There can be no doubt that Warren Ellis's writing style has heavily influenced the direction of the entire Wildstorm universe at this point, but one aspect that hasn't shown up in a lot of the work is the sense of humor that used to be so prevalent in all of his writing for the line. Wright resurrects that element in this story, which moves forward the overall story of adversaries lurking in the wings of Team Achilles and fleshes out one of the team member, but also serves as a reason to have some good laughs at the cleverness of the team members or the cluelessness of a bunch of parody super-heroes. Wright also sneaks in a little political commentary and serves up a funny and gripping read. This was probably my favorite issue of Stormwatch: Team Achilles so far.
If only the artwork were on the level of the script. True, Portacio and Regla have come a long way since the ugly and damn near impossible-to-read artwork of the first arc, due in no small part to the coloring by Jeromy Cox, but the artwork still isn't what I would choose for the book. All the people look freakish, which doesn't distinguish the normal guys of Stormwatch from their "pervert suit" wearing adversaries enough, and there's plenty of storytelling difficulty when it comes to subtle emotion or action, something that Wright's scripts often call for.
Leaving aside the artwork, though, this issue is a great read. Tefibi's defiance and sense of humor reminded me pleasantly of the interrogation scenes in the Usual Suspects, making you want to root for the guy in the chair rather than the interrogator, as is normal. And I absolutely loved that the Stormwatch team was more clever than their adversaries instead of just more powerful, thinking ahead to boobytrap the computers or even the minds of their operative to get them out of this kind of situation. Wright makes inventive use of telepathy in this issue to give Tefii unexpected help.
In point of fact, the book turns from an interrogation into a chase about halfway through, and quite honestly all of the creative team holds up their end of the bargain at that point. Portacio's vision of the freakish telepathic interrogator is a nice design, and the bloody gunplay that results is clear and quick, as it should be. And the chase scene is pretty short, cutting off to reveal adversaries who are the epitome of the gag super-hero, more concerned with codenames and reputation than doing the right thing. I'm a super-hero fan, and I still got a big kick out of Wright's deflating dialogue from the self-absorbed and ludicrous Civil Defense Squadron.
It's not many books that can combine solid action and good laughs, and it seems that Stormwatch is just getting better as it goes along. With a trade paperback collection on the way and a new artist coming in at the year-end mark, this is looking like the strongest of the "Eye of the Storm" books. While I'm hoping for a "rising tide" effect for at least Sleeper as a result, I'm pleased enough that Stormwatch: Team Achilles is starting to look like the book we had all hoped it would be in the beginning.
