Customer Reviews

James Robinson's Complete Wildcats

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This trade collects all of James Robinson's Wildcats related work. It contains Wildcats (Vol. 1) issues 15-20, Wildcats Annual 1, Team One: Wildcats issues 1-2, Wildstorm Rising 1, and a short story from Wildcats issue 50.

Robinson's run starts strongly. As opposed to Lee/Choi or Claremont, Robinson has a nice tendency not to pull his stories out of thin air but rather to instead build upon characters and elements already introduced in the Wildstorm Universe. This is a wonderful technique because it allows Robinson the chance to give the characters and the WS Universe at large some depth and cohesion that aren't present before. He's not always successful with his attempts but, to his credit, he is the first writer on Wildcats to try at all. For example, we hear about global leaders trying to reverse the damage that Daemonite-Quayle did with his energy policies from the first Lee/Choi arc back in issues 1-4. We are also introduced to the new Black Razors leader, Ben Santini, who holds quite a grudge against Marlowe for shooting his knee out back in issue 2. Robinson, throughout his run, tries to show that the actions these people do have consequences. It's quite nice.

Still, this is an action book. As such, there still is quite a lot of fighting, but, as opposed to previous issues, the battles largely come out of the story. The story isn't centered around battles, they happen naturally (at least in the beginning of Robinson's run). This is also a welcome change of pace from the earlier Wildcats issues.

The main problem with Robinson's run on the first volume of Wildcats is 'Wildstorm Rising', the WS Universe's first major crossover. Robinson is given the unenviable task of having to prepare the title for this crossover, so he, in essence, has to stop his trajectory and give it over to readying the book for 'WS Rising'. This puts a massive damper on quality as he literally has to shift gears into a "boom-boom-pow-pow" mode of comics writing and we're left with nothing but the characters running from one fight to another with nothing in-between.

The majority of the art on issues 15-20 is handled by Travis Charest. While Charest would later go on to create flat-out stunning work, he's not there yet in these issues. He's certainly not bad, actually he's pretty good here, but his style at this point heavily apes Lee's work. As the book progresses though, he does seem to improve and start to move toward his own style.

The Wildcats Annual is a huge missed opportunity. Instead of doing a nice character study or investigating an aspect of backstory (both being something that the book desperately needed at that point in time), we get a Daemonite plot about giving all Kherubims an insanity-causing virus. Pass. The short-story (8 pages) from Wildcats 50 is fine, it's a nice little piece about Voodoo and Spartan's changing relationship. Eight pages isn't a lot of time to do something, so it is what it is.

Perhaps Robinson's most interesting issues here are the ones he wrote for Team One: Wildcats. These, set in the 1960's, are an interesting mix of politics, noir, and superheroes. The art by Rich Johnson is a kind of throwback to the art of 60's comics and really fits the feel of these issues (though the image of Helspont in a long, flowing brown trenchcoat doesn't really work for me).

Also, to note...Robinson has a bit of a certain, well, style. Passages like, "Clouds, again, are gathering. Gun-metal gray and black like blood in the moonlight. And these many players will know the sting of rain...and the devil's light" occur quite frequently. Sometimes it works, other times it just seems pompous and you'll be wondering what cheap paperback novel you just picked up.

Overall, Robinson's run on Wildcats is uneven, even though a lot of the fault probably has more to do with company mandated crossovers than with Robinson himself. However, it's also important to notice that for every success Robinson has, like the issues of Team One: Wildcats, he also has a matching failure, like the Annual. So, there is good stuff here, but unfortunately it sits right up against some not so good stuff. James Robinson's Wildcats is a mixed bag if ever there was one.

It's been a long time since I touched these Wildcats issues. So long in fact that I had forgotten a lot of what went on during James Robinson's run. I think when they originally came out I was still feeling the loss of Jim Lee on the title (he has just left with issue 13). So I'm not sure if I gave Robinson's run a fair shot back then. This is a nice-sized trade for $20. You get 10 comics in here and one of them is a 34-page annual. In fact, apparently it was the decision to include more material which delayed this collection which was originally slated to come out earlier this year in January. But much like the Alan Moore's Complete Wildcats Collection that Wildstorm released back in 2007, they decided to add everything Robinson did Wildcats-related even if certain issues were part of bigger story arcs not collected here. It's not as severe as the Moore collection (which had 2 Wildstorm crossovers included in it as compared to 1 crossover here) but it still might throw readers off a little. So I'll discuss the issues collected here in the order they should be read.

