WSU vs. The Wild Storm 4

I know, the main point of this blog is to talk about the continuity of WildStorm Universe as it was from ’92 – ’11… but I really like doing this compare and contrast thing! Admittedly, I have no idea where Ellis is going with this new series, and honestly, I couldn’t be more on board for what he and his team are bringing. I just thought I’d have some fun, point out some of the references/differences from the old WSU to the new book “the Wild Storm” that came earlier this week.

New vs. Old

Lauren Pennington
Here we see Lauren as the Mr. Smithers to Henry Bendix’s Mr. Burns. Lauren still seems rather sassy here, too, much like when Ellis wrote for her in the old WSU. As of right now Lauren just seems to be a high ranking member of SkyWatch without any of the flame powers she had as Fahrenheit in the old WSU. Other than her red hair, her look seems mostly new. She either had extremely straight long hair in a ponytail or a short tight curly cut, or even the length that we see here, but a bit frizzy.

SkyWatch Satellite 
So we finally get a good look at the SkyWatch’s home. It’s a lot less sci-fi cool than the old WSU version. Hell, this thing actually looks kind of plausible for a modern place to live in space. And I’ll admit, it harkens a bit more to the old WSU design than I anticipated.

New & What We Don’t Know

Cassady
She might just be a one-off character for Ivana to yell at, or she might be someone, but it’s not ringing any bells. Or it might just say Cassady on her jumpsuit as a wink towards Ellis’s “Planetary” partner, John Cassady. EDIT: Carl K. Li suggests it might be a reference to Cassandra AKA Providence. Also, I just read an issue of DV8 which featured an I/O clone who went by the name Cassady,  But I bet that’s just a coincidence.

Ben Santini
Craven makes a reference to needing the Razor 1 team, and then name checks Ben Santini. I guess that Ben is head of the Razor’s here, much like he was head of the Black Razor’s in the old WSU.

the Summit in Zagreb
There was some kind of meeting in Zagreb, Croatia (or about Zagreb, somewhere else) that Craven attended with his husband and Henry Bendix was also in attendance at. Much was made about how Bendix was acting and even more so how he left, but the reader has not been made privy to that information yet. Judging by the next page, it might have been a reference to him “beaming” out.

Transport Technology
In the old WSU StormWatch had transport/beaming technology. It was basically Star Trek with a few platforms on SkyWatch that did the trick. This transport tech seems a bit different that what we’ve previously seen though. Like everything else w/ SkyWatch in “the Wild Storm” it looks a bit more low tech than the WSU, but a bit more “real” if that makes any sense at all to you.

Cray’s Powers
The old Michael Cray in the WSU’s only power was to not die. He just couldn’t die. Ok, he could die for a bit, but he’d never really stay dead for too long. This Michael Cray also seems to have some kind of power that can cause an explosion between him and Marlow’s spur, and melt part of (what seems to be) a metal cup.

Where’s Angie Headed?
Looks like she’s in Massachusetts on her way West towards Rhode Island (I, uh… looked at a bunch of maps…) Not sure exactly where she’s going, but she looks slightly determined to get there.

One Last Thing

That’s pretty much it. I didn’t see any real answers to any of our lingering questions, nor were there any DCU connections that I noticed. After the last issue, we sure were on an overload in that department! In the end, what I loved from this issue was the relationship between Bendix and Lauren. He’s a bigger bastard than he’s ever been, but with Lauren, he actually relaxes and can make jokes. The rest of the time he’s all fury, with her, behind closed doors, he’s just a hilarious cranky old uncle.