“Batman: Urban Legends” issues 1 – 5

Written by Matthew Rosenberg

Wildstorm concepts:  

Okay, so these issues set up a whole new reality for the Wildstorm characters in the DCU; a new past and new looks that don’t mesh at all with what came before, but maybe we can chalk it up to the universe reset that happened after the events of “Death Metal.”

In this new timeline, Cole Cash was in Team 6 instead of Team 7, or perhaps before that. Team 6 was comprised of Cole, going by Deadeye, his brother Max, going by Grifter, Deathblow, Lynch, and appearing for the first time ever, Holden Carver, Marc Slayton and Christie Blaze!

Years ago, Team 6 was ambushed by Mr. Freeze and the terrorist organization known as the Kobra cult in Midway City. It went badly and Cole and his brother were shot before the Superman and Wonder Woman appeared and saved the day. Around that time, Bruce Wayne partnered with the up-and-coming company Halo, who was doing groundbreaking work in the field of biotech. They saved Cole’s life, but the materials used in the procedure were still being developed and there wasn’t enough for both brothers. Cole was deemed the better candidate, so Max died. Afterwards, Cole inherited his Grifter mask and codename from him. While recovering, he met Lucius Fox, the man for whom he’d work in the future.

After that, Cole started working for Halo, led by Jacob Marlowe, and joined his WildC.A.Ts (!). Six months ago, Halo had set up Cole with a fake job as a thug who made sure lowlives paid their debts, and a fake identity by passing as his own brother, Max. This attracts the spy organization Leviathan, as Halo planned. Leviathan wants Cole to prove itself by killing Lucius Fox, but he turns things around by saving Lucius to score himself a job with him – a long con to get into Wayne Enterprises’ main computer and steal all their info on Batman. During this event, we briefly get a glimpse of someone who looks like Voodoo.

One evening, Cole, who dislikes being called Grifter now, asks The Penguin for help to meet Nora Fries, the supervillain wife of Mr. Freeze. During the gathering, Penguin asks why the name “Marlowe” keeps coming up around Cole, but he refuses to answer and things seem to turn violent. The details afterwards are sketchy, but Nora seems to have been drafted into the Wildcats, and the whole thing is made to look like Nora was killed by Zealot. After the meeting, Grifter is harrassed by Batman, but he refuses to tell him anything and hilariously kicks him in the nuts, to no result.

Later, Grifter saves Lucius from an assassination attempt from Leviathan. He gets wounded in the neck, but the wound closes quickly with what seems to be rapid healing. He meets Chance Adibi, global security head for Wayne Enterprises, and his boss. That night, Grifter gets caught in the middle of a skirmish between Red Hood, one of Batman’s groupies, and supervillain Toyman. This time Cole manages to knock out Red Hood and again he drafts the villain into his Wildcats, replacing Toyman with a fake corpse.

Cole’s main plan is still to access Wayne Enterprises’ main computer, and for that he steals a security card. However, that only allows him access to the computer room, not the network. For that, Cole sleeps with Chance. In the afterglow, she asks him why she can’t find anything about his past, and Cole amusingly answers it’s something “that’s a lifetime ago and a universe away from here.” After Chance leaves, Cole clones her computer’s hard drive with Ladytron’s help to be able to access the Wayne Enterprises network. This, of course, was bait laid out by Chance, who doesn’t trust Cole.

The next day, Grifter meets Bruce Wayne, who says John Lynch recommended Cole to him and wants Cole to work for him. However, Cole pretends he’s never heard that name. After that, Bruce changes to his Batman persona and helps Cole escape from an ambush from the Black Mask Gang, who are seeking payback because it looks like Grifter is killing Gotham criminals. When they’re done beating up the bad guys, Batman wants to interrogate Cole about the corpses, too, but Cole is teleported away by Void.

Later, Cole finally accesses the Wayne Enterprises network, but it turns out the Batman files are even above the head of security’s clearance. Cole will need to get into Lucius own computer; for that purpose, he hires contract killer Deathstroke to pretend to fight him. They make sure to attract as much attention as possible to set up a trap to catch Batman, but instead Superman arrives and botches the plan. At the same time, Leviathan assaults Wayne Enterprises. Cole escapes by teleport, but since he can’t save Lucius in time, he sends Zealot instead. This is the last straw for Lucius, who fires Cole.

