I’m back with another public release of one of my new Guides to Indie & Licensed Comics. While my Indie Comics Month full of new guides was meant to cover all of the first year of Image Comics launches, there was one guide that inspired me to want to cover Image Comics in the first place – all the way back in 2017. As it happens, this team is celebrating their 30th Anniversary with a brand new ongoing series at DC Comics – which means there are thousands of curious fans out there ready to put my WildCATs Guide to good use!
This WildCATs Guide covers every issue of Jim Lee’s co-flagship for his WildStorm line of comics, which was one of the launch imprints of Image Comics in 1992. Later, in 1998, Lee sold the entire imprint to DC Comics. But, DC kept WildStorm’s titles mostly separate from their own books for over a decade, only introducing occasional crossover events to signal that WildStorm was part of the DC Multiverse.
That started to change in the New 52 in 2011, which launched with two of the traditional Wi ldCATs roster in books of their own – Grifter and Voodoo. However, the rest of the team never materialized along with them! Instead, the other WildStorm co-flagship – Stormwatch – was woven into DC’s prime universe continuity.
A decade later in their Infinite Frontier era, DC finally began to make moves to bring the WildCATs back to action. Writer Matthew Rosenberg used back-up stories in Batman: Urban Legends as a backdoor pilot to integrate Grifter into the present day of Gotham City. Zealot and the rest of the team weren’t far behind, and in 2022 Rosenberg relaunched them into their first shared-universe series since 2011!
One of the great things about WildStorm comics being a part of DC is that they’re now included on DC Universe Infinite! DC is slowly but surely converting classic WildStorm titles to digital for their all-you-can-read subscription program. My Guide to WildCATs includes links to read each series digitally.
Want to know more about Jim Lee’s WildCATs? In addition to my WildCATs Guide, check out my 2017 “Blog of Tomorrow” month for recaps of the first 20 issues, plus #0, Special, Trilogy #1-3, and WildStorm Rising! And, read my Guide to WildCATs Launch Essay for why I think they’re a lot weirder than the X-Men.