When DC Comics relaunched their entire line of books last September, they decided that they couldn't do a proper relaunch without changing some things. Some characters would be thrown out like Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Wally West and others (at least for the time being), and new characters would be brought to the forefront -- some of which we haven't seen in a long time. Among these new characters re-entered into the spotlight were members of Jim Lee's WILDC.A.T.S. team like Grifter and Voodoo. Yet, although these characters made their return, they were very different from their original portrayals. Some of the more obvious changes, in fact, were seen in VOODOO's self titled series.

When she was first introduced back in WILDC.A.T.S., Priscilla Kitaen was an "exotic dancer." She was also, if you recall, a tiny bit vapid -- but that's beside the point. Although her first appearance was technically in issue #0 of that series, she "first took the stage" (pun intended) for her very first performance in issue #1. That evening, Priscilla caught the eye of an audience member who was also working undercover: Grifter. Grifter had embarked on a mission to identify the woman who worked at the strip club with "the sight," the ability to identify people who were being possessed by the Daemonites. After pinpointing Voodoo as his target, Grifter swept Priscilla away and led her to the WILDC.A.T.S. By issue #2, Priscilla had signed on to join the team. She would later be mentored by Zealot in martial arts and later discover she has other powers that go beyond "the sight" like her ability to shape shift into a "beast-like" form, telepathy and more. Much later in Voodoo's story readers would discover her genetic connection to the Daemonites -- she had one of their genes because her ancestor was once possessed by a Daemonite.

When Voodoo fans first discovered that the character would re-appear in her very own self-titled ongoing series back in September, many were probably excited. Who would have thought that a character like Voodoo would have the chance to carry her own series? But oh, how different she was from her former incarnation. In fact, the only thing that Priscilla Kitaen from the original WildC.A.T.S. run and this new Priscilla Kitaen really had in common were their names.

In her first appearance since the launch of her self-titled new 52 book, Voodoo was something of a mystery. She worked as an exotic dancer (like we saw in her original first appearance back in 1992), but she was really an undercover alien clone working for the Daemonites. Her mission was to infiltrate the military in order to obtain information about the world's heroes. Potentially in order to eliminate them. Well, at least that was her story in the first four issues. The interesting thing, however, is that Voodoo was also a character you could sympathize with. The further she got in her mission, the more she began to question her own actions and the greater cause.

Over the course of the last three issues of VOODOO, a lot has changed. We discovered that the Voodoo we saw at the beginning of the series isn't Voodoo at all, but a clone of the real Priscilla Kitaen. So, who is Priscilla Kitaen? Up until the sixth issue of the series, Priscilla was being held by the government -- possibly because she had been infected by the Daemonites. That we still don't know. What we do know is that the current Voodoo (or should I say, Voodoo's) are very different from the Voodoo we saw in WildC.A.T.S., originally.

So which version of the character is more interesting? The original version of Priscilla's character, a former exotic dancer with the gift of identifying those who are possessed by the Daemonites. I personally really dug the version of Voodoo that Ron Marz was weaving for readers; where Priscilla was half-Daemonite and on a mission on earth. Since then, however, Priscilla has been changed. She is now a clone and a hybrid. The real Priscilla had been held hostage by the government, has escaped and is struggling to fight against her clone. If I had to guess, I have a feeling that the current writer will go back to Priscilla's roots after eliminating her clone -- but we'll have to wait and see. Which version of the character do you prefer and why?

FIRST yay.

I went into the 52 relaunch picking up a few different books and hoping to find a few that I enjoyed, not just the "headliner" Batman, Flash, or Superman books. I picked up Voodoo #1 and surprisingly liked the story, and I agree that the story twists of more recent issues are less enjoyable overall. It's still on my pull-list but I may begin to read it in trade, as long as the story stays solid.

Who is she? The star of a very badly written comic. I had hopes after the creative change, but unfortunately my opinion is the same.

I love, love, LOVED WildCATS....Voodoo and Grifter were easily my two top favorites in that series, and i was thrilled that they got their own titles...

unfortunately, both titles fail to impress me, i still get them, but they're no where near my favorite. i missed the good ol days..

why i'm i not reading this book?

Voodoo's version on the Wild CATS cartoon was interesting, to say the least: they made her a somewhat naive teenage orphan--hey, it's a kids show, you gotta expect some characters to be tweaked--and she got a spotlight episode where she tried finding her lost parents.

The original is always better. I loved her in WildC.A.T.S.

Voodoo started out great but after the creative shift it went way down hill fast

Who is she? The star of a very badly written comic. I had hopes after the creative change, but unfortunately my opinion is the same.

@Bestostero: Did you watch the cartoon? i loved that show

@SavageDragon said:

@Bestostero: Did you watch the cartoon? i loved that show

LOVE the animated series, i remember they made Voodoo a ballet dancer instead of an exotic dancer in that lol

Interesting read.

I really liked Voodoo when Marz was writing it, Now not so much.

