The Wild Storm #9

Written by: Warren Ellis
Art by: Jon Davis-Hunt
Colours by: Steve Buccellato
Published by: DC Comics

After last issue that continued to give us, the reader, the introduction to more and more characters, this issue seeks to concentrate on a few, namely Angela as she gets acclimated to her new lab and Chief Analyst at IO Jackie King as she continues to learn a bit more on the history of her company.

In both, we get the continuation of what Ellis has been seeding in previous issues without revealing too much. It’s clear that, with a 24 issue series, Ellis is making sure to give a slowburn to the series, and not revealing too much in each issue. Angela finally gets to the lab, but her story stays pretty basic: she gets a tour of the lab and then, on the final page of the issue, makes a decision, though minor, that may alter her path in the story.

With Jackie King, we get more of the mundane, office work that we have seen in previous issues, complete with not-so nice co-worker who is probably a little too nosy for her own good. However, Ellis does drop a pretty significant name in the Wildstorm universe during Jackie’s meeting with her Director, that even I, who has a passing knowledge of this universe know. That is a thread I can’t wait to see pulled.

The bulk of the issue however, is reserved for John, who we met in issue #7. Without spoiling anything, let us just say that John definitely has secrets and/or more to him than was first let on. The best part of this sequence is that we get to learn that he may be connected, even tangentially, to another famous Wildstorm character.   

In this issue, Davis-Hunt gets to flex his artistic muscle once more and it’s still, once again, great to see. One thing I’ve noticed through this series has been Ellis’ willingness to always give one, sprawling scene to Davis-Hunt to showcase his artistic talent. This time, it comes in the form of John’s sequence (once again actually). Beautiful yet brutal  is all I can say about those pages.