Out of options to get into the Wayne Building, Cole crawls back to Leviathan and convinces them he was working to bring all the data to them. They agree to help him get into the building, but instead of being a small-scale operation like Cole planned, they bring in an army and Cole needs to fight back. He gets help from Batman and his sidekick Nightwing, with whom Cole exchanges some witty dialogue. Ultimately, Cole manages to get Lucius into the main server room which hosts the Batman computer, the only computer in the world that has access to all of Batman’s files. He steals all the data, and teleports in his WildC.A.Ts team: Zealot, Deathblow, Caitlin Fairchild, Void, some kind of android built by Toyman who might be Spartan, and Nora Fries. This Caitlin seems to have the ability to increase her mass and go from looking like a little girl to a hulking giant, kind of like Maul. After defeating the bad guys, the Wildcats leave, promising this will all make sense later.

Continity Corner:

• Max Cash is dead?! But he appeared in the pages of “Grifter” back in 2011!
• In the pages of “Team 7”, Cole gave a different reason for wearing his mask, but in this comic/universe reshuffle, it’s passed down from his brother.
• In this comic onwards, Zannah hates being called Zealot. However, that wasn’t the case according to her appearances in “Deathstroke” and “Stormwatch.”
• Deathblow is black in this appearance, but he was white in his appearances in “Superman“, “Grifter” and “Teen Titans“.
• Why does Caitlin look so much different and younger than her appearances in “Team 7”, “Ravagers“, “Supergirl” “Batgirl“, “Legion Lost“, “Superboy” and “Teen Titans“?
• Which of the tree Ladytrons shown in DC is the Wildcats member? The one from “Grayson“, the one from “Teen Titans” or the one from “Team 7“?
• And finally, why doesn’t Nightwing remember Grifter from the time they tangled during his days as Agent 37 in “Grayson“?
  Next: “Batman: Urban Legends” issue 6, written by Matthew Rosenberg
  
  Wildstorm appearances in the DC Universe: #384

“The Next Batman: Second Son” issues 1-2, “Batman” issue 101, and “Infinite Frontier” issue 0

Written by James Tynion IV and John Ridley

Wildstorm concepts:  

I’d already made this post, but now I’m including the Infinite Frontier and Next Batman issues to it, because they didn’t merit their own posts and they read as a single whole.

These issues marked the beginning of a new era of Wildstorm characters appearing more regularly across the DCU. It begins coming off the Joker War, in which Batman’s fortune was redirected to his tech guy, Lucius Fox.  Since the city is in such disarray and he’s become an important person, Lucius hires a bodyguard – our boy Cole Cash, Grifter.

His first job is to go to Ninh Thuan, Vietnam, to tell Lucius’ son, Jace, to come home. He used to be called Tim, but he changed his name to Jace for reasons as of yet unknown. He left the country following some very wild youth years in which he ran over a kid with his car and his parents covered it up. He was sent to Sanford Academy, a private school for problem children, where he learned self-defense and how to kick ass along with classmates Vol and Hadiyah. As an adult, he was trained by Katana, the superhero, and became a vigilante with the aid of his friends. Jace was in Vietnam going after Tyler Arkadine, an alleged human trafficker. Except nothing was what it seemed in the mission, because Arkadine knew Jace was coming and apparently he wasn’t even a trafficker – he held files which exposed Batman’s involvement with Wayne Industries. Now, why am I stopping for so long on Jace, who’s not even a Wildstorm character? Because he’s written by the Oscar-winner John Ridley, who’s a bloody genius.

Either way, Grifter brings Jace home; now that the Fox family is in the public scene, they’re under heavier scrutiny, and Jace has to give testimony over the kid he killed. Cole then gives a report to Lucius. As he puts it, “Does Jace have his shit together? Can’t say. Bringing him home was my job. Fixing the kid is yours.”

Afterward, Lucius lets Cole know Batman will be showing up to discuss the future of his company, but Grifter picks a fight with the Bat anyway, just to be able to say he did it once in his life. He obviously loses, but it ends with him pulling a gun by surprise, so it could’ve ended either way. It goes to show how different these two character’s modus operandis are.

