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Morrison and Jim Lee on WildCATs

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12:24 / 29.12.05

This is the book I am most excited about in 2006. You are too, probably.

16:07 / 01.01.06

Ok, here are the highlights from the recent Wizard article on this - I'm not going to type the whole thing out.

Morrison says his take on it is "Image Comics on crack."

quote: "We loved the idea of taking the adrenalized, spectacle-over-content, artist-drive Image style on one hand and the gothic, psychedelic, writer-driven style and violence of 90s Vertigo on the other and mashing them together to create a 21-century hybrid genre...readers can expect tons of sex, day-glo fetish wear and jet-black humor."

He says he really likes Joe Casey's take on Spartan from Wildcats 3.0 as a corporate superhero, influencing Morrison's own spin on him as "Super A.I. ...alien corporate machine" [certainly, corporate entities are not a new theme for Morrison, i.e. Hexus the Living Corporation and the whole viral meme thing - Finder.]

Morrison envisons Grifter more likie Mickey Rourke in the Sin City movie..."ultra-violence on legs...monumental, scarred and unstoppable." Voodoo is drawn back to the team reluctantly because Hardian /Spartan is "the electric lover she can't live without."

Ladytron shows up around #2 after being in jail for a bit. Morrison will use Majestic in the stories. Zealor and Savant will show up, ditto Maul and Warblade. Maul has since retired to his civilian ID and is now Vice Presdient in "the controversial Chrysler administration."

There will be a storyline called "Gen 23" with a bunch of new characters Morrison has created, "including Boss Drum, Baby Universe, Machine Elf of the High Five, and more." Morrison will also introduce a new Wetworks team (even though Whle Portracio and writer Mike Carey will do a new Wetworks ongoing as well this year). [Machine Elf & Baby Universe - ha! 100% Morrison. - Finder]

Also, Morrison says he will write "Jim Lee draws Wildcats vs. the Authority ... to the death!"

16:46 / 01.01.06

Not to crazy about Grifter as Marv, but the rest appeals.

20:42 / 01.01.06

I have never had any interest in the WildCATS characters - I don't even care enough about them to track down the Alan Moore-written issues from waaay back. But I'm thinking if there's anyone who can make me care about these characters, it just might be Grant M. So we'll see.

yawn - thing's buddy

21:47 / 01.01.06

agreed. the characters are not enough to waste time on back issues.

but alan moore's story telling ability is.

moore's take on the team was brilliant - in a low budget space opera kinda way - until some big daft crossover and some shit artists spoilt it all.

see - moore made me care about the characters.

a bit.

23:27 / 01.01.06

"the High Five"

fuck you, Grant; love you, man. never read any WC myself, though I hear Moore's and Casey's run are very good. I'm in. but I'd be if the guy wrote a Care Bears comic, so...

07:50 / 02.01.06

I really enjoyed the Casey runs, both 2 and 3.0, and 3.0 is beautifully drawn. I'm kind of not interested in this at all - I don't like Lee's art that much, and nothing Morrison said there has got me excited...

11:58 / 02.01.06

I hate Lee's art myself and wont be buying this. I will check out Casey's run which I've been meaning to for a while.

13:45 / 02.01.06

Who Am I?... it's well worth checking out both of Casey's runs, they've been collected in about three or four books. They were very over-looked, WlidCATS 2 was a great character driven story, and version 3.0 a good corperate-conspiracy which had some supurb art.

15:53 / 02.01.06

It strikes me that Jim Lee will have worked with 3 of the arguably greatest mainstream comics creators out there (and creators that are usually on almost everyone collaboration wishlist) - Alan Moore (well, they were supposed to do the Comet Rangers graphic novel for ABC, mentioned in several interviews over the past few years, apparently the progress on this project moved at a snail's pace, not sure if Moore finished writing it or if its done writing and Lee just has to draw it - but now that ABC is no more, maybe this will never see the light of day or completion), Grant Morrison and Frank Miller.

