WildCATS #3 from DC Comics is a madcap romp of pure chaos. Matthew Rosenberg must be having fun as the series writer. Stephen Segovia lays down the action-packed pencils, Elmer Santos keeps the lights on with brilliant coloring, while Ferran Delgado fills panels with clean lettering and loud SFX words. If you caught the last issue, then you know Marlowe, the team’s ‘leader,’ is putting a new face on his Halo Corporation. That face bears a classic superhero team name—the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
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Calm down, fellow fans. This is not the Golden Age team. This is a new team with some surprising members. Threshold! Majestic. Andromache. Old WildCATS alum, Maul. Pike, the obvious Marvel Deadpool clone I recalled from back in the Savage Hawkman series. And to my shock, Mother One, once the AI guide for Wildstorm’s Wetworks. A few of these characters are straight-up mercenaries, with Andromache being called a traitor to her people by Zealot. Marlowe’s usual propensity for moral duplicity is in high gear.
Anyway, it only takes a few words into this issue to get the CATS into a scrap with the Soldiers, so we’re off to a good start. I’m really getting a chaotic vibe in this book. This feels like DC’s version of Guardians of the Galaxy, that team that means well but just can’t seem to pull it together. Grifter, as the plucky leader, if you can call him that. There are a lot of fun character choices Rosenberg uses, such as Fairchild from Gen13. Wildstorm is his playbox, and he is dusting off pieces and putting them to new use. I love how he does it.
At first, I thought not having a complete CATS would be annoying. But no, it makes sense. They’ve been flitting about the DCU on the down-low, trying to survive and ascertain their old foe’s (Daemonites) strengths and locations. Now, although there are other items on their bucket list, the story is handled in a way that lets readers come in and see this splintered unit, and if they keep up, watch them gel into a better, more robust team down the road. Surprised to see Maul on the other side and Spartan only a bodyguard, but the game is being played.
Speaking of chaos, Rosenberg keeps the issue moving, as he has since the first issue dropped, with the CATS in and out of spastic guerilla fighting in city streets. The frenetic artwork of Segovia carries a lot of weight in this regard, translating Rosenberg’s script into a near nonstop race between shots fired and characters in midair maneuvers. Santos releases colors for those pencils as if detonated by explosives, and I’m loving the brightness. Delgado smacks lettering FX to make every section of art look like combat. This feels like the old WildCATS book from the 90s, touched up with more color variety.
WildCATS #3 is a wild issue. Grifter can barely keep himself afloat. The team as a whole is much too passive as to their own fates and how Marlowe plays them. Now the Seven Soldiers are up and running and full of bad agents. Let’s not forget the team messed up a Court of Owls retreat and is on the run from the Bat Family and other heroes. There’s no way this can go wrong. Nope.
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WildCATS #3 is available wherever comic books are sold.
WildCATS #3
TL;DR
WildCATS #3 is a wild issue. Grifter can barely keep himself afloat. The team as a whole is much too passive as to their own fates and how Marlowe plays them. Now the Seven Soldiers are up and running and full of bad agents. Let’s not forget the team messed up a Court of Owls retreat and is on the run from the Bat Family and other heroes. There’s no way this can go wrong. Sign me up for more self-destructive superhero glamor.
