(No Spoilers)

There was a time after DC’s acquisition of Wildstorm in 1999 that people were skeptical of the whole move.  But when Wildstorm shifted their titles under the banner of the more mature “Eye of the Storm” titles in 2002, a new world of storytelling emerged.  We already had such gems as Planetary and Joe Casey’s work on Wildcats (Vol. 2).  But with Eye of the Storm we got titles like Wildcats 3.0, also done by Casey.  There was also a little mini-series called Point Blank written by Ed Brubaker.  It took some of Wildstorm’s more popular characters such as Grifter, Lynch, and Backlash and put them in a more noir style story than the traditional superhero fare.  Brubaker not only wove a cool original story with these characters, he took a villain from Alan Moore’s Wildcats run and kicked up his wickedness to the next level.  Of course, I’m talking about the villain called Tao.

But Point Blank wasn’t the end.  It was only the beginning.  During Point Blank we were introduced to Holden Carver, codenamed The Conductor.  After coming in contact with an alien artifact from The Bleed, Carver gained the ability to absorb pain and damage to his body, store it, and later transfer it to others.  This made him a valuable asset to both sides in a secret war between the remains of the covert agency Internal Operations and Tao’s Crime Syndicate.  After the events of Point Blank, Holden is left playing double agent in an attempt to bring down Tao and his syndicate.  Brubaker gives us a cold and calculating look at the underbelly of the Wildstorm Universe.  The beauty about Sleeper is that it can be read as a stand alone, but for those who know the Wildstorm U, there are plenty of Easter Eggs for long time fans.  Plus, Wildstorm’s current storyline “World’s End” does have a ton of elements from Sleeper that are constantly being referred to which is probably why they decided to re-release it.  (Plus I’m sure the fact that Tom Cruise has opted to make a movie based on it helped that decision as well).

This trade contains all of Sleeper: Season One (called seasons instead of volumes) which includes issues 1-12 (previously collected in the trades-Sleeper: Out in the Cold & Sleeper: All False Moves).  I know this is almost always at the top of people’s list when they’re asked what to check out from Wildstorm.