Wildstorm: Worldstorm

[Solario]

Preview (http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Oct06/previews/wildcats.html).

I'm not alone in thinking that this looks absolutely awful, am I? The color and the style Lee has chosen to apply here screams 1992. The Engineer's design is simplified almost beyond recognition and there's not a single panel that looks like an actual panel and not a splash page (which I'll allow for now, because given the nature of the comic). Every single character is either grinning michieviously or constipated. The crosshatching is awful, the men are all eunuchs and THERE ARE NO FEET. It feels more like a Liefeld piece.

[UnSub]

I get the impression Lee saw that Wildstorm sales were down and went, "Hey, you know what made sales great? The 90s. Let's go back to then!"

And it's not even a particularly inspired script from Grant Morrison, either.

Still going to pick up the first few issues ... but it certainly feels like a backward step from WildCATS v3.0.

[Gold Rush]

Basically agree with the comments so far.

It's interesting that Lee seems so busy these days. It's like he came back from a vacation/hiatus and wants to be busy again.

While I admire some of the Wildstorm line (WILDcats, Gen13, Team 7 (?), the Deviants (?; the Gen 13 "evil" counterpart), I never really read many of them, especially on a continuous basis. At that time, there were so many comics. Wildstorm amd it's universe of characters is in a weird situation for my tastes. Although most of the core stuff is "original enough", I just can't get into them too much. I never really liked the world, even from the start. This view of mine has gotten worse with the last few series (The Authority, Midnighter/Apollo, that group that appeared in Captain Atom : Armaggeddon; are they also "The Authority" or another group?). It seems although these particular "copies" have original takes on them, they leave me VERY flat.

Although a "re-boot" is needed to put some new life into Wildstorm, I don't necessarily see anything too different this time around. I think if the latter groups were taken out of the equation, I might be just a smidgen more interested, but they are present. Wildstorm has been "dead" since even before DC bought it, with small spikes of popularity that haven't lasted long.

It's like Lee has a "strong", initial idea and starts off the new project, overseeing the first few issues, then leaves to start something else, giving the up-n-running project's writing chores to someone else he may not be overseeing. After awhile, these initial ideas lose steam under the various new "teams" and wind up being cancelled in short order. In other words, they are either best left to one-shot graphic novels or mini-series, because they cease to be interesting, either for one reason or another. It is because they either need Lee or the ideas are not substanable for long, even with Lee or some good writer.

Granted, his earlier works are more easily substained over the long haul (WILDCats, et al), but even those lose steam. I did like Armaggeddon, but mostly for Captain Atom, the "strange man in a strange land" feel, and it gave me a synopsis on what was going on in the Wildstorm universe. However, I don't feel any interest in this new project.

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Gold Rush

[coldcut]

Ditto on what Gold Rush said.

While The Authority has been pretty consistantly brilliant (thanks to some pretty consistantly brilliant writers), the whole universe is really more about style than it is anything else. The fact that it was invented by a company named "Image" pretty much says it all (and I'm not laboring under the illusion that I'm the first person to point that out.) I think Ellis was more than aware of this when he created The Authority, and while Morrison did some interesting character development there, it's really been more about the concept of a bunch of superheroes opposing the truly powerful and unjust in society rather than a group of people opposing the truly powerful and unjust in society.

All the Wildstorm universe stuff I've read has had this style over substance problem. Sleeper was brilliant, but throughout the whole book I was thinking to myself, "this is trying way too hard to be cool." I realize that part of that was Brubaker trying to inundate the reader in the same way that whassisname was inundated to the loss of his own humanity, but it went a little too far in The Matrix direction.

From what I can tell, the best realized character in the entire universe is an ex-SAS soldier named Kev, who's most famous for a shocking screw-up involving a tiger.

edit: Now that said, I'm not getting why this looks much worse than any other mainstream book on the market.

[Solario]

It looks worse in my eyes, because Lee can do better. He just chooses not to, in order to appease his fanbase. And because I had high hopes for the new line.

I loved Sleeper (and Point Blank), Wildcats 3.0 and Authority, but I do agree with the fact that it was created as an "all style, no substance" line and that still follow through even on the good series. Sleeper used it as Coldcut mentioned, Wildcats v. 3.0 was basically an entire book about business, marketting and explosions (all of which I enjoyed immensely) and Authority has always been described as a Widescreen comic.

And whatssisname is Holden Carver. :D

[UnSub]

Sleeper was great. I loved how it made both Lynch and Tao as two sides to the same coin in Carver's eyes. And Miss Misery was one of the most interesting superpowered characters I've seen in quite a while.

The Authority had its moment, but they were often squandered. I mean, they take over the US Govt, but do absolutely nothing with it. The Revolution storyline was good (up until the final issue, but hey, nothing's perfect).

I also was one of the few who liked The Monarchy as kind of an anti-Authority. Also, it gave a lot more scope to Jackson King's character.

Gen13: the original miniseries was great. I hated that it moved to cheap T&A.

Wetworks: who the hell still cares about this title? It ran for what - 8 or 9 issues originally? Yes, the team looks cool, but that's about it.

Stormwatch: I liked the original title (especially after Ellis moved it out of Avengers-lite territory). I really liked Archilles up until it was obvious they were going to be cancelled and the writer kinda tried to jam too much stuff into too few pages. Sabatini is a character who deserves more time on page in the Wildstorm universe.

Mr Majestic: One of the better Superman clones. My favourite bit with him was when he was talking to Superman and basically said, "I dislike your lack of spine in dealing with criminals". Again, they ended his most recent series poorly and removed him from the action for the final part of it.

WildCATs: I loved the business angle. Pity it looks like we are back to spandex, Kaizen Gomorra (sp?) and Lord Hellstrike.

I can say that all the new titles have good teams at launch. What this means to the on-going health of each series, who knows.