WildStar (Image Comics)

Last updated
WildStar
WildStarSkyZero.jpg
WildStar Sky Zero trade paperback cover, art by Jerry Ordway & Al Gordon. Colour by Ruben Rude
Publication information
Publisher Image Comics
First appearance Wildstar: Sky Zero #1 (1993)
Created by Al Gordon and Jerry Ordway
In-story information
Alter egoMichael "Micky" Gabriel
Notable aliasesSoulStar [1]
AbilitiesSuperhuman strength, invulnerability, alien-derived exo-membrane. Able to discharge a force blast by short-circuiting the symbiote membrane's bio-circuit.
WildStar: Sky Zero, WildStar
Publication information
Format Limited, ongoing
Genre
Publication date1993 – 1996
No. of issues4 (vol. 1), 3 (vol. 2)

WildStar is a comic book series starring the superhero of the same name created by veteran comic book artist Al Gordon and published by Image Comics. The series began as a limited series titled WildStar: Sky Zero #1 (March 1993), providing the character's first appearance. This first limited series ran for four issues. [2] The ongoing series WildStar followed the limited series before it was cancelled after 3 issues. [3]

Contents

Publication history

In 1993, the four-issue miniseries WildStar: Sky Zero was written, inked, and edited by Al Gordon. Jerry Ordway penciled the pages between other jobs for DC Comics. [4] Gordon and Ordway found working together difficult because both men wanted more control over the final product, and because they lacked an editor to play middleman. [5] At the same time, they dealt with frustrating trademark issues over the character's name. [5] The series was lettered by John Workman. Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon character made an appearance in the third and fourth issues of the four-issue miniseries. The character WildStar also appeared in a few issues of The Savage Dragon, most recently as SoulStar. The coloring was done by Ruben Rude and Olyoptics.

Afterwards, a short-lived ongoing series titled WildStar, was written, inked and edited by Gordon, with Chris Marrinan penciling and John Workman lettering. The coloring of the series was also done by Ruben Rude and Olyoptics. Both series were published by Image Comics and were a part of their second wave.

Work began on a second miniseries with Chris Sprouse, including trading cards, pin-ups, and some interior artwork, but the project was abandoned by late 1995. [6]

Plot

WildStar: Sky Zero

The mini series, WildStar: Sky Zero revolves around a time loop that causes a future Micky Gabriel to keep repeating a section of time. In traveling back to the present to escape this endless repetition, Gabriel accidentally sets the time loop in motion. His future self gives the Micky Gabriel of the present the WildStar symbiote, an alien weapon which grants him a variety of superhuman abilities, as well as access to memories of the post-apocalyptic future from which the time displaced Gabriel hails. The original host of the symbiote was BloodStar, a barbaric alien warrior contracted by another alien race, the Ra'Zplarr, to invade the Earth of the future, as part of their quest for a certain "special" something seemingly endemic to certain Earth occupants.

Ongoing series

The ongoing series concentrated on the new timeline created during WildStar: Sky Zero, focusing on Micky Gabriel's reluctant association with the WildStar symbiote that contains the memories of a ravaged future Earth. The series reveals more of the devastated Earth's future history, but was canceled after three issues

HotWire and SkyLark, along with villains JumpStart and Blockade, all from the WildStar: Sky Zero miniseries, appear, as well as Mighty Man from Savage Dragon, and Freak Force.

Powers and abilities

Micky Gabriel is empowered by the WildStar, a member of a non-sentient species known as the K'l Vann. The WildStar bonds with its host to become a distinct and integral part of the host's metabolism and then by default, it's psychology. It connects directly to the body functions that control glands and other bodily processes that chemically influence behavior. The symbiote then "eats" the body chemicals that result from the host's negative emotions. The host in turn is powered by the symbiote's alien chemistry resulting in its wearer being granted superhuman strength, the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and substantial invulnerability. The symbiote's most devastating weapon in its alien arsenal is a force blast that is discharged by the wearer short-circuiting the symbiote membrane's bio-circuit epidermis.

Appearances

Reception

The first series was highlighted by Wizard in its top pics feature "Picks from the Wizard's Hat". [7] WildStar was well received in The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide, where Tim Pilcher called it "a nice little tale of superheroes of the future" with a surprise twist end. The original mini-series received a recommendation and was called "far superior" to the follow-on series. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Byrne (comics)</span> American comic book writer and artist

John Lindley Byrne is a British-born American writer and artist of superhero comics. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on many major superheroes; with noted work on Marvel Comics's X-Men and Fantastic Four. Byrne also facilitated the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics's Superman franchise with the limited series The Man of Steel, the first issue of which featured the comics' first variant cover.

