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Appearing in "Catastrophe"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Glinglo (Death)
- Lord Vulk
- Tony Twist's gangsters
- Dean (Death)
- Mikey (Death)
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Kherubim
- Spartan Guard
- Sixtus
- Titanothropes
Locations:
- Wildstorm Universe
- Earth
- Khera
- Coincidental Mansion
- Kheran Senate (First Appearance)
Items:
- Calderoc (Destroyed)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Catastrophe"
Once a destitute homeless man, Jacob Marlowe rebuilt himself into the billionaire backer of a superhuman crusade. And sometimes he has to marvel at the amazing things people say he did, in other times under other names as an immortal alien nobleman. But Jacob Marlowe's self-image is about to collide with the reality that he is about to compete in a political debate on another world, on behalf of a party so conservative that they are touting him as a figure from prophecy.
His opponent is Zannah, a friend who he has not seen since he arrived. This makes him wonder where his other allies are. Their job as a covert action team is pointless on a world with no enemies, and he worries about them.
At the Coincidental Mansion, Priscilla is trying to get past the doorman, eventually being let in by her friends. She needs help: she has found Hadrian in an alleyway with a gruesome head injury and no memory of yesterday.
At the debate, Jeremy Stone and his girlfriend Glingo are in attendance. Glingo's political conscience is pricked by the fact that both sides of the debate are using pictures of the Wildcats in their propaganda. Jeremy is being used to entice Titanothropes to vote for one of the two big parties but neither one will give them equal rights. This is cut short by the start of the debate, in which Jacob speaks of peace and prosperity, of the utopia he had been told Khera was and which it can be again.
At the Mansion, there is a problem. Warblade used to be able to fix Spartan's robot body, but the new Kheran-built body is too advanced. The doorman, who followed them in out of curiosity, pipes up: he used to work as a repairman for advanced robots. Limply, the heroes can only ask, "What are the odds?"
Zannah gets up to deliver her speech in which she puts forward the policy that a civilization can only be strong if it works towards a goal, and the Coda have a goal: total war upon the rest of the universe. Her backers admit that she is a fine speaker, but they need to kill her to take advantage of the political fallout.
The rest of the team teleports in. They know about the Coda plan. Guards try to stop them, but they have learned a lot of this world, and make short work of them. From what Maul has learned, Void works out that the bomb is hidden in Zealot's new computer-sword. Glingo is enraged by their cynicism.
Priscilla tries to warn Zannah, but she doesn't believe the girl until the AI on the sword agrees. Horrified, Zannah is suddenly rescued by Glingo, who takes the sword and grows to massive size, putting as much space as possible between the crowd and the explosion. She doesn't survive to see her victory.
In the aftermath, emotions are strong. Maul is distraught and needs to be consoled by his friends. Zannah, disgusted by the Coda's duplicitousness, officially leaves them. Jacob, realizing that the utopia he had been told about and which he has been fighting for is no more, also drops out of the political race before the Pantheon can turn the situation into more votes. The WildC.A.T.s are going home.
In a small New York flat, a guy and a girl are in bed together. They talk until the guy realizes that the girl knows things about him that she shouldn't. The Mafia killsquad outside the flat, realizing they will soon lose the element of surprise, burst in. A figure in the bed with long hair points at a closet, where the killsquad finds... the girl, gagged and naked, and with short hair. Behind them, the figure in the bed removes the wig, pulls out a pistol and shoots them.
Outside the flat, the second group of Mafiosi shout for him to come out. After a few seconds, a figure in a large coat stumbles out of the apartment. The killsquad opens fire then moves in to discover... the girl, still gagged and now dead from multiple gunshots. Behind them, a man wearing very little clothes emerges from the flat and shoots them.
On the ground floor, the barely-dressed man - Max Cash, Condition Red - runs into a third group of killers. After a few seconds of struggle, they are about to kill him, when everyone is surprised by the sudden arrival of Maxine, his cyborg friend, who thought they were having a date night and is engaged by this change to her plan.
The battle is short, ending with Maxine throwing a car at the last goon, killing him. Max takes stock: it seems the WildC.A.T.s' "war on crime" just became a stand-up fight...
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in:
- WildC.A.T.s: Homecoming trade paperback (1999);
- Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.s trade paperback (2007).
See Also
- Write your own review of this comic!
- Discuss WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams Vol 1 27 on the forums
- Images from WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams Vol 1 27
Footnotes
ReferencesEdit
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