Did Alan Moore's WildC.A.T.S. Borrow a Shocking Funeral Twist from Kids' TV?

Did Alan Moore really swipe a major plot twist from a children's TV show? A new analysis highlights uncanny similarities between a shocking funeral reveal in Alan Moore's 1997 WildC.A.T.S. run and Steven Moffat's 1991 ITV drama, Press Gang. It's a surprising connection that makes you question how genius truly sparks.

Moore, known for his expansive, often reinterpretive storytelling in works like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell, took over WildC.A.T.S. in the mid-nineties. The Image Comics series, co-created by Jim Lee, was ripe for a shake-up. Moore delivered immediately, revealing the series' central alien war had actually ended thousands of years ago, unbeknownst to the characters on Earth. He then introduced new faces, including the chillingly intelligent Tao, a John Constantine-esque manipulator.

Tao quickly established himself as a master schemer. In WildC.A.T.S. #32-34, the team realizes Tao is orchestrating their every move. What followed was a series of brutal betrayals and apparent deaths, culminating in a funeral. Readers were led to believe that new, vulnerable characters like Savant or Ladytron were victims, especially as core WildC.A.T.S. members appeared in mourning. But Moore, ever the trickster, revealed each "deceased" character alive, building suspense until the final, ironic twist: the funeral was for Tao himself, who, in a later coda, was revealed to have faked his own death, replaced himself, and was now secretly running the world. It was a masterful subversion of expectation.