Credits: Written by Alan Moore, pencilled by Ryan Benjamin, the inkers were Chuck Gibson, Richard Friend and Mark Irwin, the whole thing was edited by Mike Heisler.
Cast: (Just going to go with code names here) Stormwatch members Hellstrike, Fahrenheit, Cannon, Weatherman 1 and Flashpoint. Team-7 members Jackson Dane, Deathblow, Grifter, Jack Lynch and Backlash. Gen-13 members Fairchild, Burnout, Grunge and Rainmaker. WildC.A.T.S members Zealot, Warblade, Maul, Ladytron, Mr Majestic, Savant and Spartan. Taboo, Crimson, Alicia Turner, Kaizen Gamorra.and Sigma.
Plot: After the theft of their Gen-Factor, survivors of Team-7 are heading towards the island nation of Gamorra along with Sigma/Ethan who was being raised by Simon Tsung who has been abducted as well as members of Gen-13 and former spy Alicia Turner. As they are flying in, the UN crisis intervention team, known as StormWatch have launched an invasion of the Gamorran coast as a protective measure, the landing being overseen by Hellstrike. Kaisen Gamorra is informed that Team-7 are inbound and he is unconcerned and leaves it to his laser defense satellites to deal with this aircraft, which it does, shooting the plane down as everyone tries to evacuate in the face of a crash landing. Just before the crash, Jackson Dane, Burnout and Backlash detach a lifting body from the plane, acting as a life pod.
Also arriving on the island are others looking for the sigma clone and Taboo and Jet, girlfriend and daughter of Backlash who are looking for Cyberjack, an old associate of his. On the beach we see that everyone has made it onto the island, relatively unharmed. Jack Lynch asks Deathblow what is going on with him, he dismisses the concerns of Lynch and Grifter, but it’s clear that he is full of foreboding. They are being watched by more of Kaizen’s Hunter Killers and that info is passed to a StormWatch team, comprised of Fahrenheit and Cannon from the US and Australia’s Flashpoint who is very eager to get into a fight, the other two aren’t, but are here to do a job At Kaizen’s lab, he and his scientists learn that the Sigma-clone is alive.
At the New York offices of Halo, Zealot, Spartan, Maul and Warblade of the WildC.A.T..S.have returned from the planet Khera and have no time for the rest of the team’s bulls**t and agree to head to Gamorra to find and most likely rescue Grifter. Up in space onboard the SkyWatch space station, Henry Bendix, known as the Weatherman is paying attention to potential situations, everywhere. Several are popping up, in particular the Gamorran situation his people are involved in, but there’s also some kind of change in the fabric of space behind the moon, that is something to worry about.
Further inland, the crash survivors are found and attached by StormWatch along with a detachment of Hunter Killers, capturing all by Lynch, Sigma and Deathblow who escape into the forest. StormWatch goes after them, while the Hunter Killers are ordered to deliver prisoners to UN command. The Hunter Killers have other ideas, since they don’t intend to have any living prisoners.
Notes: After the teasing of the preludes, now we get the story in full. Alan Moore takes the story elements and does his best to weave them into a single story by getting everyone involved onto the island in as few moves as possible. We have Team-7 survivors, Gen-13, StormWatch and other disparate characters arriving and in a short space of time the action starts. The plane being hit and up to crashing is very cinematic in scope and the tension punctuated with glib one-liners match this action movie build up that’s happening. There are different groups with people in common up against StormWatch and the cyborg killers loyal to Kaizen Gamorra working together in a political shotgun marriage. With minimal characterisation, we see the tension and conflict with several involved. The cliffhanger isn’t great, but we’ve enough story here to make me want more of this and that bit of anticipation of the cooler stuff ahead.
Verdict: Writing 4 out of 5: It’s Alan Moore. For a writer who has a understandable disdain for corporate owned superhero fiction and it’s trappings, Alan Moore is good at it. He strikes a tone between cold-war spy/super heroics and sci-fi story and lays out all the pieces as breadcrumbs to the story ahead. Characterisation is limited, but most people have their own voice and you’re quickly coming up with favourites.
Art 3 out of 5: I like Ryan Benjamin’s pencils, his proportions are good, he does faces better than a lot of his Image peers and the story-telling is solid enough. There are 3 different inkers here on this comic and I’ll be honest with you, you can tell. It almost feels like 3 different artists and that’s not a good look for the start of anything. It was just enough of a disconnect to take me out of the story, hence the low score.
Overall 7 out of 10: This is a promising start, with lots of moving parts, but a lot of smart set up and pacing. They team know what they have to do, proving that a crossover like this is like a relay race and this issue moves the baton forward, giving you an idea that it’s going somewhere and trusting that the next part of the team can move it further.
Next Time: More punching, more debris and more chaos as Doomsday keeps going.
My Marvel Life 