I've been reading up on Stormwatch as part of some research into other comic book characters and stories (it's how I have fun), but had never had a chance to read any of it until now. This particular book I found cheap at 2nd and Charles after trading in some old CDs I didn't want anymore.

While I normally am opposed to jumping into a story half-way through (or, in this case, more than half-way), the way this particular volume is set up allows for some midstream catching up, so it was fine.

Included here are the last three issues of Stormwatch Volume 1, issues 48-50, as well as the entire run of Stormwatch Volume 2, issues 1-11. The only thing missing from that particular storyline is the WildC.A.T.S./Aliens one-shot that fills in the story between Stormwatch 10 and 11. While other reviewers have been upset that this issue was not included, and I can understand that from a completionist point of view, having not read the issue previously I didn't really miss it. But, it would have been nice to have that story in this set just so we know how we wound up at the start of issue 11.

What was interesting about this particular set of issues was the set-up that Ellis was doing for some of his future books. For one, Stormwatch would become The Authority, which we get hints of throughout this final run. Also, he introduces the Bleed, the space between universes that connect the multiverse together. This would not only tie-in heavily to Planetary, it would also set up the eventual melding of the Wildstorm and DC universes (while this may not have been Ellis' original plan, it did come in handy for DC).

The other thing I really enjoyed about this particular collection was the archetypal characters introduced that are quite clearly representative of other, more well known characters from other companies. The group on the cover is one such set of characters, all clearly representative of a very well known group of superheroes who also have their own satellite base. It's interesting to see what Ellis does with these characters. Between this group and the character of The High, Ellis has some clear thoughts about some classic characters and he uses Stormwatch to share.

Definitely a good read. Need to get the first collection, and see if there's any way to get the first 36 issues of Stormwatch in a collected set just for some background information. ( )