The Wildcats, sometimes rendered WildCats or WildC.A.T.s, is a multimedia franchise based on a superhero team created by Jim Lee, an American comic book artist, and writer Brandon Choi. They published a comic in various formats from 1992 through 2022, which formed the basis for a television show, a line of toys, and a video game.
Development When the founders of Image Comics were developing the shared universe for their company, Rob Liefeld's positioning of Youngblood as operating like the FBI and CIA but also maintaining a celebrity image with the public led to Jim Lee choosing to develop a superhero team that would shun the limelight and instead focus on covert operations. Lee stated he had always liked the concept of a team that had something to prove, or who did something that not everyone knew about.
Publication history
The first issue of their eponymous comic book, WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams, published in August 1992 by Image Comics. It was Image founding partner Jim Lee's first work published by the newly launched company and his first creator-owned project. This became the starting point for Lee's menagerie of interconnected superhero creations which became the foundation of the Wildstorm Universe.
The Wildcats launched at the apex of a speculator-fueled comics sales boom and was wildly popular at its inception. Wholesale sales to comic book stores exceeded one million copies for early issues. This first series ran for 50 issues and, in addition to Lee, featured work by comics creators such as Travis Charest, Chris Claremont, James Robinson and Alan Moore. This popularity saw the property expand into other media, with an animated adaptation of the comic debuting on CBS in 1994 and a toyline from Playmates Toys.
In 1998, ownership of the Wildcats concepts and characters were sold to DC Comics, a subsidiary of Time Warner Entertainment, as part of DC's acquisition of Lee's company Wildstorm Productions. A new incarnation of the team was soon launched under the simplified title Wildcats, focusing on the former members of the now-disbanded team and emphasizing a grittier tone during its 28-issue run. The third series, Wildcats Version 3.0, revolved around the HALO Corporation, its CEO Jack Marlowe (an amalgamation of original team members Spartan and Void), Grifter, and a gallery of new characters subverting corporate politics to their cause of creating a better world. This incarnation lasted 24 issues and was followed by a nine-issue limited series, Wildcats: Nemesis, which returned to a more superheroic style reminiscent of the first series. In late 2006, a fourth ongoing series was launched as a part of the Worldstorm publishing initiative. The series saw the return of Jim Lee as regular penciller for the first time since its first volume; Grant Morrison took over writing duties. Only one issue was ever published, and future issues were placed on hold. In mid-2008, the fifth volume of Wildcats was launched, tying into the World's End crossover event.
WildC.A.T.s volume 1 (1992) Launched as an original Image comic book title by Jim Lee and his friend writer Brandon Choi, the comic book's premise revolved around the centuries-long war between aliens called Kherubim and Daemonites. Kherubim, a nearly immortal, humanoid species with exceptional powers and skills, traveled to Earth and, by breeding with humans, populated the planet with "Half-Breeds". Daemonites, besides having a fearsome appearance, also possessed various superhuman abilities, including body possession and mental control over human beings. The initial arc brought Voodoo over to the team as the readers' point-of-view character as Helspont, a Daemonite warlord, had taken control over Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle. Rob Liefeld's Youngblood co-starred in the closing chapters of the arc.
WildC.A.T.s story continued in a three-part mini-series, penciled by Jae Lee, that introduced the Daemonite Lord Hightower. Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri proceeded to publish a 'Killer Instinct' crossover detailing Warblade's connection to Marc Silvestri's Cyber Force.
Jim Lee devoted his time to coming up with the new concepts of Gen13, Deathblow, and Stormwatch. Before he left the book, he did the four-issue Gathering of Eagles storyline written by his Uncanny X-Men writer, Chris Claremont. It featured a new villain Tapestry and added the characters of Mr. Majestic, Savant, and Soldier, and featured Claremont's creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Almost all of the characters were spun off into their own mini-series, with Zealot featured in a series by Ron Marz and Terry Shoemaker,Zealot #1 (August 1995) Spartan in one by Kurt Busiek and Mike McKone,Spartan: Warrior Spirit #1 (July 1995) Warblade sharing another with Cyberforce's Ripclaw, Grifter co-starred in The Kindred's limited series with Stormwatch's Backlash by Brett BoothKindred #1 (February 1994) that led to the latter's ongoing title, as well as another with Youngblood's Badrock, Billy Tucci's Shi, and even Dark Horse's Mask.
James Robinson wrote a handful of issues as well as a Team One Stormwatch/WildC.A.T.s mini-series detailing the past of the Wildstorm universe and would go on to write the Wildcats' first annual. The title also participated in the WildC.A.T.s-oriented "Wildstorm Rising" crossover that saw the heroes try to gain control of the Daemonite battleship, which turned out to be the Kheran ship instead, with WildC.A.T.s eventually leaving for Khera. Following a Grifter one-shot, the crossover gave birth to a short-lived Grifter series written by Steven T. Seagle that centered on his super-spy/superhero adventures while linking to an obscure Team One character Regiment at one point.
