The Wild Storm (by Warren Ellis)

[NullApostle]

I recommend people to read this.

https://www.comixology.com/The-Wild-Storm-2017/comics-series/86244?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI

It makes a pretty great setting for the Trinity Continuum core book, or so I believe. Aberrant may profit too in the future, but it's hard to tell from only one issue so far.

It basically has the fight between "secret societies" - one company and one rogue intelligence agency so far, with more to come - suddenly break open into the public eye. The fallout of the first 'event' is still undealt with. Issue one serves as a basic introduction to core concepts and some of the important characters.

So far it mostly features highly advanced technology, no actual superpowers on panel yet. But they will be, it is a reboot of Wildstorm Comics after all.

Ellis writes the headliner book and curates the entire comic line - basically an independent sub-imprint of DC Comics, like they did with Gerard Way and his 'Young Animal' line.

Critical reception was positive, the only drawback that some found was a slight inaccessibility to readers who've never read a Wildlstorm comic in their life. I can understand this, but I think this problem will solve itself with more issues - 22 pages offer only so much place to introduce a whole new world and its characters.

Check it out, if I managed to catch your interest.

This plug was brought to you by myself, and only myself. I am not affliliated with DC Comics or Warren Ellis. I haven't been so psyched for a new comic book in ages, and I just really, really like it.

[MythicFox]

I haven't read the new Wild Storm comics yet (didn't realize they were out, in fact), but there's always been more than a little Warren Ellis in the Aberrant and Adventure! chunks of the old TU, between Transmetropolitan, The Authority, and Planetary. (He also wrote the opening fiction for Adventure!) So it's not a big surprise that his stuff meshes thematically.

[Firanai]

It's Warren Ellis, that's an automatic sale for me. I've read and I've got to say I'm loving it so far. From what I've read in an interview Ellis wants to focus on the conspiracy angle of the wildstorm universe with secret government agencies, conspirations, and alien invaders clashing against each other, and superpowered people in the middle. It's my hope that it will be a 'realistic' superpowered setting, and as far as I have seen it points in that direction.

[Queen Anne Country]

Just bought the book on DC's site (note: I like their digital comic book product much more than Marvel's) and whoa was that a good book. The Engineer is one of my favorite characters and this new take on her was incredible. The WildStorm universe was one of my favorites. Their ability to re-invent and re-shape themselves was great. I even bought Godsend Agenda as their metaplot and backstory were highly (and I mean HIGHLY) influenced by WildCATS. Secret societies, alien proxy wars on earth, realistic world building, trans-humanist powers and tech, (hopefully) Midnighter, Grifter, Jenny Quantum, Majestic, Zealot, Spartan - sign me up. It's a lovely and well-reasoned (for a superhero universe in which, periodically, a baseline human can be victorious over a guy who can squat an aircraft carrier) and I love the revamp for its own sake and as inspiration for my future (jesus take the wheel, I'm trying to be patient) Aberrant game.

[Dataweaver]

Wasn't Warren Ellis the guy who did newuniversal for Marvel about a decade back? Wild Storm certainly reminds me of that.

[NullApostle]

Wasn't Warren Ellis the guy who did newuniversal for Marvel about a decade back? Wild Storm certainly reminds me of that.

That's the guy.

I am curious whether we're getting power levels like that in this comic, I mean the Starbrand was pretty up there in power. Wildstorm has Majestic and Apollo and the like, but I wonder if we're going to see less outright superpowers in this new universe instead - what was shown so far has pretty much been all "science".

[MythicFox]

Wildstorm has Majestic and Apollo and the like, but I wonder if we're going to see less outright superpowers in this new universe instead - what was shown so far has pretty much been all "science".

I'd be willing to bet money that the reboot will focus on the Wildstorm characters that either didn't show up or didn't 'stick' when folded into the DCU after Flashpoint. So it'll probably lean more towards WildCATs than Stormwatch/The Authority.

[marin]

I'd be willing to bet money that the reboot will focus on the Wildstorm characters that either didn't show up or didn't 'stick' when folded into the DCU after Flashpoint. So it'll probably lean more towards WildCATs than Stormwatch/The Authority.

Ellis has mentioned having plans for Midnighter and Apollo, albeit very different versions from the originals. (Grifter's another one who's popped up in the DCU, and he gets introduced in issue #2.)

[Caitiff Primogen]

I'll not hold out hope for more Planetary, but if it were to appear he'd shut up and take my money so quickly it would travel back in time and retroactively Kickstart it.

Then in such a perfect world we'd talk about time-travel Kickstarting more Nextwave.

[nofather]

Zealot popped up in the New 52, too. Along with Caitlin Fairchild and a couple other Gen13ers. Personally I'm looking forward to Ivana Baiul.

