Wildcats, sometimes rendered WildCats or WildC.A.T.s, is a superhero team created by the American comic book artist Jim Lee and writer Brandon Choi.
The team first appeared in 1992 in the first issue of their eponymous comic book WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams, published by Image Comics. It was Image founding partner Jim Lee's first work published by the newly launched company, and his first creator owned project. The Wildcats were the starting point for Lee's menagerie of interconnected superhero creations which became the foundation of the Wildstorm Universe. The Wildcats launched at the apex of a speculator-fuelled comics sales boom, was wildly popular at its inception, with wholesale sales to comic book stores above one million copies for early issues. This first series ran for 50 issues, and in addition to Lee featured work by comics creators such as Travis Charest, Chris Claremont, James Robinson and Alan Moore. This popularity saw the property expand into other media, with an animated adaptation of the comic debuting on CBS in 1994 and a toyline from Playmates Toys.
During the mid-90's, Marvel Comics went a little overboard in their "extreme" new characters and what-not in terms of storytelling. Not to mention that I wasn't too fond of their Onslaught storyline and the Heroes Reborn one that followed after it (even though I am a HUGE fan of Jim Lee's artwork - past, present, and future). It was around this point that I started looking for alternatives to continue enjoying comic books and their lore since Marvel wasn't maintaining it's luster at this time.
I credit discovering WildCATs to my older brother who was influenced by his own artistic talents at the time. I'll showcase some of his art down the road some day if I can find some of it tucked away somewhere, but he was heavily influenced by artist Jim Lee's work at the time, along with Marc Silvestri's on Cyberforce (previously on various Marvel Comics to boot). We both were fond of their artwork back when both of them worked for Marvel Comics, but when they jumped ship to Image Comics and spearheaded Top Cow Productions, that's when we really were full swing into following everything those two artists put their hands on, which lead us to WildCATs.
I have to credit WildCATs as the first "mature" comic book that I was exposed to. Watching the Saturday morning cartoon series on CBS, you would be fooled to think otherwise, but a lot of things were changed in the cartoon to make it kid-friendly. For example, Voodoo's profession as a stripper isn't mentioned and whereas Warblade was already an established member of the team in the comics, he was made as their last recruit. In the comics, Voodoo was the last member to be recruited to the team and was the rookie.
From the cartoon to the toys (both of which I've covered on the first edition of Collectors' Corner), it would be lying if I said that I had a little obsession with this set of characters back in my early adolescent years. Between this and Cyberforce (we'll discuss this soon enough), I can look back a lot of my old artwork and original comic book characters and see how much these characters left an impact on me.
Since DC Comics purchased Wildstorm Productions/Image Comics, Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s, along with most of the Wildstorm comics continuity found themselves part of the existing DC Comics canon as part of the New 52 initiative.
I credit discovering WildCATs to my older brother who was influenced by his own artistic talents at the time. I'll showcase some of his art down the road some day if I can find some of it tucked away somewhere, but he was heavily influenced by artist Jim Lee's work at the time, along with Marc Silvestri's on Cyberforce (previously on various Marvel Comics to boot). We both were fond of their artwork back when both of them worked for Marvel Comics, but when they jumped ship to Image Comics and spearheaded Top Cow Productions, that's when we really were full swing into following everything those two artists put their hands on, which lead us to WildCATs.
I have to credit WildCATs as the first "mature" comic book that I was exposed to. Watching the Saturday morning cartoon series on CBS, you would be fooled to think otherwise, but a lot of things were changed in the cartoon to make it kid-friendly. For example, Voodoo's profession as a stripper isn't mentioned and whereas Warblade was already an established member of the team in the comics, he was made as their last recruit. In the comics, Voodoo was the last member to be recruited to the team and was the rookie.
From the cartoon to the toys (both of which I've covered on the first edition of Collectors' Corner), it would be lying if I said that I had a little obsession with this set of characters back in my early adolescent years. Between this and Cyberforce (we'll discuss this soon enough), I can look back a lot of my old artwork and original comic book characters and see how much these characters left an impact on me.
Since DC Comics purchased Wildstorm Productions/Image Comics, Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s, along with most of the Wildstorm comics continuity found themselves part of the existing DC Comics canon as part of the New 52 initiative.
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