Review: Stormwatch (1997) Vol. 5: Final Orbit trade paperback (Wildstorm/DC Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

One of the biggest appeals of the Aliens vs. Predator franchise is that to use the Xenomorphs, you don’t have to explain what they’ve been up to since their last appearance. There are millions (if not billions) of them spread out throughout the universe, and their motive is simple: they want to breed. They just happen to require the bodies of living creatures to do so. As a result, you can take the Xenomorphs and cross them over with other characters without requiring a lot of backstory. They’ve met Batman, Superman, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Judge Dredd, Witchblade, and even the Terminator (although, surprisingly, not Robocop, despite that franchise crossing over with The Terminator).

Because of the inter-company crossover nature of those stories, they aren’t canon. Few stories of that stripe can be, apart from JLA/Avengers. The Stormwatch: Final Orbit trade contains another exception: the infamous WildC.A.T.S./Aliens, which will unfortunately not be reprinted in the upcoming Stormwatch: Vol. 2. But publishing rights aren’t the only reason why it won’t be in that volume. As it turns out, the Stormwatch team doesn’t really appear in WildC.A.T.S./Aliens at all. Only a few living members factor into it; the majority of the Stormwatch cast are slaughtered before the WildC.A.T.S. even arrive on Stormwatch’s orbital headquarters.

Warren Ellis famously used WildC.A.T.S./Aliens to change the entire Wildstorm status quo so that he could introduce The Authority. Under the aegis of Jackson King, the Weatherman, Stormwatch protected the Earth and beyond in a fairly standard superheroic manner. This kind of guardianship wouldn’t be conducive to the Authority’s antics, so they had to go; why not do it in the most gruesome and publicity-grabbing way possible? It helps that they got Chris Sprouse and Kevin Nowlan to draw the crossover. As much as I like Jim Lee, his slick style of art wouldn’t have worked for a mass-slaughtering horror story.

As for the WildC.A.T.S. themselves, I know about them mostly from their appearances in the New 52 titles and -- just to show my age -- their short-lived animated series. Mind you, I can’t really name any of them off-hand apart from Grifter and Maul. The WildC.A.T.S. may be the only team with two warriors wearing their hair in high-off-the-head ponytails. Zealot and Warblade are sometimes indistinguishable due to the dark coloring; I’m happy that they identified Zealot in this book very quickly, because otherwise I would have pegged her as Glory. The team was going through rough times during this story’s publication, so there’s a lot of arguing, with ex-lovers Grifter and Zealot doing the bulk of the sniping. They also have a manager patterned after Justice League International’s Oberon, which I didn’t remember the team having on the cartoon.

So if Stormwatch isn’t the focus of WildC.A.T.S./Aliens, then why is this a Stormwatch trade? Well, the trade includes issues #10 and 11 of Ellis’ tenure on the title, which take place before and after the crossover one-shot. Wisely, the trade was designed to sandwich the one-shot between these two issues, so that you can read them in the proper order. I decided to do a little test: could I understand what happened to Stormwatch by reading just those issues without WildC.A.T.S./Aliens? You can certainly do that, but the end result is anti-climactic. The Xenomorphs aren’t shown in the Stormwatch issues; when their asteroid ship appears in issue #10, it’s at the end, so there’s a cliffhanger about what will happen with the heroes. In issue #11, the Stormwatch members are already dead and buried, and we’re not told the details of how; the WildC.A.T.S. aren’t even shown!

Going into this, I knew a little more about Stormwatch than I did about WildC.A.T.S., mostly because of The Authority and DC’s current Stormwatch ongoing. None of the killed-off members have made appearances in the New 52 as far as I can tell, since DC’s Stormwatch is essentially The Authority plus Jackson King and the Martian Manhunter. Honestly, reading these issues after reading The Authority really does feel like I’m taking a step backwards. The Stormwatch heroes are visually rather bland, and King’s struggles with funding just aren’t that interesting of a story. When the UN decommissions Stormwatch, it feels like what would have happened even if the Xenomorphs didn’t attack.

At the very end of Stormwatch: Final Orbit, Jenny Sparks, Swift, and Jack Hawksmoor come out of hiding and brutally attack recurring villain Henry Bendix. This is the true start of The Authority, especially because the art is by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary. Parts of both issues were drawn by Michael Ryan, and his art is a little less detailed but still high-quality, but the final pages were by Hitch and Neary specifically to flow right from Stormwatch into The Authority.

There are many ways to clear out a comic’s status quo, from dismissing members in conversation (like in Avengers: Avengers World) to just rebooting the universe entirely (like in Justice League: Origin). Warren Ellis would have likely killed off most of Stormwatch anyway, so the fact that he was able to use the Xenomorphs to do so is just a bonus. The presence of the WildC.A.T.S. is intrusive, and if it had been Stormwatch fighting for their lives against such a powerful threat versus just dying off-panel, then I think this would have been a much better story.

