Waller vs. Wildstorm #2 (of 4)
(W) Spencer Ackerman, Evan Narcisse (A) Eric Battle
In Shops: Jun 13, 2023
SRP: $5.99
The island nation of Gamorra is eager for American investment – and even more eager for American metahuman weapons. Amanda Waller has just what they want: the Cybernary system. But the blood that her mercenaries spilled to get it has put her directly in Jackson King’s sights – so now he’s in the sights of the deadly Deathstroke!
Waller vs. Wildstorm #1 (of 4)
(W) Spencer Ackerman, Evan Narcisse (A) Eric Battle
In Shops: Mar 28, 2023
SRP: $5.99
In the early 1980s, as the Cold War stubbornly refuses to thaw, a new battle heats up…for the soul of the intelligence agency Checkmate. As the agency’s super-heroic public face, Jackson King–a.k.a. the armored Battalion, former leader of Stormwatch and the symbol of American might–has long suspected that Adeline Kane is up to dirty tricks overseas, engineering horrors that betray everything he believes about service to one’s country. But King doesn’t know that Kane has a clever new ally–an ambitious young woman named Amanda Waller. She has her own ideas about how metahumans can serve their country. And honor, dignity, and long lives don’t factor into them… National-security reporter Spencer Ackerman (the Daily Beast, Reign of Terror), comics and video game writer Evan Narcisse (Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Gotham Knights), and veteran artist Eric Battle (Aquaman, Kobalt) celebrate WildStorm’s legacy of espionage-flavored superhero morality plays, pitting Stormwatch against the deadliest people in the DCU–including Deathstroke himself!
The fact that friend of the site and frequent Graphic Policy Radio guest Spencer Ackerman is part of this alone had me intrigued. But, that didn’t guarantee it’d be good. Thankfully, Waller vs. Wildstorm #1 is good. It’s really good. Ackerman is a national security reporter and expert on the subject, so to take on a character like Amanda Waller, one whose entire role is about national security, is a subject matter expert potentially spinning a tale on the subject they’re an expert on.
Taking place in the 1980s, Waller is an up and comer at Checkmate, an organization that is ok’ed to work with metahumans but has expanded its influence in the world. Jackson King, aka Battalion, the former leader of Stormwatch, has a run-in with Waller and through investigation finds a corruption that runs deep in Checkmate. One full of horrors and the mix of capitalism, influence, and lack of morals that infects our very lives. Ackerman, along with writer Evan Narcisse have laid out a mature story as part of DC’s Black Label, that mixes classic modern superheroes like Stormwatch with the excess taint and crumbling of our very real institutions.
The comic throws in the very real issues that face our modern national security and military including individual ambition, hypocritical morals, black sites, and a general lack of real oversight and care. We see how military peddles influence to gain capital, war as an extension of business and how business impacts war and national security. It also highlights the creep that is so many different organizations in our lives. This is a comic that can be enjoyed for the action but will leave you pondering the morals of it all.
Through the more weighty aspects of it all, Ackerman and Narcisse mix in a fun amount of characters that take Jim Lee’s Wildstorm creations from Image and blends them seamlessly with DC’s established characters. It all makes Lois Lane talking to Battalion or Deathstroke hanging out with Grifter seem like comic history… and history we want to see more of. Much like John Ridley’s Other Side of the DC Universe and recent GCPD: The Blue Wall, this is a warts and all look at our world through iconic characters while still entertaining.
Jesús Merino handles the art and delivers a style that feels bit like Stormwatch’s looks of old mix a little with a more traditional DC style. Along with Vincente Cifuentes on ink, Mike Atiyeh on color, and Dave Sharpe on lettering the comic’s look has a mature sense about it as well. There’s horrors throughout, some seen, some not, that hint at the corruption and taint of what Waller has sewn. At the same time, a discussion at a table between Lois Lane and Battalion is exciting in itself, full of tension and emotion. It’s a comic whose story and visuals feels like there’s a heavy weight to them all.
Waller vs. Wildstorm #1 is a solid debut that has us excited to read more. We sadly will have to wait for the second issue, but what has been shown so far makes us not just want that but this entire concept expanded upon. The comic entertains while also exploring our very complicated and dark reality.
Story: Spencer Ackerman, Evan Narcisse Art: Jesús Merino
Ink: Vicente Cifuentes Color: Mike Atiyeh Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Story: 9.0 Art: 8.4 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: TFAW – Zeus Comics – comiXology/Kindle
“How the carceral state seeks to manipulate and dispose of its rogues, its dregs, its captives and put them to deniable use by intelligence agencies… It would be malpractice of me, for what I cover, if I wasn’t interested in that!” – Spencer Ackerman, co-writer of Waller vs Wildstorm for DC Comics and award winning national security journalist.
