WildcatsThis is a featured page


An early Wildcats sketch by Jim Lee
Wildcats created by Jim Lee & Brandon Choi
First Appearance: WildC.A.T.s #1
Base of operations: HALO Inc.
Resource
Overview
Centuries ago, an interstellar war stranded two enemy alien races - the Kherubim and the Daemonites - on Earth. The marooned beings infiltrated and influenced the native humans until the late 20th century when the confrontations reignited.

Led by Lord Emp, the WildC.A.T.s rose as a team consisting of Kherubim, Kherubim-human halfbreeds, and a human, to halt the Daemonite attacks that had secretly plagued Earth.

Hidden from human eyes and cut off from their home worlds, they fought a secret war funded by Lord Emp's front corporation, Halo.


Publishing History
The team first appeared in 1992 in the first issue of their eponymous comic book WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams, published by Image Comics. It was Image founding partner Lee's first work published by the newly-launched company, and his first creator owned project after achieving fame and fortune as a penciler of X-Men and Punisher comics published by Marvel Comics.

The Wildcats were the starting point for Lee's menagerie of interconnected superhero creations which became the foundation of the Wildstorm Universe.

The Wildcats comics, launched at the apex of a speculator-fueled comics sales boom, was wildly popular at its inception, with wholesale sales to comic book stores above one million copies for early issues and the fan press whipping comics buyers into a frenzy of anticipation. An animated TV cartoon adaptation of the comic made its Saturday morning debut on CBS in 1994.

As the comics market cooled off, the title's popularity waned somewhat, and it was canceled and relaunched several times as various new approaches to the concept were introduced, although it never went away for very long.

In 1998, ownership of the Wildcats concepts and characters were sold to DC Comics, a subsidiary of Time Warner, as part of DC's acquisition of Lee's company Wildstorm Productions, previously his imprint within Image. In addition to Lee, the Wildcats comics have also featured work by such prominent comics creators as Jae Lee, Travis Charest, Chris Claremont, James Robinson, Alan Moore, Joe Casey, Sean Phillips, Dustin Nguyen, and Grant Morrison.


Volume 1: The Lee/Choi era
Launched as an original Image comicbook title by hugely popular X-Men penciler Jim Lee and his friend writer Brandon Choi, the comic book's premise revolved around the centuries long war between aliens called Kherubim and Daemonites. Kherubims, a nearly immortal, human-looking alien race with exceptional powers and skills, eventually traveled to Earth and by breeding with humans populated the planet with "Half-Breeds". Daemonites, besides having a fearsome appearance, also possessed various superhuman abilities including body possession and mental control over human beings. The initial arc brought Voodoo over to the team as the readers' point of view character as Helspont, a Daemonite warlord has taken control over Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle. Rob Liefeld's Youngblood co-starred in the closing chapters of the arc.

WildC.A.T.s' story continued in the mini Trilogy, penciled by Jae Lee, that introduced Hightower the Daemonite lord. Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri proceeded to publish a Killer instinct crossover detailing Warblade's connection to Marc Silvestri's Cyberforce. Penciler Travis Charest was introduced in a oneshot Wildcats special written by Howard the Duck's creator Steve Gerber.

Afterwards, Lee and Choi played it safe with a standard superhero fare such as a story featuring an ocean cruise ending the hard way with bringing WildC.A.T.s into conflict with Lord Emp's brother Lord Entropy.

Unable to keep deadlines and devoted to expanding his Wildstorm studio part of the Image universe, Jim Lee devoted his time to coming up with the new concepts of Gen 13, Deathblow and Stormwatch. Before he left the book he did the four-issue Gathering of Eagles storyline written by his Uncanny X-Men writer, Chris Claremont. It featured a new villain in Tapestry and added the characters of Mister Majestic, Savant and Soldier, all the while featuring Claremont's creator owned character Huntsman that also starred in a Cyberforce storyline.

Also of note, in issue #14, Jim Lee and Brandon Choi penciled an issue of Savage Dragon featuring Grifter and Condition Red that month while the Dragon's creator Erik Larsen tackled WildC.A.T.s pitting them against his Freak Force team in a tongue-in-cheek adventure.

Initially, it was revealed that Daemonites could not breathe Earth's air but subsequent writers have ignored and revised the concept. Most of the villains and characters in the book were Half-Breeds or Daemonite warlords with half of the WildStorm Universe eventually turning out to be one or the other.

