Image Comics (1992–1997) Wildstorm, founded by
Jim Lee, was one of the founding studios that formed
Image Comics in 1992. Wildstorm, originally known as Aegis Entertainment, grew out of Homage Studios, a workspace shared by Lee,
Whilce Portacio,
Scott Williams, and others in San Diego, California.
Silvestri joined Homage Studios shortly after the founding of Image Comics. Although he worked at the studio, his projects appeared under his own
Top Cow imprint. Lee's first project for Image and Aegis Entertainment was
WildC.A.T.s. The line was expanded with
Deathblow, Stormwatch, and
Union in 1993. An Homage Studios talent search publicized in
WildC.A.T.s issue 2 led to the hiring of
Brett Booth,
J. Scott Campbell, Alex Garner, and others in 1993. Image published the Wildstorm title
Gen13 issue 1 in 1994. Although pre-orders were disappointing at 173,000 copies, it became Image's biggest hit of the year at a time when the company's sales were dropping. A Saturday morning cartoon series of
WildC.A.T.s lasted only a single season (1994–1995), while a full-length animated version of
Gen13 was produced but never released in the United States.
Watchmen co-creator
Alan Moore took over writing
WildC.A.T.S with issue 21 in 1995, and remained the regular writer on the title for 14 issues. His run on the series introduced a new
WildC.A.T.S team consisting of both new and established characters who remained on earth while the other team adventured in space. Marvel hired Lee and Liefeld in 1995 to revamp four classic Marvel titles in an effort to boost sales. Marvel paid Lee and Liefled $1 million plus 40% royalties to produce the comic books through their respective studios. Wildstorm produced
Iron Man and
Fantastic Four while Liefeld's Extreme Studios produced
Avengers and
Captain America. Each of these titles relaunched in 1996 with a new issue 1 set in the "
Heroes Reborn" universe, a separate continuity from the main Marvel comics line. Lee penciled
Fantastic Four and co-wrote it with Choi.
Iron Man was penciled by Portacio and written by Lee and
Scott Lobdell. Sales on
Fantastic Four tripled. Wildstorm took over Liefeld's titles with issue 7. Each Heroes Reborn title lasted 12 issues, after which the characters were reintroduced to the main Marvel continuity and the series resumed their previous numbering in 1998. In 1996, Wildstorm launched a new imprint called Homage Comics. Described as a "home for creator-owned material as well as a safe haven from an increasingly challenging comic book market," the initial line-up consisted of
Astro City by
Kurt Busiek, Terry Moore's previously self-published
Strangers in Paradise, and a new title called
Leave it to Chance by
James Robinson and
Paul Smith. was one of the top selling comics of the year. Ellis also took over writing
Stormwatch in 1996 and likewise took the series in a more mature direction. Following Heroes Reborn, Jim Lee returned to Image Comics, writing and drawing a new series called
Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday in 1997. Sales, however, were disappointing in part due to an erratic schedule: Lee only managed to publish seven issues over 15 months. In 1998, WildStorm launched the
Cliffhanger imprint to showcase created owned titles from a new generation of popular artists, starting with
Crimson by
Humberto Ramos,
Danger Girl by
J. Scott Campbell, and
Battle Chasers by
Joe Madureira. Wildstorm also ventured into licensed comics, publishing
Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, based on the
video game franchise, in 1998.
DC Comics first run (1998–2010) Due to declining sales across the U.S. comics industry, and his view that his role as publisher and growing family demands interfered with his role as an artist, Lee left
Image Comics and sold WildStorm to
DC Comics in late 1998, enabling him to focus once again on art. The deal went into effect in January 1999. Wildstorm remained based in La Jolla, California, and was initially reported to retain editorial independence, while benefiting from DC's marketing efforts during a comic book market slump. DC, meanwhile, benefited from increased market share and access to Wildstorm's coloring department. However, DC editorial intervened in a number of Wildstorm titles over the years and comics journalist Rich Johnston blamed this interference for the imprint's downfall of the imprint. By the time of the acquisition, Wildstorm had established a creative services business providing art and graphic design to external clients. Because DC had no interest in the creative services business, Ted Adams, who had previously run the business at Wildstorm, and three other former Wildstorm employees founded
Idea and Design Works (IDW) to serve the company's existing clients. WildStorm launched a new imprint titled
America's Best Comics (ABC) in January 1999 to publish a line of titles created by
Alan Moore, including
Promethea,
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
Tomorrow Stories,
Tom Strong and
Top 10.
The Authority was a dark and violent
superhero comic that
Grant Morrison described as a fusion of British cynicism with the utopian superhero ideals of Superman creators
Jerry Siegel and
Joe Shuster. Ellis wrote its first twelve issues before handing the series over to
Mark Millar. The success of
The Authority set the tone for the future of Wildstorm and helped establish the "
widescreen comics" trend. Wildstorm moved the majority of its superhero titles to a new imprint called "Eye of the Storm" in 2002. The titles were labeled for "mature readers" as the content shifted away from traditional superhero stories towards more morally complex themes. The imprint published critically acclaimed titles such as
Joe Casey and
Dustin Nguyen's
Wildcats 3.0, Stormwatch: Team Achilles by
Micah Ian Wright and
Whilce Portacio, and
Sleeper by
Ed Brubaker and
Sean Phillips. Wright was fired by DC for lying about his military service. The Eye of the Storm imprint was shuttered by the end of 2004. Meanwhile, Wildstorm continued publishing creator owned works. The company published
Global Frequency by
Warren Ellis in 2002, which was adapted by
Warner Bros. into a
television pilot that never aired but was eventually leaked to the internet.
