Off-hand, I’m gonna guess this issue is going to open some doors to some new ideas that haven’t been introduced into this new WSU from the original WSU! Why? Because of the various covers for this issue.
See below under Variant Covers for some thoughts. [Spoiler Warning]
I have a pretty good idea of who I think is on the Jim Lee and Bryan Hitch variant covers, and if I’m correct, then we’re gonna see some of my favorite parts of the original WSU!
So much to look forward to in this issue. Thank goodness this series is 24 issues long, otherwise, the thought that there’d only be 4 more issues would be sad! BUT this IS leading up to the end of the first year, so the next 4 issues should be big right? I think so! So who is this mystery woman on the cover and what’s the deal with that pod-like ship? Let’s meander ….
What are Meanderings
On the spot, in-depth analysis/thoughts, questions, and speculation as I go through the material.
WARNING: SPOILERS
The Wild Storm #8 Variant Covers
The Wild Storm #8 Meanderings
LINKS
THE WILD STORM #8 VARIANT COVERS
Variant cover by Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair for issue #8
Meanderings
In the Bryan Hitch variant, we see Jenny and the character who I imagine is the same as the one for Jim Lee’s variant below. I kinda guessed Swift, but here she looks to be possibly a doctor??
Variant cover by Jim Lee with Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair for issue #8
Meanderings
From the Jim Lee variant from the cover we are introduced to a new character who seems kinda psycodelic. Who is she? In this reimagining, I suppose it could be Shen, with non-physical wings?
Meanderings
The main cover is of some kind of space vessel, so we’ll probably learn a bit more about some history of this new WSU.
Released: October 18, 2017
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt
Colors: Steve Buccellato
Letters: Simon Bowland
Cover: Jon Davis-Hunt
Assistant Editor: Diego Lopez
Group Editor: Marie Javins
THE WILD STORM CHAPTER EIGHT MEANDERINGS
Cooperative Clade Species + Making Sense of the Old WSU
Wow, the new ideas Ellis is incorporating into the old WSU is pretty awesome. Kherans or Kheribum have always just been aliens who happen to look like humans, many with white hair, but here, Ellis explains why they look so human.
Ellis also brilliantly explains why Jabob Marlowe is so short. These gaps in logic that Ellis fills is a huge reason why I’m loving this series!
Easy-Reader Version of Why They’re Here
So in this partial truth, they left their planet for ours because didn’t evolve quickly enough to survive and an expedition was sent out to look for a potential new home.
I just had to add some of these images. They’re so grand and epic. Here they pass a world that looks to have been drowned.
This world seems like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
This may have been a technological planet or maybe just a huge vessel that contained life, but has obviously been damaged and possibly just a space husk.
They had trouble finding a planet they could live on that had “intelligent tool-using life.” Apparently, planets like Earth are very rare.
So they got stranded and had to stay here. Now, is that the truth or was Earth their original destination and they weren’t stranded?
I love this idea that they decided to help Earth get past the Gaian Bottleneck which explains Halo. Is there a greater reason for doing this? Probably.
Jacob Marlowe May Be Just As Sketchy As Miles Craven And Henry Bendix
I like Marlowe’s reasoning, but I wonder if there isn’t a little more to it. Maybe he’s looking for some specific stolen technology also.
Jacob comes off as being sincere and benevolent, and maybe he IS,.. but as we see in the next topic, he’s NOT telling the truth which makes me wonder if he’s just as manipulative as Craven and Bendix!
What is the Truth of Why They’re Here??
Ok, so if the expedition wasn’t originally to look for a new planet for Kherans then what? Depends on what was a lie and what wasn’t. Maybe Earth has something they need to fight back against what was wiping them out; something evolutionary?
Sounds like he’s lying to her a little bit because he’s afraid of her. The technology she has in her represents something very powerful.
I love how Ellis reimagines the reasoning for why they are here. The reason that he gives Angela is one that I buy, but we know that it’s not ALL there is. There’s more,.. Maybe the conditions of the worlds we saw earlier were caused by them or was a result of not being able to prevent what happened? For some reason, I think maybe there was an evolutionary war, a war of or for evolution between the Kheribum and Daemonites or other of Ellis’s brilliant ideas?
Mitchell Saunders aka Cannon
Ok, so King enjoys using her authority. Atleast she does it with a sense of humor. Why is Mitch so reluctant to play along. It’s not like she’s making him bow and kiss her feet. I suppose he feels like a lackey and feels demeaned by it?? I don’t know. I mean she’s his boss, and it’s not like she’s only making him do something that is specifically demeaning to him. It’s kinda just light-hearted to make work a little more fun. He just seems so defeated, like it’s a personal stab at him, like he’s being picked on. Maybe he’s just super-serious and feels silly doing it. Thing is he doesn’t look like a super-serious character.
Teresa?
Is she anyone from the previous WSU?!?! I didn’t find anything, did you?! I’m convinced she is,… ha ha
Cole Cash aka Grifter
Clean cut Grifter! He used to be IO, was part of a CAT, promoted to field specialist and then died on a mission years ago. I wonder for how many years he was “dead.” Maybe his last mission had something to do with the Coda, … and he was taken under the wing of Zealot to be the first man to be trained as a Coda?!?!
Not-So-Covert Or All Part Of The Plan?
