FLASHBACK - THE WILDC.A.T.S CARTOON! BASED ON JIM LEE'S WILDCATS COMIC SERIES!

Basic Series Background Intro:
Back in October 1994, an action sci fi cartoon series was launched on the CBS TV channel, which aired along with TMNT and Skeleton Warriors. And that cartoon was titled WildCats, which was based on the comic series created by the ultra-talented artist Jim Lee [his artwork is shown on the left, from the mid-90s]. The comics in the first series ran for 50 issues, and it was the beginning of the Wildstorm Universe created by Jim. And the cartoon ran for just 13 episodes. And it had a brief toy-line created by Playmates Toys.

The first issue of WildCats Covert Action Teams was published by Jim Lee and Image comics back in 1992. By then, Jim Lee was already known for his artwork on Marvel's X-men. And Jim teamed up with his buddy, Brandon Choi, to create the WildCats indy comic series, which became an instant hit.

And while being a teenager back in the 90s [the good old days!], I got to know about the WildCats comics through the cartoon series, which had a badass gritty feel to it, along with a rock & roll soundtrack with lots of electric guitar riffs. And over the years, some of the voice actors from WildCats were tied to other animated series like: X-men, Ultra Force, Care Bears, RoboCop, Totally Spies and Rescue Heroes.

The Core Story-line:
The cartoon series featured two ancient races fighting across the galaxy and traveling in spaceships that crashed down to Earth [just like the original Transformers cartoon, released almost 9 years earlier]. And the good guys were called the Kherubim [almost pronounced as "Cherubim"], while the bad guys were the Daemonites [aka Day-mon-ites].
We are not told what galactic sector that they originally came from; but that's not really important in these classic cartoons... plus you need to remember that "a universe" and "a galaxy" are not the same thing..... but maybe I'll explain later.

Moving along, after the two separate spaceship crashes, the two alien races continued to evolve and battle on Earth behind the scenes, for over 100,000 years. And the good guys are able to take on human appearances, while the bad guys have to possess certain human bodies, in order to turn them into Daemonite soldiers. But the mortals descendants with Kherubim blood seem to be the best vessels for the Daemonites to possess / dominate and take over, since those mortals tend to have dormant mutant / psychic powers that can be activated by a few different means.

   

  

  

The WildCats Superhero Team Consisted of: 
Lord Emp / Jacob Marlowe - An ancient Kherubim warrior in the comics, and an ordinary mortal in the cartoon. He is the multimillionaire team sponsor, & the owner of Halo Corporation. And he creates the team's jet, like the Avengers Quinjet.

Spartan - the bold team leader with orange hair and the red cowl, whose body was damaged in an accident; and his mind was transferred into his living cyborg shell. But in the comics, he is more of an android, not a mortal. He has flight and red thermal energy projection powers.

Zealot - the red ninja gal / the hardcore Lieutenant, with long white hair. She is a master swordswoman with elite combat skills. She's single in the cartoon. But she does have a daughter with another hero, in the comics.

Maul - a mutant "Hulk" kinda guy that can grow to become 30 - 50 feet tall, & he's the big boyfriend of Voodoo. He has purpleish skin and he cannot transform into a regular human.

Voodoo - the Telepath / Jean Gray Type. She has long blue hair. She can levitate and toss objects at her foes. And she can see Daemonites moving about in disguise as humans. She can also read minds to an extent... and in the comics, she was an exotic dancer who does sexy strip teases... so basically, she was a stripper :)

WarBlade - the First Wolverine type / badass guy. He wears the white & blue costume, and his hands can morph into liquid metal like a Terminator, and then instantly harden to become blades and piercing claws.

Mr. Majestic - a former leader of the Kherubim, who is featured more in the comics, than in the cartoons, since the leader in the cartoon series is Spartan.

Void - Teleporter / sexy living computer / naked silver android, in the cartoons. But in the comics, her powers come from an Orb of Power that crashed into her military team's space exploring vessel, killing everyone except her. And that orb fused with her body & gave her the powers of precognition, so she can see glimpses of the future, and she can fly. I've added a pic of her on the left.


Grifter - the smart-ass / Second Wolverine type / bad-ass hitman of the group. He has blonde hair and he wears the red bandanna over his face. He's a former soldier with the Navy's Seal Team 7, and he's an expert marksman that uses laser guns.

** Helspont - an ancient Warlord / General for the Daemonites, the main bad guy in the cartoon. He took possession of an Acurian body, sometime after the fall of the Roman Empire. Shown on the right, his black skull face looks like it's permanently on fire... whitish-gray fire. Other bad guys in the cartoon were Slag, Harm, Pike, Taboo, Devin and Attica.

[You may need to click "Read More" on the lower right, to see the rest of this blog article!]



There were other characters introduced to be part of a second WildCats team in the comics [after the entire first team was presumed to be dead]. And the new team included: Savant, Ladytron Condition Red and Tao. And Mr. Majestic was affiliated with this group [since he is the father of Savant, and her mother is Zealot, the red ninja gal].

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Note - back in 1999, Jim Lee sold his WildCats characters to DC Comics. And the character Grifter would eventually get his own comic series in 2011, for a limited run. Grifter also appeared in the cartoon movie titled Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, back in 2013.

All right, that's the core summary. You can find clips of the WildCats mid-90s cartoon series uploaded on Youtube! Stay tuned for more articles!