12:27 / 03.01.06

Jim Lee was also supposed to have drawn some of the 1963 annual. Other career highlights include: Sleeper Coup d'etat special, and an issue of Ellis' Stormwatch.

13:16 / 04.01.06

and an issue of Ellis' Stormwatch

Eh? I don't think I ever saw that one...

14:12 / 04.01.06

It was the Etic/Emic reality one, a single issue story wherein the Stormwatch team of Winter, Fugi, Hellstrike, Fahrenheit, and Flint discover a ruin, that was in fact a Daemonite genetic testing facility in Eastern Europe. Supposedly it was another Ellis-style science-hero explanation for European horror lore and monster myths coming from that area in history.

Not a pretty book.

16:59 / 04.01.06

Was all spreads, I think. Carn't remember the narrative device, whether it was a field report or a script for each page, something like.

Keith, like a scientist

18:53 / 04.01.06

yeah, i'm also one of the few who really enjoyed Casey's entire run, which really hit it's flow when Sean Philips became the regular artist.

in terms of the ultimate in 90s 'image style' bombastic semi-crappiness, the first 4 issue art of the original WildCATs series is pretty great.

09:05 / 06.01.06

Finder, not picking up a book because you're not a fan of/have no history with the characters is a little wrong-headed, no? I mean, I assume you don't approach any other media that way.
As I'm sure you're aware, it's the writer that's important.

Pick up the trades, you'll be glad you did.

17:04 / 06.01.06

I have heard that the Moore issues are pretty solid; right now I'm spending enough on various comics that I want to save money, so things that I'm only partly interested in in and feel I could really live without at the moment get put on hold. Someday I'd like to read them, though, either through loans from a friend with paperback or when I have enough extra cash to the get the paperbacks (are there more than 1 of the Moore run or just 1?) of the Moore stuff.

I did read the paperback of Moore's VOODOO mini, which was entertaining and contained the seeds of some of the ideas and themes expresed in PROMETHEA. It's like you could see his interest in magic growing at that point and the idea to explore magic through comics germinating in his bearded mind.

Haus of Mystery

20:30 / 06.01.06

I like the fact that the WildC.A.T.S are so generic that they've become a blank slate for writers to do whatever they want with them. In their various incarnations they've come a long way from the identikit X-types they began as. I hope Mozzer has some fun explaining this, it seems right up his street.

Finder - I'm sure you read a tonne of shittier comics than Moore's 'Cats. Give it a spin, it's more fun than Promethea...

12:03 / 08.01.06

True. Plus, if you read sleeper there's yer Tao origin right there. 'Homecoming' and 'Gang War'; you'd be down, Finder.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

17:57 / 08.01.06

I like the fact that the WildC.A.T.S are so generic that they've become a blank slate for writers to do whatever they want with them.

Well-put. Never quite thought about it in that exact way, but you're spot on.

20:19 / 08.01.06

True. Plus, if you read sleeper there's yer Tao origin right there.

I'm very keen on Sleeper, but I prefer Moore's Tao. He's just sooo fucking dangerous.

23:28 / 23.01.06

Apparently, Wizard will be revealing more Wildstorm creative teams this Wednesday:

The Authority
Grant Morrison & Gene Ha

Deathblow
Brian Azzarello & Carlos D'anda

Midnighter
Garth Ennis & Chris Sprouse

A

00:36 / 24.01.06

Interesting. The Authority seems like a bit of a played outconcept to me (although maybe I'm just basing that on the useless drivel whoever was writing it after Millar came up with). Morrison already did the real JLA (not to mention creating the Ultramarines- "the first appearance of the Authority", I think he called it), so it seems odd for him to do the Edgy JLA Who Kill People.

Nonetheless- Morrison and Gene Ha on a comic together? Yowza!

07:46 / 24.01.06

The Authority
Grant Morrison & Gene Ha

Well, that's got me giggling like a schoolboy on amyl.