Red by Ellis and artist Cully Hamner was published in 2003 and was adapted into
a film released in 2010. The
Eisner Award winning
Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris debuted in 2004. Wildstorm was also published the first six issues of
The Boys by
Garth Ennis and
Darick Robertson in 2006, which was adapted into a
television series beginning in 2019, before the comic book series moved to Dynamite Entertainment in 2007. Ennis explained that this was because DC Comics were uneasy with the anti-superhero tone of the work. Other notable creator owned series published by Wildstorm include
Automatic Kafka by Joe Casey and
Ashley Wood,
The Winter Men by
Brett Lewis and
John Paul Leon, and
Sam Kieth's
Zero Girl and
Four Women. WildStorm also continued publishing licensed comics, including
Thundercats and
Robotech in 2002. The imprint became a notable publisher of video game related comic books, publishing promotional comics and tie-ins for games including
Everquest, Gears of War, Ratchet and Clank, Resident Evil, Prototype, and
World of Warcraft. Other licensed titles included
X-Files, Fringe, A Nightmare on Elm Street,
Friday the 13th, and
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. After a series of disputes with DC, Moore announced in 2005 that he would do no new work for DC or Wildstorm after he finished his existing commitments.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier was published in 2007, after which the series moved to
Top Shelf. Moore also co-wrote
Albion, published in 2006 by Wildstorm, with his daughter
Leah Moore and her husband
John Reppion. Wildstorm continued publishing ABC titles written by other writers, such as
Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom, written by
Peter Hogan, in 2010. In 2006, The DC mini-series
Captain Atom: Armageddon reset the Wildstorm Universe and established it as one of the parallel worlds in the DC multiverse. This was followed by the "Worldstorm" event that relaunched several Wildstorm titles, including the flagship titles
Wildcats by
Grant Morrison and Jim Lee and
The Authority by Morrison and
Gene Ha. However, the two flagship titles ended with three issues published between them due to scheduling conflicts. In 2008, facing declining sales, the Wildstorm line saw yet another change in status quo. A series of cross-overs and mini series (
Wildstorm: Armageddon,
Wildstorm: Revelations, and
Number of The Beast) depicted a catastrophic event and the line's titles shifted shifted into a post-apocalyptic direction. This attempt to revitalize the line, however, did not result in a substantial increase in sales. The imprint's licensed comics continued publishing under the DC banner. and a revived version of
Team 7 with non-WildStorm characters
Deathstroke,
Amanda Waller and
Black Canary. The
Teen Titans spin-off title
The Ravagers featured
Caitlin Fairchild and
Warblade as part of the cast, while
WildC.A.T.s villain
Helspont appeared in
Superman #7 and #8,
Grunge appeared in
Superboy #8,
Zealot appeared in
Deathstroke #9, and
Spartan appeared in
Team 7 #5. Midnighter was a recurring character in
Grayson, before spinning off into his own ongoing series. Wildstorm characters continued to appear in the DC Universe following the
DC Rebirth relaunch in 2016, including in the GLAAD Media Award nominated
Midnighter and Apollo series published from 2016 to 2017. In 2018 Tom Strong appeared in
The Terrifics and Promethea appeared in
Justice League of America.
DC Comics second run (2017–present) On February 16, 2017, Wildstorm was officially revived with
The Wild Storm #1 by
Warren Ellis and
Jon Davis-Hunt, a 24 issue series that re-imagined the Wildstorm Universe. On October 11, 2017, Wildstorm launched a second series under
The Wild Storm banner with the 12 issue mini-series
The Wild Storm: Michael Cray by
Bryan Hill. Following the conclusion of
The Wild Storm DC Comics announced that a new
Wildcats six issue mini-series was to debut August 28, 2019, again penned by Ellis with art by Ramon Villalobos, but was cancelled in 2019. Grifter, Apollo, and The Midnighter appeared in the alternate future timeline series
Future State: Dark Detective in 2021. The Wildstorm characters were then officially reintroduced into DC Universe continuity later that year in
Batman: Urban Legends #5 The new Authority team then appeared as supporting characters in the Superman crossover story arc
Warworld Saga. A 12 issue
WildC.A.T.S series by Matthew Rosenberg and Stephen Segovia ran from 2022 to 2023. Wildstorm characters have also appeared in
DC Black Label series including
Superman vs. Lobo,
Waller vs. Wildstorm, and
Jenny Sparks. In 2023,
James Gunn of
DC Studios announced that
a film based on The Authority was in development and would help form the basis of the new
DCU. In November 2023,
María Gabriela De Faría was cast to play The Engineer, a member of The Authority, in the
Superman film ahead of
The Authority film. == Legacy ==