After meeting Lucius, Batman discusses finances. While leaving, Batman turns to Grifter and gives him a message to his boss – not Lucius, but his true boss, Halo. He tells him he knows of them, and that the city might be changing, but he’ll still be watching.

Shortly after, we see Grifter pull his weight as bodyguard when he moves Lucius and his son, Jace, to a panic room when there’s a massive-scale attack on Arkham. The news say it’s a Joker attack, but the person responsible is actually someone else whose identity is still a mystery!

 

Next: “Supergirl” Vol 7 issue 18, written by Steve Orlando.

“The Flash” issue 750

Written by Scott Lobdell

Wildstorm Concepts:

Since the blog that inspired me, Weathering Wildstorm, came back, I figured it was fitting for me to do a new post as well!

In Flash #750, coming off the series “Flash Forward”, Flash Wally West sits in the Metron Chair, an object from the New Gods that grants him omnipresence. With it, he’s able to see every Earth and timeline from the past and present, and upon seeing the Wildstorm Earth, he mentions its heroes are “more wild and unpredictable than he could imagine.”

That’s it for this one-panel cameo, though there are a few things that bear commenting: For one, Deathblow was mistakenly coloured black. Could this be caused by his new black incarnation in the pages of “The Wild Storm”? Secondly, this is the first time we’ve seen Union and Backlash since the end of the old WSU in 2011, and Backlash is, of course, drawn by his legendary artist Brett Booth.

Side note: Some of you might have wondered if there were some Wildstorm cameos in “Doomsday Clock” issue 12. The answer, sadly, is no. Just copycats. This isn’t Zealot:

And this isn’t Fuji:

“Grayson” issues 9 – 20

Written by Tim Seeley, Tom King, Jacksong Lanzing and Collin Kelly.
Wildstorm Concepts:

The previous boss of Spyral, Mr. Minos, has been overthrown and now Helena Bertinelli runs things. After several spies are killed on Spyral missions, Helena is called to a gathering of clandestine organisations; among the people assembled are Grifter and Tao, making his first appearance in the DCU. Spyral quickly clears its name and finds the killings were done by a infiltrator from the organisation Checkmate. The council is assembled again, and Helena warns them there will be consequences if the cabal breaks its neutrality and helps against Sypral.

Right after the meeting is over, Spyral finds out the God Garden has been using its Door technology again to travel to Berlin, Germany. They send an agent over to check it out, not knowing the God Garden has deployed… Ladytron! This Ladytron is different to the one we saw on the pages of “Team 7” and the one from “Teen Titans”; this third version seems taken straight from the old Wildstorm universe, acting as her old outrageous, insulting self and looking like her old design. She was sent to Germany to check if an address is doing human genetic experiments “like the lab in Gamorra that inserted a reactor into her baby-cage.” In truth, they got the tip from Midnighter, who was doing a favor to Grayson; Grayson needed to visit Berlin so he needed Spyral to send him there. Grayson and his teammate Tiger are sent against Ladytron, and a fight ensues.

The three are surprised by robot spider security drones. Ladytron can’t believe it; as she’s back to being her old self, she believes the spiders should only attack “the fleshies” and have some cyber-darity towards other robots. Tiger convinces Maxine to use her reactor’s energy to create a nuclear electromagnetic pulse. But Grayson can’t have that, because it would wipe the computers of the information he came to steal. So he knocks Tiger out and hypnotizes Maxine, using her to talk to the computer and get him the information. Then, right before being swarmed by the spiders, he makes Maxine create the EMP.

With the information he’s gained, Grayson is ready to make his move and destroy Spyral. As he goes rogue and starts attacking, Helena calls for a meeting with the Cabal and asks for their help. Both Grifter and Tao, among others, say yes. Grifter and Tao work together: Grifter is a telepath, so he can counter Tao’s manipulations, making him the only one fit to speak to him. Grifter gives Tao everything they have on Spyral, so that Tao can solve the puzzle and figure out what will be the next move. Tao recommends killing Helena, recognising Grayson has gone rogue because Spyral could destroy the world. Spyral deserves to be destroyed. The Syndicate supports Grayson’s cause, but they still go after him to keep up appearances.

