Stormwatch #37

Name: Stormwatch #37
Brand: Image
Availability: InStock

Jul 1996 · Image · 3.50 USD; 4.80 CAD

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★ 1st appearance — Jenny Sparks★ 1st appearance — Jack Hawksmoor

About this Issue

Stormwatch #37 marks Warren Ellis's first issue as writer, a creative handoff that fundamentally redirected the entire WildStorm Universe. In a single oversized chapter, Ellis introduced three characters — Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor, and Rose Tattoo — who would anchor his subsequent run and eventually form the core of The Authority (1999), one of the most consequential superhero team books of the late 1990s. The issue also established the political and moral register — thinly veiled real-world threats, an amoral UN super-team willing to kill, and mature horror undertones — that made Ellis's Stormwatch a template for the next decade of deconstructive superhero comics. Jenny Sparks herself became enduring enough to be ranked the 44th Greatest Comic Book Character by Empire magazine in 2006 and was revived in a DC Black Label solo series by Tom King in 2024.

writer Warren Ellis · artist Tom Raney · inker Randy Elliott · colorist Gina Going · letterer Bill O'Neil · cover Tom Raney, Randy Elliott

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $2

CGC 9.8 · 34 in census $348*

CGC 9.6 · 21 in census $130

CGC 9.4 · 10 in census $130

CGC 9.2 · 10 in census $121*

CGC 9.0 · 4 in census $115*

CGC 8.5 · 2 in census $93*

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CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $93*

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $69*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

CGC 9.8 ▾ $400–$495 2 listings

CGC 9.8 $400 CGC 9.8 $495

CGC 9.6 $223 1 listing Raw — NM- $24.5 1 listing Raw — VF+ $29.99 1 listing

Raw — VF ▾ $12.99–$800 10 listings

VF $12.99 VF $21.17 VF $49.95 VF $49.99 VF $52.98 VF $53 VF $53.48 VF $54.99 VF $59 VF $800

Raw — FN/VF $48.99 1 listing

Raw — FN ▾ $22–$42 2 listings

FN $22 FN $42

Raw / ungraded ▾ $33.75–$67.04 5 listings

Raw / ungraded $33.75 Raw / ungraded $33.79 Raw / ungraded $35 Raw / ungraded $60 Raw / ungraded $67.04

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History

Warren Ellis inherited a Stormwatch series that had been creatively adrift following imprint-wide crossovers including 'WildStorm Rising' and 'Fire from Heaven,' which had left the team depleted and the readership diminished. There was no relaunch, no renumbering, and no promotional campaign — Ellis simply took over with #37 and immediately restructured the cast and tone. He wrote the issue with penciller Tom Raney, inker Randy Elliott, colorist Gina Going with WildStorm FX separations, and letterer Bill O'Neil; it was published by Image Comics under the WildStorm imprint with a cover date of July 1996. Ellis's run on #37–50 and the subsequent twelve-issue Volume 2 was later collected in trade paperback form starting with 'Force of Nature' (Titan Books, January 2000, collecting #37–42), and the full Ellis run has been repackaged multiple times by DC Comics in hardcover editions.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Jenny Sparks (created by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney), an electricity-controlling 'Century Baby' born January 1, 1900, designated 'The Spirit of the 20th Century' and appointed reluctant leader of the new Stormwatch Black covert unit.
First appearance of Jack Hawksmoor (created by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney), a vigilante whose organs were surgically replaced by beings from the future, bonding him to cities and giving him urban-symbiosis superpowers; he joined Stormwatch Black alongside Jenny Sparks and Swift.
First appearance of Rose Tattoo (created by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney), the living embodiment of the concept of murder, recruited by Henry Bendix to lead Stormwatch Red's 'deterrent display and retaliation' capacity.
Warren Ellis's debut issue as writer, completely restructuring the team into three specialized squads — Stormwatch Prime, Stormwatch Red, and Stormwatch Black — while sidelining or dismissing most of the pre-Ellis roster, including removing Battalion (Jackson King) from field command to a training role.
Death of Undertow (Ray Bailey) within this issue, killed by a bomb in his New York apartment, and deaths of villain Father and scientist Martin Krug (shot by Bendix in the Skywatch cryogenic wing).
Synergy (Christine Trelane) fully activates Swift's (Shen Li-Min's) powers in this issue, giving Swift a substantial upgrade.
Union's Stormwatch retainer is formally severed by Bendix in this issue, writing the character out of the active roster.
The issue is the narrative starting point for the entire chain of events that culminated in The Authority (1999): Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor, and Swift — all debuting or transformed here — survived the later WildC.A.T.s/Aliens crossover that destroyed most of Stormwatch and went on to found The Authority.