I feel as though Wright was a writer who would have done some interesting things after that if he hadn’t been blacklisted.

He did it to himself though, so it's hard to feel too bad.

2. Sort of contrary to this, did DC purposefully put out terrible Authority comics for several years in an effort to kill interest in the series. Because I honestly cannot imagine any other reason why Robbie Morrison was allowed to write that comic for over a year. Especially after the runs by Ellis and Millar.

Oh, and as a retailer, we still sell copies of Sleeper and the early Authority trades (both of which were good series). And Stormwatch: Team Achilles was a good series that I recently reread. I'm sad the last issue never came out (for anyone interested in seeing how the story was supposed to end check Micah Wright's website). I feel as though Wright was a writer who would have done some interesting things after that if he hadn't been blacklisted.

Planetary will end up having twenty-seven issues in ten years.
They cancelled Joe Casey's Wildcats, with sixteen issues of story remaining in 2004.
Grant Morrison put out one issue of Wildcats and two issues of Authority in two years. He won't even finish the Authority story.
Eye of the Storm at least lasted two years. How long did the last relauches go?
There was some bad advertising insert for something Wildstorm related in the last All Star Batman and Robin.

No, I'm not interested in the Wildstorm Universe.

Which was sorta my point... though a Desolation Jones #9 would sell for us as well if it ever materialized. Howver, it's also worth noting that both were WS Signature Series' anyways and thus not even really pertinent to a discussion of the WSU.

FWIW, I never really cared that Planetary or Authority "officially" took place in the WSU and I certainly don't think of them as having any relation to the "DC Multiverse" whatever that is. They were both just (really great) well executed stories that still do well in tpb. I don't think any significant portion of their readership at our stores became invested in the WSU as a result of them though.

So by your reckoning that really does just leave Planetary #27....

What ever actually happened to The Authority #3 (The Morrison one) and WILDCATS #2 (The Jim Lee one) ??? They both seemed really promising, then Armageddon happened and they vanished....

WSU fans who can't understand the original post: the isn't a comment on the quality of the books they publish . It's just a reflection of the way things are. Being good isn't necessarily enough to make a book sell (see: Sleeper among countless others). The reality is, just as the original question suggests, there aren't ENOUGH people who care ENOUGH about the WSU to make it a viable MARKETING TOOL. While we sell about 30 copies of The Boys the new WildCats sold 2 copies. We might be an aberration but looking at the numbers for WS books I'd be surprised.

First is the failure of grant morrison to complete his storytelling on Wildcats and Authority. DC tried to show the fans that they were serious about big names being on wildstorm books, but when it comes to those two books, it more showed that DC management wasn't really into it that much. It comes of as a spit in the face of any wildstorm reader. If DC wants to show that they still care about this imprint, they would have grant morrison finish the books and then show us something new to add to the universe. The guy has lots of ideas and they're just all DC. Unfinished work is very unprofessional, and that's what this is.

Second is that stormwatch PHD and cristos gage's writing may have saved the wildstorm universe from being relegated into obscurity forever. The book was a mixture of wright's team achilles and the traditional view of stormwatch. If anything, this book was the flagship title. It eventually led to the Authority Prime mini and eventually to the 3 part event. Of all of the books that came out of the worldstorm "soft" reboot, this is the one that remained consistent and excellent above all of the other books. No offense to tranquility fans, but it was its own book. Just like ex machina. It didn't need to be told as essentially being in the WSU proper.

I didn't think the Armageddon to number of the beast event was all that great from a story standpoint (being somewhat difficult to follow at points), but it told it in the wildstorm style in that things don't remain the same in the WSU. I liked the ending of mark of beast, not because of what happened at the end, but because we were told about it in the first part and it still happened anyway.

The books of Tranquility, Wetworks and Gen-13 seem to be more along the style of DC offerings. Gen-13 is for fans of the characters that just want more (or need more teen titans, because that's what it feels like), while tranquility is just a revamp of a superhero concept. Neither of which was breaking new ground. Wetworks did have a nice twist toward the end of its run which I appreciated, in turning the cyborg mother one into a vampire. Other than that, nothing really stands out.

Midnighter was really good until giffen took over the book. I consider the book as being castrated, because it totally was without any edginess. Case in point, the first story had midnighter with a bomb where his 2nd heart should be and he's sent back in time to kill hitler. Giffen's story had midnighter going to find who he is and he ends up owning a house and some girl to take care of. I oversimplify it, but it proves the point.