Alan Moore then took over writing duties, and proceeded to tell a tale split between Savant and Majestic's replacement team on Earth and the original team journeying to Khera. The Kherubim had won the Daemonite-Kherubim war and were living in prosperity. Appearances were deceiving, however, and it was apparent the planet was run by power-hungry politicians who had ruthlessly subjugated the Daemonites as second-class citizens. Voodoo, with her Daemonite blood, experienced this firsthand. Maul's race was also treated unjustly and though Emp and Zealot were seduced by promises of power and recognition, Spartan discovered the truth about Khera's corrupt leaders. It took the death of one of Maul's race for the WildC.A.T.s to leave and head back for Earth. Voodoo and Emp both left the team, while the remainder joined with Savant and Majestic's new team. Moore also participated in Fire From Heaven, a fairly continuity-heavy crossover that resolved plotlines regarding Team One, Team 7, and Kaizen Gamorra.
Alan Moore, Mike Lopez and Al Rio spun Voodoo off in a four-issue mini-series that dealt with voodoo magic, while Moore also wrote a time-traveling WildC.A.T.s/Spawn crossover mini-series drawn by Scott Clark and inked by Sal Regla.
At the time, Grifter had another turn at an ongoing series, this time written by Steven Grant and drawn by Mel Rubi and Michael Ryan, while Zealot was featured in a Backlash spinoff, Wildcore.
Barbara Randall Kesel, Pasqual Ferry, Rich Johnson, and Carlos D'Anda crafted a two-part storyline that, in effect, wrote Majestic, Savant and Ladytron out of the team,WildC.A.T.s #35 (March 1997)WildC.A.T.s #36 (March 1997) and set up the spin-off Savant Garde, written by Randall Kesel. Original scripter Brandon Choi returned alongside Johnathan Peterson and artists Mat Broome and Ed Benes for a storyline with an organization called Puritans as the main villains. The Puritans' goal was to eradicate the Kherubim and Daemonites on Earth by traveling back in time and erasing killing them before the aliens could influence global events. A new line-up of WildC.A.T.s traveled in time to stop the Puritans, and had various adventures throughout different time periods.
Wildcats volume 1 (1999) After the first series' cancellation, WildStorm, now an imprint of DC Comics, resurrected the Wildcats under a whole different premise—Wildcats dealt with the lives of the original members after the team's breakup following a botched mission during which team member Zealot apparently died. Scott Lobdell provided the writing for the initial seven issues as well as a Mosaic one-shot detailing the change in Lord Emp, with Travis Charest penciling most of them. New villains like Kenyan and CC Rendozzo were featured as antagonists, but it was dropped quickly, with Charest leaving the monthly comic format to work on a French Metabarons graphic novel called Dreamshifters and Lobdell exiting a couple of issues later.
As Joe Casey and Sean Phillips took over Wildcats, they quickly dealt away with Kenyan, while Void and Emp ended up having Spartan absorb their assets and powers; thus the book began a long spell featuring him aided by Ladytron and Grifter with Maul and Voodoo guest-starring, as well as new characters Noir, and Agents Wax and Mohr of the National Park Service. Warblade was featured very briefly, last seen in the Wildcats 2000 annual that brought back the dead version Condition Red killing Olympia. Casey and Phillips signaled the new Wildstorm, critically acclaimed but low on readers' radar. The heroes fought Samuel Smith (a superhuman serial killer whose grandfather had appeared in Team One: WildC.A.T.s) after which eventually Zealot returned. Casey also wrote the Ladytron one shot, a farsic rendition of her past, as well as a Mister Majestic ongoing series which ran for nine issues.
Wild Times: Wildcats and Wild Times: Grifter were published as one-shots as a part of the crossover series Wild Times that spotlighted the characters in Elseworlds-like alternate reality scenarios that blended genres. Wildcats also participated in the WildC.A.T.s/Aliens crossover written by Stormwatch's Warren Ellis that served as a coda to that series and a prequel to his Authority run, having little to do with the Wildcats themselves.
Wildcats 3.0 (2002) The third series, Wildcats Version 3.0, was a part of the mature readers' Eye of the Storm imprint, dealing with Spartan's (now Jack Marlowe) agenda to better the world by proliferating advanced technology and power sources throughout the world via the HALO Corporation. Grifter was his troubleshooter and Agent Wax was one of his first associates. The stories added a motley group to this proactive organization including the power broker C.C. Rendozzo and her organization, Agent Orange, and Grifter's unlikely pupil Edwin Dolby, one of HALO's accountants. The series ended with a thunderous finale where Zealot, Marlowe, and a team assembled by Grifter destroyed the Coda chapter that Zealot had created on Earth. The series was written by Joe Casey and drawn by Dustin Nguyen, Duncan Rouleau, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Pascual Ferry, and Sean Phillips.
Concurrent with Wildcats Version 3.0, Wildstorm also published the noir-superhero series Sleeper starring Grifter and Wildcats villain Tao. As part of the crossover Coup D'État, centering on the Wildstorm Universe's United States, a Wildcats 3.0: Coup D'État one-shot was released.
After guest-starring in Superman books, in 2004 DC published a Mr. Majestic mini-series to test waters for an ongoing series that ran for 17 issues.
Wildcats starred in a limited series by Robbie Morrison and Talent Caldwell entitled Wildcats: Nemesis, focusing on Zealot, Majestic, and the Coda continuity, while heavily spotlighting the new Wildstorm universe anti-hero character of Nemesis.
At the same time, Wildstorm published the Captain Atom: Armageddon maxi-series, heavily featuring the Wildcats as they tried to help DC character Captain Atom return to his universe and stop him from accidentally destroying their reality. Nikola, a female medic, became the new Void with Captain Atom sharing a part of the power that eventually remade the Wildstorm universe altogether.