

Writer: Christos Gage
Penciler: Shawn Moll
Inker: Drew Geraci
Colorist: Carrie Strachan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Editor: Kristy Quinn, Ben Abernathy

Cover: Ryan Sook

It's probably a bit unfair to try to jump into this at issue #14 with essentially no experience with the series. But then again, sometimes you have a single issue sitting around and you decide to read it. At least there was a convenient summary of the story-up-to-now on the first page.

It was a summary of a convoluted mess, but that was still better than no summary at all.

We jump right into the action with godlike bad guy Tao fighting not-quite-so-godlike good guy Spartan. We can conveniently keep score of this fight because Tao shoots green energy all over the place and Spartan shoots purple energy all over the place. Sadly neither of them turn their energy into giant boxing-glove shapes or anything, but I suppose that is probably best left to the various-colored-lantern books over in the regular DC universe.

In this Universe, the apocalypse has occurred and just about everyone has been wiped out. And the WILDCATS team is attempting to stop Tao from making a pretty dismal situation even worse. By the way, the CAT in the name stands for "Covert Action Team", despite them being about the least covert group I've ever seen. "WILD" stands for, well, "wild", I suppose. And the final "S" appears to be totally unnecessary because there is actually only one team.

So it's Tao against Spartan because Tao has essentially trounced everybody else before this issue got started, and there is a noble sacrifice that allows the heroes to escape and regroup. They decide to find another godlike being, a guy name Max Faraday, who turns out to be pretty uninterested in doing anything heroic. The team them tries various exceptionally effective ways of convincing him to help them such as yelling at him, insulting his manhood, and pointing a gun at him. We at least get one amusing moment when Faraday changes the gun into a rubber chicken.

Faraday actually turns out to be a reasonably interesting character (Spartan also seemed to have some potential, but in spite of him being in every scene, his personality doesn't come through as consistently as it could have). In the end, Faraday is revealed to be perhaps not as uncaring as everyone had assumed, and Tao is setting up for more mayhem.

The book started as a jumbled mess and improved a bit as it went on.

Rating: 4.5/10

DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman - The 70s

A new issue (well, half new and half reprint). I picked this one up today at New England Comics in New Bedford.

Title: DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman - The 70s
Date: 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Dennis O'Neil
Penciler: J. Bone, Dick Giordano
Inker: J. Bone, Dick Giordano
Colorist: Kevin Golden, Matthew Petz, Carrie Strachan
Editor: Chynna Clugston Flores, Kwanza Johnson

It says something about the state of DC comics these days when the best Wonder Woman comic I've read in the last few years 1) Is a 1970s retro one-shot, 2) Is 50% reprinted material, and 3) Features Wonder Woman in her non-powered "White Costume" incarnation. Ouch.

First up, Paradise Island has sunk beneath the waves. It's temporarily protected by a domed force field, but a giant blade (no, really!) hangs over the dome, inching closer and threatening to let in the sea and drown the Amazons. Wonder Woman is forced to undergo three ordeals as punishment for the sin of "making yourself less than you are" if she is to save her homeland. This was a really odd story that featured sudden near-surreal plot twists, some really fun fight scenes, a great job on the characterization of Diana (in more of a pacifist mode than you see her in these days). It also had an very ambiguous ending that I really liked. The story seemed to be perfectly set up for a resolution to be handed to the reader on a silver platter, and when that didn't end up happening it was a pretty clever twist.

The second story is a reprint from the 1970s, but also written by Dennis O'Neil. This is the classic Wonder Woman vs. Catwoman battle. Diana is in non-powered mode here, so it's a pretty even fight, although it doesn't come to any conclusive finish. The overall plot involves a Tibetan cult and a hypnotic gem. Also featured here is Diana's sensei from this time period, I-Ching (no, really, that was the dude's name).

This wasn't perfect. There was some goofiness to it, which was fine because that was the flavor they were going for, but there was also a lot left unresolved. In the first story (the new story written for this book) that was also part of the point. The second story ends on a cliffhanger because that was the nature of the issue they chose to reprint. I guess they figured that having the Catwoman guest spot was worth the trouble of using a story that didn't quite end.

Still, in spite of some of it being silly, I really liked this portrayal of Wonder Woman. I got some new appreciation for the non-powered version of the character, and I was impressed with the logic and the flow of the fight scenes, even in the reprinted portion.

Maybe when DC does their relaunch of Wonder Woman (and everything else; see my review here), they should go for "Groovy Amazon Adventures" with the occasional judo chop. It couldn't be worse than what they've been doing with the character in the last few years (don't get me started on breaking Max Lord's neck, Amazons Attack, Genocide, and other such idiocy; that is a rather long rant best saved for another day).

But yeah, judo chops. I can dig that.

Rating: 7.5/10