If you’re just a fan of Aliens, there’s not much here for you. That said, Ellis puts some good work into this crossover, aided by Sprouse and Hitch’s artwork. Since it might not be reprinted any time soon, if you’re a fan of The Authority, you can just pick up the one-shot if you can get it at your LCS. Alternately, since comiXology hosts most issues of WildC.A.T.S., there’s a possibility that WildC.A.T.S./Aliens might one day be put up there. Otherwise, Stormwatch: Final Orbit is a decent buy, cataloging the fall of early 1990s extreme comics and the rise of the more mature era of the late '90s.

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Review: Stormwatch Vol. 2: Enemies of Earth trade paperback (DC Comics)

Stormwatch Vol. 2: Enemies of Earth is another of those DC Comics New 52 books juggling creative teams; after the first volume, Paul Cornell is out, and Peter Milligan takes over for this and the next trade before Jim Starlin will come on and essentially reboot the title in total (nearly the same thing is happening with Jeff Lemire on Green Arrow).

That the creative team is still in flux may give some readers pause to pick up Stormwatch just yet. Indeed Enemies of the Earth reads like a “getting settled” trade. The seven issues here make up five stories (two two-parters and three single issues); an occasional “done-in-one” is fine, but with three, Enemies feels like a collection of Stormwatch stories and not necessarily a Stormwatch book.

That quibble aside, Milligan does seem to understand these characters and depicts them well. These are good (if not necessarily great) Stormwatch stories and should entertain fans of the characters, even as the book still tries to find its place.

[Review contains spoilers]

The best of the stories collected in Stormwatch: Enemies of Earth is the fifth chapter, in which the team has to gain control of a piece of errant Stormwatch technology that’s possessed an archeologist (ancient rogue Stormwatch aspects factor, repetitively, into at least two other chapters as well). The plot isn’t the high point here, but rather Apollo and Midnighter’s relationship, which Milligan writes with grace and subtlety: Midnighter knows by virtue of his powers that he and Apollo are destined to be together, which Apollo believes but seems slightly creeped-out by, and this creates a good push-and-pull between them that Milligan presents well.

The topic du jour is Stormwatch’s secrets — that they’re a clandestine organization, which grates on new member Apollo, and that at one point Stormwatch did go public, but with disastrous results. The kicker, however, is at the end, when Apollo reveals that after having had to hide his sexuality for so many years and finally coming out, he now dreads having to hide his superheroic activities on behalf of Stormwatch. This is a good point, true to the characters and to the title, and it gives a nice resonance to the story (if only, perhaps, the issue’s actual plot were stronger).

Second best is Milligan’s two-part Stormwatch/Red Lanterns crossover. Milligan has the benefit of writing both titles regularly, so everyone’s in character and the story feels more “real” and not diversionary, like the Justice League International’s stint into Firestorm. The plot does seem to establish more for Red Lanterns than it does for Stormwatch — and even then, it’s mostly that the two groups fight over a misunderstanding and then go their separate ways.

If, however, we’re meant to take some benefit from the combining of the DC and Wildstorm universes in the New 52, then surely part of that joy must be in watching Apollo and Midnighter fight Red Lanterns Atrocitus and Dex Starr. (Best line of the book: “Midnighter to Stormwatch. I’ve just punched a cat.”) That’s what the reader gets here, with an indication the story is picking up in Milligan’s Red Lanterns, and that’s again good enough if not great.

Paul Jenkins contributes an interesting two-part story that digs into Stormwatch’s connection with the Daemonites; the Daemonite threat seems largely to have been forgotten with the cancellations of Grifter and Voodoo, but Jenkins offers some compelling history here and moreover, he creates a rivalry (bordering on grudging friendship) between Midnighter and Jenny Quantum that echoes throughout the book. Indeed the best thing about the stories Milligan tells are the interpersonal dynamics he creates between the team members, whether Apollo and Midnighter, Midnighter and Jack Hawksmoor, Engineer’s struggles as team leader, and especially the final chapter in which Martian Manhunter betrays his teammates.

What Enemies of Earth lacks, however, is the same thing that Paul Cornell’s Stormwatch: The Dark Side did — scope. The title says “Stormwatch,” but with the Engineer, Apollo, Midnighter, Hawksmoor, and Jenny Quantum, this title is really the New 52’s equivalent of the Authority. The threats that Milligan has the team face, however, are small-time — an out-of-control metahuman, a rogue weapon, and so on. In comparison, the first three arcs of Warren Ellis’s Authority title (helped handily by artist Bryan Hitch) saw Moscow and London decimated, the invasion of Earth by thousands of aerial ships from an alternate dimension, and then the Authority fighting, in essence, God.

While it’s fun to see the Authority characters in the DC universe, neither Cornell nor Milligan’s stories stretch the characters quite as well as Ellis or Mark Millar after him. The book still reads like Authority-light, a watered-down version of Authority meant to be palatable for the DC universe (much as some may be concerned the new Constantine series will be). There probably isn’t a good way to offer Authority-size adventures in a universe that already contains the Justice League, but I wish one of the writers would try; I’d like to be able to say that the New 52 has earned having Stormwatch among its list, but so far it hasn’t.

