REVIEW: ‘WildC.A.T.S,’ Issue #8

WildC.A.T.S #8 from DC divides the team for two stories, one more exciting than the other. This parallel story is written by Matthew Rosenberg. Danny Kim and Michele Bandini arrive to lay down some striking artwork. Elmer Santos dazzles as always on colors, as does Ferran Delgado on lettering. Last time, Grifter got blasted after murdering Void and ended up in an alternate Earth where Marlowe is a tyrant fending off…the WildC.A.T.S. Back in the mainstream DCU, the team tried to pull Voodoo into their fold and scheme to break into Marlowe’s systems.

This issue jumps in directly after that, with Voodoo leaving that meeting. A lively discussion is had about whether or not she can even be trusted and if the team might have to take her out of the equation. But a new player enters the scene and offers to help them finally get somewhere.

Meanwhile, on ‘A Different Earth,’ Girfter has plopped onto a dead planet facing a new team of C.A.T.s who are fighting an even more evil Marlowe, who is holed up in the Halo Building. Nice twist. This team features Robin (Damian Wayne), Midnighter, Raven, Maul, Savant, and the Scarecrow. Then there’s Max, Grifter’s brother, who is dead in the mainstream. After fending off a Spartan guard, the team plots to break into Halo and kidnap this dimension’s Void, who lives and, apparently, is also a prisoner.

WildC.A.T.S #8 offers plenty of Grifter being himself, thinking and acting in ways he feels work only to get the short end of the stick. Characterizations are spot on. The artwork is lovely and detailed; neither style from the two artists contrasts or detracts from the experience. Colors are phenomenal, while letters are beautiful and clean.

Let’s talk about the Multiverse. Since its return, alternate Earths have become the staple of regular DC storylines. Once upon a time, they were simply divergences told in separate books. Now they’re interwoven into standard plots as part of the narrative, with heroes vanishing, sometimes mid-story, to adventure elsewhere. Not bad. But without real consequences that the character involved can take back home, it’s more distraction than anything else. Here, Grifter was already lost for most of this series. His misadventures have mainly been away from the team that still has yet to coalesce. And look. He’s gone again, but now in another universe with a different take on his team dealing with a more sinister version of the problem which he can never stay close to.

At first, this was okay. It tended to display Marlowe’s high level of strategy. Now, eight issues in, the multiverse angle is looking like too much. Batman recently went this route, but it ended in serious consequences for his body and mental health. I really feel Rosenberg will let this happen here, and I have theories. I’ve enjoyed the slow burn and still mostly do. However, by now, fans want to see this team form once and for all and start taking names.

Speaking of the team, we’re still on hold. They’re coming together in this issue. But they aren’t there yet. I still love the direction, but this is a team book, and thus far, every team forms in the eight issues except the main one.

Needless to say, WildC.A.T.S #8 was an interesting take on the C.A.T.S and, by its conclusion, offers more strange actions by our guy. While the Multiverse angle is sadly getting stale already, issue #8 does roll the plot ahead in other ways I enjoyed. This book is fun even when it’s grim, wild, artful, and surprising. Keep picking it up for all these reasons. Because once they get their act together, and finally become the WildC.A.T.S, the you-know-what will hit the fan. 

WildC.A.T.S #8 is available wherever comic books are sold.