Almost all of the characters were spun off into their own mini-series, with Zealot featured in a 3 part Ron Marz written story, Spartan having his Kurt Busiek written mini-series, Warblade sharing another with Cyberforce's Ripclaw. Grifter co-starred in a mini with Stormwatch's Backlash that led to the latter's ongoing title, as well as another with Youngblood's Bedrock, Billy Tucci's Shi, Dark Horse's the Mask, and more recently the Midnighter of the Authority.
WildC.A.T.s was also made into a Nintendo video game and a short-lived cartoon that spawned a spin-off comics series WildC.A.T.s Adventures that was canceled after 10 issues.


Volume 1: The James Robinson era
James Robinson wrote a handful of issues, and also participated in the Wildcats' first Annual as well as a Team One Stormwatch/WildC.A.T.s mini-series detailing the past of the Wildstorm universe. Except for Grifter's involvement, WildC.A.T.s mostly kept clear of the other titles and the larger universe, being linked only by Emp, Majestic and Zealot's Cold War history as superheroes. The title also participated in the WildC.A.T.s-oriented "Wildstorm Rising" crossover that saw the heroes try to gain control of the Daemonite battleship, which turned out to be the Kheran Ship instead, with the WildC.A.T.s eventually leaving for Khera. Following a Grifter one-shot, the crossover gave birth to a short-lived Steven Seagle written Grifter series that centered on his super spy/superhero adventures while linking to an obscure Team One character Regiment at one point.


Volume 1: The Alan Moore era
Alan Moore attempted to give the series depth and cohesion by following up on the initial premise of the Daemonite and Kherubim war. After Grifter resigned, the C.A.T.s had the opportunity to venture to Khera where they found what appeared to be paradise. The Kherubim had won the Daemonite-Kherubim war and were living in prosperity. Appearances were deceiving, however, and it was apparent the planet was run by power-hungry politicians who have ruthlessly subjugated the Daemonites as second-class citizens. Voodoo, with her Daemonite blood, experienced this firsthand. Maul's race was also treated unjustly and though Emp, Warblade and Zealot were seduced by promises of power and recognition, Spartan discovered the truth about Khera's corrupt leaders. It took the death of one of Maul's race for the WildC.A.T.s to leave and head back for Earth.

Disillusioned by the outcome of the war off-world and their selfishness, the team fell apart. Voodoo left and Emp fell into depression. The original team returned to Earth in pieces and despite having new members, they were defeated by the cunning traitor, Tao, who had manipulated them at each turn. Alan Moore also participated in Fire From Heaven, a huge continuity-heavy crossover that resolved plotlines regarding Team 1, Team 7 and Kaizen Gamorra.
Alan Moore spun Voodoo off in a four-issue mini-series that had almost no connection to WildC.A.T.s mythos instead dealing with voodoo magic. Alan Moore also wrote a time-traveling WildC.A.T.s/Spawn crossover mini-series.


Volume 1: The Return of Brandon Choi
A two part arc was set in place before the book's co-creator Brandon Choi returned, setting up the short lasting Savant Garde spin-off. Choi initiated a storyline with an organization called Puritans as the main villains. The Puritans' goal was to eradicate the Kherubim and Daemonites on Earth. The 'C.A.T.s included Grifter, Condition Red and new members Mythos (a Kherubim Lord), Olympia (a Coda-trained Daemonite) and Sister Eve (the daughter of Emp's brother, Lord Entropy). The team traveled in time, and had various adventures through different times, until they came back.


Wildcats Volume 2
After the first series cancellation, WildStorm, now an imprint of DC Comics, resurrected the Wildcats under a whole different premise - Wildcats dealt with the lives of the original members after the team's breakup following a botched mission during which team member Zealot apparently died. Scott Lobdell provided the writing for the initial 7 issues as well as a Mosaic oneshot detailing the change in Lord Emp, with Travis Charest penciling most of them. New villains like Kenyan and CC Rendozo were featured as antagonists, but it was all dropped very quickly, with Charest leaving the monthly comic format for working in a French still-to-be-released Metabarons graphic novel called Dreamshifters and Lobdell going away just a couple of issues later, after a very grim and bloody issue featuring Warblade's new status quo as he avenges the death of his girlfriend.Wild Times: Wildcats and Wild Times: Grifter were published as oneshots, as a part of the strange crossover series Wild Times that spotlighted the characters in Elseworlds-like alternate reality scenarios that bended genres.

Somewhere around this time, Wildcats' creator Jim Lee penciled the 12 issue maxi-series Divine Right, featuring a new character called Max Faraday with god complex issues, introducing even more new creations such as Fallen, who were seldom seen later, as well as the end of the International Operations storyline. Strangely, Wildcats participated also in the WildC.A.T.s/Aliens crossover written by Stormwatch's Warren Ellis that served as a close to that series and a prequel to his Authority run, having very little to do with Wildcats themselves, and pencilled by Chris Sprouse.

