Going into the 2nd arc of this 24 issue series! We knew it was 24 issues, but for some reason it’s just now really hitting me that after 24, this series will end. Then what? I wonder if after the 24 issues there’ll be a season 2 of the Wild Storm!?!?!
As for this issue and the second arc, will it feature characters that have only made short cameos or mentions thus far like John Colt, or Priscilla Kitaen and introduce new ones? Lets meander ….
What are Meanderings
On the spot, in-depth analysis/thoughts, questions, and speculation as I go throught the material.
WARNING: SPOILERS
The Wild Storm #7 Variant Covers
The Wild Storm #7 Meanderings
WildStorm Sweepstakes
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The Wild Storm #7 Variant Covers
Here is the variant cover by Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair for issue #7
Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair variant cover for issue #7
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Released: August 20, 2017
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt
Colors: Steve Buccellato
Letters: Simon Bowland
Assistant Editor: Diego Lopez
Group Editor: Marie Javins
The Wild Storm Chapter Seven Meanderings
Jackson King! or Jacklyn King!
We finally get a proper introduction to this character who we discover is actually Jacklyn King, which I assume is this WSU’s Jackson King from the original StormWatch! I remember asking myself in the earlier issues who she was, and I don’t recall that ever crossing my mind! Nice! Here she is Chief of Analysis! I feel like in the story, this is pre-StormWatch as we are familiar with. This is perhaps before King becomes Batallion, a field team leader — if she ever becomes Batallion. Could she though? Does she have a background in the military? Or maybe she doesn’t have to, seeing as she Chief of Analysis, perhaps she’s a natural at strategy and tactics?
Oh, and Streaky!!
Oh, and Streaky, Supergirl’s cat is also in this WildStorm Universe! I love these little clues that keep popping up that integrate the DCU into the WSU! More on this in my final thoughts below!
What is the Chief of Analysis of the secret organization that runs Earth doing riding the local bus to work? What is this suppose to say,… that she’s humble, down to earth and connected with real people, versus above them and not connected to the reality of most other people?
OMG! Mitchell Saunders, a.k.a Cannon!!
Ok,.. at first I had NO idea who Mitchell Saunders way, but I just knew he had to be someone since they bothered to put in his full name! Lo-and-behold, it’s Cannon! I LOVED Canon from the original StormWatch, well, I loved a lot of the original characters!
This has been so interesting, meeting all these characters again, all before they become a team of superpowered badasses!! So much fun!
So Mitchell is the assistant to Jacklyn King. I want to go back and read the original StormWatch now and see if there are any clues to who they were before they became heroes, I don’t recall.
Voodoo Stalker
Weathering WildStorm caught something I missed! Adrianna is reading The Daily Planet with the headline “Voodoo Stalker Shot In Midtown.” Now, is this in reference to someone who has been stalking the recording artist Voodoo or is it referring to a Stalker who does voodoo?!? I think it’s the former. I guess as a famous recording artist you could have stalkers. This one seems to have been shot in Midtown!
Pop-Quiz: Stalker was also the name of a member of StormWatch Zero!
Hightower
Another repurposed “callsign” from the original WSU. Here, Hightower isn’t a person, atleast not yet, if ever, but it’s an IO building, a “black site,” possibly an actual tower (“ten floors of working space.”) that John Colt has infiltrated as an undercover spy. He mentions “machine telepathy.” Perhaps what he was in there investigating, the ability for machines to read minds.
John Colt
He’s been mentioned in previous issues, but this is our first full scene with a taste of who he is. He’s kinda like a super-spy here.
The Little Bastard v1
This is the weapon John Colt is carrying on him with this accompanying blueprint. I suppose it illustrates how small yet powerful this little gun is?
Looking up some of the words,.. it looks like perhaps the bullet propellant is electro/chemical. Maybe it makes it more powerful than the typical gun? Then again, I don’t know enough about guns to know if this is common or not.
Based on the illustrations below, the chemical reaction of the firing of the gun seems to include smoke and fire, so it doesn’t seem to be quiet at all ha ha…
This book has had many examples of why it would make for a fun live-action or animated story. This scene is not an exception. Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt have been coming up with some very fun action choreography, …
… though sometimes, are hard to interpret. Um, what exactly is happening here? Is he raming them or is he being pushed over? There’s also speed lines and a point of impact indicated by that burst on the left.
And how do we go from that, to this?!?!
Again, maybe Jon and Warren are being creative, which is great, but like many previous action sequences, I found it difficult to interpret. It’s disorienting as the positions of characters don’t seem to add up to me, but most likely because we don’t see the actual movement of characters and it’s difficult to follow. If you go from the panel where they all are initially falling (the one with the “burst” in it), if you check for where characters are in relation to each other, it just doesn’t really make sense how they got to where they are in the next panel.
