By Dustin Cabeal

There has been a WildStorm shaped hole in my heart since the imprint started pushing out turds and was eventually shut done in favor of a shared universe of all of DC’s properties, which became the New 52. Sure, there were WildStorm characters, and sure, they were pretty interesting to see in the DCU, but it just wasn’t WildStorm.

When it was announced that Warren Ellis would be curating a WildStorm line and that the first in that line would be The Wild Storm, I was excited… but hesitant. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ellis’ work, and even on an off day, I’ll still take it over a lot of other writers. It was more of a hesitant feeling of, “Are we simply doing this because we can or is there a story to be told still?” We’ll get to that because right after that thought was the reveal of Jon Davis-Hunt’s artwork, which is so striking that it makes you forget any doubt that you may have had. It’s also so damn good that looking that I wonder why I only just saw his work on The Clean Room and if I should send Gail Simone chocolate or coffee for helping in any way discover or at least reveal Davis-Hunt on a larger stage.

To answer the question, I posted before, yes, there is a goddamn story left to tell. Hell, there seems to be a lot of stories left to tell, and it makes me wonder as it will likely make you wonder, can Wild Storm come back as big as before and somehow co-exist with the current DCU landscape? If Ellis is in charge or picking the talent… I think it could.

The story is brilliantly paced and essentially introduces us the world and the character’s we’ll be dealing with. Frankly, I see no point in telling you anything about the story. It’s a lot of character moments that when pieced together reveal an overall narrative and it’s frankly some of Ellis’ best writing to date. Not that I don’t enjoy his creator-owned work, but there is something goddamn special about the story he’s telling here.

It should also be noted how masterfully Ellis’ writing is in that he gives each character a unique voice within just a few panels. There are writers that take entire story arcs to find one character’s voice and yet a side character we’re not likely to see again, had a unique voice in just one page. My personal favorite character was Angela Spica because she felt like a real person that I have encountered in life and that blew me away. Just how meticulous Ellis’ characterization for her was, blew me away.

I don’t even know what else to say about Davis-Hunt’s artwork. It's every bit as good as Clean Room, if not better. Perhaps the change in setting and characters has brought his art to a new level, but I found myself just looking at the artwork over and over. I would be lying if I didn’t say that Davis-Hunt was one of my favorite artists in the industry and I hope that he continues taking on interesting and great projects like The Wild Storm, like Clean Room because the last thing I want to see is him on Superman. Davis-Hunt’s visuals truly make this look like the rebirth of WildStorm, and that’s just fucking incredible.

Not to be left out is Ivan Plascencia’s coloring which is a perfect fit for Davis-Hunt’s artwork and brings it to life. The color choices are perfect and nowhere is that highlighted better than T-shirts. Yes, T-shirts, because I hate seeing bullshit colored T-Shirts in comics. Be trending for fuck’s sake and when I saw a powder blue T-Shirt that read “Portland” I was like, “Wow, someone colored a real T-shirt in a comic… wow.” I know that’s weird, but seriously look at people’s T-shirt’s in other comics and ask yourself if you’d wear that or see it worn by someone that wasn’t a complete asshole.

I will have to give this a few more issues before I can say for sure that it’s taking Deathstroke’s belt for the best comic DC is publishing, but it’s not one that you should miss. Buy this book. Enjoy this book because my God did it remind me of why I read comics when I so desperately needed that reminder. The Wild Storm #1 may just be the first perfect comic of 2017, and I’m already looking forward to more.

Score: 5/5

The Wild Storm #1
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt
Colorist: Ivan Plascencia
Publisher: DC Comics