The Wild Storm #7

Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt
Colorist: Steve Buccellato
Published by: DC Comics

After a month break from the schedule, Ellis and Davis-Hunt are back with their continuing saga set in the Wildstorm universe. Like previous issues, Ellis leans in to the thriller aspect of this series and continues to deliver.

We begin this month with Jacklyn King, Chief of Analysis at IO getting ready for another hectic day at the office and also dealing with the fallout from previous issues that saw Angela Spica make off with some of their tech - that they shouldn’t have - Michael Cray not fulfilling his kill order on Marlowe and how he evaded a Warblade unit sent to “remove” him.

On Marlowe’s team side - the rogue CAT unit - we get treated to the extraction of one of their team members, John, who has been undercover with IO for an indeterminate amount of time. Thinking he’s been made, he was, he gets Cole and Adrianna to teleport him out. It’s a pretty funny scene between Cole and John as they try and get John to a secure location so as to keep the teleportation a secret.

Finally we get Angela Spica’s decision whether she will stay with this ragtag group as she has a heart to heart with Marlowe.

The strength of this series to me has been Ellis’ use of the interpersonal relationship between all the various characters as a throughline. The decision to begin the issue with Chief King’s day as she strolls into work being as ordinary as the next person - I could relate with the cat waking her up - to going into a somewhat volatile debriefing helps the reader connect with the characters.

It greatly helps this series also to have an artist like Davis-Hunt. He’s been showing that he can do both the smaller, quieter moments as well as the big action scenes - with probably a little more blood than we’re used to possibly. The way he shows off John’s escape from IO was different than how other artists would portray that scene, and it made it a lot of fun to follow. In all, another great issue.