The WildC.A.T.s are together again… for the very first time! But who are they now? Your Major Spoilers review of WildC.A.T.s #2 from DC Comics awaits!
WILDC.A.T.S #2
Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Colorist: Elmer Santos
Letterer: Ferran Delgado
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 13, 2022
Previously in WildC.A.T.S.: The mission has gone sideways for the Cats team as they inadvertently run afoul of the last group they wanted to cross paths with…the Court of Owls!
It’s the fight of the year: Talon versus Zealot!
IN THE COURT OF OWLS
We pick up where we left off last time, with the Wild Crisis Aversion Tactical Squad trapped in between the Court of Owls and unknown armored assailants. Fairchild is unconscious, Grifter is quickly injured, leaving Zealot to fight their way out of it all. (Important note: She does not actually have the one-on-one fight with Talon that the solicitation image and cover want readers to think she does.) Grifter awakens in the hospital, quickly leaving when he hears that his boss Jacob Marlowe is holding a staff meeting without him. The staff in question includes some of the worst of the worst of the DCU, including Mrs. Freeze, Doctor Tyme, Professor Ivo, and more, with Marlowe screaming and berating them throughout. As for the C.A.T.s, Void orders Grifter to stand down, pointing out that he is only a piece of the HALO Corporation puzzle. Being an idiot, he instead starts poking around in the Owls’ business, just in time for them all to discover that their cover is blown.
I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS ALL FITS TOGETHER
When the original WildC.A.T.s book came out in ’92, there were a lot of moments that were couched in mystery. That wasn’t ideal, but the book was building a new universe from scratch, so at the very least it had an excuse for lack of context. This book, set squarely in Gotham City, does not. It’s a swirling morass of references, from former Wonder Woman foe Veronica Cale to the appearance of likely robot “Jack Colt” to the last page reveal of Marlowe’s Seven Soldiers of Victory, a sort of Image Comics all-star team, including Mother-One from Wetworks and Stormwatch villain Pike. Grifter also keeps referencing that they’ve come from another reality that sounds an awful lot like DCeased, something that may be an in-joke, but may also be the truth. On the art side, things are a bit brighter, as Segovia does a great job making characters that stand out, but a limited range of expressions hampers that. In one sequence, a character I thought was Grifter takes away Nora’s freeze gun right before the actual Grifter walks in, and I still don’t know who that other guy was. Honestly, I don’t know who anyone in this issue is, other than the fact that they’re all really abhorrent people.
BOTTOM LINE: A JUMBLED MESS
On the one hand, it’s entirely possible to make a story work with a cast of unlikeable jerks, but WildC.A.T.s #2 is not up to the task, as the art is lively, but lacks the detail and polish that would put everything together and the story just keeps adding more and more characters and incidents and cameos until the issue just ends, making for a disappointing 1.5 out of 5 stars overall. Even having read the Wildstorm 30th Anniversary Special and issue #1, and even coming in with extensive knowledge of the previous iterations of the C.A.T.s, this one just falls apart.
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WILDC.A.T.S. #1
Reviving one of Wildstorm's original titles in the DC Universe wouldn't be easy under any circumstances, but this issue is so focused on proving everything we know wrong that it doesn't realize none of it makes a lick of sense.
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Writing1
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Art4
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Coloring5
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.
2 Comments
No comment on the gender swap of Deathblow?
Nope. It’s a new take on Deathblow’s powers, but it kind of helps to explain her endless resurrections.