Welcome to another month of what is getting to be a regular feature with me. This month I thought I would do a comic that I got out of the dime back issue box at DCC back in May. I had intended to do it for last month, but I really had no time to sit down and read it until now. This month I am doing Wild C.A.T.S #1 from August 1992. This was one of the first books to come out when Image was just starting out twenty years ago. It was done by then founder and now one of the head honchos at DC Comics Jim Lee. I don't ever recall trying to read this when I was younger, but then it was a while ago and I had probably forgotten all about it. Will it change my mind like Cyber Force did a few months ago?

The Cover

Let's judge a book by its cover. The front cover has what I guess to be the team all together facing the reader or an unknown opponent. There's some character front and center who has the whole skin tight red, white and blue thing going on with both a belt with pouches and something that looks like suspenders connected to the buckle to the belt. He's got those gritted teeth and his costume has been torn in a couple of places. To his right are three characters going from foreground to background. Two of them I notice right off the bat because they have been part of the DC New 52 relaunch, Zealot and Grifter; the other one is some big guy in a green outfit with a yellow 'M' on his forehead. To the center character's left are another four members of the team. From back to front are a female that looks like a T-1000 from Terminator 2 only with a human face. In the midground is some guy who has a blade that is springing from his right thumb who is also in a costume with a lot of blue and white as well as some hoses running from back to front. In the foreground are two characters. One I notice because she's also from the New 52, Voodoo and the other some short guy smoking a cigar. If I had Voodoo hanging onto me like that then I would have a contented look on my face too. The top of the cover has Jim Lee's name in large blue letters that really clash with the orange background they have on the cover. There's a sort of corner box with the Image 'i' as well as the issue number and the cost in the US and Canada. I got this for a steal considering its cover back in the 1990's was a $1.95. The title of the book is in large white letters with a black outline around each letter. In the bottom left hand corner is a white starburst that has in red letter and numbers, "1st SENSES SHATTERING ISSUE!" that is a bold statement. I'm prepared to have my senses shattered though. On the inside of the front cover is a short letter from Jim Lee describing what went into the background of the making of the book as well as the credits for the issue. Jim Lee and Brandon Choi share the creation duties as well as writer duties with Lee taking on the penciling.

The Book Itself

The book spends a lot of time flashing back and flashing forward before getting to what is happening in the now. There is very little introduction in terms of which character is which and the bad guys get very little in terms of characterization as well. I hate flashbacks and forwards because it gets all confusing unless you say that you are flashing back to what happened a while ago or going into the future. There is just the right amount of action in the book for a first issue. Just enough to wet our whistle which is good with me. How did the little guy get to become leader of this team and how did he get so rich? The first time we see him, he's a bum living on the street. I say this book leaves me with more questions than answers; which is not a good thing. I'm used to straight up storytelling and getting to the point rather than just tap dancing around.

Overall Impressions

Writing: This was an okay first issue. Nothing shattered my senses like the cover promised, but it was still a good start for a team book. Having all these disparate parts come together at a strip club at the exact same time is a nice touch rather than having them all together at the same time. Other than that I am left with some questions that will never be answered unless I find issue two and three in a cheap box at another convention. Who are the Coda and why will they not die when they are supposed to other than for dramatic effect? What does Helspont want with the little guy? What is the Cabal and why do they want to take over the Earth? Art: I think by this time, Jim Lee had been doing the X-Men books for Marvel and had found his style. Having been used to the art style of pretty much a different artist every month when I read GI Joe this was nothing new. Thankfully Lee has had some practice and can draw everyone in relative proportion to one another; although his women do seem kind of cookie cutter with long thin arms and thick hips and thighs. What's up with Maul having those yellow things coming from his back? Page layouts are all over the place. Early on there is jagged separation lines between the panels and then later on towards the end he alternates between having panels with gutters on some pages and some with no gutters on others. Very irritating, he needed to stick with one type and forgo the others. Colors and Letters: The inking on characters like Warblade and Void with their shiny bodies really helps to make them come off more metallic and dimensional rather than as a flat character. The inside cover says that the colors were separated digitally. What the heck does that mean? There's a credit right there for a colorist, Joe Rosas, and then two credits later there is the color separator. The lettering does kind of obstruct in places, but only in the funky shaped panels like that are early on in the book. Also with Void's speech bubbles they are yellow with a heavy black border rather than the traditional white which is supposed to give her some otherworldly feel. To me it is just irritating.

Final Thoughts

I was glad I only paid a dime for this book. Not a whole lot gets done in it and the story is boring. We all know that they survived the explosion of the strip club otherwise there would not be another two issues after this. More than likely Void teleported them all out of there at the last possible second and the bad guys think they are dead. There was minimal advertising in the book. There was a one page ad for Wizard Magazine, an advertisement for American Comics and Entertainment (does anyone know if they are still in business?), a couple of in house ads for Cyberforce and Wetworks as well as the back cover inside advertising some drawing videos and on the outside back an advertisement for Entertainment This Month which is done in the same style as American Comics. I was very hard on this book and I don't know why. Maybe I need to take some time away from the old stuff and read something new. Look for Hawkeye #1 next month.

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Copyright © 2012 Mathew "thehammer" Bredfeldt About the Author