Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Level One Effect
Written by: Joe Casey
Penciled by: Dustin Nguyen
Inked by: Richard Friend
Colored by: Randy Mayor and Wendy Founts
Lettered by: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Publisher: Wildstorm/Eye of the Storm (DC Comics)
Synopsis
Wildcats 3.0 ends its first year as Spartan attempts to buy out a Viacom-esque media empire but not even his fancy silver suit, devilish tongue, and Brad Pitt haircut can convince the shareholders to sell control of the company to him. Only Dolby can save the day for Halo but can Spartan tear himself away from his computer banks when NASCAR crew chief Jesse Baker stops by for a visit and reveals some startling information about the HALO battery being used in his driver’s race car? Apparently the HALO battery can still power cars even after the car runs out of gas, which is giving Spartan even more ideas in regards to how he can make money and better the world.
Meanwhile we see Grifter continuing rehab as he seeks to regain his ability to walk and Wax continuing to have sex with his boss’s shrewish wife with the help of his mind control powers, while at the same time having to put up with his boss threatening him because he can….
Ultimately Spartan goes to Dolby’s apartment and after using his powers to clean the apartment up, gives Dolby the standard “I’m a wise old alien with a Brad Pitt haircut and fancy silver suit who thinks humanity is worth saving†speech and convinces Dolby to come back to work. Once there, he convinces the stockholders to sell to Spartan, who celebrates his success by reviewing his files on his battery’s new-found ability while a holographic image of the team and CC Rendozzo is shown on his desk.
The Good
Unlike the rest of the initial “Eye of the Storm†books, Wildcats was the only one that seemed to be secure enough to bet on to make it past the first year mark. As a result, we don’t see a mad-dash by Casey to wrap up his storylines. This means that he can still flesh out and continue with Grifter’s rehab and Wax’s revenge subplot without the threat of cancellation over his head.
Also it’s nice to see Spartan put into a position of weakness in the stockholder meeting, what with him needing Dolby to convince the stockholders to sell after his non-threatening good looks fails to sway them to vote to sell.
The Bad
Given the importance of this deal of Spartan’s it would have made more sense for Joe to drag it out some and build up tension towards whether or not Spartan would pull it off. He could have given Spartan the spotlight and show him trying to maintain his Stepford Wife’s cool while everything was going to crap, with Dolby going AWOL after Spartan let Grifter gang-press him into going into the field, Sam Garfield going crazy and killing people in an act of road rage, and Grifter being a cripple and totally useless except to provide sarcasm. It would have made for a compelling storyline as Spartan, who can teleport people into the sun and disintegrate them with a gesture having to play nursemaid to his teammates and keep them from ruining this acquisition of his and how he has to take a hands on approach to keeping things from falling apart on him. It would give Spartan the spotlight to show what kind of new-age leader he is and how he handles various crisis of the corporate executive kind….
Which leads to a big beef I have with this book, in that there is no real drama on the corporation aspects of the book, as Spartan is able to literally charm his way through any problem he has. Since Wildcats is not a traditional super-hero book, why not focus on this aspect of the book? Granted we don’t need to see Spartan buck naked, sleeping in a cardboard box, and framing people for murder like the guy from Profit did, but it would be nice to see Spartan handling corporate affairs and having to have to work instead of relying on his looks to charm people and talk of platitudes to get his way. Casey somewhat nailed this with having Dolby’s return to the fold being critical in order for Spartan to get the stockholders to sell, but he could emphasize this more than he normally does.
The Ugly
Zealot, the second most worthless member of the Wildcats (with Void being the number one worthless member of the old team) is rumored to be coming back in the next arc. Why bring her back? God knows she’s such a hated figure that dislike for her is the one common ground that the fans of the old-school Wildcats and Lobdell/Casey Wildcats have. Why not bring back Warblade and give him a much-needed head-to-toe revamp? Or even check in on Maul and Voodoo and see what they’ve been getting into since the end of Volume 2?
