Wildcats Version 3.0: Full Disclosure

Smart, exciting and somewhat creepy, this latest version of the Wildcats saga shows the one-time super team installed at the pinnacle of corporate America. Alien android Spartan is now known as Jack Marlowe, CEO of huge Halo Corporation, which produces incredibly advanced electronics equipment. Marlowe insists his big, diverse acquisitions will give him even more power to help humanity. Unfortunately, he can't avoid conflict with scheming, violent enemies, so he needs to ally himself with thugs of his own. One is Agent Wax, who uses his hypnotic powers to have sex with his obnoxious boss's wife—the superhero equivalent of date rape. Another is Cole Cash (aka Grifter), a hardened mercenary now confined to a wheelchair, who recruits accountant Edwin Dolby to help in a high-tech combat op. Dolby doesn't want to hurt anyone; the question is whether he can do the job while keeping his morals intact. The more important question, of course, is what he really wants: to be a corporate money man or a masked warrior. Casey's shrewd use of morally ambiguous action keeps readers off balance. Friend does a splendid job inking Nguyen's fluid pencils, and Casey gives the artists plenty to work with, moving from executive office conferences to covert missions into enemy headquarters. Overall, the story is both fascinating and more than a little disturbing. It's easy to tell heroes from villains when they're in colorful costumes; it's a lot more difficult when they're all wearing business suits. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.