A Multi-Team X-Book?

Cyberforce #2 (Image, March 1993, $1.95)
"The Tin Men of War, Part Two": Pencils/inks: Marc Silvestri, Script: Eric Serge Silvestri, Colors: Joe Chiodo, Letters: Mike Heisler, Color Separator: Olyoptics, Editor: Cynthia Sullivan.

Bounty hunters (including Ballistic and Killjoy) threaten Velocity's wellbeing just before Cyberforce arrives to rescue her, and the two groups clash. During the combat, Stryker finds two lost children, Chip and Timmie. There are a couple of false endings to the battle—Stryker getting the drop on Ballistic, then Megawatt on Stryker, and then Heatwave snatching Velocity—but in the end, Cyberforce is not defeated.



They decide to relocate Cyber-Tek's Advanced Robotics Division given the attack, and readers—who perhaps haven't read #1—learn that Timmie is an android. "A truly intelligent machine like Timmie couldn't function without [feelings]." Meanwhile, having obtained two small computer disks, Splitzkrieg, Wyldfyre, and Slam pretty much bump into Velocity and Timmie at the grocery store—deciding to kidnap them. "You never know when we might need some hostages."

Not having read #1, this issue is mostly an exercise in learning the characters for me. Who are these people? What the heck are they doing? Having come off of Wolverine to join Image, Silvestri's art is very similar to what one might expect from an X-Men book, and the series largely feels like a multi-team X-book. At least so far. Silvestri's art does please with several one- to three-panel pages and two-page spreads, and it's neat to see so many large-scale panels.

Notable and worth reading because of Image's history and evolution over time. There's also a four-page letter column that features fan art. They even offer fan art guidelines to encourage submissions: "We can only consider Cyberforce characters in black and white for publication. Please do not send originals unless you do not want them back! Good photocopies are OK!"

Availability: This issue was collected in Cyberforce: The Tin Men of War.

This issue comes from the Henry's Green Cape collection of comics. Thank you for your donation!