WildC.A.T.s #15-19

This first arc was very entertaining and action-packed. An interesting aspect is that Robinson's premiere story doesn't even have the Wildcats in it through the majority of the issue. Instead we're introduced to Wildstorm mainstay Ben Santini (who later leads Stormwatch: Team Achilles) and his Black Razor team. Santini was a cool idea because although I've never heard whose idea it was, the creation of Santini was very clever. In WildC.A.T.s #2, Lord Emp shot out the knee of a Black Razor during a fight. Other than being a brutal moment, there was no other relevance at the time until it is revealed here to have been Santini. This creates a great dynamic as Santini is forced to help Emp, even though he hates Emp for what happened. We also get a cool little mystery and some great art by Travis Charest. Like Robinson, I don't think I gave Charest a fair shot because of Lee withdrawals. However, Lee did do layouts for issue 19 so that was something. It's also worth mentioning that Robinson teases us about Voodoo's Daemonite origins (explored further in Moore's run). And all the while, Robinson is setting up things for Wildstorm's first big crossover: Wildstorm Rising.

Wildstorm Rising #1 (part 1) & WildC.A.T.s #20 (part 2)

Here's where the choice to collect only Robinson's stuff might throw readers off a little. You get the first two parts of the crossover but then you're left hanging because the other 8 parts happen elsewhere and were not written by Robinson. But there is a Wildstorm Rising trade out there for those interested.

Team One: WildC.A.T.s #1-2

By this time, Team 7 had already been introduced as a major part of Wildstorm's history. So they decided to take it one step further and talk about one of the first superhero teams to come together in the WSU: Team One. There was a Team One: WildC.A.T.s & also a Team One: Stormwatch. Each two-issue series explored the origin of the respective team. Robinson only did the Wildcats issue. Team One is an interesting story that shows us a major event in Wildstorm's past that branches out into the main WSU titles. Although I always liked Team One, two things always bothered me: 1) It was too short 2) I hated the ending. The ending was explained later, but it still aggravated me.

WildC.A.T.s Annual #1

Finally, we have the only annual for the first Wildcats series. This is probably the weakest of all the stories here. It involves Majestic going crazy and shows how Stormwatch holds him at bay while the Wildcats find a cure for the virus that drove him mad. Sounds like an interesting premise but it seems that Robinson squeezed this story into one issue and it is resolved way too quickly. It does however utilize a character briefly mentioned in Robinson's Wildcats arc. Known only as the Hybrid, this creature is the ancestor of Voodoo and was an experiment to combine Daemonite/Kherubim DNA. He makes a cameo and the character had such potential. It's a shame his idea was dropped when Robinson left.

Overall, Robinson delivered some solid story-telling with his Wildcats offerings. It's a shame that Alan Moore followed him because Moore's run seemed to overshadow Robinson's Wildcats. But I'm glad he's finally getting some recognition here.

I knew Robinson is good writer and Image had best artists for that time. Frankly, I didn't expect superhero comic could be written this good, especially because some characters really look like their Marvel or DC counterparts.

Robinson managed to take bunch of, dare I say, stereotypical heroes with stereotypical powers and make this comic almost as good as Dv8.

Travis Charest's work is excellent and worth having in your collection.

If you like good comic in general and don't despise superheroes, get this book while you can!

I'm glad this collection is now available because its one of the better comic book sagas from Image. And despite the series later going in various directions after the departure of creators Jim Lee & Brandon Choi, James Robinson's solid run continued along the the same path carved by the the first 14 original issues. Plus Travis Charest & Rich Johnson's art is just plain awesome while the only real downside is Barry Winsdor Smith's contribution. Another setback is the story ends rather abruptly creating quick loose ends for the casual reader.