Apollo and Midnighter were portrayed as more straightforward superheroes, but their powers were based on bioengineering. I'd expect a more blunt showing of how it affects them, similar to how Engineer's alterations were not as glamorous as they were in the Authority. Especially considering Ellis' past work in things like Global Frequency.

Should be fun, hope there's some inspiration. I've thought it was more fitting for something like Deviant, but Team 0 and Team 7 do seem to fit more in the Trinity setting.

[MythicFox]

Ellis has mentioned having plans for Midnighter and Apollo, albeit very different versions from the originals. (Grifter's another one who's popped up in the DCU, and he gets introduced in issue #2.)

Ah, my mistake then. I just assumed it was going to be the characters who never wound up as major headliners in the DCU -- I don't keep up with most of DC's stuff for a few reasons, but I didn't think any of the Wildstorm characters had gotten much long-term traction (other than, debatably, Midnighter and Apollo). So I figured "So and so showed up and dropped off the map" would be fine. But then, I was overthinking it and that's just what happens when I do that.

I'll not hold out hope for more Planetary, but if it were to appear he'd shut up and take my money so quickly it would travel back in time and retroactively Kickstart it.

Then in such a perfect world we'd talk about time-travel Kickstarting more Nextwave.

As much as I'd love to see more Planetary myself, I imagine it's regarded as basically a complete story at this point and I wouldn't expect anything short of Mr. Ellis having a true 'eureka' moment before he does another arc. Similarly with Nextwave, especially since Marvel's already come up with some convoluted reasoning to incorporate it into the setting proper rather than leave it as its own thing.

[Caitiff Primogen]

As much as I'd love to see more Planetary myself, I imagine it's regarded as basically a complete story at this point and I wouldn't expect anything short of Mr. Ellis having a true 'eureka' moment before he does another arc. Similarly with Nextwave, especially since Marvel's already come up with some convoluted reasoning to incorporate it into the setting proper rather than leave it as its own thing.

The final arc of Planetary felt very rushed and perfunctory, which makes it seem unfinished to me. I also enjoyed it more than most of the other Wildstorm stuff so I'm really only interested in Wildstorm in as much as it exists as a vehicle for Planetary.

By the same token I acknowledge that Nextwave was a parody that was only really going to work one time, but that doesn't stop me from wanting more of it.

Personally my fan theory is that there are actually multiple Aarons Stack. When the original Machine Man was taken into space by the Celestials they distilled from him all of his "human" qualities and impulses. Not the "good" ones everyone likes to bang on about; nobility, wonder, compassion, all that jazz. The "bad" ones like pettiness and gluttony that are equally as much part of the human experience but that don't fit well into philosophical cosmic passion plays. They purged these qualities from him and embodied them in a new being, then sent that being back to earth while they went and had space adventures with MM. This was Nextwave's Aaron Stack. Meanwhile somewhere along the line the original Machine Man came back from space and kept right on having regular superhero adventures and grappling with his "What Is Humanity???" pathos.

The kicker is that neither Aaron Stack is actually aware that the other exists, and the rest of the Marvel universe doesn't either.

[marin]

The final arc of Planetary felt very rushed and perfunctory, which makes it seem unfinished to me. I also enjoyed it more than most of the other Wildstorm stuff so I'm really only interested in Wildstorm in as much as it exists as a vehicle for Planetary.

At the moment, Ellis considers Planetary a closed project.

[Queen Anne Country]

O/T slightly but there is a IOS game called DC Legends that I got hooked into after a reviewer referred to it as close to XCom as a branded game could get. It's pretty far from that but it's a nice way to kill 10 minutes while waiting for something else. While the characters scale in a way that's pretty bogus (a team of slightly higher level Batman Family can wipe the floor with a team of Superman plus Green Lanterns without the pretense of kryptonite or the, shudder, color yellow) but at the same level an "energy" hero (Superman et al) can hit harder and take more damage than a "physical" hero (Batman, Green Arrow), however the physical hero will generally have a much greater initiative and/or ability to hide or dodge. The game is famously simple but as a person who outlaws super speed because of its game and genre breaking power, I kind of like the idea of minor tweaks to level the playing field.
I bring this up for two reasons:
1) I was hoping against hope that they'd eventually unlock legacy Wildstorm characters (fat chance of that happening, I'd guess)
2) How great would a modern console superhero version of XCom be? I appreciate that at upper levels of psi and weaponry, that XCom 2 does become a superhero game and that Freedom Force, though a parody, accomplished this but a dedicated, less silly XCom-style superhero game would be delightful. And it feels like the direction that their rebuilding the Wild Storm universe could provide an interesting basis for it.

[Dataweaver]

Planetary may be done, but the essence of Planetary seems to be alive and well in Wild Storm.