TITLE: Cyberforce vol. 1, Issue 1
YEAR: October 1992
COMPANY: Image Comics
Artist: Marc Silvestri
Written by Eric Silvestri
Letterer: Mike Heisler
Colorist: Joe Chiodo
Editor: Cynthia Sullivan
Color Separator: Olyoptics
I have touched upon how the most popular, top artists (Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, Whilce Portatio, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane and Jim Valentino) from Marvel and DC would all quite their jobs to form a new comic book company known as Image Comics.
Marc Silvestri, best known for his artwork on “The Uncanny X-Men” during 1987-1990 and many issues for “Wolverine” would create an imprint known as Top Cow, but for the first mini-series “Cyberforce”, the mini-series would be released through Homage Studios and which featured artwork by Silvestri and his brother Eric would write for the series.
As Marc Silvestri would release another Top Cow title “Codename: Stryke Force”, a dispute between Image Comics partners would lead to Silvestri to leave Image Comics in 1996 but would return after Liefeld left Image Comics.
While “Cyberforce” would receive two volumes (a four-part mini-series and a 35-issue series) in the ’90s, a second volume would be released in 2006 (six issues) and a reboot would take place in 2012 for free as it was funded by a Kickstarter campaign as part of the “Top Cow Rebrth” initiative. And now, a new “Cyberforce” digital-only series was released. Silvestri would work on the earlier issues but other artists and writers would work on the other volumes.
The first issue of “Cyberforce” (mini-series) features a girl named Velocity, with quick speed and other abilities, being pursued by a group of soldiers who are trying to intercept her.
Watching from above is a member of Cyberforce, a man known as Ripclaw. As Ripclaw is trying to protect Velocity, at a political rally for blue mutant, Bluestone, Stryker sees someone planning to assassinate the politician. As Stryker is able to protect Bluestone, assassins escape and Cyblade and Impact are there to stop them.
Can these members of Cyberforce protect these individuals?
For anyone reading “Cyberforce”, knowing how Silvestri worked on “The Uncanny X-Men” and “Wolverine”, it was not a surprise to see Silvestri creating a new superhero team for Image Comics that had similarities to Marvel Comics popular mutants.
While the similarities are there as Ripclaw may remind readers of Wolverine and Cyblade may resemble Psylocke, reading the comic book then, I was more interested in seeing how the Silvestri’s and crew would do overall in creating a fresh new action-driven series.
There is no doubt that Marc Silvestri’s artwork was fantastic but one could only hope for a solid story to follow right after. And sure enough, with the strong numbers of “Cyberforce” sales, the mini-series would lead to a full series and several more volumes in the future.