Wildcat #7

14 Jan 1989 - 27 Jan 1989; Cover price 40p.
32 pages. Colour & B&W.
Fleetway Publications.

Edited by Barrie Tomlinson.

Cover by David Pugh (signed).

Contents:

 2 Kitten Magee UNTITLED [The Other Path] w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: Jose Ortiz (uncredited).

 7 Crud pin-up; illustrated by UNKNOWN (uncredited).

 8 Joe Alien UNTITLED [Death of the Gardener] w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: Ron Smith (signed).

11 Loner UNTITLED [Loner's Ascent] w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: David Pugh (uncredited).

16 Joe Alien UNTITLED (cont.)

18 Time-Warp Data Link feature page (uncredited). / Robojoke UNTITLED ["A man walked into a bar"] (pocket cartoon) w:/a Gideon Dewhirst. / Alien readers' art; Fangs by Neil McCambridge, Alien by Jim McNamara, Blaster by Matthew John Pullen.

20 Turbo Jones UNTITLED [Hijacked Terrosauron] w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

25 A Perfect Crime w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

31 Another Monster Issue! next issue information; illustrated by UNKNOWN (uncredited).

32 The Weetabix Workout advertisement; a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

Mixing up the running order of strips to highlight a particularly good story in an interesting attempt at keeping the title fresh, this merely staves off the feeling of over-familiarity with what is happening in Turbo Jones. Not that the invasion of a city by enemy forces isn't an interesting subject, but its handling has been a mix of overly-elaborate melodrama (the attack from below) and mundane inanity (the raising of a wall), rather than a character study showing the stress of maintaining order in a besieged location, while simultaneously commanding military forces to appropriate defensive positions.

But it is Kitten who leads off this issue, so it is only right her story be tackled first.

Following Hobos, the women of Kitten's team (and Crud) are told that the path ahead of them is infested with savage creatures, so the alien leads them along a 'safer' track instead. Kitten questions the safety of the route as the ground becomes more swampy underfoot, and is reassured that it is the safest way to their destination - in what feels like an earthquake, an immense form raises itself from the sand. Hobos identifies it as a Zicker Beast, a murderous meat-eater with a massive appetite. The women fire all of their weapons at it, though this only results in the beast being angered.

Kitten manages to trick it into chopping off its own mini-head, after which it retreats back into its lair. Doc is about to take some blood and tissue samples for her research into her study of the planet's wildlife when it proves to be not quite as dead as it appears. Kitten kicks it aside, and as the beast resurfaces she fires its own mini-head into its mouth.

A story rife with symbolism. From the top: A group of women are led (literally) down the wrong path by a duplicitous male and placed into harms way, whereupon they are attacked by a monster, which only the strongest female of the group is able to (symbolically) castrate. Then she feeds the monster its own... Well, mini-head. As his plan hasn't worked, the male figure then leads the women towards a cave. This script cannot have been written without some notion of how it would be perceived.

There's probably two or three layers of subtext to this, all the while following the Fleetway Adventure Story Rulebook. Reading this story now, it is impossible to ignore the similarity in theme (if not specifics) to the scene in which Hannibal Chau in eaten in Pacific Rim, and although what we are given works, it reinforces the notion - after so many near-misses - that these characters are decidedly not in danger. Kitten's team is protected by seriously strong plot armour.

If I don't believe that characters will be killed off for shock value, the tension decreases dramatically. No character should be sacrosanct.

Crud's pin-up shows that a degree of thought went into its design, yet the overall impression is of a poor mans Tik-Tok. The clasps on its chest even match the positions of the bolts on Tik-Tok, though I do like the detailing on its waist.

Joe Alien manages to reach out to the trooper who has been knocked into the water, and drags him to safety - with a carnivorous plant attached to his leg. The former astronaut tells Joe that he has ordered that the group face the supreme court of the trees to determine if they are guilty of crimes against the plants. The vote is split, with the deciding vote coming from the Gardener, who spares them - but first inspects Joe's external brain pack. A trooper grabs Joe's brain back, in the process pushing the old man over and accidentally killing him.

I had hoped - somewhat optimistically - that there would be more to the Gardener's story, though such revelations are now moot. There's every indication that the strip is heading for a tedious reprise of Anabasis, with the characters battling their way through a hostile landscape back to safety, which is slightly depressing given how much there remains to uncover regarding the trees. We still haven't had a reasonable answer as to the plant life ability to control rocks, which is a massive tool in their arsenal.