Midnighter
Garth Ennis & Chris Sprouse

But I'm more happy about this. Ennis did well on Punisher, and I like his Midnighter in the Kev books.

08:04 / 24.01.06

Though I enjoyed the first two immensely, I'd reck that last Kev mini was among the worst comics ever put to page.

Sprouse and Ennis seem such an odd match. Curious to see it if this is true.

08:13 / 24.01.06

The Authority
Grant Morrison & Gene Ha
It better not be Robbie Morrison, or whatever that dude's name was where they put a big old Morrison on the covers without a first name.

08:15 / 24.01.06

The whole "I'm a vagina!" thing was rubbish, but I found the banter between Kev and Midnighter entertaining (if endlessly crude).

Regarding GM possibly doing the Authority. I reckon it'd be a good point to drop him on it. Morrison does well with world-stompingly powerful superteams. What with the Authority having just completely screwed up in their orginal "finer world" philosophy (taking over the US and essentially becoming what they fought against) and falling back into the old cliches of superbrawls I think Morrison might be able to pull it back up to it's old level of quality. Do to them what he did to X-Men.

11:23 / 24.01.06

with the Humanist-turned-into-World-Police concept already feeling played out - and maybe GM still has 1 or 2 interesting things to show about it - Authority still has a lot for him to toy with: cool characters, paralell realities etc.

he has already wrote an issue of it, filling in for Millar when the latter was ill, the Religimon issue. I mean, that alone proves the man can inject mad ideas in a seemingly moribund concept. he's made a career out of it, mostly.

14:51 / 24.01.06

Grant Morrison writing WildCATS *AND* The Authority?? Verrry interesting.

I guess Morrison writing Detective Comics will not come to pass ..... *sad sniffle*

Gene Ha is fantastic. And if anyone can breathe some new life into the now-tired concepts and characters of the Authority, I guess it's Grant Morrison.

So Grant will be writing at least 2 DC monthlies, finishing up his All-Star Superman, and contributing to the weekly 52* series...plus a few other character concept launches he's supposed to doing for the new DCU. That's a lotta work...

15:33 / 24.01.06

Neither Jim Lee nor Gene Ha 'do' monthly these days Finder. It may not turn out to be so much after all. Still, quite excited about both Grant-thority and Ennis Midnighter; recently got back on the Ennis bandwagon with some Punisher MAX books, and - excepting 'Kitchen Irish' which didn't look so good, the latter two ('Mother Russia' and 'Up is Down and Black is White') were expertly brutal, as I'd hoped.

16:53 / 24.01.06

>> Grant-thority

Love this phrase.

And yes, Garth Ennis' recent Punisher arcs have been very strong - it amazes me how he's for the most part able to keep telling great and somehow innovative and well-executed Punisher stories, when I know deep down that the Punisher is just revenge stories over and over, righteous justice being dispensed and all that. (And I didn't like the IRA story so much either...he does have a few clunkers every now and then).

17:23 / 24.01.06

Maybe Grant will drop the Authority into Earth C-minus, and teach those God-killers what superheroes are all about.

ONLY NICE THINGS

18:03 / 24.01.06

he has already wrote an issue of it, filling in for Millar when the latter was ill, the Religimon issue.

Was that ever proven? Only, wasn't that also the one in which the treatment of Shen occasioned a lot of unhappy talk? Not that it would matter if he had written it, obviously. Friends often share ideas. The thing where the baddies in Zenith were all a bit same-sexy? My. Idea.

18:30 / 24.01.06

Under interlocution from a poster whom he would later ban Millar admitted that, yes, he had paid Grant - sorry, George - for the issue he'd written. So, good as, I'd say.

19:39 / 13.02.06

And the Grant Morrison news from the convention this weekend just KEEPS ON COMING!!!

Comments from Mozzer & Lee on WildCATS!

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