World's Worst

Wild Worlds: written by Alan Moore; illustrated by Travis Charest, Jim Baikie, Adam Hughes, and others (1997-99; collected 2007): From Alan Moore's pre-America's Best Comics, 'just paying the bills' phase comes this hodgepodge of Moore's non-WildC.A.T.S. work for the Wildstorm universe, which at the time was still a branch of Image Comics and not a branch of DC Comics.

OK, there is one WildC.A.T.S. story, an epilogue that doesn't work all that well with the other 13 or so issues it's an epilogue to. And those issues have their own collection, so why the epilogue appears here as well is...a mystery. I'm assuming it's probably because Travis Charest drew it, thus supplying the collection with one of its few artistic highpoints.

The best piece in the collection is a Majestic one-off depicting the immortal hero's adventures at the end of time, as entropy ends all. It's also reprinted elsewhere -- in a Majestic collection. But it is dandy, story and art.

The rest of the collection ranges from truly awful (the Spawn/WildC.A.T.S. miniseries features some of the worst 90's-style art I've ever seen professionally published. It could be used as a textbook-case on how NOT to draw superheroes. Or anything) to the competent (a Voodoo miniseries and a DV8 miniseries are both interesting, and Jim Baikie's art on the DV8 piece is typically enjoyable and slightly unusual for a superhero book). But really, not recommended unless you either get it deeply discounted (as I did) or are a rabid Alan Moore completist (as I am).

Work for Hire

Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.S.: written by Alan Moore; illustrated by Travis Charest, Matt Broome, Jim Lee and others (1997-98; collected 2007): Alan Moore's work-for-hire years at Image and Image/Wildstorm before Wildstorm jumped from Image to DC offer interesting work, though certainly not essential work.

Created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi in 1992, the WildC.A.T.S. (Covert Action Team, natch) are a bland, derivative bunch of knockoffs of popular DC and Marvel characters. Gathered by an alien to fight part of an alien war taking place on Earth, they somehow got a short-lived animated cartoon.

To understand the staggering depth and complexity of thought that went into this alien war, understand that the opposing sides are the good Kerubim and the evil Daemonites. The most notably knocked-off knockoffs include Majestic (Superman), Zealot (Wonder Woman), Maul (the Hulk) and Grifter (Wolverine with guns, but with a mask that makes him look like Bob Burden's great superhero The Flaming Carrot when drawn in profile).

Moore ups the angst and alienation quotient here, giving character to characters hitherto pretty much without character, but there's only so much anyone can do with most of these chumps. Along with Moore's work on other Wildstorm characters and his work on the Spawn portion of the Image universe, this is the Alan Moore material one can skip if one is going to skip Alan Moore material. It's a testimony to Moore's skill that he can make the Wildstorm universe, with some of the most ridiculous character names in the history of superhero comic books (Overtkill anyone?), seem at all interesting. Lightly recommended.

　

Rick Veitch and Alan Moore parody Superboy

Supreme: The Return: written by Alan Moore; illustrated by Rick Veitch, Rob Liefeld, Chris Sprouse, and others (1997-99; reprinted 2004): Over in the Rob Liefeld corner of the Image superhero universe was Supreme, a Superman knock-off with elements of Captain (Shazam!) Marvel in his DNA depending on who was writing him that week. Then Alan Moore took over, given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to the character.

What resulted were about 25 issues of metafictional lunacy. If one ever wondered what would have happened had Moore continued to write for DC -- well, Supreme looks a lot like an All-Star Superman that never existed. His origin rewritten by Moore to be a close, often satiric analog for that of Superman's, Supreme is made aware early in Moore's run that he's subject to periodic continuity revision. Different versions of Supreme and his supporting characters live in a pocket universe called the Supremacy.

And so it begins. Moore and his artists (most importantly the magnificent Rick Veitch) take Supreme through stories and eras that straight-facedly satirize both the publishing eras and individual stories of Superman and the Superman family, with analogs for everyone from the Legion of Super-heroes to Krypto the Superdog to Brainiac and the Phantom Zone criminals. The giant, disembodied head of Jack Kirby puts in an appearance. It's that kind of book.

Along the way, Moore seems to be working out ideas that would be more fully fleshed out in his subsequent America's Best Comics work and titles that included Tom Strong, Promethea, and the League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Fun and bizarre. Recommended.