Credits: Written by Warren Ellis, pencilled by Tom Raney and inked by Randy Elliot.
Cast: Henry ‘Weatherman’ Bendix, Jackson ‘Batallion’ King, Christine ‘Synergy’ Trelane, Dr Martin Krug, Winter, Fuji, Hellstrike, Fahrenheit, Rose Tattoo, Flint, Swift, Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor, Union, Father, Maya and Sunburst.
Initial Notes and Disclaimer. The writer of this series, so therefore a person whose work I will be mentioning for at least the next 14 of these posts is Warren Ellis. My purpose in these posts are not, in any way shape or form an endorsement of the man who wrote the comics I enjoyed so much. He has a reputation as not a safe man for women in the comics industry to be around, there have been allegations, a lot of them, I mean a lot. This site, called somanyofus.com has more information on it and does bear looking at. So this is an appreciation of comics I loved, before I knew more about the man who wrote them. If I’d have known back then, would I have stopped reading them and supporting this man? I don’t know, I hope so, I’d like to think I’d have been a better person that otherwise. But the thing is, 100 women. False allegations happen, but when the number get into double figures, even a sceptic has to start thinking something is wrong and when it comes to listen to women and the sh***iness of certain types of guys, I’m not quite so sceptical. Every woman has their story, if you don’t think so, you just haven’t heard it yet. I feel I have to write this, because at some point, you have to question whether you can separate art from artist. I think I can, but I have to at least acknowledge the elephant in the room. I will put that link in every StormWatch post, because some voices need to be heard and some things aren’t best left unsaid.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about some comics.
Plot: There is a killer in the German countryside, surrounded by bodies and quoting something.
On the Skywatch space station, the members of StormWatch return from the funeral of their former colleague Flashpoint, using the transfer/teleport system. It’s a complicated situation, following Flashpoints betrayal. A staff member pops into the transfer bay and introduces the new fetishes which act as badges and teleport transponders and then they learn that StormWatch was being reconfigured at a 9pm meeting. Then the team learn that Weatherman, the head of StormWatch, who has gone on a series of transfers around the world. He’s recruiting. First he’s at the Wolfshead pub, in London meeting Jenny Sparks. Sparks is older than she looks, about 70 years older and has been a super hero. It didn’t go well. She tried again, it went so badly, she’s spent a year just drinking. Henry says he wants to do it differently. She agrees, but says no costumes. Then he’s in New York to find JackHawksmoor, who spent childhood and adolesence being altered by aliens to live in cities. He sees through it’s windows, floats around it’s rooftops and feeds on it’s pollution. He fights threats to the city, Henry offers him a chance to fight for all of them. The final stop is Sicily, where a woman in red, waits in a chamber full of dead bodies, until Henry tells her simply, it’s time.
In the in between moments, both Battalian and Synergy as well as Sunburst and Nautika separate;y toast to Flashpoints memory/demise and wonder about the future. Elsewhere Union is told by Henry that he is to keep out of any StormWatch affairs in the future. Finally Henry’s last stop is a meeting of the UN’s Special Security Council, who tell him that they’ll remain unknown to him and will let him get on with things his way and won’t interfere, unless they misbehave.
Now come the moves, the full roster of StormWatch is in the meeting hall, including Fuji, who has a new exoskeleton. Henry walks in and introduces Jenny, Jack and Rose. He instructs everyone not to talk to Rose, because she will not reply. He then reorganises the whole organisation. He gives Sunburst and Nautika analyst jobs, to enjoy their married lives from home. He puts Synergy back into the field to find new seedlings, which can be made into super human beings (or SPBs) and Battalion is now moved to team trainer. The field teams are StormWatch Prime, which is Winter from Russia (now overall field commander of StormWatch), Hellstrike from Northern Ireland and Fuji from Japan. They will be the main threat response team. StormWatch Red, used for deterrent and reprisal, will be led by the American known as Fahrenheit, alongside Rose Tattoo and Flint, the super strong Kenyan. Finally Swift from Tibet and Jack Hawksmoor will work under Jenny Sparks as StormWatch Black, used for covert operations where more visible team couldn’t be used. Jenny is not pleased ,but is quickly rebuked. Henry then informs anyone he has not mentioned are no longer needed. They will have salary and accommodation as long as needed, but it’s thank you and goodbye. Everyone leaves, except Battalion, who is furious about being sidelined and Henry looks at him and confirms that he’s been sidelined, because he’s in love with Synergy. He’d sacrifice the world for her, so Henry has removed that conflict and is saving their lives for one another.
