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Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.S!
02/02/2008 . Source: Eamonn Murphy 
pub: Titan Books. 392 page graphic novel. Price: £24.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84576-617-2). Buy Alan Moore's Complete WildCATS in the USA - or Buy Alan Moore's Complete WildCATS in the UK  check out website: www.titanbooks.com and www.wildstorm.com
Graphic novels as these books are called now to save the embarrassment of calling them comics, might seem out of place on a Science Fiction website but an awful lot of them are bound to come under the Science Fiction or fantasy heading. Since they are often intelligent and well-written there is no reason, except snobbery, to exclude them. No snob, I am glad to get as many as the revered editor wants to bung my way and was especially pleased to get this fine piece of work from Big Alan Moore. I am not wildly familiar with WildC.A.T.S. so I found the initial chapters a bit confusing. Presently, it makes sense, however, so there is no need for new readers to be shy of the book. Although its cut into bits called chapters, the original comics, its really just one long story. Well, two long stories tied together at the end.
The first story is about some of the original WildC.A.T.S. who have ended up on their home planet, Khera. Here they find that the war they've been fighting for ages is long over. Returning to civilian life, they also find, slowly over several chapters, that victory is not everything. The home planet is a funny old place and very unequal. Though they were comrades in war they find themselves cast into conflicting roles in peacetime. Emp and Zealot are feted aristocrats, Maul and Void are unimportant and Voodoo is an outcast because of her genes. All are changed by the experience.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Majestic recruits new members to make up the numbers of WildC.A.T.S. and continue the fight against crime. Some of the new members have 'challenging' personalities as the social workers say and there are conflicts. The new WildC.A.T.S get into a war against crime. They don't just wait until a crime is committed and then go into action, they attack criminals first. The criminals are disgruntled by this unprecedented mode of super-heroism. There is a bar where super-people hang out together (a terrific idea) and the criminals retaliation to WildC.A.T.S affirmative action is to bomb it or so it seems. After that, the war gets nasty.
I'm a big fan of Big Al and this here comicbook is good fun. The plot is slick. The writing is always clever and frequently brilliant. The fellow has a way with words. However, it did occur to me that today's comic fans probably give him too much credit for modernising the genre. This team book has villains becoming heroes, complex characters, love triangles and so on. But Roy Thomas was doing all that stuff in 'The Mighty Avengers' back in the late sixties and doing long complicated plots, too. I hasten to add that Mister Moore is, by all accounts, modesty itself and, as his appearance on last year's BBC documentary about Steve Ditko showed, has a real sense of the history of the genre.
He is also good at giving due credit to the artists who are his collaborators. Alan Moore is the headline name on the book but graphic novels are very much a visual medium. Personally, if the arts doesn't appeal I don't bother reading the comic. This book is quite a team production with several different styles. Happily, all the art is good and some is downright beautiful. I particularly liked the work of Travis Charest. Oddly, there are sometimes more than two pencillers and sometimes a team of several inkers so it's hard to know who to credit. There is certainly no page displeasing to the eye.
The cover price is fairly hefty but the production quality is first rate. Titan Books are pretty good value for money as a rule. You don't get as many pages of story here as you do with Marvel Essentials and DC Showcase but the pages you get are much prettier, in full bright colour, and will provide as many hours of pleasure, at least, as the equivalent dosh spent on DVD's. Worth it really.
Eamonn Murphy
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