“WildC.A.T.s” Vol. 1 issue 19

this entry covers “WildC.A.T.s : Covert Action Teams” volume 1 issue 19 and the backup story “Savant: Wings and a Prayer”

To tell the truth, I thought there would be a lot more going on in this issue. I realize that I always get parts of issue 19 and issue 20 merged together in my mind. So, when I open the book, ready to be reminded of everything that’s going on in it to relay it to you, the fine reader of this blog and comic, I come up with… not much. That my friends makes me sad.

So, alright, we pick up from where Grifter mistakenly thinks that Hightower is the guy behind everything. Why? Bad intel from stupid informants. Or maybe, because Hightower is such a small fry all the remnants of the Cabal are willing to sell Hightower out to the WildC.A.T.s and keep their affiliations with Defile secret. Why not sell out S’yrn? Well, he might end up being Hellspont’s successor in the Cabal, so best not piss him off either. No, send the Kheribum do-gooders after that jackass Hightower. A jackass so jackass-like in his jackassery that even Defile is all “I need a shape-shifting Daemonite to do my bidding, and I’ll find and even resurrect that milquetoast hipster, Mr. White than even try to work with that jackass Hightower. What a jackass he is!”

Where is Hightower? Well, he seems to be the only Daemonite that remembers that keys to the Daemonite ship are also badges of rank, and he means to take part of one that’s recently been found and will be on display at a nearby museum. To do this he figures he should have some protection, so he goes to the best mercenaries in the WildStrom Universe, the Coda. Lucky for him, the Coda run a restaurant in Washington D.C., right where his key/badge bit is! He thinks he needs protection from Defile or other Daemonites, but he’d be wrong.

As Hightower is trying to convince the Coda to work for him, the WildC.A.T.s bust in and start wrecking the place. There goes the Zagats rating. Because the Coda are so bug-fuck crazy, they decide the best course of action is just to blow the whole building to hell. I mean, our heroes have already gotten all the actual patrons out of the place via Void, so there’s nothing to lose. Void has a crazy vision of the upcoming crossover and the bistro goes boom, with only the WildC.A.T.s left to survive. As the team is emerging from the rubble they are confronted with a StormWatch team, ready to kick them while they’re down.

In the backup story, we catch back up with Savant and her friend Mabel, while a gremlin sits on the wing of their plane. This gremlin means to tear up the wing and ruin Savant’s day. It’s just what gremlins do! After the ladies manage to shake the little bugger they land at, I’m figuring near where at least Mabel lives, and they pick up their piling mail. Savant has a letter from her dear friend Charles Russell and his new exhibit. It just so happens that it features the Daemonite key/badge and Savant knows she needs to get back to D.C. as soon as she possibly can!

Continuity Corner :

• It’s nice to get reintroduced to Hightower as a player in the “WildC.A.T.s” books. We haven’t really seen him since “WildC.A.T.s Trilogy” but I had my suspicions he was behind the opening fight of “Spartan : Warrior Spirit” for what it’s worth.
• Having both the Savant backups read after their issues proper may not be the more narrative and linear way to go about things. They may be better served to both be read right after “WildC.A.T.s” Vol. 1 issue 18. Either way works though, so I’m going to leave it as is.
• Last we saw Mr. Russell he was hitting on Savant back in “WildC.A.T.s” Vol. 1 issue 11. She should’ve taken him up on that offer, then she’d be too busy with her new man than to start getting cozy with TAO.

Where to find these stories:

• the “James Robinson’s Complete WildC.A.T.s” trade paperback
• Excepts of “WildC.A.T.s” volume one issue 19 are in the “WildStorm Rising” trade paper back.

NEXT : “WildStorm Rising” Chapters 1 through 4 (Which consists of “WildStorm Rising” issue 1, “WildC.A.T.s” volume 1 issue 20, “Union” volume 2 issue 4 and “Gen13” volume 2 issue 2) by James Robinson, Brandon Choi, Barry Windsor-Smith, Travis Charest, Ryan Benjamin, J. Scott Campbell, Alex Bialy, John Floyd, Troy Hubbs, Chuck Gibson, Tom McWeeney and Alex Garner.

