Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artists: Doug Mahnke & Sandra Hope
Published by Wildstorm
Team Zero #1 is a World War II story. No capes. No psychic powers. No aliens. Just blood, bullets and heroics. I hope it stays that way.
The story is told in a very cinematic style. The first half of the issue is the equivalent of a pre-credit sequence in a James Bond movie and serves to establish the tone of the book very effectively. It starts with our hero, codename: Deathblow (but not Michael Cray) on a special mission to grab or kill a Japanese Admiral from a heavily defended island in early 1945. He is operating under the cover of a commando raid on a fuel supply dump but it is clear that this no ordinary soldier of the line. The action sequences are played out largely without dialogue as Deathblow (Collins) provides a narrative voice-over. When things don’t go quite to plan he is focused, clinical and deadly establishing him as a resourceful and implacable enemy.
The second half is a ‘back at base’ scenario which lays out the real mission and sets up the plot for the next and presumably subsequent issues. The tone of the book and Deathblows honourable, but implacable character is reinforced as he chooses his team for the mission. He narrates “To them it’s a list of names… To me they’re grave-markers. Every last one.”
Doug Mahnke and Sandra Hope are an excellent choice to illustrate a ‘historical’ war story. Their art combines realistic facial expressions and figures and Mahnke exhibits a real flair for composition, capturing the fluid motion and drama of the combat scenes. The more domestic pages are also well rendered, and in particular the change of lighting and the use of a broader palette by colourist David Baron helps to reinforce the difference between the two ‘acts’.
Chuck Dixon is a veteran war correspondent for Wildstorm, having previously penned the Team 7 books. I find his writing to be at its best when he concentrates on the action/thriller elements and the superhero/fantasy is kept to a minimum and as a consequence this book is probably the best thing he has written in many years.
In the next issue, we can expect some familiar names to appear. Among them is Marc Slayton (Backlash) but I sincerely hope the story continues along its mundane path without recourse to the supernatural. The fact that the hero can survive bullets and explosions against the odds is enough. In wartime, real heroes wear uniforms, not costumes.
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Matt Kamen is a freelance writer for a number of magazines in the UK who probably spends more time and money on assorted geekery than is advisable, healthy or financially sustainable. On the plus side he sometimes even gets paid to watch anime and play video games, so it’s not all bad.