In 1987, artist Jim Lee took the comic book world by storm with his hyper-detailed and sexy style, when he took over the art chores on Marvel’s best-selling Uncanny X-Men. Lee’s art was so popular that Marvel even created a separate series just for him, simply entitled X-Men, the first issue of which remains the best-selling single comic of all time with over eight million copies sold.
But in 1992, Lee, along with other top Marvel artists, struck out on their own to create their own publishing company– Image Comics. Lee’s first offering was WildC.A.T.s (Covert Action Team), a team that… kinda resembled the X-Men. But Lee built in a galactic war between alien races to try and differentiate it. Lee built an entire mythology around WildC.A.T.s, with spin-off books like Mr. Majestic, Stormwatch, and The Authority. Lee created his own studio, Wildstorm Productions to create the exploits in this new universe.
In 1993, Marvel’s X-Men came to televisions across the world in their hit animated series. This iteration of the X-Men was heavily based on Lee’s work on the series, with characters he had created or co-created like Gambit and Omega Red, and costumes he had designed.
In response, CBS commissioned a cartoon based on WildC.A.T.s. The show was created by Wildstorm Productions and Nelvana Limited. One season of 13 episodes was created and aired as part of CBS’ Saturday morning block known as “Action Zone” along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Skeleton Warriors.
The character Warblade took on the “Jubilee role” on the cartoon, as the newbie just discovering his powers and his role in the larger role in the battle between the “good” aliens, the Kherubim, and the “evil” Daemonites.
It was impossible to replicate Lee’s intricate art style in animation, but Nelvana tried, with Warblade and other males rendered with huge muscles.
My friend (back then) Chris noticed that most of the Image Comics teams pretty closely replicated the X-Men– leader guy, claw guy, gun guy, big guy, hot girl. Warblade was “claw guy.” Spartan, an android– depicted as a cyborg in the cartoon– was “leader guy.” Grifter was “gun guy.” Maul was “big guy.” And Voodoo was “hot girl.”
The WildC.A.T.s also included little person leader, Jacob Marlowe, sword-wielding Zealot, and teleporting android Void.
The voice cast consisted of Paul Mota as Maul, Roscoe Handford as Zealot, Janet-Laine Green as Void, Ruth Marshall as Voodoo, Sean McCann as Jacob Marlowe, Dean McDermott as Warblade, Colin O’Meara as Grifter, Rod Wilson as Spartan and Mister Majestic, Maurice Dean Wint as Helspont, Addison Bell as Slag, Colin Fox as Pike, and Dan Hennessey as H.A.R.M.
Unfortunately, WildC.A.T.s was not the sensation that X-Men was on FOX. Even so, the show and comic spawned a video game for the Super Nintendo system and an action figure line from Playmates. Some episodes were released on VHS and the entire series was released on DVD in 2005. That is out of print, but the entire series can be downloaded from Apple’s iTunes store and Amazon Prime Video. It is also free to stream on Tubi.
In 1999, the Wildstorm roster of characters was sold to DC Comics and they now share the same universe with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest. It’s entirely possible we haven’t seen the last of the WildC.A.T.s in animation!