I really hope things get explained and that eventually we get only one Voodoo, because I know that clones are just getting harder to explain these days. The books are awesome, loving the story, but please no more clones.

I'd never even heard of this character before, so I came in with zero expectations, and although I dug #1, I lost interest rather fast. I think these outside characters needed more connection to the DCU as a whole, not just a cameo from Superman or Guy Gardner here and there.

I wonder how they will tie things together so we may get a New 52 version of WildC.A.T.S. At the moment the Voodoo comics are a bit confusing. There are a lot of characters and very few answers are coming out. Instead it feels like anyone who can give answers is taken out. I am giving it a chance but this more questions then answers gets tiresome.

I was never that into WildC.A.T.S., so I never had any real affinity for her past character,

The whole, she's a clone was such a crass cop-out that it reminds me of the whole issue with the Clone Saga in SPIDER-MAN. They get the reader attached to a character then pull the rug out from under them that the character they have been following from the start isn't even the main lead. How often has that bait-n'-switch ever worked out?

It's not even as if this "true" version is more interesting. It would be like following Harry Potter for the first book, but then Ron Weasley was the focus for the rest of the series.

I honestly am only vaguely familiar with WildC.A.T.S. and hence know not alot about Voodoo, but just from how you describe it, I have to say the traditional Priscilla is far more interesting. That's just my opinion, however.

So we can't have Wally West but we have Voodoo...wow DC, really? We can have the left over Image junk, which is all Wildstorm was, but not a classic hero. Pardon my bad attitude but I'm a bit perplexed.

Great read. I'd never read anything about Voodoo before, but I've been nothing but impressed with the series. Where other books tried to be sexy and failed, Voodoo impressed on all levels with a sexy, confident, but rounded female lead (with a rather practical costume I might add). So while I knew nothing of Voodoo pre-DCnU, I'd consider myself a fan now.

edit: Oh, and I definitely hope they don't kill off the main character of the book to go back to the "real" Voodoo. That'd be bull. For fans like me that'd be killing off "my" Voodoo, the one I care about.

Oh, and I agree with you @pingclang: on missing Wally, but that's not really Voodoo's fault.

@Bestostero: I thought the cartoon was good, too. Watched it for the first time last year. I've been looking for the complete series DVD set (the one Funimation distributed) for a while now, and on Amazon, it's fetching for LUDICROUS prices.

Why am I still reading this comic? I prefer the character that Marz was developing. It kind of reminded me of the movie Species. Now, I don't know what is happening. The current storyline is a mess. Clones are the cancer of comics.

I am a Wildcats fans that will not touch the Grifter series because Liefield has been associated, and now it seems that DC is ruining Voodoo as well. I will give them a few more issues before I move on.

What is DC doing to the Wildcats. next they will Screw up Zealot, and water down Spartan, At least the handful of Gen 13 characters seem to work, in what we saw of them

@crackerjack82 said:

What is DC doing to the Wildcats. next they will Screw up Zealot, and water down Spartan, At least the handful of Gen 13 characters seem to work, in what we saw of them

With Zealot scheduled to be in Deathstroke, which Liefeld is in charge of, you might not be far off...

@Ravager4: Oh dear god, if i see him at a con, and he screws zealot up, i am gonna make him buy back my book, I stop caring about DC for a long time, then got back in when they did villains united, which came to be the secret six. I hate their whole 52 idea, i am not gonna buy a book a week for these guys. then the Half reboot came in, and i was OK lets see, But if they keep screwing the awesome wildstorm characters up I will drop DC again. Hell i own every Single wildstorm Book, albeit in storage, and a few are little worse for wear. but come on DC

You Ruined Stormwatch ( my hate of Manhunter)

Grifter Blows

Helspont you did wrong

Voodoo is falling apart

@Darkmount1: wow i just took a peak at amazon and eBay you're right! makes me feel lucky i got mines when prices werent so high, its probably out of print now and people are jacking up the price

@Bestostero: you should be able to get it for like $20 if you go to the Amazon Instant Video section. Granted, it's only streaming and not hard copies, but it's better than spending ten times that much.

@FoxxFireArt said:

The whole, she's a clone was such a crass cop-out that it reminds me of the whole issue with the Clone Saga in SPIDER-MAN. They get the reader attached to a character then pull the rug out from under them that the character they have been following from the start isn't even the main lead. How often has that bait-n'-switch ever worked out?

It's because they changed writers. The revelation that she's a clone and the real one had been in holding all along created MASSIVE plot holes all around. That's what happened when Williamson took over after Ron Marz was kicked off.

@Bestostero: Right on the money for that one--it came out in 2005. The only time I ever saw a copy in person was when the Suncoast Video chain was still around--had I been interested then, I would've snatched it up. At best, I can probably wait till the next time I get a gift card.

I preferred the Ron Marz version

I like her new origin.

I was really into this series until they started the clone crap.

The series were great and I was loving every issue but they lost me when they started the things about she being a clone and after that in the last issue killing every good supporting character.

