Not really.  Silvestri and Lee had some similarities in style; but the books were rather different.  Ripclaw was pure Wolverine and the only real standout of the team.  The rest were more generic X-Men/Deathlok clones.  WildCATS was more deliberate knock-offs of the X-Men.

Silvestri broke into comics around 1981 and Lee not until '87 (ish).  Silvestri had work at First, DC and Marvel under his belt and became the regular penciller on X-Men, by the time Lee started working at Marvel.  he left X-Men and was working on Wolverine, when Lee came on board X-Men.  Quite frankly, I think you could make more of a case of Lee following Silvestri's lead, on X-Men.  Silvestri cites Berni Wrightson and Frank Frazetta as his biggest comic influences.  Lee's seem to be Miller, Byrne, a bit of Kirby (mostly in effects work) and some Adams.  Personally, I think Silvestri is a better artist and conveys mood better.  Neither is even close to the level of their influences.

A lot of the "sameness" is down to inkers, as well as the artists, as Scott Williams inked both and a ot of the other inkers were aping Williams.  Williams (and the others) were very much of the pen crowd, when it came to inking, with the scratchy lines all over everything, rather than using a brush to add tones.  A lot of the inker's job morphed into the colorists, with the digital coloring systems, as the digital coloring could add depth via color shading, rather than the inker having to add it.

I've never seen a serious discussion about his art, other than the criticism of his unattributed swiping. The one time it was sort of addressed, that I saw, was when he did the Stan Lee video and Stan remarked that he didn't join his lines. I think a lot of it was down to not having a strong handle on the basics of anatomy, leading to a lot of sketching to try to correct. He mastered certain poses (well, enough to get a job) and used a lot of stuff like that to add shading, since he didn't seem to know how to do it with the pencil, like Byrne or Adams. He was one of those guys (as were a lot of the other partners and most of their studio artists) that latched onto cross-hatching and wouldn't let go. I've seen a couple of pieces of his original art and it is mostly lines, with little shading. When you would see the stuff in black and white, it was very flat. The colorists were the ones really giving the characters weight. You'll also notice fairly sparse backgrounds, if any, and vehicles are kept to a minimum.

A lot of those early books were done by the partners' studios, with groups of artists aping their style. Some of those guys developed beyond that; but, not that many. Of course, you could make the same criticism of Continuity, as everyone was aping Adams, with some escaping it when they left and others never really shedding it.

Hey, I did not realize this journal existed! Good that it does, though I am disappointed to see that it seems to mostly serve as a publishing opportunity for sociology majors of various trendy sub-disciplines, rather than art criticism. I guess they have to take what they can get. I would like to check out the Flex Mentallo article in #1.1, though. Does anyone have access to it?

WILDC.A.T.S Covert Action Teams #1

"Resurrection Day"

August 1992

Writer: Jim Lee
Penciller: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Joe Rosas & Digital Chameleon
Letterer: Mike Heisler
Editor: Ruth Grice

Synopsis: A Silver Surfer-like female with a human face tried to take away a meteorite from scientists who found it in Antarctica, but she suddenly dissipated into nothingness. This was in U.S. Research Station Zebra in July 29, 1980. Fast forward to the current date, August 9, 1992 at McLean, Virginia, at the International Operations Crisis Control Center, two officials were discussing about rogue C.A.T.S fighting in the middle of Washington D.C. causing massive collateral damage, but they blamed it on the Libyans. One of the rogue C.A.T.S body was identified as a dwarf named Jacob Mar... bu then the Silver Surfer-like woman suddenly appeared for a second and then disappeared once more before the last name of Jacob was finished.

The next scene is two years prior which is August 8, 1990, a homeless dwarf, Jacob Marlowe woke up not remembering his past even though he has wandered across America for three decades. Two neighborhood thugs were going to bludgeon the dwarf, but Silver Surfer-like woman suddenly appeared warning them that hurting the dwarf will jeopardize the safety of the entire planet so she blasted them, thus saving Jacob Marlowe. She then held his hands and told him his life will never be the same. Fast forward to the current timeline of August 8, 1992, and Jacob Marlowe is still appeared to be a homeless man in New York City waking up looking like a bum in a trash filled street. He woke up wobbled to the street and got hit by a NYC yellow cab, and emerged unscathed and was recognized by the doorman, and entered a building. He was cleaned up, shaved, and dressed up, and emerged as a dapper looking C.E.O. In fact he is the CEO of Halo Incorporated which is a multi-billion dollar corporation, and is a team leader of a super team called WILDC.A.T.S comprised of aliens and human hybrid "superheroes." He greeted Adriana, who is also known as Void. And the Silver Surfer-like woman is finally named. As per Void, Jacob Marlow is the Lord Emp and must lead the fight against The Cabal, and failure to do so and all will be lost. We also learn from Void that she is in an eternal conflict with a man regarding an orb, which he mastered and used it against her and caused her to be lost in various planes of existence, converging both the moment of nexus and their current reality, seeing both rebirth and death. The orb's power can alter the very fate of their future.