Grifter never had the heart to kill, so he meets Grayson himself, hoping to convince him to turn himself in. The two men fight, but Grayson resists Grifter’s telepathy and hypnotizes him. Now Grayson knows the Syndicate is going after Spyral, but he wants to stop them; they want to kill Helena, and she’s an innocent victim.

Indeed, Grifter and the others attack the Spyral school. Grayson and his friend Tiger arrive and start battling the entire Syndicate at once. Being overwhemled, Grayson brings Midnighter in, who beats the Syndicate. Afterwards, Midnighter leaves, leaving Grayson to deal with Spyral once and for all.

Next: “Midnighter” issues 8 – 12, written by Steve Orlando.

“Teen Titans” Vol.5 issues 1 – 4

Written by Will Pfeifer
Wildstorm Concepts: 

In this series of issues we see the Teen Titans face supervillain Algorithm, which we’ve previously covered in Teen Titans: Future’s End. Yes, even though she doesn’t look like it, Algorithm is supposed to be another name for Ladytron, making her the second iteration (and not last) of the character in this universe.
Algorithm works for Manchester Black, a technological terrorist. Under his orders, she breaks into S.T.A.R. Labs’ under-construction state-of-the-art laboratory. She takes over the building with two scientists hostage and causes an explosion. The Teen Titans arrive on the scene, but they’ve gotta hurry – if the flames reach the project that’s being worked on, the blast could take Manhattan out. Bunker faces Algorithm, but after realising she’s a robot he simply creates boxes inside her brain and blows her head off. The Titans save the day, but Algorithm rebuilds herself elsewhere, thanks to S.T.A.R. Nanotech. Manchester Black is using her threat to convince S.T.A.R. Labs to relocate away from Manhattan, but they aren’t sure yet – Black wants to raise the stakes, make the city demand S.T.A.R. Labs move out. Algorithm thinks Black loves her; he rambles on about the rise of artificial intelligence, the coming of the singularity, and Algorithm thinks she IS the singularity, the next step in humanity.
While Teen Titan member Raven is in a night club, Algorithm strikes again. Raven calls reinforcements, and once again, after finding out she’s a robot the Titans are able to cut loose and tear her apart. Robin suspects that it was easy — too easy. He heads to S.T.A.R. Labs and begins pocking in the computers, attracting Algorithm’s attention. She beats Robin, but Manchester Black won’t let her kill the boy — she’s outlived her usefulness. She thought she was independent, but all along she just followed her code; that’s why Black named her Algorithm. She loses her mind and heads over to Black, wanting to kill him. Robin shows up in the nick of time and saves Black, just like he was counting on – he recorded the whole thing to make himself look like an innocent victim.

Next: “Black Canary” Vol.4 issue 9, written by Matthew Rosenberg.

“Deathstroke” Vol.2 issues 19 – 20

Written by Justin Jordan

Wildstorm Concepts:

 

So this is it, the big season finale to this chapter of the Wildstorm Universe in DC. “Team 7”, “The Ravagers”, it’s all led here, in the same way “Superman Annual” worked for Part 1.

We learn about Lynch’s plan to stop Majestic: They will need Terra’s powers of controlling earth and Rose. That’s why Deathstroke accepted working for Harvest, to retrieve them.

Lynch sets up a base in a dormant volcano just overseeing the destroyed Gamorra. As soon as Majestic comes out of the ocean, Lynch throws missiles at him, not even letting him prove himself a threat. One way or another, Majestic turns pissed after surviving the missiles, so he is a threat now.

Lynch reveals Terra is his plan B; his plan A is to use Deathstroke’s family. He struck a deal with Deathstroke’s son Jericho: If Lynch brought the whole family together, Jericho would use his mind control powers to make Majestic obey Lynch’s orders. But Lynch’s mistake was trusting Jericho, as Deathstroke’s family has a history of being crazy and trying to kill each other. Jericho immediately takes over the operation, controlling the soldiers around the base and making them shoot themselves. He starts controlling his own family too; except for Rose and Deathstroke, whose minds are so strong that he would need to train for weeks to take over them. He also can’t control Lynch, whose mind is impenetrable. The three of them start attacking Jericho, trying to knock him out before Majestic reaches the base – when he does, Jericho will have the powers of a god.

