Wildcrap?

You may not remember but the wildly popular Image comic Wildc.a.t.s had a Saturday morning cartoon on CBS for one season. I was a huge fan of the comic and was so excited to check the cartoon out. I had Batman TAS, X-Men, SpiderMan, The Tick and Wildc.a.t.s air all on one day! For a kid who was addicted to comics and lived in Wizard Magazine, this was a dream!

It wasn’t common for non-Marvel/DC properties to get an animated series back then, so it was a great opportunity for many new fans to be exposed to this team. Plus action figures on the shelves! Wouldn’t be long shortly after we’d see other indie properties like Ultraforce, The Tick, Savage Dragon and Spawn would also get animated shows as well. Even an animated Youngblood pitch is floating around somewhere online. The door was wide open for so many comic properties at the time!

Then there’s the actual cartoon: it felt very very rushed in terms of animation was kinda basic and clunky, the voice acting was passable for the time and the writing was just ok, which is odd given respected veteran cartoon writer David Wise helped head up the team. Then again, it was most likely a cash in on X-Men’s insane popularity at that time. 

That goes without saying…I supposed I’ll leave it there for the moment…

Another issue is the contrast between the light hearted cartoon and the rather dark, violent and sexy comic. It was night and day. Kinda like going from Toxic Avenger to Toxic Crusaders. It sadly just didn’t work. But I think many many fans had wished it would’ve.

Still nothing beats going into KB and finding rows of Wildc.a.t.s figures. They weren’t exactly playable but man they liked great on my shelf next to other comic heroes. I had the entire collection, minus Grifters bike, the larger scaled figures. Oh and don’t get me started on the WalMart exclusives either.

So yes Wildc.at.s may have been a blip on the radar to some but for many, it was still pretty great to see their indie faves get a chance to shine!

-Chad