Wetworks #1

Written by Mike Carey

Pencils & Cover by Whilce Portacio

Variant Cover by Ethan van Sciver

 

Yes, I know this is coming in late, but some local issues at my shop had me getting this last week. So I decided to write up a review along with the rest of my coverage of Wildstorm’s third Renaissance, ‘Worldstorm.’

 

The last time Jim Lee’s imprint had a makeover it was four/five years ago and mostly went under the title “Eye of the Storm.” They turned half their line into mature readers’ comics, but in the end they all kind of became mature comics so they dropped the second imprint altogether. It was a half-hearted makeover if I do say so myself (and I do) with only a couple good titles coming out of it, namely Sleeper (remember that Brubaker’s new Authority didn’t come till later).

 

Now we have Jim Lee at it again, because let’s face it, Wildstorm hasn’t had a hit in a while and most of the books are falling in sales. A lot of top writer talent is coming to Wildstorm, and I would definitely put Mike Carey into that category. He seems to write fairly generic action titles, but he’s good at it and actually knows how to build characters with believable dialogue.

 

Whilce Portacio is one of the original six founders of Image Comics, but was forced to take a break from comics until 1994 when he re-introduced his creation: Wetworks. Any preconceptions you might have about all the original Image/Wildstorm franchises probably holds true for Wetsworks—more flash than substance, more guns than story. But it really looks like Mike Carey is perfectly suited to bring in some well needed balance to the story. I still can’t help but expect it to be bad since Portacio’s art hasn’t changed much from the early 90’s style. It is a prejudice I have to overcome because this is actually good.

 

The backstory for the Wetworks isn’t explained in the comic, an oversight that will need to be addressed by next issue at the latest. But I’ll fill you in since I do happen to know it already: A Special Ops unit were trapped in some secret facility and surrounded by monsters when one of them gets exposed to a chemical the facility was working on. Viola, that person got a metal hard exoskeleton and suddenly found he was immune to vampire/monster bites, so the rest of the team did the same thing and Wetworks was born. They fight vampires mostly.

 

Fast forward to the present and we have Colonel Dane (leader of the original Wetworks) creating another team to fight monsters. Specifically why he’s doing it is unclear, but this issue is your basic ‘gather the team’ issue. Dane recruits a vampire, some kind of necromancer, some doctor types and is in the process of resuscitating another one of the original Wetworks members. Each of the team members is introduced well enough, and we even are left with a fairly good cliffhanger showcasing what can only be a werewolf.

 

It is a well executed monster hunting comic. But it is still just a monster hunting comic like any other. There aren’t any signs of there being something deeper or poignant beyond ‘fight evil monsters.’ No character stands out yet as someone we could identify with, yet it definitely warrants the honor buying the second issue.

 

Rating - 6