Spencer Ackerman discusses his debut comic, a Year One look at the career of future Suicide Squad boss Amanda Waller. His miniseries, with co-writer Evan Narcisse, artist Jesús Merino, and color artist Michael Atiyeh weaves together Wildstorm and DC Comics espionage lore through the lens of Cold War geopolitics–as only they can.
First 43 minutes of this episode are spoiler free.
Be sure to subscribe to Spencer Ackerman’s newsletter https://foreverwars.ghost.io/ where he shares thoughts about this series as well as reporting and essays that “chronicle, investigate and interrogate the continuities, departures and permutations of the War on Terror.”
Waller vs. Wildstorm #1 (of 4)
(W) Spencer Ackerman, Evan Narcisse (A) Eric Battle
In Shops: Mar 28, 2023
SRP: $5.99
In the early 1980s, as the Cold War stubbornly refuses to thaw, a new battle heats up…for the soul of the intelligence agency Checkmate. As the agency’s super-heroic public face, Jackson King–a.k.a. the armored Battalion, former leader of Stormwatch and the symbol of American might–has long suspected that Adeline Kane is up to dirty tricks overseas, engineering horrors that betray everything he believes about service to one’s country. But King doesn’t know that Kane has a clever new ally–an ambitious young woman named Amanda Waller. She has her own ideas about how metahumans can serve their country. And honor, dignity, and long lives don’t factor into them… National-security reporter Spencer Ackerman (the Daily Beast, Reign of Terror), comics and video game writer Evan Narcisse (Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Gotham Knights), and veteran artist Eric Battle (Aquaman, Kobalt) celebrate WildStorm’s legacy of espionage-flavored superhero morality plays, pitting Stormwatch against the deadliest people in the DCU–including Deathstroke himself!
DC‘s Jim Lee & Friends panel at New York Comic Con was full of news and reveals from amazing talent.
Marc Silvestri Talks About Batman’s Ultimate Team-Up
Lee’s longtime creative colleague Marc Silvestri was also on hand to share new art and conversation about his “buddy cop horror story”, Batman/The Joker: The Deady Duo. Silvestri talked to Lee and fans about the early days of pitching and planning the series, how his approach has evolved as both writer and artist from the start until now, why the relationship between Batman and The Joker has captivated fans for so long, and more details about what fans can expect when this seven issue limited series launches November 1, 2022.
Oscar Award-Winning Writer John Ridley – All In On DC
DC is fortunate to have an Academy Award-winning screenwriter on hand that treats his comic writing projects with the same care and commitment that he has with movies like 12 Years A Slave, Five Days At Memorial, American Crime, and his other movie projects. Writer John Ridley joined the panel to talk with Jim about his body of work, past and present. Ridley chatted with Lee and the audience about the current and future trajectory of Jace Fox since his move from Gotham to New York (and a sidekick?) in I Am Batman, and how the most recent story arc leads into his upcoming limited series G.C.P.D.: The Blue Wall, debuting October 18, 2022. John also discussed how he landed the job of telling the story of The Penguin, as part of DC’s Batman: One Bad Day event, revealing exclusive first look art from the one-shot ahead of its October 18 release.
Spencer Ackerman – “Building The Wall” in A New DC Black Label Series
For many, the 1990s was a comic book “renaissance,” with the birth of Lee’s own Wildstorm comics, DC’s then-unimaginable Death of Superman, and the creation of Milestone Comics. November’s DC 90’s Rewind event includes the launch of a new WildC.A.T.s. ongoing series, and a new DC Black Label limited series, Waller vs. WildStorm. Co-writer and noted national security journalist Spencer Ackerman appeared on the panel to talk about his first work for DC and how he, co-writer Evan Narcisse and artist Eric Battle plan to merge the DC and Wildstorm universes and show how Amanda Waller rose to power to become one of the most ruthless and unyielding characters in the DCU. Waller vs. Wildstorm debuts November 15, 2022.
Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Vita Ayala Return Static to Dakota in 2023
One of the brightest lights of Milestone Media’s reuniting with DC was Static: Season One, and breakout artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey, who joined the panel to talk a little about the reception that he, writer Vita Ayala and co-artist ChrisCross received after relaunching Milestone’s flagship super hero for a new generation. Fans got to see some of Draper-Ivey’s incredible art, as he spoke about taking on the new challenge of both co-writer (with Ayala) and artist for the six-issue sequel to Static: Season One, Static: Shadows of Dakota, debuting on February 7, 2023.
