“StormWatch” Vol. 1 issue 10

this entry covers “StormWatch” volume one, issue ten.

Before we get started I’d like to bring all of your attention to three things WildStorm related. First, the KickStarter for a book all about WildStorm Studios called “Wild Times“. If you’re into WildStorm at all, back this! Second, we now have a “sister site”! Reader Martin has started his look at how the WildStorm characters were retrofitted into the DCU with New 52. It’s obviously named New 52’s WildStorm and well worth a look. And lastly, the blog Crushing Krisis did a month long feature on early WildStorm books and while it covers the same issues I’m covering now, he takes a different angle. Also, take a quick look at that WildStorm Chronology: WildStorm Rising section, there’s been a wee bit of restructuring to match up with some hard dates in the texts of “Gen13” Vol. 1, this issue of “StormWatch” and an issue of “WetWorks.” I assure you, it all still works! But it is one of the reasons I’m only covering this single issue rather than the five I had planned.

Ok, so this issue is just a pretty simple one-shot type issue. It is mostly dealing with Jackson coming to terms with his future, or rather, lack there of.  Jackson has to lead the StormWatch team on a mission to Japan to capture Talos before he can get his hands on some serious hardware. Nothing is easy for the StormWatch crew because as it turns out, Japan doesn’t want StormWatch there, they never requested the U.N.’s support.

Jackson and company reject the notion that the Japanese can handle it, because, well, it’s goddamn Talos and buncha robot samurai and they’ll royally eff the place up while the Japanese keep throwing normal soldier after normal soldier after them. The whole StormWatch crew pretty much says “Screwa youse, buddy, we’ll save your asses whether you want us to or not,” as they each use their unique abilities to take down Talos and Co. Jackson gets downright suicidal as he knows he’s not much longer for this world, and as he says “We all have to die someday.”

Like I said, it’s a simply structured story, but it really gets into Jackson’s head. How he thinks about his impending death. How he views his life. What he thinks of his co-workers. Not to mention that this book is frickin’ gorgeous! I know that Mat Broome takes over soon, and he draws really pretty too, but damn does Dwayne Turner’s art look fabulous here!

Continuity Corner:

• Without being too obvious a lot of this book is setting in motion the events of issue 25 of “StormWatch” Vol. 1. The biggest being getting Talos back aboard Sky-Watch One so that he can escape during the crash.
• The StormWatch team defies what the local authorities want in regards to help with Talos, and this too will have implications very soon, that also lead to some of the changes we see in issue 25.
• Jackson is writing his report or journal, or what have you, and it is dated 6/15/1994, which puts it shortly after the events of “Gen13” Vol. 1 which started in May of 1994. I’m pretty confident that that story played itself out over a matter of a few weeks at most.

Where to find this story:

• Comixology: “StormWatch” vol. 1 issue 10

NEXT : “Savage Dragon” Vol. 2 issue 13 by Jim Lee, Brandon Choi and Scott Williams

“StormWatch” Vol. 1 Special issue 1

this entry cover both stories, “Never Give Up” and “the Music Lesson” from “StormWatch” Vol. 1 Special issue 1.

This issue opens w/ the Jackson King in the “we’re-not-calling-it-a-Danger-Room” battling automated opponents AKA auto-ops that look very familiar. Ok, it’s the WildC.A.T.s. He soon gets interrupted by Weather Man-One for a mission. Turns out StormWatch crew members keep going missing on the moon, and Weather Man needs StormWatch One to get their asses over there to find out what’s up. Jackson doesn’t seem interested until he’s told that Christine is one of the missing StormWatch personnel.

The usual team is formed, Jackson, Diva, Hellstrike, Winter and Fuji, despite Jackson wanting to tackle this one alone. As soon as the team gets there they find a dead StormWatch jobber and an odd archway. Hellstrike teases Jackson for being in lurve with Christine and is told to stuff it while the team walks through the archway to be transported to… another planet? another universe? it isn’t clear other than it is someplace else, and totally not the moon!

