Alan Moore: Wild Worlds Review

Alan Moore: Wild Worlds
DC Comics - Wildstorm
Softcover Trade Paperback
320 pages
$24.99
ISBN 9781401213794

Contributors: Alan Moore, Scott Clark, Sal Regla, Carlos D'Anda, Richard Friend, Olyoptics, Al Rio, Michael Lopez, Adam Hughes, Mike Heisler, Jim Baikie, Alex Sinclair, and Travis Charest

Reprints: Spawn/WildC.A.T.S #1-4 (of 4), Voodoo #1-4 (of 4), Deathblow: By-Blows #1-3 (of 3), Wildstorm Spotlight #1, and WildC.A.T.S #50

Synopsis: Five different tales by Alan Moore including:

1. Spawn/WildC.A.T.S - Future WildC.A.T.S Zealot and Grifter arrive in the past and attempt to assassinate Spawn.  Zealot is unable to fulfill the mission at the last minute and a new plan is hatched.  Spawn accompanies the current WildC.A.T.S into the future to stop his future self who has killed/stolen the Malebolgia's powers and enslaved the planet.  What fate has befallen our heroes future selves along with the rest of the superhero community?  Can the C.A.T.S and Spawn stop a nightmare from happening?
2. Voodoo leaves the WildC.A.T.S and moves to New Orleans where she gets a job...as a stripper!  She falls into the otherworldly battle of opposing deities and an evil dead preacher trying to claw his way back to life.  
3. Deathblow - On a bizarre planet-scape a woman hatches from a bio-egg and finds a set of dog tags with the name Genevieve Cray #08 on them.  She encounters a cyborg named Klaus who tries to kill her and then a boy named John-Joe Cray.  They find several other Crays hatched from bio-eggs with their heads cut off.  Who is behind the murders and where/who are they?  Michael Cray (Deathblow) of Team 7 died at the end of Fire From Heaven and what is her link to him?  The answer will surprise you.
4. Majestic endures to the end of time where entropy claims the universe.  He lives out the final time with a strange and ever-dwindling group of immortals.  All organic life has perished, the stars have gone cold, and darkness is all.  What awaits at the end of the universe?
5. The new WildC.A.T.S are gabbing at Halo headquarters when the building attacks them in the form of Maul.  They realize it's Mr. White who has bonded with the building.  Majestic whips up a gizmo to detach White's molecules from the structure and they call it a day.

Pros: Travis Charest's art is superb, Majestic story is really unique and interesting, Deathblow and Voodoo stories were decent

Cons: Art was a mixed bag, Al Rio was still a bad clone of Jeff Campbell (Gen13)

Mike Tells It Straight: Alan Moore is an amazing writer, but these stories run a wide range of quality and interest.  Spawn/WildC.A.T.S was essentially terrible due to the fact the characters had no depth and there was no time to develop them over the course of four issues.  Voodoo was a decent story, but the original artist Michael Lopez dropped out of the project halfway through and his replacement's (Al Rio's) art was radically different (and bad).  Deathblow was an off-beat story with an interesting twist ending (it would be funny to see Genevieve Cray resurface at some point).  Majestic's tale was a real winner due to it's quirkiness (he ends up at the end of time with a vampire queen and a sentient syphilis virus as his only companions).  The new WildC.A.T.S by Charest are always good.  Overall I would rate this non-essential reading and steer you toward Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.S instead (it does include the new WildC.A.T.S story).

TO BUY and Recommendations: