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You know there are books you’ve been meaning to pick up? They’re books by creators you really like, or something you’d heard was really good, or just something that’s been on your list for a long time. I’ve got a list that’s a mile long, and like anyone, time and money are usually tight, so I put them off. Then, I pick up new stuff randomly, usually without much planning. I’m sure there are more methodical collectors and readers out there than me, but what can you do?

If you’ve been around iFanboy for a while, you probably know that I’m quite the Alan Moore fan. I would say with some certainty that he’s my favorite writer. This is not to say that he hasn’t done work which I didn’t like, or even that I’ve read everything he’s written. Both are true. In the 1990’s Alan Moore did a good deal of work for Image Comics, attempting to breathe life into characters created by the likes of Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, like the WildC.A.T.s and Supreme. Because I was never reading comics at that time, and just because I didn’t put much stock into those early Image characters, I didn’t make much effort to track down the issues, and thought, for a good while, that I didn’t really know enough about the Wildstorm Universe to make it very satisfying. Yet, when Wildcats was relaunched with volume two, around 2000, written by Scott Lobdell with Travis Charest art, I gave it a shot, and quickly stopped reading it. About a year later, after reading a good deal of buzz, I went back and bought all the issues following Lobdell’s, written by Joe Casey. Now we were talking. I instantly found myself enjoying these characters, and while it took a while to understand the history of everything, I sussed it out, and really got into the book, reading it all the way through its cancellation on issue 24 of Volume 3, a total of 45 issues. So there must have been something to that right?

Apparently not, because I still didn’t pick up Alan Moore’s WildC.A.T.s work, until very recently, in a 50% off bin at the New York Comic Con. It is notable as the only book I bought at the whole show. The book was released a little less than a year ago, and collects issues #21-34 and #50. Moore wrote the series from 1995 to 1997. I have never read, and don’t really intend to read any of the issues prior to Moore’s run, and I’m just fine with that.

So why are we talking about this book?

Well, we’re talking about this book, because I find it extremely interesting as a piece of comic book work that lives between different time periods of comic book styles. It was obviously born of the early ’90s boom, and the bombast therein, yet it was written by a writer who puts more thought into his worst work than most writers put into their best work. I’m not saying this is his worst work, but I will definitely say it’s not his best. It isn’t that it’s bad at all, but Moore is working within a framework already established, and very deftly builds something of substance within that framework, while at the same time, making it something that anyone can come in and read, regardless of having read that which came before. It’s odd, because the dialog, characterizations and plot are all much more sophisticated than the look of the characters would lead you to believe, but it’s also light enough that this book actually feels more like really good classic superhero comic than you’d think. It’s fun. There are twists and turns, and betrayals, and melodramatic love, and even some sociopolitical themes for good measure. It really has it all.

If you’ve never read WildC.A.T.s, I’ll give a quick explainer, as much as that’s possible. C.A.T.s stands for Covert Action Team, and basically, there are two alien races warring, as they have been for centuries. The Kherubim (who are humanoid) and the Daemonites (who are like big lizards), and before Moore came on the book, the WildC.A.T.s were fighting their part of the war on Earth, and meeting and joining with Earth heroes and fighting the good fight under the noses of the regular citizenry. There are a bunch of characters, and chances are that if you’ve read anything from the Wildstorm universe, you’ve probably run across a couple in your time. What I didn’t know coming into this book, was how much I did actually know, and how much of what I’ve read actually ties into what Moore did in this book. For example, the bad guy in Ed Brubaker’s Sleeper, Tao, was created by Moore in this series. Many of the characters, good and bad, I came to know in Warren Ellis’ Stormwatch and The Authority series were tied into this story as well. Finally, a very large part of what I enjoyed about Casey’s run on Wildcats (after they lost the acronym), was born in these pages. I don’t know how I missed this for so long, but that was my mistake.