What they instantly find is two super powered beings named Ajah and Argos fighting. Ajah requests the aide of the new arrivals and StormWatch goes after Argos and his minions. It doesn’t take long before Argos turns tail and runs. Turns out, Argos came for Ajah to make her his latest concubine, and too bad for him, she’s a single independent woman who don’t need no man. Or at least not a crazy one like Argos, because she takes a real shine to Jackson. So much of a shine that after a royal dinner, because she’s part of the royal family, duh, that she comes on pretty strong to Mr. King. I’m not sure, but I think it’s implied that they totally do it.

Next day, it is time take the battle to Argos, because, as rumor would have it, he had another back-up concubine plan if it didn’t work out with Ajah. Put two and two together and it’s obviously Christine. StormWatch fights strong, gets to Christine, frees her and then aren’t sure what to do. At this point Christine lets them know that Argos built his own portal archway. Oh, dammit, I forgot to tell you that that klutz Fuji busted the original portal archway, just like Jackson forgot his kinda sorta girlfriend chained up in an alien prison while he hooked up with a space princess.

Once they get to the portal archway Jackson informs the team he isn’t going with them. Turns out, he’s totally all about Ajah now, despite really not seeming to “like like” her prior. Here’s where Argos gets the jump on the team and attacks Ajah. He also calls her “my sister!” as he shoves his hand through her torso. Uh… he wanted his sister as his concubine? Well, they are royalty, inbreeding and all that I guess. At any rate, Argos runs through the archway and transports to the moon, StormWatch follows, Argos tricks Jackson into blowing up the archway on the moon and disappears, an unhappy StormWatch heads back to SkyWatch.

In the back-ups story we find out the secret origin of Diva, during a date to the opera with Cannon. It’s a tragic tale where during her first singing lesson, her seedling power kicks in, and it breaks all the glass in the joint, including her singing instructors glasses, blinding him. This memory is brought up due to Diva and Cannon running into this now elderly blind man at said opera. It is indeed upsetting and Diva runs off. Cannon follows after her, and in one of the few instances for the character, acts like a decent human being, comforting his distraught girlfriend. In the end does a bit more to humanize Cannon than it does Diva, but it helps us know where she came from.

Continuity Corner:

• It’s a slight continuity error that Jackson is battling auto-op versions of the WildC.A.T.s in the opening this issue, only because of a cameo of Weather Man-One during “WildC.A.T.s” Vol. 1 issue 7. This is where StormWatch finds out about the WildC.A.T.s and he mentions that StormWatch should upload what they just learned about to their auto-ops program for future combat training. That issue of “WildC.A.T.s” is happening during the “Killer Instinct” cross-over, which is happening at the exact same time as “StormWatch” Vol. 1 issues 6 & 7. But wait, before you say “Fine, put it after issue 6,” well, you can’t, because at the end of issue 7 we have Deathtrap royally effs up Hellstrike, and Hellstrike remains in intensive care for several issues before looking completely different than before. By the time Hellstrike is active again there would be even more continuity errors than if we place the first “StormWatch” Special before issue 6.
• An archway portal on the moon to a different world/universe?  Good thing it got destroyed, that way there couldn’t be any more shenanigans on the moon during the protracted end of “Fire from Heaven.”
• Argos was only seen once after this, and Ajah and the rest of her family were never seen again. When we see Argos he is visiting Jackson’s grave after he dies, prior to the events of “StormWatch” Vol. 1 issue 25.
• In the back-up story we see Diva’s sonic scream first manifest. She’s pretty young, younger looking than Malcolm and we were lead to believe Christine activated him sooner than most seedlings. Do all seedlings eventually manifest on their own with out an activator, or will the powers eventually out themselves over time? I’m afraid we’ll never get a straight answer to this one.

Next: “StormWatch : Deadly Tidings” and “StormWatch” Vol. 1 issues 6 – 7 by Brandon Choi, Jim Lee and Scott Clark.