In 2017, DC Comics relaunched the Wildstorm Universe with The Wild Storm, by Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt. This book, and it's companion series Wildstorm: Michael Cray (by Bryan Hill, N. Steven Harris and Dexter Vines), have remained true to the para-military superheroics the universe was founded on in the 1990s, while modernizing the core concepts and trading out the original's "Extreme" factor for a more nuanced approach. The results have been fascinating and familiar, and yet very new.

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Set in a world very much like our own, Hill and Harris have used their series to do more than reintroduce a popular character in a new light. The series has also given us an evil Justice League unlike anything we have seen before. As an expert assassin, Cray is given priority targets to take out before they can hurt innocent people. The catch is that all his assignments have involved targeting evil versions of superheroes from the DC Universe.

It's difficult to get people interested in a new universe, one separate from the most iconic heroes and villains fans want to see. by giving us a taste of something familiar, yet severely twisted, the creative team behind Michael Cray have locked in their audience, making sure we're tuning in issue after issue in order to see what DC hero will be twisted next.

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So far, Cray has fought a deranged Oliver Queen, who didn't really come back from that island as a sane man. Then he took on Barry Allen, a conspiracy theorist and schizophrenic who used a speed suit to kill tech people. In issue #5, Cray is due to go up against Dr. Arthur Curry, a geneticist who has spliced his DNA to turn himself into a monstrous "Aquaman."

Who's next? A Batman who is a brutal vigilante murderer? A military super soldier Wonder Woman who thinks she's a god? How about a Superman clone out to destabilize civilization? There is so much potential here, and new readers a certain to be intrigued by what is familiar.

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The reason this version of the Justice League works so well is because it speaks to the profoundly cynical world that Ellis has created. In a world where government agencies secretly rule over the earth and fight over jurisdiction, it makes sense that a profoundly negative view on secret ops and corporate espionage would also create negative reflections of the heroes we know best.

RELATED: In The Wild Storm, Warren Ellis Takes Hold of a Universe

In this universe, it makes sense that Oliver Queen would become an unhinged killer who recreates the island he was stranded on just to reenact The Most Dangerous Game to make himself feel powerful. It makes sense that there is no Speed Force, and Barry Allen's powers come from a suit that he uses to murder those who he believes will make the world worse. This is an utterly pessimistic world, so there's no potential for heroes to emerge from trauma. Here, they all become villains.

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As the architect overseeing the reboot, Ellis has set out to create a more realistic Wildstorm universe, but its pessimistic viewpoint stops us just short of viewing it as "the real world." As Grant Morrison said in Flex Mentallo, “Only a bitter little adolescent boy could confuse realism with pessimism.” We know that cynicism and pessimism don't make things more real, and Ellis knows that too. The Wild Storm and Michael Cray work, though, because that's not what he's trying to create.

This is a world with superpowered Covert Action Teams engaged in a government conspiracy drama set in front of a secret alien invasion. This universe has a godlike cosmonaut, a woman who can spawn a suit of armor from under her skin, and a hitman who can blow stuff up with a touch. Ellis knows this isn't the real world -- it's just a dark one.

The true tragedy of this entire endeavor is the fact that once the story is told, it can't be put back in the box. Michael Cray is killing these villains one by one. He killed Oliver Queen, and he killed Barry Allen. He will likely kill Arthur Curry, too, because that's his job. While the story is in the journey, it can be hard to say goodbye, especially when you have something so fascinating as a truly evil Justice League.

We've seen groups like this before, try, but what makes these particular dark reflections so unique is that their very nature has been flipped and perverted by the cynicism of probability. That those given a special gift are more likely to end up squandering it than doing anything good. There's something deeper and more complicated here than another generic evil hero/villain story.

It's too bad Cray is so good at his job, because it would be truly fascinating to explore what these dark reflections are capable of doing. But Cray is skilled, and thus our time with each broken Leaguer is fleeting. Thus, we'll enjoy it while it lasts, because it makes the Wildstorm universe far more fun than it has been in a very long time.