In 1992, a new kind of superhero team joined the the Justice League and Avengers: A rebellious team of aliens, half-breeds and robots created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi in a series of their own called Wildc.a.t.s. Over the years, the team and the title changed, bringing in the likes of Alan Moore, Travis Charest, Joe Casey, Sean Phillips, Dustin Nguyen and evolving with the times – and even dropping the dots in their name to become the simple “Wildcats.”
In recent history, the Wildcats have had a tough go of it: a promised “epic” run by Grant Morrison and Jim Lee was cut short after only one issue due to the creators doing other projects, and the Wildstorm line as a whole imploded in what we now know was the precursor to the New 52. And in light of the New 52, the Wildcats are no more. The closest we have is some of the team members having short-lived solo series like Voodoo and Grifter and others like Zealot showing up as guest stars in other books.
But with the rumors swirling that Jim Lee is looking to jump off of Justice League for another projects, Wildcats is quick to come to mind as Lee’s most personal and most popular creation of his own. In light of those rumors, we’ve read the tea leaves, looked to the stars and searched out hearts to come up with a way for this covert action team can live to fight another day.
Here’s what we’d do.
The Concept:
The Wildcats were never privy to see inside the formal DC universe, but with New 52 upon us and several members of the team already on the ground and running I’d have a new Wildcats series jump right into the thick of things. Some might argue the team needs room to breathe on its own before joining the inter-connected continuity of things ala the “Marvel Knights” approach, but in this day and age Wildcats needs to be in the mix – but done so with discerning skill.
From its original incarnation to the present, the Wildcats team has been in essence a group of individuals cast out by their own cultures – be it Kherubim, Daemonite or the great robotic underground of the Wildstorm Universe. Harkening back to The Outsiders (the novel, not the comic), they’re a group of misfits who only fit in amongst each other. I’d play that up in the heady nature of New 52 with a core cast of classic Wildcats heroes as well as a sampling of some new heroes from outside. Who knows, maybe Ted Grant could come in complaining copyright infringement over this with his name being Wildcat?
For this team, I’d have the rogue Kherubim (and height-challenged) Emp be on the run from something – and running towards something – and calling in help from the already debuted Grifter and Voodoo. Spartan is little more than a scrapheap Emp tinkers on in his spare time, so this team of 3 ½ heroes are all the team they’ve got as they try to get to the bottom of Emp’s quest – the truth behind the wholesale extermination of his people, the Kherubim.
To intertwine this evermore into the New 52, consider this: what is the Kherubim and Daemonite races, whose origins are from space, were connected somehow to Superman’s homeworld of Krypton? What if they were trading partners, or at least lived in the same neighborhood. What if the deadly cataclysm that killed off Krypton provoked the war between the Kherubim and Daemonites, akin to their war in the original Wildstorm books? Or imagine this – what if the war started because both sides thought the other responsible for their ally, Krypton’s, decimation.
The Creators:
The Writer – Brian K. Vaughn: Some say BKV has left work-for-hire behind now that he’s firmly entrenched as a Hollywood screenwriter and a successful creator-owned writer in comics. But Vaughn built up strong friendships from his time at Wildstorm, with Lee even drawing a page or two of Ex Machina back in the day. For the right deal, Vaughn could bring his off-kilter view of aliens and earth back to DC’s umbrella. And hopefully, he can bring the political espionage too.
The Artist – Cully Hamner: When it came time to redesign the DCU, Jim Lee worked closely with Cully Hamner to bring the characters to (new) life. I’d love to see Lee pull Cully in to take a spin with Lee’s characters here . Cully’s previous work shows he can do dark, and his debut work back in the 90s with Green Lantern: Mosiac shows he can handle space.
The Artist – Dustin Nguyen: Although this new Wildcats concept veers away from the corporate Wildcats 3.0 Nguyen worked on, I’d love to see Nguyen come back into the fold and work rotating arcs with Hamner and rejoin the team once more. Who knows, maybe Brian K. Vaughn can find a way to give us a taste of Wildcats 3.0 along with everything else.