Wow, they really don’t know or consider Jacob Marlowe/HALO as a possibility for who was behind this “covert” team? I guess Marlowe and HALO have really been covert, up until now?! I mean I see Craven and King’s logic in thinking it’s SkyWatch as they’ve always been looking over each other’s shoulders AND there’s an astronaut.
She’s definitely convinced it’s Skywatch!!
Was this Marlowe’s plan, to make IO think they were SkyWatch? Otherwise, why would they be so sloppy as to be discovered, considering they are “covert.”
The Wild Storm Genre
Event-shielded room. Airgap! Love this kinda stuff. Just reiterating everything I love about WildStorm. The secret government agencies, science and technology, the myth-like stories of aliens and otherworldly beings and superheroes!
I.O.’s Hacking Team
I guess Mitchell is more than just an assistant that grabs coffee after all. She’s having him form a group to hack SkyWatch!
Will he be joining this team? Will King and Saunders defect to SkyWatch to form StormWatch down the line?? One thing I gotta say is SkyWatch seems a whole lot less benevolent than IO. Bendix just seems like an evil old man.
Evi? and ?
So who are these two? Evi, another name in this issue that didn’t seem to have a counterpart in the original WSU? Is this guy Jeremy Stone aka Maul, Reno Bryce aka Warblade or Devan Lawless (Divine Right), … I can go on and on at this point. Could be anyone.
Shen Li-Min aka Shift The Doctor?
She’s described as a shaman/witch doctor.
She holds groups where she gives them something that is like a psychedelic trip where she “heals” you. Not really specified what is being healed.
Oooo, love the psychedelic wings. She’s like Swift and The Doctor combined into one! I remember Swift’s purpose regarding Shift Ships and the Bleed in the original WSU was like the navigator.
She flies,.. but her wings take you with her with the help of these mini-eggs that you injest. Unlike taking a pill and going on a journey of your own. Shen takes everyone who injests this mini-egg in a collective journey into The Bleed.
Here we see a tear in reality into The Bleed.
Shen’s wings spread and separate into these little petals that bring them into The Bleed.
In The Bleed, we see what I’m assuming is a Shift Ship.
In the Shift Ship we see passengers or slaves? The ship looks a little like a cruise ship, but from the looks of the passengers, they may be prisoners rather than travelers. I could be wrong. They also look like they could be younger Daemonites??
Shen’s wing petals reform and create a green sub-space of the bleed.
Who And What Is Jenny
In the original WSU, Jenny was a Century Baby. One was born in each centruy/era to represent that particular time. Are these “ghost” former Jennys?
Is this a Century Baby? Is this a memory of Jenny’s and this is revealing that she was created,….
Jenny or Century Babies were created by Daemonites? Or did they just make one also?
Love this ha ha.
The Doctors
Very much like the original WSU, there is a space The Doctor can go to speak with previous Doctors, kinda like the Parliment of Trees for Swamp Thing.
This space in the new WSU is the Hospital ha ha.
Techne Century Baby
It looks like Ellis may have grown the idea of the Century Baby. In the old WSU, Century Babies were born every century representing that particular century “acting as an immune system for the planet.” In this new WSU, they’re called Techne, “a spirit of the mechanical arts and crafts. A living speculation on the technologies of her time” and “deployed as a planetary defense mechanism.” The fact that they show up “when things are about to get bad.” makes sense with her visiting the Doctor who is there to “heal” those on the planet.
So before when Shen was in Jenny’s mind, was that to imply Daemonites created Techne or was just creating one of their own?
Jenny Media Sparks
Guess she’s not Jenny Media after-all. She’s Jenny Mei Sparks, but she doesn’t seem to display electric powers, but media related powers which seems more of this century.
Final Thoughts: Favorite Issue So Far!
Off-hand, my favorite issue so far. Why? The ideas that are introduced in this issue represent a big part of what I loved in the original WSU.
The inclusion of the ideas of The Doctor and Jenny/Techne in the world they’ve already established really shows how expansive this new Wild Storm Universe is and how inclusive of many ideas from the original WSU it is!
Also, in the original WSU of the 90s, we just took things for granted and didn’t need explanations for why aliens might look human, or why the word “Wild” was part of the WildC.A.T.s other than sounding cool. I love how in this series, Ellis explains why things are the way they are. He grounds old ideas and old names to make more sense in today’s world.
Other Reviews for issue #8
8.5/10 Comic Book Round-Up – an average rating from reviews from critics and readers!
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MORE WILDSTORM POSTS!
The Wild Storm #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #07, #8
Michael Cray #1, #2
Pre-Launch Speculation
Storm Warning: What is the Wild Storm
Other WSU Links
WildStorm Universe Facebook Group
WildStorm selections on YouTube
Clark’s Bar Facebook Group
Weathering Wildstorm A great blog going through WildStorm Continuity and comparing it to the new WildStorm!
WildStorm Addiction Web Site
WildStorm Addiction on Twitter
WildTimes: An Oral History of WildStorm Studios Website
Wild Times on Facebook
Wild Times on Twitter
WildStorms Collectible Card Game Resource – A complete WildStorms CCG resource with custom expansions!
WildStorms CCG Resource Community on Facebook
WildStorms CCG Resource on Instagram
WildStorms CCG Resource on Twitter
WildStorm Old Official Twitter
Daarkanjel A super WS Fan on Twitter
Daarkanjel A super WS Fan on Instagram
Me on Twitter
KCRRLives! - The Personal Blog of Carl K. Li 