Image Comics 30th Anniversary Review follows.
Wetworks Volume One Spoilers!
Wetworks #1 debuted in 1994 and is around the 60th new comics volume (limited series, one-shot, cross-over or ongoing series) under the Image Comics icon, since its launch in 1992. Its first mini-series with its five issues were initially collected in 1996 called Wetworks: Rebirth.
I was and am a huge Portacio fan. I find his art style energetic and vibrant. Wetworks was one of the series I was most looking forward to with Image’s launch in 1992, but it arrived in 1994. This was due, I understand, due to death of the creator’s sister and the obligations that ensued for him with his family.
Collection’s back cover describes the Wetworks premise as follows.
Dispatched on what was believed to be a mission to stop a group of nationalists from gaining access to a powerful biological warfare agent, members of Team 7 discover that they have been betrayed by their superiors at International Operations. After surviving the suicide mission and subsequent merging with a powerful symbiotic armor, the team goes rogue. Now pledging allegiance to industrialist Armand Waering, WetWorks uses their new-found powers to wage a secret battle against the Vampire nation and other supernatural threats.
In reading this collection, I was struck by how cool the Wetworks team members look, but also that despite some unique flourishes, some of the male characters where difficult to differentiate based on body type.
It was interesting that with the “sci-fi” type concept of symbiotes merging with a military team and creating Wetworks that their major foils would be “horror” concepts with vampires and werewolves. It proved to be an interesting contrast; an entertaining one.
While the strength of the collection was the art, the plot was interesting, but dialogue a bit heavy handed.
Still if you action-packed books with a melding of genres, such as espionage, sci-fi and horror, you may enjoy this book. 6.5 out of 10.