As Joe Casey and Sean Phillips took over Wildcats, they quickly dealt away with Kenyan while Void and Emp ended up having Spartan absorb their assets and powers, thus the book began a long spell featuring him aided by Ladytron and Grifter with Maul and Voodoo guest-starring and as well as new characters Noir, Agents Wax and Mohr of the National Park Service. Warblade was featured very briefly, last time in the Wildcats 2000 annual that brought back the dead version Condition Red, killing Olympia. Casey and Phillips signaled the new Wildstorm - critically acclaimed but low on readers' radar. The heroes fought Samuel "Slaughterhouse" Smith (a superhuman serial killer whose grandfather had appeared in Team One: WildC.A.T.s) after which eventually Zealot returned. Casey also wrote the Ladytron oneshot, a farcical rendition of her past, as well as a Mister Majestic ongoing series, canceled at #9.


Wildcats Version 3.0
The third series, Wildcats Version 3.0, was a part of the mature readers' Eye of the Storm imprint, dealing with Spartan's (now Jack Marlowe) agenda to better the world by proliferating advanced technology and power sources throughout the world via the HALO Corporation. Grifter was his troubleshooter and Agent Wax was one of his first associates. The stories added a motley group to this proactive organization including the power broker C.C. Rendozzo and her organization, Agent Orange, and Grifter's unlikely pupil Edwin Dolby, one of HALO's accountants. The series ended with a thunderous finale where Zealot destroyed the Coda chapter she created on Earth. The whole series was written by Joe Casey and most of it was illustrated by Dustin Nguyen (not to be confused with the actor).

It is important to note that concurrent with Wildcats Version 3.0, Wildstorm also published a critically acclaimed noir-superhero series Sleeper starring Alan Moore's Wildcats villain Tao, several Wildcats and other related characters. Spartan played a role in the Coup D'Etat crossover centering on The Authority taking over as rulers of the Wildstorm Universe's United States.


Nemesis & Captain Atom
Wildcats starred in a limited series by Robbie Morrison and Talent Caldwell entitled Wildcats: Nemesis, focusing on Zealot, Majestic and the Coda continuity, while heavily spotlighting the new Wildstorm universe anti-hero character of Charis, Lady Nemesis.

At the same time, Wildstorm published the Captain Atom: Armageddon maxi-series, heavily featuring the Wildcats as they tried to help DC character Captain Atom return to his universe and stop him from accidentally destroying their reality. Nikola, a female medic became the new Void with Captain Atom sharing a part of the power that eventually remade the Wildstorm universe altogether.


Wildcats Volume 4: Worldstorm
In 2006, as part of the Worldstorm line-wide shake up, the title was restarted, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Jim Lee. The team consists of Spartan, Mr. Majestic, Zealot, Grifter, Voodoo, Savant, and Ladytron. Warblade is on a secret mission, and Maul has retired to his civilian identity. Kaizen Gamorra returned as villain, aided by the WildCats' first enemy, Helspont. Thus far only one issue has been released, and no second issue is currently solicited. Jim Lee announced at Wondercon 2008 that he has the second script from Grant Morrison, but Wildstorm will not solicit it until there are several issues ready to go. The story was meant to run for six issues.

In 2009, Hank Kanalz of Wildstorm said that WildC.A.T.S. “will be completed as a graphic novel, and will be solicited when it’s complete.”


Wildcats Volume 5: World's End
In 2008, Wildstorm: Armageddon led to the company-wide storyline, World's End. After the events in Number of the Beast, the world is left in ruins. The Wildcats are based in the remains of Los Angeles and are trying to survive in this new world. The series was launched by writer Christos Gage and artist Neil Googe.

Writer Adam Beechen and artist Tim Seeley will start their run with Wildcats #19.


News:

Categories:

WildStorm Titles Teams


Posted Anonymously Latest page update: made by Anonymous , Nov 2 2009, 2:26 PM EST (about this update About This Update Posted Anonymously Edited anonymously

11 words added

view changes
- complete history)
Keyword tags: None (edit keyword tags)
More Info: links to this page

Threads for this page

Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
grifter78 That early Wildcats sketch 0 Feb 5 2009, 4:27 PM EST by grifter78
Thread started: Feb 5 2009, 4:27 PM EST  Watch
Where did that early sketch come from and did Jim Lee ever say if that's an early version of Majestic behind Voodoo and Warblade? Also, I just realized there's no Maul. I'd never seen this image before. It's cool to see it. I can't tell if it's the inking but Grifter's mask looks more like a skull. The design reminds me of Liefeld's character Chapel. The other characters don't seem too different than what eventually came to be.
Do you find this valuable?    
Keyword tags: None (edit keyword tags)

Anonymous  (Get credit for your thread)

Showing 1 of 1 threads for this page