“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

“Suicide Squad” issues 21 – 23

Written by Ales Kot

Wildstorm Concepts:

The first two issues don’t feature any Wildstorm concepts, but they set up the third one. Issue 23 shows the surprising return of the StormWatch Zero members, you know, the super-secret StormWatch team created by Henry Bendix. Only this time they’re led by Lynch, who is back from having defeated Majestic on the pages of “Deathstroke.” Lynch starts messing with the Suicide Squad to get the attention of its leader, Amanda Waller, who was in the Team 7 with Lynch. Amanda thought Lynch was dead after she shot him in the head in their final Team 7 mission, but soon picks up on the clues. After a mission in Vegas set up by Lynch, the Suicide Squad is able to trace the technology to a foreign dictator called Paris Mingowee. Lynch is trying to sell him on the idea of a superhuman team that would become his personal security detail. That’s where the Suicide Squad comes in.

Honestly, it’s a bit jarring to see Lynch act as a villain here. Amanda says she had to shoot Lynch because he was turning bad and his approach to leading Team 7 was turning into something she couldn’t condone. But it wasn’t like that — Lynch was brainwashed by Pandora’s Box.

Anyhow, the two teams being to clash, and it’s interesting to see the StormWatch Zero members, because they were originally parodies of DC characters. Harley Queen faces Crow Jane, who was based off Black Canary, who actually was part of Team 7 in this universe. Killer Croc faces Lamplight, who was based off Green Lantern. Cheetah faces Impetus, who was based off Flash. Deathshot faces Amaze, who presumably was based off Wonder Woman. There’s an extra member to StormWatch Zero here – Titan. He’s a new character, though; the old Wildstorm Titan was a Giant Man parody, and this one is more like Superman.

Somehow, the Suicide Squad kicks their butts, through methods as ridiculous as Deadshot courting Amaze into a make out session. Granted, he was doused with pheromones. It gets even less realistic when Titan shows up to interrupt them, and Deadshot deals with him by kicking him in the balls.

Lynch gets shot through the ear by a sniper, but he survives. However, he’s less likely to have survived the bombardment Amanda orders. As the evil dictator surrenders, the Squad walks out with a victory, and Lynch seemingly dead. But as we know, he never stays dead long.

Next: “Future’s End” issues 0 – 20, written by Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen.

“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.

“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.

“Team 7” Vol.2 issues 0 – 7, “Justice League Dark” issue 23.2, “Deathstroke” Vol.2 issue 0 and “Secret Origins” Vol.3 issue 11

“Team 7” written by Justin Jordan with dialogue by Tony Bedard; “Justice League Dark” written by Dan Didio; “Deathstroke” written by Rob Liefeld; “Secret Origins” written by Christy Marx

Wildstorm concepts:

I was torn about the placing of these issues, given that they include a little scene taking place in the present, but I think it is fine to read them this early on. Team 7 in this continuity takes place five years before the “present”, unlike the much older original Team 7. They are the government’s reaction to the appearance of superheroes; they want a team capable of responding to them, of taking them down if need be. So they assemble a team of the best of the best, hoping they’ll be able to develop a metagene.

It all begins after Superman defeated Brainiac and made himself known to the world in the pages of “Action Comics”. The government’s first attempt at creating a super soldier, the Steel Soldier Project, failed during that crisis, so now they’re looking for an alternative. And John Lynch is a man with ideas. After Brainiac the government isolated something in the human genome that gives people superpowers; the metagene. Just like in the Wildstorm universe, there exists a gen-factor that makes people receptive to gaining powers.

Lynch comes up with Team 7 and the Majestic Project; the Team 7 members will be administered drugs and put under genetic experiments hoping that the extreme situations they’re constantly put into will awake any latent superpower in them. A bit like Project Genesis for the Gen13, or like the original Team 7, innit?

A team is put together: Dinah Lance, an infiltrator (who will become the superheroine Black Canary in the present), her husband Kurt Lance, a tracker, Slade Wilson, tactical genius (who will become Deathstroke), Alex Fairchild, weapons expert, James Bronson, a driven utility player, Summer Ramos, pilot, Cole Cash, Special Forces veteran (Grifter), Amanda Waller, NSA analyst and loan to the army, and Dean Higgins, strategy. If they seem like way too many, it’s because they are. There are way too many nobodies on the team and all of them wear generic military costumes. On the cover to the first issue they wear some funny looking armours and masks to help differentiate one another, but it’s worth nothing they never wear them inside. At least we got two recognizable Wildstorm characters in the mix.

There is a tenth team member mentioned in “Black Canary” Vol.4 issue 9: Some guy called Valentine Chan, who apparently was thrown out early on for being too violent. “Deathstroke” Vol.2 issue 0 also includes a consultant called Adeline Kane to the team. This is the woman who will become Deathstroke’s wife in the future. None of these two characters are actually seen during this series.

“Birds of Prey” vol.3 issue 25

Written by Christy Marx

Wildstorm concepts:

This story takes place on the “Zero Year”, that is to say, six years before the “present” and a year before Team 7. We see how two future Team 7 members meet, and the first appearance of a beloved Wildstorm character on this continuity: John Lynch.

This takes place during the Zero Year story in “Batman”, but that’s not important. All that matters is one of Batman’s villains, Riddler, cuts off the electricity on the entire city, so crime starts running rampant. Lynch, a mere soldier at this point, is tasked with stopping whoever was responsible. He has a contact in town which might have information on it. Meanwhile, Dinah Drake is trying to stop all the people committing crimes. The dojo she lives in and where she practices martial arts is the most important thing in the world to her, so she wants to protect her street. By pure chance, she finds Lynch’s contact, but he’s been stabbed in the middle of all the chaos. The contact asks her to deliver his chip to Lynch. Even though there is a blackout, the chip works with a functional GPS, so Lynch and his men are able to track it. They aren’t the only ones, though. A mysterious group of ninjas are also after it. They confront Dinah, who has to run through the city and fight to avoid getting killed. She survives long enough for Lynch and the soldiers to arrive, and they make short work of the ninjas.

They offer to take Dinah home, but it was caught by a fire in the middle of all the chaos. Her dojo is destroyed. Impressed by the way she handed herself with all the ninjas, Lynch offers Dinah a job – she has the potential to be a skillful agent. And so begins a friendship between the two – which will be key when Lynch decides to include Dinah in his Team 7.

Next: “Team 7” Vol.2 issues 0 – 8, “Deathstroke” Vol.2 issue 0 and “Secret Origins” Vol.3 issue 11, written by Rob Liefeld, Christy Marx and Justin Jordan with dialogue by Tony Bedard.