Deathstroke proves himself a good enough distraction that Rose manages to sneak behind Jericho and hold her blade to his neck, but she cares too much about her family, so she isn’t capable of going for the kill. Having had enough, Lynch uses his telekinesis to make a gun come to his hand – and then he shoots Jericho. But it’s too late. Majestic reaches the place, stopping the bullet with his hand. He’s now under control of Jericho.

As he dispatches Majestic to destroy all the troops around the facility, rubble falls from the ceiling and falls over Deathstroke’s ex-wife. She passes away, muttering with her final words that she never hated Slade; her hate was induced by Jericho. Now it’s personal! Deathstroke regroups with Rose, his other son Grant and Terra. They can’t find Lynch so he can’t explain why Terra was his plan B, but Terra figures it out; she can awaken the dormant volcano they’re in.

She creates a giant rock hand and uses it to pull Majestic into the burning lava. But just like when Nemesis pulled this trick in the old Wildstorm, it doesn’t work. Majestic storms into the base, and discovers his mum is dead. Crazy with grief, he forgets his rage at Terra to attack Slade – but he’s stopped by Rose, who throws Majestic into the ground with one kick. How’s that possible? It turns out Rose’s metahuman power is to dampen other people’s invulnerability. That explains why she was chosen to watch over Superboy at the start of this chapter.

Using this knowledge, Terra contains Majestic while Slade and Rose attack together; not letting up until Majestic loses consciousness, a god defeated. Jericho switches to controlling Terra, but Slade quickly knocks her unconscious. Now the only person left to control is Grant, and Jericho makes him put his own sword to his throat, hiding behind him. Slade knows Jericho is only buying time until Majestic wakes up… and he can’t have that happen. Leaping forward, Deathstroke thrusts the sword forward into Grant’s neck, and further into Jericho’s skull.

         Deathstroke just killed both of his sons to buy the world a little more time. He knows that by doing this he’s killed any chance of reconciling with Rose, but that was never an option, not for people like them.

With Rose’s help, Slade doses Majestic with sedatives, and they escape, leaving A.R.G.U.S. to clean up after them. Lynch ends up missing, but he will be back in Chapter 4, in “Suicide Squad”.

But there’s still one Team 7 member unaccounted for; although nobody is aware of this yet, Dean Higgins didn’t die; he’s still at large, and his terrorist attacks using the Basilisk organisation are the focus of our next chapter.

So what’s left of the main character from this chapter, Caitlin? She gets a flashback cameo in “Superboy” Vol.6 issue 26. Even though it stops concerning Wildstorm characters, the main villain from the era, Harvest, is eventually defeated. So we can assume Caitlin, who was being kept prisoner by Harvest, gets to go free. She will get a couple more cameos in Part 4.

Next: “Flash” Vol.4 issue 4, “Teen Titans” Vol.4 issue 16 and “Sword of Sorcery” issues 0-3, written by Brian Buccellato, Scott Lobdell and Tony Bedard.

“Ravagers” issues 10 – 12

Written by Michael Alan Nelson and Tony Bedard

Wildstorm concepts:

This is the Ravager’s final story as the book got cancelled. As co-writer Tony Bedard (“Team 7”) joins the book, the links to the Wildstorm universe grow stronger.

In the colony, Deathstroke gets tasked with retrieving all of the escaped kids to Harvest. Deathstroke agrees on the condition that he gets to take his daughter, Rose, with him, plus one kid of his choice. Harvest is okay with these conditions, but he warns Deathstroke that Rose might be about to die… Harvest has sent troopers and robots out to hunt Warblade and Rose after they failed him in their last adventure. The duo manages to overcome their hunters, but they know more will come. If they want to survive, they need to regain Harvest’s favour – by bringing back his runaway kids.

Back in their safehouse, Caitlin and the kids are laughing about their shared memories of the Colony. Caitlin feels realized; she’s finally given them a place where they can feel safe, a place they can call home. She’s made this happen.

