Chapter 4 – Wetworks 16: What have I just walked into?

Credits: Story by Jonathan Peterson, pencils by Cedric Nocon, inks by Chuck Gibson with Danny Bulandi and edited by Mike Rockwitz

Cast: Wetworks (Dozer, Mother, Jester, Claymore and Grail) Armand Waering, Lupo, Wayne Gordon, Jackson Dane, Taboo, The Sword of Damocles ,the Sword’s creatures (Hardball, Rake, Jade and One Eyed Jack) members of the Aquarian nation (Geegan, Drak, Nork and their Monarch) and Jackson ‘Batallion’ King.

Plot: On the Moon lies Tranquillity Base, the replacement for the StormWatch Command Centre destroyed recently. As the staff on board watch an rash of natural disasters start all across the Earth, they are attacked by The Sword of Damocles.

On Earth, at the compound own and operated by Waering Industries, also watching these events are Wetworks (Grail, Claymore, Jester, Dozer and Mother) the team-mates of Jackson Dane, who is on Gamorra. Also there are Armand Waering and his adjutant Lupo and they are discussing broadening their mission’s scope as well as Dane’s absence. Grail points out that while having a deputy leader makes sense, Dane is still in charge. Dozer (a huge golden creature) recaps the team’s origins. They were the successors to Team-7 sent by IO (then ran by Miles Craven) to Romania (specifically the area called Transylvania) to clear a building, they found actual vampires and several vials of golden liquid. They all got exposed and coated in these golden symbiotic skins. After Mother (a cyborg sent by Craven) turned on IO with them, they escaped, knowing that if they went home, they’d be killed for the symbiotes. They have found refuge with Arman Waering who is engaged in a war with the Vampires. Waering dismisses the team, rather abruptly.

Everyone goes to neutral corners, Waering and Lupo head to a party while Grail gets ready to go for a walk, he is joined by Mother, who has shed her golden skin and seems to imply she has romantic interest in him, but runs away when she realises what she is moving towards.

Back on Gamorra, Dane and Taboo are being chased by aircraft that were actually sold to Kaizen Gamorra by Waering, much to Dane’s surprise, they pair dive off a cliff into the water below, seemingly a fatal dive.

Under the Pacific, members of the Aquarian Nation (fish/human hybrids who have stayed out of the war between the Lycan and Vampire Nations) but the natural disasters around the world include the ocean and the city is levelled by a series of earthquakes and believing this is an attack, the Monarch swears revenge. At the party, Armand bumps into Wayne Gordon who delivers threats about a hostile takeover of Armand’s business. When he leaves, we see that under Armand’s coiffed and reserved exterior is a werewolf, desperate to rip Gordon apart.

Back at base, the rest of Wetworks make the decision to leave Waering and go find Dane. Speaking of Dane, he and Taboo survived the fall and when Kaizen’s cyborgs come to find the bodies, they’re quickly dispatched. This skirmish ended, they start to plan they’re next move, only to face Batallion of StormWatch who informs them that they’re coming with him.

Notes: Out of 21 pages of story, only 9 actually seem part of the actual narrative. The rest is a look at the current status quo of Wetworks. I could consider this a negative except, out of all of the Wildstorm characters, I know Wetworks least, so this recap is exactly what was needed. Wetworks was the creation of Whilce Portacio and played visually to his strengths with metal skins and big guns.

The big problem with superhero fiction is the worry of, I suppose the best way to say it is ‘a hat on a hat’. It’s a mostly recognisable world that has several overlapping paranormal elements. In this we have vampires, werewolves, merman and on top of those mostly related things, gold symbiotic armour and cyborgs. It’s all a bit much. But there’s interesting stuff here where this supernatural cold war has dragged in this special ops unit and is keeping them under control, until one of them goes off on a separate mission.

We get to see the dynamics of the group and how they interact with their ‘benefactor’ and because of their circumstances and Waering’s skill at manipulation, they honestly feel that they’re on the right side. Maybe they are, but clearly their new boss isn’t. So while we don’t see as much of the Gamorra plot as we’d like, we do get to see more of the rest of Dane’s unit and know that they’re on their way.

Verdict – Writing 3 out of 5: A nice mix between character bits and plot developments. A few characters have distinct voices and there’s the feeling that there’s more you’re not seeing. I’m interested in how this would go and I knew none of these characters when I first picked this comic up.

Art 2 out of 5: It’s the downside that this comic has such lacklustre art and that detracts from an enjoyable story. There’s nothing wrong, but nothing too good either.

Overall 5 out of 10: A middle of the road issue that promises both new characters and an exciting part 5.

Next Time: The League Reflect on their loss