Early Look at New Titles Celebrating Milestone’s 30th Anniversary in 2023
Lee’s chat with Draper-Ivey led to more Milestone news, as he shared early reveals of two titles that will be part of the celebration of this groundbreaking imprint’s 30th anniversary next year. Cover art was revealed for Icon vs. Hardware, a five-issue limited series launching on February 14, 2023. Spinning out of the epilogue of the Milestones In History anthology, this series is co-written by Reggie Hudlin and Leon Chills, and pits two of Milestone’s core super heroes against each other for the future of Dakota, as Hardware discovers a time machine and puts it to work altering the history of the world.
Fans also got the first look at the main (by Denys Cowan) and variant (by Nikolas Draper-Ivey) covers for a Milestone 30th Anniversary Special, scheduled for a February 21, 2023 release. This commemorative one-shot will feature stories celebrating the breadth and depth of the Dakotaverse, with contributions from Eisner award winner Chuck Brown, Stephanie Williams, Denys Cowan, Nikolas Draper Ivey, Yasmin Flores Montanez and others. The Draper-Ivey variant cover spotlights the story he’s writing and drawing, a team up between an adult version of Static and Batman Beyond.
Special Guest Joe Quesada Reveals Details on His Return to DC
Even though Jim likes to keep his panel lineup secret to surprise people with big news, he always keeps an ace-in-the-hole extra secret to really catch the audiences off guard. Today was no exception, as artist and former Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada took the stage.
Quesada left Marvel earlier this year to pursue his own personal projects and he’s clearly starting off with a bang, as he announced that he’d be designing covers for DC titles in 2023, exclusively revealing his variant cover art for Batman #131 (January 3, 2023), and Batman #132 (February 7, 2023).
This Monday Graphic Policy Radio hits the air to discuss writer Ales Kot‘s newest series from Image Comics, Material! The show will air LIVE Monday at 10pm ET.
In Material a man comes home from Guantanamo Bay, irrevocably changed. An actress receives an offer that can revive her career. A boy survives a riot and becomes embedded within a revolutionary movement. A philosopher is contacted by a being that dismantles his beliefs. Look around you. Everything is material.
Joining us in the discussion is not just Kot, but also guest Spencer Ackerman. Ackerman reported the uncovering of the Chicago Police Department’s torture site which is a key point in Kot’s series.
Ales Kot writes because nothing else makes sense. He’s responsible for screenplays, video games, graphic novels and products/experiences which do not even have their names assigned as of yet. His portfolio includes Disney, Warner Brothers, Image Comics, Marvel Entertainment, DC Entertainment, Dark Horse Comics and more.
Spencer Ackerman is the U.S. national security editor of the Guardian, where he was part of the team that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism for the NSA surveillance revelations provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. A former senior writer for Wired, Ackerman won the 2012 National Magazine Award for Digital Reporting for his series about Islamophobia in FBI counterterrorism training. Having reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and numerous ships, bases and a submarine, Ackerman in 2015 exposed a secretive incommunicado police detention center in Chicago called Homan Square. A Brooklyn NY native, his mother taught him to read with Bill Mantlo’s Incredible Hulk run.
We want to hear your thoughts too. You can Tweet them to us at @graphicpolicy and listen in LIVE this Monday.
Graphic Policy is back with a brand new episode with special guest, and award winning journalist Spencer Ackerman. You can listen to the episode LIVE this Monday at 10pm ET.
Comics have often featured torture as a method for the heroes to extract information or get them to their goal. We most recently saw this in Marvel and Netflix‘s Daredevil, where torture is a key point in advancing the hero’s plot. We’ll discuss torture in comics, and its place in the modern stories and the world.
Spencer Ackerman is the U.S. national security editor of the Guardian, where he was part of the team that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism for the NSA surveillance revelations provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. A former senior writer for Wired, Ackerman won the 2012 National Magazine Award for Digital Reporting for his series about Islamophobia in FBI counterterrorism training. Having reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and numerous ships, bases and a submarine, Ackerman in 2015 exposed a secretive incommunicado police detention center in Chicago called Homan Square. A Brooklyn NY native, his mother taught him to read with Bill Mantlo’s Incredible Hulk run.
We want to hear your thoughts on the topic. You can Tweet them to us at @graphicpolicy or call in live at (619) 768-2952.