Wait, wasn’t she torn about the kids’ destructive nature just a couple of issues ago? This jump on character development is due to the book’s cancellation, things need to be hurried up. All kinds of good things suddenly start happening; Thunder gets over the loss of his sister, Ridge loses his mutant form and becomes human again, Terra and Beast Boy confess their mutual attraction. Niles realizes Thunder’s migraines are caused by his sister’s absence, so he uses him as a sort of quantum anchor and brings her back. Lightning is back! It’s almost too good to be true… Indeed, all this happiness is the calm before the storm.

That night, when everyone’s gone to bed, Deathstroke breaks into the place. Using Harvest’s special Abeo Blade, his first victim is Ridge, who turns to ashes after being stabbed with the knife. At the same moment, Warblade and Rose sneak inside. Rose visits Caitlin in her room, where’s she’s caught by Niles’ cameras, so he activates his security protocol. Just afterwards, though, Deathstroke attacks Niles from behind and turns him to ashes as well.

Meanwhile, Caitlin starts fighting Rose and the fight takes them to the hallway, where they meet the rest of the kids, who were fighting Warblade. The whole cast is surprised by Deathstroke, whose reputation precedes him. Both the kids and the Ravagers understand that they must work together if they want any chance of surviving Deathstroke. Right when the brawl is about to start, though, Niles’ security protocol comes crashing from the ground: The animal-vegetable-mineral man.

This science experiment starts crashing the place, destroying everything in his path. Caitlin attempts to escape, to reach the control room to open an exit for everyone. Rose goes after her, but she’s chased by her father. Getting in the middle, Warblade attempts to buy Rose some time – but he’s no match for Deathstroke. He switches from the Abeo blade to his usual sword, and promptly beheads Warblade. Rest in peace, Reno. You were but a victim of Harvest’s machinations.

Meanwhile, Rose and Caitlin agree that they must join their efforts against the animal-vegetable-mineral man if they want to survive the day. The two of them and the kids join efforts, and everyone throws a combined blow that causes the monster to crumble to dust. When the kids are ready to turn against Rose, everyone is surprised by Warbade’s severed head. Panicked, Rose grabs Caitlin and guides her inside the installations; she knows Niles held something in there that could stop her father.

She’s referring to the cloning room, where Niles grew several bodies for Caitlin. Cait is horrified and confused; why would anyone clone her? Little does she know, she’s not even the original Cait; the original one died in 2006 after Spartan took control of her body, in the “Team 7” book. Rose laughs at Cait’s confusion, taking pleasure in torturing her. The two of them begin to fight, but they fall into the cloning chambers and cause the clone Caitlins to wake up. Soon, all the Cait’s begin fighting each other. But the clones are unfinished, unstable; they keep melting into green goo. The girls get overwhelmed by the number of clones and thrown back into the hallway, where Deathstroke is waiting for them. He’s already stabbed everyone else with the Abeon blade, turning them to ashes. Everyone except for Beast Boy, who was knocked over by a pile of rubble and is presumed dead.

Not wasting any time, Deathstroke stabs his own daughter and then Caitlin, but not without letting her know she isn’t the original Cait. He would know- he killed the original.

After all’s said and done, it is revealed the Abeo blade was nothing but a advanced teleportation device that Harvest had brought from the future; Deathstroke was sending all of the kids back to Harvest’s grasp. In return he gets his daughter, and Terra, and the three of them leave the Colony. Without Beast Boy, there’s nothing to keep Terra in there, anyway. Except Deathstroke’s wrong; Beast Boy didn’t die, he simply passed out. His future will be seen in “Teen Titans”.

So this is where all of the kid’s efforts and struggles led them. To be caught again by Harvest. What happens to Harvest and the kids? The end of their adventure and saga can be seen in “Teen Titans Annual” issue #3, but it doesn’t concern any Wildstorm characters. Bottom line is, Harvest is defeated and every kid is set free, including Caitlin, even if we don’t see her.

Next: Deathstroke Vol.2 issues 19 – 20, written by Justin Jordan.

“Deathstroke” Vol.2 issue 18 and “Team 7” Vol.2 issue 5

Written by Justin Jordan

Wildstorm Concepts:      

The finale to this chapter is coming, so all the pieces start falling together, thanks to the Team 7 writers coming back to close loose ends from the past.