The Wildstorm fan who has everything should also have Stormwatch: Ends of the Earth; it’s not badly done by any stretch, and it actually makes me rather eager to check out Milligan’s second Red Lanterns volume not too long from now. But this title is surely not reaching the potential it should, and I’m of two minds whether next writer Jim Starlin can get it there either.

[Includes original covers]

More reviews coming up!

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Review: Stormwatch Vol. 1: The Dark Side trade paperback (DC Comics)

For fans not even of the original Stormwatch necessarily, but of Stormwatch's bolder, edgier, more popular sibling The Authority, the title page of the DC New 52's first volume, Stormwatch: The Dark Side, is the realization of all the hope that followed DC Comics's announcement of the revamped title as part of their relaunch. Apollo, Midnighter, the Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor, Jenny Quantum, and randomly yet fittingly Martian Manhunter sit around a table peering at threats to the earth below. Call it what you like -- this is the Authority come to the DC Universe, and that's a good thing even if the concept must necessarily be watered down for mainstream consumption.

Writer Paul Cornell succeeds in what feels like a two-hour television pilot for Stormwatch. The story is clumsy at times, accidentally and also in the way Authority had of running at top speed and leaving the reader to keep up and fall behind. There is however great joy in seeing these characters together, and what Stormwatch offers is something that can't be found anywhere else in the DC Universe; those facts alone argue for this title continuing through its second collection and beyond.

[Review contains spoilers]

Cornell brought humor, action, and philosophy to Superman: The Black Ring (starring Lex Luthor, no less), so there was little doubt he could do the same for Stormwatch. But the first few issues of Dark Side clunk along not quite smoothly, and that's troubling for a new title. There's a rather fearsome image of the moon attacking the earth that turns out to be "just a picture," not actually representative of the threat at hand, kind of a tease to the reader. On one hand team members essentially state their powers aloud for no reason other than the writer needs it; on the other, the story starts with babble about an alien horn, a "Moscow mission," and the threat of the moon, with little background for the reader to grab hold of.

This second item is less a problem than the too-obvious dialogue. It is not unlike Authority to start in the middle of things, whether a sudden attack by clones or Sliding Albion. But Cornell confuses things when character Adam One asks what "blew" the alien horn, when it's never quite clear that anything played the horn at all nor whether it simply appeared in the Himalayas, crash-landed, or what happened. Moscow and the moon are ultimately cleared up by the end of the issue, and the Stormwatch creative team gets extra points that someone, editor or letterer, uses the classic Wildstorm font for the narration of the moon-beast, an excellent throwback to Stormwatch/Authority of yore.

The difficulty with some DC New 52 premieres is that, in an effort to tell one whole story in the collection, the writers double-back over the same plot points; Green Lantern: Sinestro is somewhat guilty of this, as is Justice League International: The Signal Masters. Had The Dark Side dealt with the moon-beast Scourge of Worlds through all six of its issues, it would fall into this category too, but Cornell smartly turns to something completely different for the final two. The murder of the team leader by Stormwatch's ruling Shadow Cabinet, the betrayal of a teammate, and a conflict with the team's own ship packs a lot into the final issues, and makes this book about more, ultimately, than heroes fighting a monster.

That a "Shadow Cabinet" runs Stormwatch seems to be a new addition by Cornell to Stormwatch/Authority lore. It is perhaps too much for the reader to hope that this refers at all to the old Milestone Shadow Cabinet title, but it's promising to see Cornell innovate and not feel compelled to follow either Stormwatch or Authority's old rules (to some extent this Stormwatch greater resembles the Authority just as the UN-chartered Justice League International better resembles Wildstorm's old Stormwatch).

Also the Authority had captured and tamed their sentient hyperspace headquarters off-screen prior to the series' start, so it's interesting too to see Cornell take up a "lost moment" from Authority to have Jack Hawksmoor and Stormwatch actually have to negotiate terms with their headquarters here and now.

Though largely a Doctor Who writer, Cornell has dabbled in Star Trek reading guides, and the end of Stormwatch (especially issue five) is notable because it's a bottle episode (named not in the least for Trek episodes that take place entirely on the ship). DC Comics does not lack for space-faring titles, especially in the last few years, but R.E.B.E.L.S., for instance, had not such a small group of regular characters nor such a distinct headquarters. The Justice League may have a satellite headquarters (had at one point, and might again) but aren't quite right for such cosmic nor character-driven stories.

In this way, Stormwatch: The Dark Side represents not just the integration of a major Wildstorm institution into the DC Universe, but also a new kind of title for DC Comics proper, of the kind it may not have ever seen before. The Dark Side does not excel -- like Justice League International, this is a functional story but not until the end does it really begin to do anything different -- but it's a pleasure to see the Authority characters again, and front-and-center and in the DC Universe sandbox. That alone ought be worth even the most cynical reader giving this one another volume to really find its feet.

[Includes original covers, sketchbook section by Cully Hamner with Jim Lee]

Coming up tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday, our guest reviewers take the reigns, with three new Marvel reviews. And next week, two big reviews you won't want to miss -- the Collected Editions review of the DC New 52 Catwoman: The Game and Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Batman: Earth One. Be here!

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