Review - Velocity #1

One of the comics back in the day that I was always fascinated by but never collected was Cyberforce, created by Marc Silvestri in the 90s when Image Comics was taking off. Apparently one of the characters I missed by not collecting this title was Carin Taylor, a.k.a. Velocity. Just in case you missed the history here as well, let’s see if we can do a recap in five sentences or less.

Cyberforce is a group that was created by a corporation named Cyberdata by cybernetically enhancing individuals with various powers and abilities. Velocity’s powers consist of being really, really, REALLY fast. She can break Mach speeds and has the reflexes to match, which is good since being that fast with my reflexes would not be conducive to your health. In addition there is a thin layer of Kevlar implanted beneath her skin. This serves a dual function of both giving her resistance to damage as well as some help with the friction that results from moving at speeds that high. So I could imagine her damaging things with sonic booms and being pretty hard to shoot with a gun.

Have I gotten your attention yet? What if I told you Top Cow has Ron Marz taking a break from the Witchblade Universe to work on the writing for this title? Would that pique your interest? With art by Kenneth Rockafort this is a title with some real potential.

We open with Velocity herself providing the narration and giving us an overview of her powers and abilities as she battles some robots. Suddenly she is caught by a blast of a new type and killed, or so it would seem. We quickly realize that this was just a pure robot made to look and have similar abilities to the real Velocity. Why you ask? That too becomes apparent as this issue moves on.

It turns out that Carin is telling us this part of the story from her apartment just watching some old romance movies. We also get a look at how quickly her life can turn from ordinary to crazy. The training in capturing the robot versions of Velocity appears to have paid off, as the robots after her capture her using a weapon I won’t ruin for you here.

So who is the villain behind this attack on our hero? One of the original geniuses behind Cyberdata, Doctor Erasmus Pane. Before Cyberforce was formed he tested the new cybernetic enhancements on himself first and the doctor’s body rejected them, leaving him close to death. He survived through sheer will and genius and over the years amassed this new force of robots while also plotting revenge against Cyberforce. There seems to be a jealousy angle here as Cyberforce’s perfect enhancements bother him. He has already taken actions to poison the full members of Cyberforce along with Velocity. This first storyline will focus on how that can be prevented.

Overall this was a good start to the series. I’m not completely hooked yet as I am with the Witchblade titles from Top Cow and Ron Marz but this has potential. I could easily see myself being sucked into this Cyberdata/Cyberforce Universe in the same way that I’ve been hooked by all the other Top Cow titles. The artwork is top notch, although it stays consistent with the overall look and feel of many of the Top Cow titles. Marz, as always, has laid the groundwork with solid writing for an exciting couple of issues to come. If you love Top Cow and other Marz titles you’d be silly not to pick this one up too. Want a taste before you dive in? Fine, I’ll oblige you with some interiors that you can view below. Enjoy!