Written by Christos Gage
Art by Doug Mahnke
Published by Wildstorm/DC Comics
In a week where Morrison wraps up loose ends a little too quickly, Y: The Last Man decides that jumping the shark should involve the entire cast of Happy Days instead of just Fonzie and DMZ reminds us all that five part story arcs aren't allowed to be very fascinating when they begin; well, those are the weeks that a mildly interesting comic with brilliant artwork can still shine through.
Wildstorm has begun on one of the uglier aspects of comics: a relaunch, where a bunch of comics that no one really missed, about characters that most of us don't remember, get started over again. The theory, one must assume, is that as long as you slap a number one on the cover and hire a bunch of the most talented (and popular) creators in the business, no one will complain too much about the fact that it's the same old stuff, notwithstanding the glossiness. So far, it's been an exercise in just that: WildC.A.T.S. (the C.A.T.S. stands for "Covert Action Team Squadron" or something) The Authority, Gen-13 and Wetworks have all been about as dull and repetitive as anyone remembers them being when they first showed up--except for Authority, now on it's second relaunch, which used to actually be really good. Wildcats (one can only type that acronym once) was actually really good on it's second and third relaunch, so far, the fourth seems exactly like the first. (Our goal is to get you as confused as possible.) Gen-13 will probably be as popular as it used to be--they've still got all the hard body women in tight shirts. Wetworks will probably last about as long as it did last time: no one really wants to read about transsexual cyborgs fighting werewolves on any sort of monthly basis.
Stormwatch P.H.D. didn't have to do much to stand out from this group when it came out yesterday, but it's still surprising that it did: it doesn't have much of a pedigree. It's most popular characters were pulled onto the Authority book, leaving a cool black guy with a shaved head--and there's more cool black guys with shaved heads in comics right now than in the NBA. The issue is pretty standard fare as well: cool black guy wanders around and asks people to join his new team, everyone displays which archetype they'll be filling in for, and agrees (couldn't somebody write a team book where no one agrees? That would be unexpected.) and the book ends with a press conference; including a cutaway to the trite villain who is watching and hatching plots.
Still, team books are old dogs, and sometimes an old dog will work out fine. While this comic doesn't stand a chance (and neither do any of the new Wildstorm books, with the vague possibility of Deathblow, which is nice and gross) it'll be nice to have a regular fix of Doug Mahnke's art: his work on Batman was the most distinctive and interesting in a long time, and it's been consistently disappointing in how little his work appears. At some point, comic companies may learn to stop recycling the same old stories with the same old underwear crew: it just doesn't look like that year is going to be 2006, and that the company is going to be Wildstorm.
-Tucker Stone, 2006
Comments