By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Dark Horse Comics
Available now
Spoiler Alert
Cyberpunk 2077’s continuing comic book series, “You Have My Word,” has gone Hispanic in this second miniseries about life in Night City. This time, the setting is with how one particular gang is running business. To see that the Valentino’s are involved has me pulling out the Art of book from this publisher (review can be found here) to remind myself of what’s going on. The intro page has a lot to pack in. The art style from the team of Jesús Hérvas (artist) and Giulia Brusco (colourist) suggest something meso-American and ancient to come if the murals are telling.
Usually including old world folklore don’t always work with this genre. Anything mystical can be imagined through tech. All any creative hacker needs are devices to project hard light holograms to create whatever he or she imagines.
Teresa runs a diner out in the boonies, and it’s a place nobody really knows except for a few, and even worse, the locals are hardly making ends meet. Her daughter Oriona rarely comes home to visit, but when she does and winds up supposedly dead, it’s up to ma to take vengeance!
Jack Lars has plans to displace more people as a new urban development is in the works, and the Valentino gang doesn’t like it! Sadly, Oriona gets mixed up in all that’s going on, and if we are to believe the cliffhanger the first issue suggests, then her death means trouble when ma wants to take revenge!
This story by Bartosz Sztybor plays better than the buggy video game. I’m enjoying this second mini-series.
This world created by Michael Pondsmith for a role playing game is huge and there’s plenty of side-stories of life in Night City to tell in sequential art form. The medium is perfect since there’s a visual element which really must be seen.
I’m sure another mini-series is planned as I want to read a story of a netrunner finding something he shouldn’t and the Corps go after him! To see him struggle to cover his tracks can make for a familiar tale, but I want to see it imagined by today’s up and coming artists. As for when that’ll happen, that decision will be up to the publisher, but I’m sure it’ll happen because Wintermute says so.