“WildC.A.T.s” Vol. 1 issue 18

this entry covers “WildC.A.T.s : Covert Action Teams” volume 1 issue number 18, as well as the backup story “Savant : Wedding Day Jitters”

This issue is all about Pris and Cole! Yay! Just like the Special! Well, not exactly. First off, they’re not teaming up on a mission. Secondly, while Cole’s part of the story is totally “A Day in the Life of Grifter,” the Pris story is a story of the girl’s history, hopes, and dreams. It’s two stories happening at the same time, and either one would’ve been an awesome full issue, but it was fun to see them unfold side by side.

In our first story, Void takes on a mission to help our gal Pris. So Pris is still knocked out from that Daemonite attack several issues ago. She’s not coming out of her coma, so the best thing to do is put her in some crazy sci-fi contraption to link her brain to Void’s, you know, for easier brain access. Comic books everybody! As Void tours Pris’s mind she finds it divided up into various rooms. In the first, she sees Pris’s background as a dancer of various types, only thing is, Pris isn’t hiding in this room. Void moves to the next to see Pris and Spartan fighting twisted versions of the rest of the team. Void joins in the fight and even takes down her own evil doppelganger. On to the next room and the trio is fighting straight up Daemonites! Finally, there’s one room left, Pris must go there alone and confront her darkness. After all this, both women wake up. End Pris’s story.

Cole is on a mission. He’s been sent by Marlowe to figure out the Daemonites that are after the WildC.A.T.s and sicced Mr. White on them recently. The good news for Cole is that he gets information on a Daemonite that is plotting against the team and follows it up to find where that Daemonite currently is. The bad news for Cole is all roads have led him to Hightower when it was actually Defile that he’s after. I mean, Hightower is usually up to something, but for getting revenge for Pris, he isn’t your guy. I have a feeling that Defile got everything set up to go that way, but we never see it on the page. Cole tracks down Hightower hanging out with a bunch of Coda in Washington DC and calls the team to let them know what is up. This isn’t going to end well…

And, in our final story, Savant’s personal mission is to find King Solomon’s skull. It’s taken her and her pal Mabel all around the world and back to hunt down, and it turns out it’s on an island in the South Pacific. She finds out that she can have the skull if she marries the king of the island. She’s cool with that, as she’s just planning on grabbing the skull, knocking the king out and then flying away with Mabel. Well, not so easy it turns out! See, the king is a gigantic four-armed ape named Loooooth, uh oh! But come on, it’s Savant! She manages to get the skull, bop Magilla on the nose and catch her flight. But before she and Mabel can start high-fiving they find that there’s a gremlin on the plane’s wing! Womp-womp!

Continuity Corner :

• During Pris’s story, Void finds an encoded memory (or meme, before that word became hijacked and lost all meaning) that fills in how Pris is part Kheribum and part Daemonite. It was a Daemonite experiment to create life, so their evil scientists mixed the blood of each race, twenty thousand souls and then let it bake for 15 days. Out popped the man who would one day lead us to Pris, and as it turns out, he turned on his creators. He’s no friend of Daemonites either.
• We’ll see Pris’s ancestor again, but not until the “WildC.A.T.s Annual” issue 1, which doesn’t even occur until after “WildC.A.T.s” Vol. 1 issue 50! That’s a long wait for a return Mr. Voodoo’s Grandpappy!
• For all seriousness, after looking at the cover and reading the book, how badass would it’ve been for Pris to always have a lightsaber? So awesome, right?
• I’m not going to lie, I usually forget when the hell Pris got hurt. Even reading “WildC.A.T.s” on its own I usually have to pull up issues going backwards until I re-encounter those first few pages of issue 15.
• I know there’s no possible way for it to be true, but I’d like to think that Looooth arrived on the South Pacific island to rule after he escaped the island of gigantic monsters from “Planetary” issue 2. There’s nothing that contradicts that, and Looooth does have 4 arms, he could probably swim pretty well. Hey, it’s still in the Pacific, just a little further South and warmer, I’m not ruling it out!

Where to find these stories:

• the “James Robinson’s Complete WildC.A.T.s” trade paperback

NEXT : “Backlash” issues 6 and 7 by Brett Booth, Jeff Mariotte, Sean Ruffner, Dan Norton, Melvin Rubi, Chuck Gibson, Sandra Hope, Edwin Rosell, and Tim Townsend.