Team 7: Justin Jordan, Jesus Merino, Norm Rapmund, Rob Hunter, Nathan Eyring, Pat Brosseau, Ken Lashley

I’m starting to think I’m becoming less and less predictable…because I thought this would be a bad comic. I thought the idea behind it was ridiculous, and I never thought it’d work. That being said, I do want to point out that I never did read the original WildStorm universe “Team 7.” Apparently I missed some things from the 90s. However…I did find myself really enjoying this issue.

I liked the moral ambiguity and the mysterious with the whole supervisor and council of computer servers at the beginning. I’m guessing the dude narrating the issue is supposed to be John Lynch, as Dinah and Slade make several references to a “Lynch” character. So “Lynch” is talking about how superhumans are emerging suddenly, and knows that they’ll soon have no control over them and whatever it is they feel like doing. What is the government gonna say, no? So he’s assembling Team 7, a means to reach this mysterious “Majestic Project” that is the answer to the metahumans.

We meet each of the team members in turn, and it’s fun to say the least. I’m not quite sure how certain of DC’s characters are going to fit into this lineup, because of their own solo titles (Deathstroke, Grifter, and Birds of Prey), but I guess since I don’t read any of those (for now), I’ll be able to cope alright. And isn’t Amanda Waller showing up in another title too?

The team consists of: Dinah Drake, Kurt Lance (whom I can only assume will be giving his last name to Dinah eventually), Slade Wilson, Alex Fairchild ( father of “Red” from The Ravagers), James Bronson, Summer Ramos (who looks like Laurie Holden from “Silent Hill,” which makes her A-okay), Cole Cash, Amanda Waller, and Dean Higgins. Whew! Nine people! I’m glad they didn’t go with 7 to match the comic’s title, because that would’ve been too much for me. What IS too much is how the “7” symbol is emblazoned on the side of their 90s spaceship thingy.

This issue is action-packed, with each of the team members involved in some kind of Hollywood stunt or explosion, and I can’t help but think of ensemble movies like “Expendables.” Not necessarily a bad thing, though. For some reason, I was in the mood that ate this up like banana pudding. Mmmm, banana pudding.

The art is pretty good, and I do like Merino’s work from Superman, so it’s cool to see more of that style. The colors are really well done, too, which I dug. If I had to make complaints, it’d be the dialog at the beginning between Dinah and Kurt, and how the test pilot supervisors watching Summer Ramos blow up her plane and then seem surprised that it blew, even though they later say it was planned. In fact, that whole sequence doesn’t make much sense, since Summer seems like she’s ready to go blow the plane up when she says, “I need to take care of something.”

So I guess I’d like a little more clarity in the execution of the writing. But, all-in-all, I really did like the issue. I’m definitely going to check out the main series next month! Hopefully this means we’ll see the eventual return of Backlash!

Team 7 #0, the verdict: An unexpected joy that I was able to accept without too much of a problem. I’m looking forward to more definition of these characters - especially the ones we don’t already know about. However, knowing DC, we’ll probably spend a lot of time with those readers are familiar with…and the others will suffer for it. That’s where I’m hoping this book surprises me. It’ll be nice, also, if this turns out to be a dialog-light action book that has very little “superhero” powers or anything. I’m not reading a lot of those, so I feel like branching out a bit.

(Photo Source: ScienceFiction.com)