StormWatch is one of the Wildstorm books created and written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi. The focus is on Battalion, aka Jackson King, leader of StormWatch Team One. Other members of StormWatch are Fuji, Hellstrike, Diva and Winter. StormWatch is run by Skywatch, a subsidiary of the United Nations.
This issue is actually the first appearance of StormWatch and all the characters in the team. At the beginning of this issue, StormWatch go on a mission into the Sarajevo are of Bosnia-Herzegovina, to extract United Nations envoy John Windsor and political refugees, due to escalating hostilities.
StormWatch battle soldiers and defend a school bus, containing John Windsor and school students. It is revealed that Skywatch have a hidden agenda; a seedling (a sort of mutant) is on the bus. Only Battalion is privy to this, though Hellstrike and Winter (StormWatch members) have their suspicions.
Soon five mercenaries arrive on the scene (Deathtrap, Razer, Slayer, Kilgore and another who's name is unknown). StormWatch battle the mercenaries and try to protect the school bus simultaneously, with in StormWatch protecting the bus, though resulting Deathtrap manages to kill John Windsor.
The rest of the comic deals with Battalion coping with John Windsor's death (they were friends) and Windsor's funeral. At the funeral StormWatch members and Battalion's teenage brother, Malcolm King, attend. Deathtrap and friends interrupt the proceedings to take revenge and capture Battalion's brother, who is a seedling. Synergy (as far as I can tell, a member of Skywatch) stops the mercenaries by activating Malcolm’s powers.
The Good:
Having Jackson King as not only team leader, but also the focus of the comic.
Black people aren't often the main characters in comic books. It shouldn't even
be an issue, but not everyone in the world is white, you know.
The artist, Scott Clark, isn't just a clone of Jim Lee, even though this is a Wildstorm book. It's rougher, a little more "realistic" but retains the detail of the latter's work.
The Bad:
Too much time is devoted to Battalion. While he is the focus of StormWatch, I
would've liked a bit more information on his teammates. Take for example Fuji.
All I've learnt of him is that he's Japanese, because he says
"Battalion-san". I assume from his appearance that he has super
strength. I could assume that he has the stereotypical Japanese trait of
honour.
I could forgive this because it's Battalion's show, but there are mysteries
even with him. E.g., what exactly are his powers? 'Psi-shields', 'Psionic
powers'. I need specifics, especially considering this is a super hero comic.
The members of StormWatch are from different countries, so use phrases that are use in the stereotype of those people (e.g"Battalion-san", "Comrade Hellstrike"). I end up assuming that all the characters are just like the stereotypes of their countries. I don't know wether the characters are fully fleshed out later on or not, but some effort should be put in to distinguish each character.
The art is too 'pin-upy'. While not nearly as bad as some other Image books, I still find it annoying. Some of the shots aren't worth even half the space they get. Also, the "realistic" style the artist (Scott Clark) uses means there is a lot of rendering throughout, with a lot of characters coming of as stiff and unmoving. It might look "pretty", but it sure doesn't help move the story along.
The mysterious member of Deathtrap's mercenary troupe. In the first scene, he doesn't appear in the introductory panel, and then suddenly shows up to fight Fuji. Then at the funeral, Razer is gone, and this mystery man is here. His name is still not found out. A minor annoyance, but this guy does appear in several panels in two scenes. . The editor should've picked it up.
Overall:
What could've been an above average comic is flawed by too many mysteries and
'pin-upy' art. Better than Jim Lee's earlier effort, WildC.A.T.S, but Wildstorm
still had a long way to go at this stage.
Side comments:
Cover:
By Jim Lee. . Detailed, clean, good colouring. Battalion's arms look a bit
weird, and the poses are stock-standard. Decent.
There's an ad in here for Union, another Wildstorm book, with art by Jim Lee. Very nice. The actual comic is drawn by Mark Texeira, who isn't really suited to a Superman-style book, but I'd like to check it out nonetheless (his art on Wolverine kicked @$$!).
