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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN num: 9781401213756
ISBN number: 1401213758
Label: Wildstorm
Manufacturer: Wildstorm
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 136
Printing Date: October 03, 2007
Publishing house: Wildstorm
Release Date: October 03, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 329465
Studio: Wildstorm
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Rated by buyers 
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The premise of a grey ops team being organized to battle tribes of vampires is an intriguing one, as are the entities that comprise it. In this particular case that includes, among others, a vampire, a cyborg, and a difficult to categorize individual named Ab-Death. Plus they are joined by a werewolf who also happens to be a sheriff. Talk about an eerie cast of characters. Mike Carey's compelling tale takes this group of supernatural misfits on a mission to hunt down a powerful rogue vampire with an unknown evil agenda. As if he wasn't problem enough, other questions arise as to whether or not the vampire among them can be trusted not to choose sides, and of the entire vampire nation, which currently has a truce with humans. Along the way we learn about such interesting vampire lore as the frenzy, the moment when their uncontrollable blood lust occurs, and the aura capax, their ability to mentally control people. And what or who is the blood box? Carey's well crafted story adroitly sets the stage for a grand finale. Unfortunately this trade ends without any final resolution which, while frustrating, did not greatly detract from the enjoyment of it.
Rated by buyers 
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So here's some background: Whilce Portacio was one of the original seven artists who founded Image Comics back in 1992. Whilce's contribution to the cause was WETWORKS, which didn't debut until 1994 due to the illness of his sister. The original WETWORKS centered on dirty ops soldiers, who had bonded with golden symbiotes, which granted them unnatural powers. These soldiers then ended up tussling with the undead. This series ran from 1994 to1998, for 43 issues. In 2006 Whilce Portacio revived WETWORKS. This trade paperback, WETWORKS Book One, is 136 pages long and reprints the prelude stories from the EYE OF THE STORM ANNUAL (2003) and COUP D'ETAT AFTERWORD (2004) and the very first 5 issues of the relaunched WETWORKS title.
The plot now, and possible SPOILERS:
When the break-in of a U.S. Air Force base results in the theft of an "extinction-level" device and twenty-seven bloodless corpses by someone who is invisible to cameras, Colonel Jackson Dane is called on by the military to assemble a new Wetworks team and investigate. Dane agrees, with the proviso that he gets to pick his own team.
Colonel Dane ends up with a small crew. One recruit is the vampiress Persephone (code-name: Red), formerly the Blood Queen's right hand, but now a bit on the skids and drug-addicted. Then there's the weird, lab-created Ab-Death (or Dustwalker), who has an affinity with and acess to the Deadworld ("It is best to think of me as amphibious. I can be alive or I can be dead."). Another of Dane's caveats for reforming Wetworks is the rebooting of the android, Mother One, a close friend and a valuable asset of Dane's who currently lies in a dessicated state (she basically died in the last series). The resurrection endeavor proves to be a success, and Rachel Rhodes (Mother One) is soon reactivated. And, finally, Sebastian Ashe, a werewolf lawman, enters the picture.
As usual Dane and company must fend off the Night Tribes, a clandestine society of supernatural races consisting of vampires, werewolves, demons, liches, sea devils, etc. Or, to be more specific, it's the longtime enemy, the vampires, whom the team targets. But, this time, also, members of Wetworks find themselves transported to Thea Mater, a horrific parallel earth where vampires, not humanity, had risen to dominance. They go up against one Simon Vascar, a superior undead who, unlike the vampires of Dane's earth, retains his intelligence when undergoing the "frenzy," the condition in which vampires change into their monstrous forms. And, it turns out, the root of the problem goes back to scientists meddling with a rift in the Bleed. The Bleed, for the uninitiated, is that strange realm which connects parallel universes. Oh, and there's also the matter of a creature called the soul eater hanging around in Deadworld.
SPOILERS end.
WETWORKS has always been a blending of sci-fi, horror, that military cool and bravado, and high-octane action, and it's no different now. Britisher Mike Carey (whose stuff I enjoyed in X-Men Vol. 1: Supernovas and Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol. 7: God War) comes on board as the new writer (more on that later, sadly), while Whilce Portacio handles the interior artwork (for the very first 6 issues, anyway, until health issues surface, after which he's relegated to cover artist status). I've always liked Whilce's pencils, and, here, he's solid yet again. Now, on to what sucks.
There's an initial lack of accessibility in the very first few issues for new readers, a dearth of background fill-in, as Carey seems to assume that readers will already be familiar with the existing characters, as well as events in the previous series. Newcomers to WETWORKS don't even learn until later of the truce between humanity and the vampire nation (kind of a key plot). Carey's storytelling is routine and, in fact, suffers from a certain lack of clarity and flow; the plot tends to confuse and isn't all that gripping, to begin with. It's weird that I wasn't more into it because I definitely dig lycanthropes and the undead, but I think Carey's writing was a factor. New characters are introduced (Ab-Death and the werewolf Sebastian Ashe), but, to me, they come off as cardboard-flat. The old characters don't fare much better (more play is actually given to the main adversary, Simon Vascar). This story arc is a lengthy one, which gives Carey perhaps too much leeway to tell his tale, although he does eventually fill in the blanks. But these pages could do with some tightening up. I'll say this, I do like the concept of the parallel earth of Thea Mater. Still, I, for one, expected better from Mike Carey. All in all, WETWORKS Book One hearkens back to the generic Image titles in the 1990s, which were across-the-board desperate for character development.
So, a word to the wise, WETWORKS Book One doesn't live up to the promise of the cool characters and premise, wasting Whilce Portacio's artistic ... Read More
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