@The Mighty Monarch:

I know the technical reason why this change was done. It rips the scab off of what bothers a lot of readers about comics. A creative team can create a story that readers are liking, but once a new team is added can drastically alter everything to a completely different story.

I didn't know he was kicked off. It was a seriously short run.

Dan Quayle!

It always struck me as how she was conviently listed as 18 in WildC.A.T.S and she's a stripper. It was on a collectors card or something in the book. Still not sure what was going on in the first few issues of that book, but it looked fantastic.:)

I'm waiting to see how this story arc fizzles off but Voodoo surprisingly for me has been fairing a lot better than Grifter, both origins for no reason what so ever were relaunched and to be perfectly honest I think the wildstorm characters should've died with the wildstorm universe.  
 
I think Zealot would've been a better character to have her own series to dig into her deep history with the  Kherubim or the Coda and play around with her history. Rather than Grifter being some cheesy book that's horribly drawn, and Voodoo not even having the daemonites look completely different like some weird jelly fish like alien knock off's rather than the actual organic creatures they were (that had 4 arms) in the wildstorm universe. 
 

I really preferred the original version.

I wasn't too big into Wildcats, but I did read some, mostly Joe Casey's stuff. So, I'm not really too knowledgeable about how she used to be. but it does look like they are trying to get her to resemble her Wildstorm version a bit more closely. I'm assuming somewhere along the line the Voodoo the Daemonites created will die or something and Priscilla, the one the Black Razors were holding, will replace her.

I dunno, I'm a bit torn. I liked the story Marz was telling, but I realize that because I wasn't much a fan of the old version allows me to view it in a different way than people who were fans of the character. She really was very different, even I could tell that with my limited exposure to her pre-relaunch. To people who were fans of the character, I'm sure it was pretty jarring, and I certainly haven't been a fan of some other characters that are essentially the same character in name only, precisely because I liked the old version. I often see people say that it's a new universe so you just have to accept these things... but if you are a fan of a character, it is hard to just let what is essentially a brand new character take a favorite character's place, so I can understand DC wanting to make the changes to her a *bit* less drastic.

Ok, I'm a bit tired so that probably didn't make sense, but whatever. :p

@Bestostero said:

I love, love, LOVED WildCATS....Voodoo and Grifter were easily my two top favorites in that series, and i was thrilled that they got their own titles...

unfortunately, both titles fail to impress me, i still get them, but they're no where near my favorite. i missed the good ol days..

Exactly my position.

@Darkmount1 said:

@Bestostero: I thought the cartoon was good, too. Watched it for the first time last year. I've been looking for the complete series DVD set (the one Funimation distributed) for a while now, and on Amazon, it's fetching for LUDICROUS prices.

That's why I don't shop Amazon exclusively. Since they started letting merchant setup stores they have just become another Ebay Store. If there is 0 copies of something online they charge whatever price they want. Look at the D3 Collectors edition, are they crazy, but you check Best Buy or GameStop they still had it available for preferred at the normal price.

Ron Marz' version was the best and possibly one of the most unique books I have ever written. It's been forgettable since he's left.

I never read the old wildcats mainly because no good comic store near me, so I'm all digital (wish they were cheaper then normal comics since its just digital and no physical copy or other bonus content but that is an entirely different subject). I have read up on them finding them interesting.

As for who I prefer I'm iffy but as a newcomer it does look interesting so far. They haven't shown the clone or original to have all the powers the wildcat's version had but still very early. I look forward to seeing who survives the battle clone, original or they both lose. For the third option I instantly started thinking that they end up fusing together.

I personally want to see more wildcats be revived into the new 52, maybe with their own series or staring in arcs.

@wmwadeii: When was the last time you went to Best Buy? A quick search on their website yielded nothing. And Gamestop hasn't sold DVD's (used or new) for years.

@Darkmount1: My apology on the confusion, wasn't talking about the DVD set in particular just giving and example with Diablo III coming out. While yes their may not be any of the DVD at Best Buy, I'd be surpassed if they can't be found somewhere other than the one Merchant selling it at an unbelievable price because they think they are the only one. That was the original context of my post that some Merchants post crazy amounts and are allowed to go beyond MSRP on Amazon, and Amazon doesn't do anything to stop them.

@wmwadeii: Sorry. My mistake. Heh-heh...

I must say that I enjoy the new Voodoo book and I didn't expect too but I think I would like to see some of her original origin cross over after they finish with the clone story.

That was so confusing.

She was always my favorite member of the Wildcats, so I was really excited to see her be apart of the DCnU. However, I think it was a huge mistake for DC to remove Marz from the title.

@Bestostero said:

I love, love, LOVED WildCATS....Voodoo and Grifter were easily my two top favorites in that series, and i was thrilled that they got their own titles...

unfortunately, both titles fail to impress me, i still get them, but they're no where near my favorite. i missed the good ol days..

I'm right there with you