RIDERS OF THE STORM
I bought the very first STORMWATCH because I was Jim Lee fanboy. It had an interesting premise of a team of super-powered soldiers sanctioned by the United Nations. Of course, I was disappointed when I found out Jim Lee only did the cover and the inside art was nowhere near as good as Lee’s art style. The stories also felt like I was reading the rejected scripts of “Street Fighter the Movie”, where we just see costumed wrestlers fighting in different parts of the world.
The next time I picked up STORMWATCH was their 37th issue, when Warren Ellis and Tom Raney took over the series and I was not disappointed with that run. Ellis made the team for ruthless and made them battle deadlier threats with delusions of bringing about a better world and inject a conspiracy angle that made you not trust Weatherman One, the commander of Stormwatch. Ellis eventually pushed the title towards the direction of the wide-screen, action-packed stories of THE AUTHORITY.
The Stormwatch name was then resurrected by the title: STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES. They were supposed to be composed of non-super powered members that dealt with super-powered threats. I got the first issue of that run and wasn’t too thrilled with what I read.
10 years after Ellis’ great run with STORMWATCH, it has returned under new management and with a new suffix. Now called: STORMWATCH: PHD (Post Human Division), this version is written by Christos Gage, wih art by Doug Mahnke.
The first issue serves as very good introduction to the characters and story of SW:PHD. (I most recently picked up the first issues of some new titles which made me feel like I just paid P180 to watch the first three-minutes of a movie. Talk about slow pacing. Talk about feeling cheated.) In the case of SW: PHD, you get a full-meal and you’re left wanting more. (I’m mixing my metaphors. Sorry about that. I’m babbling.)
The entire issue is a flashback of the attack made by a group of super villains, told by the people who would eventually become the members of SW:PHD, as they recount the events to Battalion, who’s recruiting them for the team.
The premise of the new book is still somewhat similar on the Team Achilles concept, where a non-powered team has been assembled to deal with super-human threats. If Team Achilles was mostly composed of soldiers from different military backgrounds (so, everyone was a gun-totting Rambo-character), the members of SW: PHD were acquired based on their expertise in different fields.
Only three of the members have combat training. (Four, if you include Battalion, their team leader):
John Doran is the NYPD cop that first arrived at the scene and managed to take down two super-villains, including Pagliacci, a sword-wielding version of The Joker.
Paris is the Special Ops soldier who was seems to have the instinct of figuring out the weakness of his opponent.
Fahrenheit was a super-powered member of the original Stormwatch who lost her powers while fighting with one of the villains.
The rest of the roster include two former super-villains: Dr. Mordecai used to be the villain known as The Monstrosity. He now serves as their forensics expert. Dino Manolis used to be the villain known as The Machinist and is now technology expert and arms-maker of the team.
Gorgeous, the blonde, beautiful, psychology-expert (and ex-girlfriend to many super villains), is Stormwatch’s profiler.
Black Betty is the assistant of Jeremiah Caine, a powerful sorcerer. (Imagine a female version of Dr. Strange’s Chang, but she’s way prettier, in that freaky gothic kind of way.) She brings to the team her expertise in the realms of magic and the occult.
Getting all this non-powered team of experts together also reminds me of Ellis’ GLOBAL FREQUENCY. He said, one of the things that inspired him to do that book were the events that happened after 9-11; how ordinary people ended up doing extraordinary and brave things when faced with a crisis. In Global Frequency, Ellis made his team deal with global threats initiated by terrorists, rebels, mad cults and rogue spies. What makes SW: PHD interesting is that taking that set of similar characters and making them deal with super-villains.
If you’re looking for a new super hero title to collect, check out Stormwatch: PHD.
I bought the very first STORMWATCH because I was Jim Lee fanboy. It had an interesting premise of a team of super-powered soldiers sanctioned by the United Nations. Of course, I was disappointed when I found out Jim Lee only did the cover and the inside art was nowhere near as good as Lee’s art style. The stories also felt like I was reading the rejected scripts of “Street Fighter the Movie”, where we just see costumed wrestlers fighting in different parts of the world.
The next time I picked up STORMWATCH was their 37th issue, when Warren Ellis and Tom Raney took over the series and I was not disappointed with that run. Ellis made the team for ruthless and made them battle deadlier threats with delusions of bringing about a better world and inject a conspiracy angle that made you not trust Weatherman One, the commander of Stormwatch. Ellis eventually pushed the title towards the direction of the wide-screen, action-packed stories of THE AUTHORITY.
The Stormwatch name was then resurrected by the title: STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES. They were supposed to be composed of non-super powered members that dealt with super-powered threats. I got the first issue of that run and wasn’t too thrilled with what I read.
10 years after Ellis’ great run with STORMWATCH, it has returned under new management and with a new suffix. Now called: STORMWATCH: PHD (Post Human Division), this version is written by Christos Gage, wih art by Doug Mahnke.
The first issue serves as very good introduction to the characters and story of SW:PHD. (I most recently picked up the first issues of some new titles which made me feel like I just paid P180 to watch the first three-minutes of a movie. Talk about slow pacing. Talk about feeling cheated.) In the case of SW: PHD, you get a full-meal and you’re left wanting more. (I’m mixing my metaphors. Sorry about that. I’m babbling.)
The entire issue is a flashback of the attack made by a group of super villains, told by the people who would eventually become the members of SW:PHD, as they recount the events to Battalion, who’s recruiting them for the team.
The premise of the new book is still somewhat similar on the Team Achilles concept, where a non-powered team has been assembled to deal with super-human threats. If Team Achilles was mostly composed of soldiers from different military backgrounds (so, everyone was a gun-totting Rambo-character), the members of SW: PHD were acquired based on their expertise in different fields.
Only three of the members have combat training. (Four, if you include Battalion, their team leader):
John Doran is the NYPD cop that first arrived at the scene and managed to take down two super-villains, including Pagliacci, a sword-wielding version of The Joker.
Paris is the Special Ops soldier who was seems to have the instinct of figuring out the weakness of his opponent.
Fahrenheit was a super-powered member of the original Stormwatch who lost her powers while fighting with one of the villains.
The rest of the roster include two former super-villains: Dr. Mordecai used to be the villain known as The Monstrosity. He now serves as their forensics expert. Dino Manolis used to be the villain known as The Machinist and is now technology expert and arms-maker of the team.
Gorgeous, the blonde, beautiful, psychology-expert (and ex-girlfriend to many super villains), is Stormwatch’s profiler.
Black Betty is the assistant of Jeremiah Caine, a powerful sorcerer. (Imagine a female version of Dr. Strange’s Chang, but she’s way prettier, in that freaky gothic kind of way.) She brings to the team her expertise in the realms of magic and the occult.
Getting all this non-powered team of experts together also reminds me of Ellis’ GLOBAL FREQUENCY. He said, one of the things that inspired him to do that book were the events that happened after 9-11; how ordinary people ended up doing extraordinary and brave things when faced with a crisis. In Global Frequency, Ellis made his team deal with global threats initiated by terrorists, rebels, mad cults and rogue spies. What makes SW: PHD interesting is that taking that set of similar characters and making them deal with super-villains.
If you’re looking for a new super hero title to collect, check out Stormwatch: PHD.