Wildcats 3.0 represents something quite different in super-hero comics, just as the previous iteration by Casey and Phillips did. The idea of turning the team into essentially a corporate trouble-shooting team is nifty enough, and putting one of the characters in charge of the corporation, then melding the whole thing with the proactive hero methods that The Authority originated in the Wildstorm Universe and basically turning the book into a strange mix of espionage, philosophy and super-hero action makes for what could easily be called a "big idea" book. Like many of the "big idea" books, it seems a little slow and unfocused in the plot department, but I suspect that in the long view, such as in a theoretically possible trade paperback collection, it might read better that way as well.
Casey has definitely created something unusual for super-hero books with Wildcats. Super-hero comics where the action is downplayed if not outright nonexistent aren't as rare as they used to be, but the focus is still usually on the individual personalities driving the stories. The driving force behind Casey's story isn't a person, although it is (legally speaking) a living entity: It's a corporation. The growth and goals of the Halo corporation is what drives the story of Wildcats 3.0. Which gives rise to such unusual and fun scenes as an introduction built entirely out of a business news update, or seeing Spartan a.k.a. Jack Marlowe on a Larry King-esque show.
While there are certainly personalities and people who are important to this story, including two new employees who smell something fishy in this new age corporation or the cranky post-Covert Action Team Cole Cash, they are all in service of the story of what Halo is becoming and why and how. Little mysteries like what Wax is up to, what Maxine is doing and why she has become the mascot of the new company or how far-reaching Marlowe's plans are for Halo given that it all seems to be based on battery technology leads to a lot of tantalizing hints in this issue. By far the most interesting pieces of the issue, and indeed most of the issues I've read, have been the end-pieces where we see another cutting edge use for Halo batteries, and see just how much of a huge deal these discoveries could be.
One of my worries about Wildcats 3.0 was the absence of Sean Phillips, who was every bit as integral to the strength of Wildcats 2.0 as Casey was. I needn't have worried, because Dustin Nguyen is doing the best work I've ever seen from him, with Richard Friend's inks helping to give the art a feel of meeting halfway between the European detail approach of Travis Charest and the moody realism of Phillips. Nguyen is good at subtle story bits, like the gun poking out of Cole's jacket or the prevalent technology in the backgrounds which helps to reinforce the tech-heavy mood of the book, and I love his sense of design for the "television" sequences.
The story in Wildcats 3.0 is taking a long time to reveal itself, and I don't know much more about what Marlowe is actually doing or what he hopes to accomplish with Halo than I did at the end of the first issue. The style and skill of the creative team keeps me reading, but it seems like they're very much writing for the trade in terms of pacing, and the fact that very little actually happens in this issue is a weak point, especially when the characterization, ideas and artwork are all such strong elements.
