Wildstorm Rising was a

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

event published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

WildStorm Wildstorm Productions, (stylized as WildStorm), is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee under the name "Aegis Entertainment" and expanded in subsequent years by other creators, Wilds ...

that involved the entire line of titles published by WildStorm in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Publication history

The 10-part crossover was published as a two-issue

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

''Wildstorm Rising'' that served as bookends of the story arc (cover dated May

-June 1995) while also running through these specific WildStorm titles. The chapters are as following: *Prologue: '' Team 7: Objective: Hell'' (''Team 7'' vol. 2) #1 *Chapter 1: ''Wildstorm Rising'' #1 *Chapter 2: ''

WildC.A.T.s Wildcats, sometimes rendered WildCats or WildC.A.T.s, is a superhero team created by the American comic book artist Jim Lee and writer Brandon Choi. Publication history The team first appeared in August 1992 in the first issue of their epon ...

'' vol.1, #20 *Chapter 3: ''

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

'' vol.2, #4 *Chapter 4: ''

Gen¹³ ''Gen¹³'' is a superhero team and comic book series originally written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell. It was published by WildStorm under the Image Comics banner, which went on to become an imprint (trade name ...

'' vol.2, #2 *Chapter 5: ''

Grifter A grifter may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Grifters (band), a 1990s American indie rock band * ''The Grifters'' (novel), a 1963 American novel by Jim Thompson * ''The Grifters'' (film), a 1990 American adaptation of the novel * Grifter (ch ...

'' vol.1, #1 *Chapter 6: '' Deathblow'' vol.1, #16 *Chapter 7: ''

Wetworks Wetwork ( rus, мокрое дело, mokroye delo) is a euphemism for murder or assassination that alludes to spilling blood. The expression and the similar ''wet job'', ''wet affair'', or ''wet operation'' are all calques of Russian terms for su ...

'' #8 *Chapter 8: ''

Backlash Backlash may refer to: Literature * '' Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women'', a 1991 book by Susan Faludi * ''Backlash'' (Star Wars novel), a 2010 novel by Aaron Allston * Backlash (Marc Slayton), comic book character * ''Backla ...

'' #8 *Chapter 9: '' Stormwatch'' vol.1, #22 *Chapter 10: ''Wildstorm Rising'' #2

Creators

Various comic book writers and artists who worked on this crossover event included:

Jim Lee Jim Lee (Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a Harvey ...

Travis Charest Travis Charest (born 1969) is a Canadians, Canadian comic book artist, comic book penciller, inker and Painting, painter, known for his work on such books as ''Darkstars'', ''WildC.A.T.s'', ''Grifter (comics), Grifter/Shi (comics), Shi'', ''WildC ...

Ron Marz Ron Marz (born November 17, 1965) is an American comic book writer, known for his work on titles such as ''Batman/Aliens'', ''DC vs. Marvel'', ''Green Lantern'', ''Silver Surfer'', and ''Witchblade''. Career Marz is known for his work on ''Silv ...

, Kevin Maguire and

Barry Windsor-Smith Barry Windsor-Smith (born Barry Smith, 25 May 1949) is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States. He attained note working on Marvel Comics' ''Conan the Barbarian (comics), Conan th ...

(who co-wrote & illustrated ''Wildstorm Rising'' # 1, and illustrated all of the covers to tie-in issues). Windsor-Smith later said that he was talked into illustrating ''Wildstorm Rising'', and regretted participating it. He related that in reading the story and illustrating it, he could not understand the motivations of any of the characters, even when he read earlier Wildstorm books featuring the characters. He says he "mucked with the plot awfully" in order to improve it and his enthusiasm for it, saying, "After intense thinking, I realized what I was doing wrong: I was looking for characters! I know this sounds really glib as if I'm trying to build up to a funny line. But I’m really not. That was my problem: I was looking for characterization, and there was none. 'There is no characterization! That's what you’re doing wrong here, Barry!' They’re all ciphers!" Windsor-Smith later learned that writer James Robinson was not pleased with Windsor-Smith's alterations to the plot.

Groth, Gary Gary Groth (born September 18, 1954) is an American comic book editor, publisher and critic. He is editor-in-chief of ''The Comics Journal'', a co-founder of Fantagraphics Books, and founder of the Harvey Awards. Early life Groth is the son ...

(September 1996)
"The Barry Windsor-Smith Interview"
''

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing re ...

'' #190. Retrieved July 28, 2013.

Plot

'' Stormwatch'' and ''

WildC.A.T.S Wildcats, sometimes rendered WildCats or WildC.A.T.s, is a superhero team created by the American comic book artist Jim Lee and writer Brandon Choi. Publication history The team first appeared in August 1992 in the first issue of their epon ...

'' teams end up at odds but have to stop fighting long enough to stop ''

Helspont Helspont is a fictional character, a former supervillain in Wildstorm's comics who was transplanted to the DC Comics Universe. In addition to the WildC.A.T.s, he has also fought Team One, Gen¹³, Backlash, and when folded into the DC Universe, S ...

'' and ''Defile'' from collecting all the keys to unlock the Daemonite ship which could destroy Earth, ship buried on Earth since centuries.

Collection

This crossover was later collected as the trade paperback ''Wildstorm Rising'' (272 pages,

, June 1996, , WildStorm, December 1998, )

References

External links

* {{Stormwatch (comics), Stormwatch