By Zack Quaintance — I have been supremely hyped about the latest iteration of DC Comics’ WildStorm books, since I first read the Wild Storm #1, which (believe it or not) first came out back in February of 2017. That’s more than two years ago, and a lot has changed since then. That series has published all 24 of its issues, essentially wrapping up in a somewhat neat fashion. 

I won’t spoil anything that happens here (in case you for some reason clicked this article but haven’t read that one yet...or you’re simply waiting for the trade), but I spent much of this run hoping—nay, clamoring—for the end result to be a new ongoing series about The Authority. While I still maybe wouldn’t mind that, if it doesn’t happen, I’m okay with that, too. All of that is to say that I don’t think writer Warren Ellis and artist Jon Davis-Hunt, the masterminds of that particular series, need to make any statement past what they did in those pages. It’s a complex and slow-burning look at real societal control, at power structures and motives and what (if anything) we the little people would actual feel or see.

It was, in a word, great. 

So, why then am I here now writing this effusive hype piece about the book’s direct follow-up, the forthcoming WildCats #1? Primarily because I think this comic will be just as entertaining as its predecessor, but in a very different way. If the entirety of The Wild Storm was a thesis statement about global control that Ellis has spent a massive portion of his career studying for, then the WildCats comic strikes me as a subsequent victory lap in which he puts his books away, takes his glasses off, has a few pints, and goes wild (sorry) letting off steam. It looks madcap and irreverent by comparison, more like his recent creator-owned jaunt Cemetary Beach, than the series from which it grew. And, as the kids on the Internets like to say, I am there for that.

Adding to my there for that-ness? The art team that has been tapped to join Ellis on this project. Artist Ramon Villalobos and colorist Tamra Bonvillain. There’s has (somewhat quietly) been a team-up that’s been among the best in Big 2 comics for years now, dating all the way back to their work in 2016 on David F. Walker’s searing Nighthawk. Ramon and Tamra’s artwork is equal parts gritty and captivatingly-detailed, and I 100 percent trust a seasoned pro like Ellis to give them all that they need to really show-off their massive talents on a stage that they arguably have not yet had. 

It’s going to be something, and urge you to GET HYPED now, or end up playing catch-up like all those non-readers of The Wild Storm had to do when that book reunited The Authority.

WildCats #1
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Ramon Villalobos
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Publisher: DC Comics - WildStorm
Final Order Cutoff: Aug. 5, 2019
Release Date: Aug. 28, 2019

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.