Image Comics 30th Anniversary Review follows.
Savage Dragon Volume One Spoilers!
Savage Dragon #1 debuted in 1992, the third comic book released under the Image Comics icon, with it’s first mini-series with its four issues initially collected in 1993 as CyberForce: Tin Men of War.
Collection’s back cover describes the CyberForce premise as follows.
Born with powers far greater than normal humans, and endowed with hi-tech cybernetic armor and weaponry, a team of heroes fights for justice in a world wrought with evil mutants and criminal corporations. It’s an uphill battle, but they know it must be won – for the fate of mankind hangs in the balance. They are Stryker, Ripclaw, Cyblade, Heatwave, Impact and Velocity.
This was the series opening salvo I was most interested in (re)reading. I was trying to differentiate it from Wild C.A.T.s and Wetworks who also had characters that look armored. I found the story actually quite captivating. The POV character appeared to be Velocity. She was a speedster who appears hunted by various factions; led by someone named Ballistic.
While many of the villains were ok, Ballistic stood out for her passionate pursuit of Velocity; the grand puppet master being Mother May I. Over the course of the issues covered on this collection, Velocity’s past slowly is revealed to the readers and it culminates at the end with the revelation that Velocity and Ballistic are the sisters shown in Velocity’s flashbacks. It was a nice reveal and likely should have been surmised by me since Ballistic was such a well fleshed out character.
The art, naturally, was the strength of the collection. Even the design work was top notch delivering something unique, for example, with Stryker and his three arms on one side. However, on the story side, while the plot was compelling, the script seemed overdone and unnecessarily heavy.
While CyberForce did not prove to be Marc Silvestri’s most iconic creations from his Top Cow imprint, this collection was an entertaining read with amazing art. 7 out of 10.
What turned out to be Top Cow’s iconic properties? Witchblade and the Darkness.