We start off in the middle of a previous “Deathstroke” arc, with Deathstroke battling a generic ninja villain. Except after beating him, he reveals he learnt about Deathstroke’s name and he got his tech from one man: John Lynch. The same John Lynch that should be dead after Waller shot him in “Team 7”.  Deathstroke has a new objective.

This is where the “present” part of Team 7, issue #5 takes place. Deathstroke tracks Lynch to a boat, where they discuss Caitlin and the fact that she was brought back from the dead. Lynch reveals he wanted Slade to find him – he wanted to call him because Majestic is coming back. It seems the huge explosion from many years ago, from the Genosha mission, wasn’t enough to kill that god. They must work together if they want to stop someone that powerful from coming back… Luckily, Lynch has a plan. The first step is for Deathstroke to accept a job from Harvest…

Next: Ravagers issues 10 – 12, written by Michael Alan Nelson and Tony Bedard.

“Ravagers” issues 8 – 9

Written by Michael Alan Nelson

Wildstorm concepts:  

We’re joined by new writer Michael Nelson, whose background was mostly horror stories, so he’ll try to get the characters into darker situations. It’s fitting then than his first story focuses on Warblade and Rose, the villains. They arrive in the little town of Hartsville, Colorado, chasing a fellow Ravager, Adam. He’s lost control of his powers and he’s out of control, so he ends up imploding in the middle of town. The radiation released infects everyone except for the Ravagers, whose metahumans status makes them impervious to radiation. Now every normal person there is infected and about to go off as well! Warblade and Rose must quarantine the place, or the explosive epidemic will spread like a plague and destroy the world.

If you’re confused, don’t worry. It does feel like we’re thrown in the middle of the story – for example, we never get any explanations of who Adam was. Anyhow, playing the good guy goes against Warblade’s nature – in fact, he considers the term “good guy” outright offensive. He needs to constantly keep his murderous tendencies in check; were it up to him, he’d “quarantine” the town by killing everyone in it. He handles closing off the city limits, bringing down the mountains on the roads so that no one can drive out.

The people start exploding, so the duo must become even more heroic, even running into a burning house to save kids after an explosion set it on fire. As Warblade gets more and more uncomfortable, the unexpected happens – Rose discovers she’s infected! But that should be impossible! Right at the same time, the book’s main cast arrives into town: Caitlin and the kids. They’re looking for Adam, the guy who exploded at the beginning. No, I still don’t know what was his deal. He’s an entirely off-screen character. Caitlin overpowers Rose, who doesn’t have any fight in her since she discovered she’s marked for death. Warblade and the town’s sheriff try to explain – the Ravagers are the good guys! Now Caitlin and the kids made themselves look like the bad guys.

The sheriff has enough of misunderstandings and delivers orders: Warblade is to take care of the town’s jail, where one of the inmates is infected and about to explode. Caitlin is to take care of rose, and the rest have to go fetch the sheriff’s daughter, who drove off in an attempt to escape town. While Rose’s being given morphine, Caitlin attempts to reason with her: Why is she working under a monster like Harvest? But Rose simply laughs. The monster is Caitlin, who abandoned Superboy and Rose back then. The girls passed the point of making amends long ago.

Meanwhile, Warblade is happy to comply to his orders, since he wanted someone infected to examine; he’s looking for some way to save Rose. He finds that the inmate gained control of the radiation filling him and obtained super-powers, at least until he blows up. A fight lashes out.

At the same time, the kids catch the sheriff’s daughter, right when Thunder starts having an attack. It seems ever since he lost his sister he’s been off, getting sicker by the moment. The girl tells the heroes a secret: Her brother is also a meta-human.

Warblade finds out about this firsthand, as his fight with the inmate gets interrupted by the kid. He creates an air bubble around the inmate’s head, depriving him of oxygen and bringing him to his knees. Warblade takes care of the rest, beheading the criminal. He had what he had come there for, anyway; a sampling of the radiation to study. With it, Warblade manages to figure out how to cure the infection! It seems he’s some kind of scientific genius in this timeline.