When the story opens, we find that they main team has left earth to go back to Khera to check in on the war, while back on earth, a second team is starting up. This leaves us with two separate stories for most of the book, until they come together near the end. The first team finds out that the war has actually been over for a long time, and they’ve been fighting for nothing. In short, all the characters find out something about themselves, and the folly of the power hungry, etc. etc. The second team is putting together a rag tag team of misfits, and things don’t go as planned. Near the end, bad guys make very big threats, and there’s lots of fighting, and good triumphs over evil. Or does it?

I realize how many comic books that could apply to, but Moore handles it very well, and makes the classic big superhero story a lot of fun. He does this mainly by making the characters very interesting and, perhaps in opposition to his reputation, not taking anything too seriously.

The best example of this is probably Maxine Manchester. Maxine is an 18 year old sociopathic, juvenile delinquent, who is also a very powerful cyborg. She’s placed on the second team, where they want to reform her into a good guy, when she was previously very much not good. At first, she’s ridiculous. She’s a murdering, thieving psychopath, and she’s even pretty annoying. Over the course of the story, I really great to think she was funny, and eventually to like her, and by the end, she’s my favorite character.

This is one thing that Moore does very well, where he writes a character as very stark when you first meet them. They seem one-dimensional and boring, and often unlikeable. And then slowly, over time, he reveals their vulnerabilities, and brings you to understand them, and eventually feel sympathy, by uncovering deeper layers under the exterior. He did it with Rorschach in Watchmen, and he did it with Maxine in this book.

For the first few issues, you’re just trying to figure out who is who, and what’s going on, but by the end of the book, you know everything and everyone, and you’ve got your favorites, and you’re clamoring to know what happens to them next. Then you realize that, as far as Moore is concerned, and you understand why people say he’s so good, because he made me care about something which I previously never thought I would care about. You could almost say that I liked this despite myself. Impressive Mr. Moore. Impressive indeed.

On the art side of things, which is frequently overshadowed with Moore at the pen, the most memorable art in this collection is provided by Travis Charest, drawing 7 of 15 chapters. Charest is a name I knew as someone who was really good, but we didn’t see his work very much, so I was looking forward to spending some time with his art in this book, as I’m sure a lot of other people were, and if anything, the inconsistency of art is a downside of this collection. I found Charest’s art to be a slightly stripped down version of Jim Lee’s, and I really wasn’t all that taken with it. It got better to be sure, but he wasn’t consistently drawing the chapters, so the work didn’t really grab me so much. There were several other artists on board, including Kevin Maguire, Ryan Benjamin, and more than anyone else, Mat Broome. Charest’s work stands out above much of theirs, but often for me, I had a slight problem appreciating the general style that was popular when this book was made. The 90’s Image boom was still in effect, and the art reflected that. The costumes are all very much “of a time” as are the layouts. If you were around, and enjoyed this type of thing, I’m sure this was excellent, but it was never my cup of tea. That isn’t to say it wasn’t good. I can tell you that I never once had a hard time telling anyone apart, and there is a certain grandiosity in the pages that’s unmistakable. It’s a little like watching a favorite movie from the ’80s, and while the acting and scripts are good, it’s hard to get your head around the fact that everyone is dressed ridiculously (a phenomena made more difficult in that many of those same awful styles can be seen on the street today.) Further, there’s a certain literal sense to the designs of the time where you can easily tell a lot about a character by the way they’re drawn and dressed. Maul is a gentle giant. Void is cold and unfeeling. Spartan is spartan. Overall, I can deal with the styles, because it was of the time, as opposed to if it were to come out today. It is certainly a valid and even important era in comic book history, contributing to the evolution of the stuff I like today, and I can understand the appeal, coming after an era of very staid artwork.

After all is said and done, this book provided a taste of what was best about the ’90s boom. It illustrates that there was value to be had in some of the work which often gets maligned as being shallow and flashy. It certainly doesn’t hurt that they backed up a truckload of money to Alan Moore’s house, and asked him to run with it. But, like planting a seed, from this story grew many others that ushered us from the past into the present. This story is a gateway between then and now, and even without getting metaphorical, it was just a good deal of fun, which is exactly what it aspired to be.

Josh Flanagan
josh@ifanboy.com