Review by Frank Plowright

Spencer Ackerman is journalist by trade, with US national security a speciality, and both topics feature in Waller vs WildStorm, which opens in the 1980s with Lois Lane in the fictional Asian nation of Gamorra. It’s used by Ackerman and co-writer Evan Narcisse to detail the kind of murky deals made by the USA abroad, which are reformatted with a patriotic wrapping for home news consumption.

Strangely absent, though, is the journalist’s instinct for clarity in the telling, and the opening pages introduce several concepts and characters with no explanation as to who they are. Readers of the 1990s WildStorm comics, an imprint later acquired by DC, will know them, while Ackerman and Narcisse trust readers to figure out intent if not the specifics. Apart from the ambitious Amanda Waller, making a power play to control covert organisation Checkmate, the key character is Jackson King, cast as the upright hero and outraged at what he believes Waller is doing.

Given the complex plot, it’s just as well Jesús Merino is the consummate superhero artist, delivering clear pages and eye-catching action and characters you recognise in or out of costume. Many familiar faces from the WildStorm era feature, although including such an amount means most are only seen or mentioned in passing.

Fictional superheroes are the case, but much else about Waller vs. WildStorm has reflections in reality. Fictional countries stand in for places the US has invaded, and the reaction of public oversight committees to the actions of covet agencies as supplied here reflects the view of many that getting caught is the greatest sin, not treating life with contempt. A complete lack of faith in authority as it now stands fuels this cynical, but sharp look at the final stages of a new covert power base being slotted into place, daggers out all round.

The feeling remains that anyone without at least a passing familiarity with the WildStorm cast and their motivations will find too much of Waller vs. WildStorm incomprehensible, as explanations as to who people are don’t flow freely. However, love those characters and these alternate Earth versions may strike a chord.