Discovering the Beast spits acid, Loner quickly goes on the attack, driving it back until it falls over a cliff, impaling itself on stalagmites. Having accomplished his mission, Loner returns to the weapons room, guided by the Fuzzballs, where he learns that he must wear a bio-organic headband when facing the Bellari - a device which will prevent the lizard from attacking him telepathically. Freed from any influence, he is able to dispatch it with ease. Loner returns once more to the weapons room to place the firearms back in their rightful place, and learns from the Fuzzballs that the headband will prevent mind control hereafter.

Also, it will translate all alien tongues into his own language, but has also been embedded into his brain, and can never been removed. For every silver lining...

The art is still top notch, yet the story has a rushed feeling, concluding all matters beneath the surface in double-quick time so that Loner can return to the surface with his new abilities. The Bellari, so fascinating and formidable an opponent upon his introduction, is given the briefest of scenes in which to be destroyed. It is entirely too quick an installment, lacking proper gravitas required to sell Loner's journey as having been so difficult.

It also conforms entirely too closely with the Journey to the Underworld myth cycles, having descended into Hell to defeat a great enemy before returning, changed. Unlike the majority of those stories, Loner doesn't lose anything of significance in his passage through the depths - there isn't a sense that he is, in some ways, poorer for the experience.

A two-man pterodactyl is sent to plant a control box on Turbo's Terrosauron, in a last-ditch attempt to turn the war in the Arglon's favour. They succeed, and Turbo finds he no longer has control of his mount, as it begins attacking Burroid forces - considered a traitor, Burroids are ordered to bring turbo to the Supreme Monarch. The Terrosauron, meanwhile, transports Turbo to an Arglon outpost.

There isn't much in the way of subtlety on display, with one scene of destruction after another. Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay have so thoroughly covered every manner of explosive, earth-shattering scenario that this strip suffers in comparison to what is expected from this type of broad-strokes science fiction. Although I do wish the Arglons weren't using something so mundane as pterodactyls...

Before I hone in on A Perfect Crime, I have to make an admission:

I'm not a fan of Columbo. While its basic premise is sound, the main attractions of a murder mystery (for me, at any rate) isn't seeing how the pieces fall into place for the investigator. I don't want to be privy to the details of the murder until relatively late in the narrative, preferring the dual questions which drive the engine of the story - "How was the person murdered?" and "Why were they murdered?" If, during the story, the possibility is raised that the accused might be innocent, then all the better.

In the case of A Perfect Crime, we are treated to the murder, and the rationale behind it, straight from the beginning.

Fears regarding a strange mould growth being able to eat through the ship's metal sees two men sent out onto the hull to investigate, and finding nothing in the space fungi to be concerned about, the Captain decides it is in their best interest to merely scrape it off. Joe Stefano sees the opportunity to get rid of his superior officer, in order to obtain for himself a promotion, and sends the man drifting into space. As he floats off, the Captain tells Stefano that in the event of his death Roderick Serling will be promoted to the position.

When a derelict alien craft is piced up on the Wildcat scanners, Stefano and Serling are assigned to investigate to see if anything can be salvaged or learned from the vessel. Stefano seizes this as the perfect way to get rid of his competition - after shooting Serling, Stefano contacts Wildcat to inform them that the crew of the ship perished due to an alien disease, and Serling is seriously ill, though he remains unaffected. After waiting an appropriate length of time, he reports in that Serling is worsening, the medicines he has administered having had no effect. He then dispenses with Serling's body into space.

"Stefano calling Wildcat at 1900 hours! Serling has died of the alien disease. He made a last request before dyin'... His body became so grotesque he wanted it ejected into space after his death... Then none of his family would ever see him in that state! I carried out his wish...

Can't do anythin' else here, so I'll return to Wildcat..."

His request to return is denied, with Wildcat authorities concerned that he might be carrying the disease himself - however small the risk, he can't be allowed back on board if he poses any risk to the lives of those aboard the ship. Food and other provisions are arranged to be shipped over to Stefano, and he is informed that if he attempts to return he will be destroyed. Thus exiled, he will have to remain on the alien ship for the rest of his life.

Tales of the Unexpected this isn't. A twist that is obvious as soon as the words "alien disease" are uttered, this is a complete waste of what is actually a rather neat scene. By cutting the tether to allow the Captain to disappear off to his doom Stefano had committed the perfect murder, and if the story had followed the investigation, revealing what actually happened at its conclusion, the drama would be so much more fulfilling. As it is... the story is okay. It is a perfectly adequate strip, with little to draw it out from the morass of similar strips - hardly to the quality of even an average Future Shocks strip.

In structure, the strip resembles nothing less than the episode Final Escape, from The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, with every step Stefano takes bringing him closer and closer to his awful fate. It is a story type which is almost tailor-made for comics, though the handling of the twist is, unfortunately, so poorly handled that it fails to capture anything in the way of rising tension.

#06

Wildcat

#08