Speaking about older issues, I did one of those marathon reads of wildc.a.t.s through 3.0 (and nemesis) about a year ago and the book never changed it's feel. The art did, but it moved away from the cheesecake style of the image books into something else. Now the story evolved, which is possibly the best part of WSU books, but it never lost the feel. Sorry to say, but I think if you didn't like volumes 2 and 3 then maybe wildstorm books aren't for you.

Stormwatch went through about the same thing, but I am miffed at the micah wright thing, because regardless of that military stuff he lied about, the book was just starting to get good and older stormwatch members showing up when it was cancelled. Personally I like stormwatch better with the giant satellite, but again, the books evolved. Members go their own way. We get books like authority from that kind of thinking. That's what makes wildstorm great!

Sales being what they are on the books, it says something about the readers of wildstorm books. We don't want the same stuff over and over, we don't need earth shattering events to pull us back, and we don't need a relaunch. We just need writers and artist to take their ideas and toss them out the window and give us something that we have never seen before. Honestly, that's what we really want. Anything else, we can get from a DC or Marvel book anyday. We demand a better book! (and more planetary)

Going back to the just recent number of the beast event. With the relaunch of the authority/stormwatch/wildcats/gen-13 books, I do have to question the reasoning for going back to the well for those and why we don't have a paladin book, or why it still has to be wildcats.

Regardless of everything else, I enjoyed wildcats world's end #1 and look forward to the other books.

I read it, thanks - several times through, to see if I could find anything that suggested an informed opinion; you know, hints that maybe he'd heard about the relaunch or dipped into any WS titles lately or even (gasp) looked at the 2 issues that have just come out. But no, he said up-front that he'd as good as forgotten that WS was even publishing, and he's based his comments on the new stuff on what someone else said in their review. He's written a dismissive piece based on zero research. Poor reading comprehension? At least we're doing some reading.

I like what they're doing so far in World's End. I can't quite burst with effusive praise because not enough has been played out for me to get a grasp of how well they'll ultimately play it out. I thought the effect on the Authority, especially, was nicely handled. But where it goes from here, who can say? The best I can say at the moment is that I think it's worth taking a look at and at least seems to be going a little further than Marvel or DC are willing to (or possibly are capable of). So far...

- Grant

It sounds more like a critique of Marvel and DC than praise for Wildstorm."

Can't it be both, though?

And yeah, I guess a big part of Grant's article is pointing out how DC's and Marvel's big events this summer are simply maintaining the illusion of change while Wildstorm's event has already delivered, to an extent, change in spades but he also talks about how there seems to be firmer grasp of where the story is heading among the people involved in the event, as opposed to the shaky and sometimes outright bungled coordination of DC's and Marvel's big summer projects.

Of course, not having read the Wildstorm book in question or most of the DC/Marvel crossover fodder (and not having any plans to in the immediate future), I'm only taking Steven Grant's word that it's a good read that can potentially top whatever's going on with DC and Marvel now. I thought his opinion offers a well-reasoned contrast to the opinions stated by Brad Curran in his blog (not that I disagree with all of Curran's observations... I agreed with some of them, thought he was reaching on others).

It sounds more like a critique of Marvel and DC than praise for Wildstorm."

Well he also said, "and Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are bringing a nice 2000 AD style apocalyptic despair to the writing." So I believe it is praise, though a lot of it does seem a bit weak to me.

It sounds more like a critique of Marvel and DC than praise for Wildstorm.

All three of the titles you mention have a committed fan base

Didn't somebody above mention sales of around 7,000? Those fans may be "committed", but there aren't enough of them.

That's actually the point of Brad's post, despite all the poor reading comprehension on display here. His question wasn't whether or not these books are good or worthy, it's whether there's enough people out there who care.

Hint: 7,000 is not enough people, not for a company like DC to commit to these books in any serious way.

By the way, for those who've read this as an attack on their beloved universe, Brad even suggests in the last paragraph that he'd be happy to see them succeed at their relaunch. So, seriously now, you ought to actually read the article before freaking out. You will seem far more intelligent that way.

"... I suspect ultimately someone's going to find 'the way' to restore everything to as it was, but I strongly hope Wildstorm's got the guts, or maybe desperation, to just keep going forward from here, because whatever else you can say about 'World's End' (though nothing can be said definitely until it's over) it not only teases the massive change all Big Events promise, it starts out having already delivered it. Maybe the vastly overused expression 'changes everything forever' will really mean something for once, in which case 'World's End' may be the only Big Event of the summer really worth paying attention to... "

Still not enough to sell me on the titles, but praise from a veteran writer and observer like Grant can only be a good thing for fans of the imprint and the imprint itself.