They are then joined at the hangar deck by the rest of the WILDC.A.T.S team. One of the walls exploded and it sent Spartan to the other side of the hangar deck. It appeared Maul and Warblade were engaged in battle simulation that got carried away. Marlowe was ticked off and blamed team leader Spartan for this fiasco and walked away saying he could use a Youngblood member or two. Warblade looked sheepishly at Spartan who was rather annoyed.

Underneath Chesapeake Bay, inside the ship, Behemoth, were members of the Cabal and their leader Helspont. Helspont adivsed his team that soon they will take over the planet, the so-called re-unification, with the help of their Daemonite Brothers. But one of them betrayed the team, and Helspont ordered Pike to choke out and kill Alberto Cassini, the traitor. Now they have to find the third gifted one. Helspont turned to Providence who told them where to find the gifted one but warned them if she is turned by the Kherubim, then the re-unification is itself, imperiled.

Meanwhile Jacob Marlowe met with The Gnome (in Iran) who was protected by a Coda Assassin. He asked Marlowe for a favor, and Marlowe guaranteed him his word. And Gnome gave Marlowe the information where to find The Gifted One.

In Georgetown, at a place called, The Spot, which is a strip-joint. Cole (aka Grifter) found the Gifted One, Voodoo who is dancing as a stripper. The view was so good that Grifter almost didn't notice two Daemonites (shift-shifters) walking in with Devin, a Coda Assassin. They are there to kidnap Voodoo and told she told the two Daemonites to keep an eye out for Zealot and Grifter who may be in the joint. The Daemonites try to grab Voodoo who started screaming as she apparently has the power to see through their shape-shifting ability and see the monsters behind their human disguise.

Chaos ensued as Voodoo is grabbed by the Daemonites. As the patrons rushed out to the exit door, the Coda Assassin Devin blokced it and unsheathed her sacred Clef Blade and proceeded to calmly slice people approaching her, which is a challenge to Grifter and Zealot whom she knows is in the place. Grifter puts on his mask and engaged the two Daemonites with guns blazing. Headshots are right on point taking the two down permanently.

In the news, the incident at The Georgetown strip joint reached WILDC.A.T.S headquarters and the team immediately set out to get to the strip joint in order to get The Gifted One.

At the strip-joint, Grifter lost his guns in his battle with Devin who is almost at the point of killing him when he had a smaller emerge from his wrist and shot Devin point blank at the torso. And more Daemonites emerged to get them. But then the cavalry arrived as the team of WILDC.A.T.S broke through the roof and engaged the Daemonites. Marlowe was grabbed from behind and was saved by a newly arrived Zealot who sliced the head of the Daemonite. And team WILDC.A.T.S emerged victorious. But Coda Assassin Devin claimed the last laugh as she was holding a trigger and blew up the strip joint with everyone apparently perishing inside the explosion. This was witnessed by the news team, and was seen by Helspont at his ship, the Behemoth.

Comments: Jim Lee's illustrations are what made this initial issue an eye-candy to look at. However, as with the other Image initial issues, the story appeared to be disjointed and there were too many characters introduced as if the readers are supposed to know them and should recognize them as long time readers. This made the story disjointed and confusing in many places, especially in the beginning.

However, unlike Youngblood, the designs of the team members are more appealing and distinct, and doesn't come across as clones of Wolverine and The Hulk. Although there are a lot of clone moments in this band of characters. But the design of Spartan, Grifter, and Zealot comes across as distinct and not generic.

Thanks for the information. I'm not an X-Men reader so maybe that's why I didn't see the correlation. I know the Cyclops from issue #201 of UXM when he battled Ororo for X-Men leadership, but that costume didn't resemble the one from Spartan. So I googled it, and I see the X-Men cartoon of the 90's does resemble Spartan in a way. And I am unfamliar with Gambit and Psylocke... well Psylocke from the X-Men movie from a couple of years ago I know. I can see the similarities, but being unfamiliar with the X-Men since I stopped reading comic books from late 1987 to 2006, and missed the whole 90's this whole Image Publishing is somehow new to me at this point, which is both refreshing and bothersome.

Is Voodoo based on the New Mutants female character with the wings or the Indian one by any chance?

Maybe that's where this came from...

I must really have missed a lot between 1987 to 2006 in comic books, when I stopped reading and lost interest in comic books. This is the Cyclops I remember (late 70's and early 80's version). And not the one that Spartan was apparently based on, which is a 1990's version of Cyclops.