Cover Artist – Jim Lee: It’s too easy to say Jim Lee should draw this entire series. Realistically, that’s probably not going to happen. Instead, I’d have him be the featured player in this – similar to the role Alex Ross has taken with his recent series, acting as designer, cover artist and surprise guest star. For this, I’d ask Lee to contribute variant covers, character designs and perhaps stand-alone issues between larger arcs by Hamner and Nguyen.
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I for one would love to see a new Wildcats series done well. Another good choice for art duties would be someone like Dale Eaglesham (if not for Marvel contract of course).
This would be more logical than Team 7 but DC dosent think so. The story should instead in Grifter that the WildC.A.T.s team except Voodoo to take down the Damenites and as they do that they meet Voodoo and she decides to join them for some reason.
I’d love for any Wildcats come back. I don’t think BKV would want to do it since he’s already doing the space opera thing. My suggestion for writer would be Ron Marz. His run on Voodoo was great, and the book’s been derailed since he left. I think he could really play up the shady side from 3.0 in a mainstream acceptable way.
I would love to see Ron Marz on that. With Voodoo canceled and what (very slim) hopes I had of that series eventually returning to something like quality Marz had going, I’d still like to see the character in a book, since I enjoy her power set and so forth. I’d even accept it being Priscilla rather than Voodoo, if the latter seems too far gone because of what the series has done with her.
None of you read BleedingCool?
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/06/14/jim-lee-to-relaunch-wildcats-and-other-fourth-wave-rumours/
In the beginning of the third paragraph I mentioned the rumor that Jim Lee is doing a new WILDCATS series. Did you read that?
Hmm. I don’t feel like I’d want to see BKV on this, frankly. I’ve never been terribly impressed with his for-hire stuff. I think Runaways was as good as it was when he was on it because it was new and he had some creative control there.
So we’ve seen Grifter, Voodoo, Zealot and most recently Warblade was in Superboy and is part of the Ravengers. Has Maul or Spartan showed up yet? I would love to see Jim Lee get the Wildcats going again but I don’t think it would be the original team.
Spartan’s been there since the beginning of the New 52 – he’s the leader of the Blackhawks.
Haven’t noticed Maul yet, though.
I’m all in for this idea!
How about letting Joe Casey finish the story he had planned before the rug was pulled out from under him?
K5blazer: WILDCATS 3.0 was cancelled for low sales, and despite me loving it I don’t see DC signing up to resume that given its track record. DC’s in the business to make money.
True, but low sales are steady…the relaunch from Lee had ONE issue…but it is a business though…I can still re-read the 3.0 trades though….(sigh)…
i want issue 2 of jim lee and morrisons wildstorm relaunch
I want Wildcats back so bad. Voodoo and Grifter in the New 52 have been a huge letdown. Actually, none of the Wildstorm stuff has really done anything for me in the DCU. For the above idea, I’d add that Charest should be there as a cover artist as well. So good, and you can really see how he evolved just by reading old Wildcats issues.
Travis Charest. That is all…
Things don’t look good for Grifter.Once Liefeld took over the book has tanked although its never really done well.Supposedly Spartan is going to show up in Team 7.
I would buy the concept, but i would change the tone a little bit, i think a Wild C.A.T.S book should be a mix of big Sci-Fi, with a little espionage and a lot of action. I would get Rick Remender To Write and Keep Dustin Nguyen on Art. But i would make sure that the Core group is used primarily. one of the things i think they have done wrong with this book is gotten away from the characters that we first met and fell in love with so its Maul, Spartan, Grifter, Voodoo, War Blade and Zealot. as the story grows we introduce the other C.A.T.S but strip it down to these guys first. and I would Keep Marlow as Lord Emp. Also call the book Wild C.A.T.S again it gives it a distinctive feel. All DC has to do is look at Marvel and what they have done with the X-Force books and the Secret Warriors and get that vibe for this comic.