Comic Review: The Wild Storm (DC Comics)

This is it, the final battle between Jenny Sparks team, IO and Skywatch finally reach its epic climactic conclusion!

As IO turns its back on humanity and Skywatch launches a deadly weapon to destroy the Earth, Jenny Sparks and The Authority take the war to them, but at what cost? What becomes of IO and Skywatch? Can The Authority succeed in their efforts and expose the corruption that has encapsulated the globe? Or will Humanity succumb to the grips of annihilation?

After 24 issues its amazing to see how this series started off as a slow burn and yet even with the slow start, it never felt like the series dragged. The series felt well paced with each issue and as the puzzle pieces started to align together, it was amazing to see what culminated into a great final issue. Even though the issue was action-packed, I was surprised that Ellis was able to come up with a clever conclusion that was executed so well. I won’t spoil the book, but what Jenny Sparks and Angie Spice brainstorm to save the earth was satisfying. Given that this series is a reimagining of the original Wildstorm universe, It’s amazing to find that Ellis is able to find new ways to depict characters that are familiar and make them feel refreshingly different from their original counterparts throughout this series.

I think what makes this issue so great is how the authority is handled throughout this issue. They may be strong, but they feel fragile, I think the best way I could describe it is that they’re being of great power, but they could be easily killed, which invites welcomed tension and stakes. In the prior incarnations, most of the characters felt very capable, but they never felt as fragile, as superHUMAN as they do in this series.

It doesn’t fall into the traps and tropes that the original Authority series had established back then. The writing, the plot, and the decisions made with each of these characters we well executed. Now, I hate to say this, but If there was no way to adapt the Authority in the vision of the original series, I think that this would be a suitable version that would be perfect for adaption, but with that said, its already good as is! Unless Adi Shankar can pull some strings to try to get an animated series of the Authority made then that would be cool, but one can only wish right? Now although most of the story is wrapped up, I was left feeling that there were still plotlines that needed to be resolved. It’s no secret that Ellis and his team are working on a W.I.L.D Cats series, which will continue from where this series left off and address some of the dangling plot threads that sprang from this series.

Now, Jon Davis-Hunt deserves some praise for his work. I feel that he’s underrated for his sequential work which is just cinematic as the standard superhero comic aesthetic that most mainstream comic book fans tend to respond to. From the fight choreography to the emotional beats, to the brutal carnage that occurs all around these characters, he has executed all of these actions in a way that feels gargantuan and powerful, yet retaining a mundane sense of reality, which serves Ellis’s writing perfectly. I think everyone on this title should be commended for delivering a reinvention of characters that fit the modern era of society and societal norms, while still preserving the sci-fi insanity of its predecessors. If you’re looking for a reinvention of The Authority and the Wildstorm Universe, If you’re looking for a series that reflects the world that we live in today, If you’re a fan of Warren Ellis, then I definitely recommend picking this book up, along with the rest of this series. I never thought that I would like a reinvention of a team that I knew of, but I changed with time, and so did the Wildstorm Universe itself. Add this to your pull list.