Joe Casey Comics: Wildcats #27

[Continuing my look at Joe Casey's run on Wildcats. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

The penultimate issue of Wildcats volume two continues the two-fold purpose of putting certain plots in the past and setting up Version 3.0--sometimes at the same time.

In that case is Agent Wax tailing Jeremy Stone who is doing freelance computer work--but uses his powers to shrink himself a little and make himself look like an old man. More about that next time, but Casey here is putting Stone in the past, while setting Wax up for the next series and his role there.

The majority of the issue has Grifter continuing his efforts to track down Zealot and... get back together with her? Have some questions answered? Who knows? I certainly don't know what Grifter actually wants, but I suspect he doesn't either. First, he meets her in a diner where she again tells Grifter to back off--but also explains that she is wiping out all of the Coda because she feels they've perverted the sacred teachings she brought to Earth.

This leads to Grifter and Zealot killing a Coda assassin who was hired to kill a man in the witness protection program. The Coda is killed (so is the target) and that finishes Zealot's job in America. Next: Europe.

We're left with Grifter and Jack Marlowe in that house. The talk sets up Version 3.0 and the continuing use of the two as a duo that act as foils for one another. However, this scene suggests that Grifter is moving into the future, putting the past behind him. Marlowe delivers another line about them being family, explicitly stating what's been obvious since the beginning. It appears the two will continue to work together (well, they will, which I know because I've read Version 3.0).

The issue ends with Pris waking up and finding the old beachcomber in her room. He's there to help. He's a Daemonite and it's time she learned about her heritage. The past resurfaces so she can have a future--well, sort of, I guess.

Next issue is the final issue of this volume. Then, on to Version 3.0.