Everyone returns to the sheriff, and we get a nice moment where the colourist mixes up Rose with Terra. Poor Terra, she and the colourists have a terrible relationship. Anyway, the sheriff’s daughter catches the radiation, so it’s time for Warblade to test out his cure. Now, how he puts it to practice isn’t clear, but apparently he uses fifteen people as a lightning rod for the explosion to go to, so that it is sent flying to the sky and doesn’t hurt the victim. The town is saved… but the sheriff died during the experiment. Oh, well, Warblade hasn’t actually learned anything from this experience, so he doesn’t care.

In the end, the Ravagers decide to leave without fighting Caitlin and her team, since they’re too weakened, and Rose is still high on morphine. They just hope Harvest doesn’t learn about the mess they caused… problem is, Harvest already knows.

Next: Deathstroke Vol.2 issue 18 and the “present” part of Team 7 Vol.2 issue 5, written by Justin Jordan.

“Legion Lost” Vol.2 issues 14 – 16

Written by Tom DeFalco

Wildstorm concepts:  

These issues are the Legion’s final adventure, a story so big they need to call in the Ravagers as special guests. That means more Caitlin, and Harvest and his Ravagers also appear, so we get more Warblade!

A member of the Legion was sent to investigate a death-scream from a distant planet, but he came back to Earth in bad shape, followed by a mysterious assailant, Daggor. He works for his Conqueror Supreme, a being that he hopes to summon. At the same time, the Legion had been visited by Captain Adym, a superior from their future on the 31st century. He was drawn to the past because there was a breakpoint – a critical juncture in space/time that threatens the very fabric of reality.

Since the entire team seems to not be enough to take on Daggor and his mounted animal, Thraxx, Captain Adym calls on reinforcements; he calls Detective Jocelyn Lure, another native from the 31st century. However, this distress call is also picked up by Harvest and his Ravagers.

Back in Arizona, where the Legion is battling, Daggor unleashes some sort of probe onto the ground; he then releases an army of robots which grow from a microscopic size to being human-sized. Right when the Legion starts being overwhelmed, Harvest arrives at the place. He carries three Ravagers with him: Psykill, Warblade and Leash. Harvest knows he can’t mould the world to his liking if it is annihilated by aliens, so he declares a truce with the Legion and starts helping them.

Meanwhile, Jocelyn visits Superboy, who’s staying with Caitlin and the kids who escaped from The Colony. She helped Superboy find Caitlin, so now in return she wants his help. Only Caitlin and Ridge manage to make it past the portal, following Superboy, before it’s closed. So four new players enter the playground. Superboy isn’t interested in helping anyone; he loses focus of everything once he sees Harvest, and rushes to him to know more about his origins. Too busy to talk, Harvest activates a subliminal trigger in Superboy, turning him berserk with just a few words. Driven mad, Superboy starts punching anything in his way, finally helping in the battle and destroying dozens of evil robots. Warblade tries to make fun of him, calling him out on finally living up to his full potential of being a destroying machine for Harvest. But Superboy has been driven berserk, not dumb. Warblade promptly earns a good punch that throws him flying.

Caitlin is more willing to help the Legion, remembering that they owe them one from the Culling. Suddenly, the ground starts breaking open, forming a huge crater from the spot where Daggor launched a probe. A huge weapon appears from the crater, and Gates from the Legion recognizes it as a world-killer!

Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes continue fighting the army of robots. Ridge finds himself back-to-back with Warblade, fighting together just like in their old days in the Ravagers. Warblade says Harvest is willing to forgive Ridge from leaving his team, and that he can come back in exchange from one small favour… Never mind, though, we never hear that favour. It was supposedly going to be revealed in the “Ravagers” book, but it got cancelled, so whatever.

Captain Adym is scared; this whole event isn’t supposed to happen according to the future he comes from. If they don’t win the day, not only Earth will be destroyed, but also the quintillions of lives who will be born in the future! But the Legionaries don’t want to help him detonate a bomb which could obliterate half the continent; they don’t want to sacrifice millions to save quintillions. Harvest IS willing to help, though. He sends Adym into the past and orders his men to leave; now that they did what they came there to do they don’t mind leaving the rest to die in battle.

Ultimately, the day is saved when Gates opens a door to the nearest black hole, and he takes Daggor, his beast Thraxx, the world-killer and Adym’s bomb away. This is the end of the Legion’s adventures, but Long Live the Legion!

Next: Ravagers issues 8 – 9, written by Michael Alan Nelson.