Credits: Written by Brandon Choi and Tom Joyner, pencilled by Mel Rubi and inked by Trevor Scott.
Cast: Dr Simon Tsung, Ethan McCain, The Sword, One-Eyed Jack, Rake, Hardball, Mike ‘Deathblow’ Cray, Rainmaker, Burnout, Backlash, Freefall, Fairchild, Grunge, Grifter, Alicia Turner, Jack Lynch, Jackson Dane, Maggie Monroe, Kaizen Gamorra, LeGauche, Borgia, Minotaur, Gila and Rodon.
Plot: On the island nation of Gamorra, Kaizen Gamorra, it’s unquestioned leader, is continuing his experiment with his GEn-Omega clone when he receives new samples from LeGauche an employee of the late Miles Craven. LeGauche learns of Craven’s recent death and is aware that the survivors of Team-7 will soon be heading to Gamorra. Kaizen dismisses this threat, but offers to employ LeGauche for another job.
Back in San Francisco, the Sword and his bounty hunters are beating on Ethan as Dr Tsung frantically calls the police before the cord is cut by Jade. Just as things are about to get worse, Deathblow, Grifter, all of Gen-13 and Backlash smash through the window to even the odds. Freefall (of Gen-13) notices that the bounty hunters are the ones who were hunting her pet Qeelocke. The fight turns brutal and the tides goes back and forth, but ultimately the Sword and his creatures abscond with Qeelocke and Dr Tsung, leaving Ethan surrounded by a wrecked house and a whole bunch of strangers. On a plane nearby (that brought Deathblow and the others to San Francisco) Alicia Turner (formerly of International Operations, which is essentially WildStorm’s S.H.I.E.L.D) is using her ill-degined psychic powers to help her old boss Jack Lynch’s withdrawal from Gen-Factor by allowing Wetworks’ Jackson Dane to share his strength and stability. Back at Tsung’s one of the Hunter Killers wasn’t as dead as thought and tries to move on Ethan, but is gunned down by Maggie Monroe who declares that the best people to save Tsung are the people who are there.
On Gamorra island, a UN observer is touring the island, guided by the cyborg known as Rodox, who is trying to convince him that the open rebellion against Clan Gamorra is a real threat to any possibility of reform and improvement on their human rights record. The observer is soon shot dead and it seems that the rebel Cybernary is responsible. Rodox tries to save the people with the observer but they are isolated and killed by the cyborg Gila and ‘Cybernary’ who is revealed to be one of Kaizen’s staff called Borgia. The team leader Minotaur thanks LeGauche for his help in creating a big enough problem for the UN to have to call in StormWatch .
Back at the plane, Maggie gives Deathblow and Ethan some exposition, showing that Tsung was placed in hiding by Deathblow’s father and the Gen-Factor as a substance is connected to Ethan. Back on Gamorra, the Sword’s team learn that Kaizen sent the HK’s to San Francisco and that the thing they are looking for was in fact Ethan. Just as the recriminations are about to start, Freefalls appears after jumping through the portal that the Sword created. Freefall looks up and realises she is in so much trouble.
Notes: More than any issue so far, this one made me feel lost. We have a look at the nation of Gamorra and its leader Kaizen Gamorra. We see the plethora of cyborgs and other ‘altered’ peoples. We see that there’s a rebellion and that Kaizen is trying to create a creature called Gen-Omega using Gen-Factor stolen from Team-7, the loss of which is killing them and WHAT? I was more than a little lost at this point.
There was some humour here with The Sword and his creatures stealing away Dr Tsung, but completely bypassing the reason that they wanted Dr Tsung in the first place. The rest was some incoherent fighting and exposition. So years ago Sigma was a baby stolen by Tsung, who was working with Deathblow’s father But Sigma was also an adult on Damocles’ world? What is Gen-Factor and how was it extracted? How is it killing the Team-7 survivors and other questions are just left hanging and I don’t know if that’s intentional. I also don’t know when the Gen-Factor theft happened and why it wasn’t in the prelude. But The goodwill that the last two issues bought hasn’t all been spent yet and I am more than a little interested in what happens next.
Verdict: Writing 2 out of 5 Choppy pacing and overly melodramatic exposition in that “that is where you are wrong” manner that was by this point a bit overplayed. We’ve less depth to the characters and that does take a toll on my enjoyment.
Art: 2 out of 5: The character design is more than a little crappy and it seems to have the excesses of the 90s, but less of the cool that went with it. If this was prelude one, I might not have read up to prelude 3. But I did and here we are.
Overall: 4 out of 10 – Well I guess we’re ready to start the story and I’m interested in it, but this issue didn’t help with that and I felt that my time was being wasted, when a 4 page intro in the next issue would do the job just as easily.
Next Time: Superman vs Doomsday, second round.. fight!!
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