Synergy walks into Swift’s quarters with some medical staff and tells her that her ability is only partially activated and if she wants, she can have full activation. She agrees and is activated. Then we go to New York and see Undertow, one of the dismissed officers, who is blown up as he enter’s his UN provided flat.
Now we get to the rest of the story, the German Chancellor has invoked Code Perfect, who allows StormWatch to act. In rural German a SPB has started killing people with no descernible pattern, He assigns StormWatches Prime and Red who teleport (transfer) to the German countryside and find the naked SPB, whose face has been removed, killing people and quoting Nietzsche. He has very ill defined powers and it’s unclear what he can do. Rose Tattoo fires at him immediately whilst on SkyWatch, Henry (in his role as Weatherman) looks into the information he has an asks for Dr Krug to be released from cryogenic lockdown. The StormWatch team battle the faceless killer, but aren’t getting anywhere.
Weatherman meets with Krug and learns that the killer is called Father and is part of a project to create a virus that would kill anyone who wasn’t a white european, with SPBs that could withstand this virus, Father can’t, so they locked him away. Krug feels he’s won, since to stop him, they’d have to unleash something worse. Weatherman has a gun transferred into his hand and shoots. Krug, then has him refrozen, so no one will know. Then he calls Winter, who quickly comes up with a plan. He takes Fuji’s badge/fetish and throws it at Father after he is struck by Fuji and Flint, then Rose Tattoo shoots the batch, to call for a transfer. Not for a whole person though as only below the waist is teleport and Father does not survive.
Notes: StormWatch was something of a mid-tier Wildstorm book. It didn’t have the superstar creative teams that WildC.A.T.,.S and Wetworks ,but it had a solid idea behind it. The idea was that the United Nations had a response to the surge in SPB activity. This was part Star Trek, part Avengers with a special forces twist. These were officers, not heroes, they had weapons and the willingness to kill for the greater good. It seemed to lose it’s way by the time Fire From Heaven started, it was a shadow of it’s former self and even that wasn’t groundbreaking. But the bones of it were good. When it was handed over to Warren Ellis, it needed help and he was given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted. He channelled his love of conspiracy theories, sci-fi concepts and a brutal cynicism. He added a hard drinking, smoking Londoner self insert character as he had with Excalibur and Thor. But what he did was in one issue re-tool an existing IP and turn it into something unique and pretty damn exciting. This wasn’t a comic about super heroes, these were operatives who could make the hard calls. When I first read this, I knew I was reading something a little bit special.
Verdict – Writing: 5 out of 5 – This is the writing, not the writer. This was a floundering book that became a favourite of mine in one issue. The writer separates the things he needs, adds a couple of new things and then throws the rest away. A large sprawling cast becomes a dozen and it makes it work. He removes the superhero elements he didn’t like and made it more a special ops team who make the hard call and live with it. The characters are well defined and each has their own voice, even in the little amount of page time some get. The focus does seem to change to the shadowy machinations of the Weatherman who seems to want to do things differently than before and you already get the sense that this new attitude is going to have repercussions. The exposition is handled well, the action is intense enough and although this is issue 37, you get the feeling that you’re on the ground floor of something.
Art: 4 out of 5 – Tom Raney is a sold artist, perfect for this kind of story. It’s clean with a bit of stylising that most of the time is exactly what the story needs. He does regular people and sci-fi craziness with equal ease and there is always a lot of background stuff that makes you smile. The character redesigns all work well and the art team do seem in synch in a way that I didn’t see as often during the Fire From Heaven stories.
Overall: 9 out of 10 – This is a solid first issue that is exciting enough to instantly put the idea of you coming back into your head. I loved this late 90s WildStorm and there was so much good stuff that came out from that. I am excited to revisit this run.
Next Time: Back to the Reign
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