I think here, John Colt must be doing a single flip and we’re seeing it in slow motion to witness all that he’s able to do in that short amount of time, and we’re seeing the space around him flip versus him flipping. A very tricky artistic feat to pull off. This may be better animated or live-action!
More proof of John Colt the super-spy. He’s smooth-talking, smoking, and drinking wine all at the same time ha ha. He’s like James Bond.
In this scene he’s referring to Angela Spica walking into the room when he was talking to Grifter and Void. It’s actually kinda funny cause John introduces himself, “Hi. I’m John” and Angela scans him and just walks off saying, “Sure you are.”
Angela Spica aka Engineer – How is she not dead?
Those nano-machines inside her body must be keeping her alive, while her body is rejecting them at the same time right? How is she NOT always receiving medical care? She should be! How is she just so nonchalant about it? Shouldn’t she be in constant pain? Or is her body just in shock, or is it the nanotech numbing her. Either way, she really should be under medial attention constantly!!!
Kheribum and Daemonite War and Khera
Marlowe daydreams of his past. Are these images from the war between Kheribum and Daemonites?
That ring, if you look up the the top half, you realize it’s terrain. Is this ring a planet that’s falling apart? Is this Khera?!
Kenesha and John Colt
Guess John Colt and Kenesha are a “thing” in this iteration.
Role Call
A nice little summary of thier roles.
Cole Cash a.k.a Grifter = gunfighter grifter
Adianna a.k.a. Void = transporter spacegirl
Kenesha a.k.a. Savant = tinkerer savant
John Colt a.k.a. Spartan = the systems guy ha ha
Jacob Marlowe a.k.a. Lord Emp = Kheribum Lord
Why would IO want Marlowe dead?
Hmm, in the original, they would call those from Khera, Kheribum right? Not just Khera?
So why would IO want Marlowe dead, if they didn’t know he was an alien? Marlowe must pose a threat to the world IO is maintaining! Guess it makes sense since Marlowe’s company HALO is revolutionizing all areas of our modern day world, but doesn’t the government in part monitor that kind of stuff,Sth government, at the very least a secret organization that runs the world?
All of Earth and Space are ruled by Americans?
Speaking of IO, secret ruler of the world. I would’ve imagined such an organization to be more global and less localized feeling. By apprearances, they just look like an American company, as does StormWatch, the rulers of space, both self-proclaimed rulers, whereas in the original WSU, StormWatch was an U.N.-run organization.
More visions from the past …
More from the Kheribum/Daemonite war, from the point of view of the Daemonites? Looks like thier world is dying??
Some kind of shift-ship … entering the Bleed? Maybe both the Kheran and Daemonite worlds were dying due to their war and they all escaped to continue the war through the Bleed which was somehow accessed because of something having to do with what happened with Adrianna/Void?
This is kinda what we’re left with at the end. These two images. Not sure what they mean, but having now thought about them, they seem more interesting, and make the ending a little less typical of this series’ anti-climatic cliffhangers.
Final Thoughts: The new WSU IS the New DCU??
The series has slowly been showing us images as ideas. Some we are left to interpret with no text or context, like visions of the past like this issue with Marlowe, while others are more straight-forward like flashbacks with Michael Cray, also, more abstract cryptic images associated with Priscella Kitaen, a.k.a. Voodoo and finally background imagery like product placement or name-drops like all the reimagined uses of original WSU names and all the DCU easter eggs.
It just occurred to me that it’s kinda neat how Warren Ellis is doing the opposite of what DC Comics had been trying to do; trying to integrate WildStorm into the DCU! Here, he’s slowly showing us how the DCU is integrated into the WSU!! NOT a bad idea! What if THIS is the new origin for the DCU, that it begins this way, and then Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc emerge? Maybe the best way to integrate the two universes is to start with the foundation of the WSU!?!
Other Reviews for issue #7
Living Myth Magazine – God of Comics – The Wild Storm #7
9.8/10 Weird Science DC Comics Review and Spoilers
WildStorm Sweepstakes
From DC Comics Official Website Friday, September 29th, 2017
This is Your Chance to Be Our Grand Prize Winner!
For all WILDSTORM fans out there! This is your chance to bring home an amazing prize bundle that includes: one copy of WILDSTORM: A CELEBRATION OF 25 YEARS, one copy of THE WILD STORM VOL. 1, one grifter mask that was given away at the DC Booth during SDCC this year and one WILDSTORM sketch card signed by Jim Lee.
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READ MORE WILDSTORM POSTS!
Meanderings from The Wild Storm #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6
Pre-Launch Speculation
Storm Warning: What is the Wild Storm
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