Tom Strong is a comic book created by writer Alan Moore and artist Chris Sprouse, initially published bi-monthly by America's Best Comics, an imprint of DC Comics' Wildstorm division. Tom Strong, the title character, is a "science hero", with a wife, Dhalua, and a daughter, Tesla, both with enhanced physical and mental abilities and longevity. He lives in a building called The Stronghold in Millennium City. He is also helped by Pneuman, a steam-powered robot, and King Solomon, a gorilla with human characteristics. His greatest foe is tuxedo-clad "science villain" Paul Saveen. The series explores many different timelines and universes, which are a nod to different comic genres. The primary characters are tributes to and spoofs of early pulp heroes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Davis</span> English artist and writer

Alan Davis is an English artist and writer of comic books, known for his work on titles such as Captain Britain, The Uncanny X-Men, ClanDestine, Detective Comics, Excalibur, JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erik Larsen</span> Comic creator

Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics. He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics. In 1992 he was one of several artists who stopped working for Marvel to found Image Comics, where he launched his superhero series Savage Dragon – one of the longest running creator-owned superhero comics series – and served for several years as the company's publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savage Dragon</span> Comic book superhero

The Savage Dragon is a superhero created by Erik Larsen, published by Image Comics and taking place in the Image Universe. The comic features the adventures of a superheroic police officer named the Dragon. The character first appeared as the Dragon in Graphic Fantasy #1 and first appeared as the "Savage Dragon" in Megaton #3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Timm</span> American artist, character designer, animator

Bruce Walter Timm is an American artist, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for contributing to building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, most notably as the head producer behind Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000), The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), Batman Beyond (1999–2001), Justice League (2001–2004), and Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Ordway</span> American comic book writer & artist

Jeremiah Joseph Ordway is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books.

<i>The Power of Shazam!</i> 1994 graphic novel by Jerry Ordway

The Power of Shazam! is a 1994 hardcover graphic novel, written and painted by Jerry Ordway for DC Comics. The 96-page story, depicting the revamped origins of former Fawcett Comics superhero Captain Marvel, was followed by an ongoing series, also titled The Power of Shazam!, which ran from 1995 to 1999.

Jon Bogdanove is an American comics artist and writer. He is best known for his work on Power Pack and Superman: The Man of Steel, as well as for creating the character Steel with writer Louise Simonson in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck Dixon</span> American comic book writer

Charles Dixon is an American comic book writer, best known for his work on the Marvel Comics character the Punisher and on the DC Comics characters Batman, Nightwing, and Robin in the 1990s and early 2000s.

<i>Ocean</i> (comics)

Ocean is a 2004 six-issue comic book miniseries, written by Warren Ellis with pencils by Chris Sprouse and inks by Karl Story. It was published by American company DC Comics under the Wildstorm imprint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America's Best Comics</span> American comic book imprint

America's Best Comics (ABC) was a comic book publishing brand. It was set up by Alan Moore in 1999 as an imprint of WildStorm, an idea proposed to Moore by WildStorm founder Jim Lee when it was still under Image Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Sprouse</span> American comics artist

Chris Sprouse is an American comics artist. Sprouse has worked for multiple publishers and has won two Eisner Awards for his work on Tom Strong, a series he created with writer Alan Moore.

<i>New Men</i> (Image Comics)

New Men was a comic book series published during the 1990s by Image Comics. It was one of the many titles co-created by Rob Liefeld, and released as part of his Extreme Studios imprint. After an initial launch the series underwent a re-design and revamp by writer Eric Stephenson and penciler Chris Sprouse with inks by Al Gordon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Gordon</span> Writer

Alan Gordon is an American comic book creator primarily known as an inker and writer. He is best known for his 1990s work on DC Comics' Legion of Super Heroes and the Justice League of America, Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, and Image Comics' creator-owned WildStar. He is not to be confused with another Al Gordon who illustrated comics in the 1950s.

The Image Universe (IU) is a fictional universe in which some of the stories published by Image Comics take place. It was introduced in the early years of the publisher, shared by the various creators who formed the Image partnership. The independent, creator-owned nature of their work led to limited interaction between their characters, and little coordination of the Image Universe as a shared setting, with the primary versions populated by a number of superheroes/villains, including Supreme, Invincible, Omni-Man, Spawn, Angela, the Dragon, Gert, Bomb Queen, and Witchblade, as well as incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prophet (character)</span> Comic book character

Prophet is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by Image Comics, set in the Image Universe. Created by Rob Liefeld, he first appeared in Youngblood #2.

<i>Midnighter</i> (2006 comic book)

Midnighter is an American comic book series published by WildStorm, first issued in November 2006. It is a spin-off from The Authority, a superhero team comic book created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, and follows the solo adventures of Midnighter, "the greatest tactician in the history of mankind". The first six issues were written by Garth Ennis, followed by three issues made by different writers; the last eleven final issues were written by Keith Giffen. Midnighter ended with its twentieth issue, followed by the limited series Number of the Beast. The series is also known as Midnighter to differentiate itself from the character's 12-issue latter series first published by DC Comics in 2015.

Frank Cirocco is an American comics artist and video game designer best known as the co-creator of Alien Legion with Carl Potts and Alan Zelenetz.

References

  1. ↑ Savage Dragon #29, July 1996
  2. ↑ "Wizard News: Image Drops Shaman's Tears, Tribe, 3 others". Wizard . No. 25. September 1993. pp. 18–19.
  3. 1 2 Pilcher, Tim (1997). Plowright, Frank (ed.). The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide (First ed.). Aurum Press. pp. 644–645. ISBN   1-85410-486-1.
  4. ↑ Nolen-Weathington, Eric (2007). Modern Masters Volume 13: Jerry Ordway. Twomorrows Publishing. p. 58. ISBN   9781893905795 . Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Nolen-Weathington, p. 63
  6. ↑ Dezago, Todd (2009). Modern Masters Volume 21: Chris Sprouse. Twomorrows Publishing. p. 48. ISBN   9781605490137 . Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Picks from the Wizard's Hat". Wizard . No. 18. February 1993. p. 101.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.