By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Release Date:
September 9, 2020
Dark Horse Comics
SPOILER ALERT
The release of Cyberpunk 2077 Trauma Team does more than bring fond memories of why I love R. Talsorian’s roleplaying game of the same name. It has undergone many revisions, going from 2020 to Red (to keep the idea futuristic) and to see it finally come to a comic book is a cybernetic wet dream come true. Miguel Valderrama‘s artistic style and layouts tells long time fans of this world that he knows what fans want from a game that’s hasn’t gotten a lot of transition into other media. Jason Wordie‘s bold use of colours are exceptional. These two artists most likely examined what made collecting the books appealing before realizing Cullen Bunn’s tale to a smorgasbord of anime style action!
The video game is coming soon (November 19) and I’m ready to soak up any other material being released prior as my anticipation to ride the virtual information highway is already at an all time high!
We’re not going to immediately see any of that fancy Netrunning stuff with this comic book series, but I’m willing to bet it’s coming! In the meantime, I expect Nadia is going to be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed and numbered! Her life will be an open book to those who have access to her dossier. As an evac medic, she gets into very hairy situations and as a survivor of many violent past missions, the new team she’s been put in thinks she has PTSD.
That’s not good in Bunn’s look at Night City. Some citizens cope with the pressure by taking in drugs. Others may well gravitate towards neural-ware hacks to keep them calm. Welcome to the world of cyberpunk!
The Trauma Team exists to save clients; exactly what they are helping with is to prevent their death at the hands of seemingly random murderers. Or perhaps people who have fallen into cyberpsychosis–a detail in line with the RPG. Players can only go so far with their mechanical enhancements, and when they go overboard, all sense of humanity in them is gone, and they are a threat. Trans-humanism is more of a threat than a safe treatment. I suspect Nadia will have to face wondering how she can cope with this high stress job, and the upcoming issues will go into detail about the limits of how far man can integrate with machine.
Without being overt, the talents behind this comic are certainly teasing at what’s still to come in issues two and beyond. The killers are cyber-enhanced. Although we have yet to find out if their humanity are gone, I suspect the next issue will show how much of the human brain has turned to mush. Although Nadia’s team managed to save Apex, this character has another role to play and I can’t wait for the next issue to arrive.
5 Cyber-thumbs Up!
