RIOT MAGAZINE #0, AUGUST 1997 WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE By Scott Braden "People should buy this book, because it's the f—ing JLA and the f—ing WildC.A.T.S!!," JLA editor Dan Raspler yells loud and proud. "Put a lot of exclamation points behind that, if you want. We're talking about a book that's HUGE and COSMIC! This is big, I tell you, BIG!!!" Not a man to mince words, Raspler — cheerleader and longtime comics editor — is explaining why everyone should buy JLA/WildC.A.T.s As the centerpiece for their JLA month in July, JLA./WildC.A.T.s represents DC Comics' second crossover with the house of Image. "This book's got everything you could want. It's got 64 pages of amazing art by Val Semeiks as well as... well, Grant Morrison. This is Grant unleashed! "Grant's got Epoch, the Lord of Time, using 42nd Century morphing battle armor, 61st Century intelligent cloud formations, and all this crazy, far-out stuff in an effort to turn the Earth into a giant time-travel machine! At the same time, he also has Batman trying to figure out time-travel. It's just really cool!" Big. Cosmic. Huge. Yup. Coming this July to a comic store near you. JLA/WildC.A.T.s will arrive alongside other cool JLA products, including JLA Secret Files #1, the JLA Gallery, as well as that extra super-groovy JLA t-shirt (perfect for the summer catillion). But even though the project is conveniently nestled amongst this plethora of JLA merchandise, one shouldn't think of it as just some clever marketing ploy. In fact, according to Grant Morrison, it's the last word in company crossovers. "I was reading Alan Moore's run on WildC.A.T.s last year," Morrison says, "and I was really starting getting into these characters. That's when the idea behind the project came to me. "Looking at both teams, I started playing with the idea that in every comic book universe, you find similar archetypes. Regardless where you looked, whether it's DC, Marvel or WildStorm, the same kind of characters always tend to pop up. I mean, there's Superman and Majestic, Batman and Grifter, Wonder Woman and Zealot, The list goes on and on. So with that, I knew I could also tell a story that has the feel of all those old Justice League/Justice Society team-ups that I remember reading when I was a kid. The idea of two groups of heroes meeting from parallel universes interests me. "At the same time," Morrison continues, "it was also my chance to justify company crossovers. I'm not really that continuity-conscious, but something in me can't stand to read comics like Spawn/Batman or Batman/Captain America, or whatever, where it says that both these characters exist in the same universe. There's something in my brain — some small fanboy part of me — that knows it's wrong. I just can't suspend belief — not for that. So I wanted to create something that provides a theoretical framework for how heroes from different comic book universes can meet each other logically." Yeah, that sounds great. But is it a "fun" story? "I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't." Morrison says, slyly. "This is just exciting, slam-bong stuff," Val Semeiks says. Now here's a guy who knows how to have a good time. Having previously worked on DC Comics' ultimate bad-boy comic, Lobo, it's a sure bet that he knows "fun" when he sees it. "The Lord of Time travels to the future and "acquires" a super-morphing battlesuit that allows him to jump around from time period to time period. And what he's trying to do is take over reality with all this future-tech stuff he's collected. The story finally ends with a big battle in Metropolis that has all these wild machines running around from the future. It's just great!" "The Lord of Time isn't messing around," Morrison interjects, "Outfitted in 42nd Century technology, he can do practically anything. He's a god. He can literally time-travel into the far-off future when our sun has turned red, draw in some of its energy, then return to the exact moment he left and use that energy to weaken Superman. "But though that's cool, what I really dig about this book, is how I make a big deal of contrasting the two teams. I mean, while I'm giving Grifter some of the best lines in the comic — because I think he's a really great character — I still have Batman easily disarm him. It's important for me to show kids that even though 'the masked man with the guns' is cool. Batman, the hero who doesn't need guns, is the best.' But aren't comics supposed to be new and slick? Shouldn't we make comics with a more "post-modern" slant to them? "The age of the post-modern, deconstructionist comic book story is over," Raspler says fervently, "It's tired; it's worn-out; it's an old whore. Let it go. "Dark Knight and Watchmen were amazing stories. We take our hats off to them and we give them a moment of silence out of respect. They were literally works of art. But then, everybody jumped on the band- wagon. All of a sudden, you had all these negative superheroes that apologized for being superheroes. It didn't make any sense for them to be colorful and proud, it only made sense that they were ashamed and freakish. So the price we paid in order to get mainstream acceptance, like Dark Knight and Watchmen, were to make our heroes "realistic." What the hell is less sensible than making Aquaman realistic? What's stupider? Nothing. But when the profits became huge, everyone jumped into the industry to make money, instead of remembering what comics are really about — imaginative, crazy stories. So the price we paid were stories with no imagination that were chock full of miserable 'heroes.' But now, that time has passed. The age of being ashamed of what superhero comics are is over. Let it stay dead." "Besides, nothing's 'retro' in comics anymore," Morrison adds. "Do you think that the kids remember the old stuff?" "The WildC.A.T.s are great characters whose stories are big adventure, but DC's heroes have always had a certain nobility to them. What better place to play that off than in a crossover like this." But what about all those other crossovers that DC's been a part of — and there's been a lot of them. Does JLA/WildC.A.T.s have some special quality that allows it to rise above the rest? "There certainly have been a lot of crossovers lately," Semeiks admits, "but regardless of what characters or companies are involved, the creative team behind it is what makes a project special." "I'm sure Batman/Spider-Man will be phenomenal," Raspler concedes," and I'm pretty positive that Daredevil/Batman was good, but again...this is JLA/WildC.A.T.s. This is a HUGE, sprawling adventure. So just strap in, and enjoy the ride!"