R.I.P. WILDSTORM

With news today coming from DC Entertainment that the Wildstorm imprint will be no more around December of this year, I thought I’d just quickly rattle off some of my favorite Wildstorm titles. I was never much into the main Wildstorm “Universe” titles (if such a clear separation exists), and the multiple restarts and stillborn re-launches of the line were growing comical, but there’s no denying that Jim Lee’s little boutique publishing imprint put some critically praised and lasting works of art into the industry. My initial knee jerk reaction was “oh no, DV8?!” But that book should be wrapped up in the next couple of issues, well before the impending December drop dead date. Yet, it still makes me sad that the ability of Brian Wood to return to this property as a “series of mini-series” ala Dark Horse’s “Hellboy Model” is now all the more convoluted. DC is indicating that some of the characters might be incorporated and pop up in the main DCU, but I’m not really holding my breath on that. I don’t think you need Majestic if you have Superman, and I haven’t seen many of the Milestone characters enduring more than a gimmick issue or two. A couple of these are probably technicalities in that they were sub-imprints, pre or post DC buy out, creator owned vs. Wildstorm “Universe” properties, etc., but hey, I’m doing this on the fly. Ranked sorta’ in order of personal favorite…

PLANETARY by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday

DV8: GODS & MONSTERS by Brian Wood & Rebekah Isaacs

AUTOMATIC KAFKA by Joe Casey & Ashley Wood

DESOLATION JONES by Warren Ellis, JH Williams III, and Danijel Zezelj

EX MACHINA by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris

WILDCATS: VERSION 2.0 & VERSION 3.0 by Joe Casey, Sean Phillips, and Dustin Nguyen

ARROWSMITH by Kurt Busiek & Carlos Pacheco