It’s been a little over a month I think since the demise of WildStorm, announced on the back end of last year. I hadn’t realised just how much I would miss them.
There was a certain arrogance in the storylines of the Authority, or StormWatch (or the most recent incarnation of Wild C.A.T.S.) that I found particularly appealing; operating on a scale only found in Grant Morrison’s JLA. Beings who could rewrite entire realities without all the drama and pathos of the Scarlet Witch in M-Day; master manipulators who could be toppled from power and even slain, yet the entire affair would only guarantee their victory. I miss that.
As much as one could say those themes were in the recent ‘Chaos War’, I’m afraid that series fell short. As enjoyable as the side series such as Dead Avengers or Chaos War:X-Men were, there was too much crammed into too small a space. WildStorm was never in a hurry to release its exhibitions of cosmic power; the shadow of Tao, or Henry Bendix could hover over a title for months before actually being utilised. Changing the world was something that occurred on a grand scale, not just some thing squeezed into six or eight issues.
To this end, I dug out my old Monarchy series, the spin-off of the Authority that actually helped to justify the main series. With the standard fare of mind-blowing concepts and displaying a nigh-infinite scale by using the contrast of the day-to-day details, I find myself thinking that this is what series like the Infinity Gauntlet or Countdown To Final Crisis should have been.
Let’s hope we have not seen the last of these characters. WildStorm had a certain flavour that DC is lacking, and neither could really imitate the other with any degree of success. It will be interesting to see just how DC integrates New Earth 50 into its multiverse, if indeed it tries.
