Team 7 #5

t7n5cover“Mission 2.1: The Spartan Way”

Writer: Justin Jordan
Pencils: Jesus Merino & Pascal Alixe
Colors: Nei Ruffino & Nathan Eyring with Hi-Fi
Letters: Taylor Esposito
Assistant Editor: Darren Shan
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover: Gary Frank

(No Spoilers)

Team 7 has been amazing these last couple of issues. Justin Jordan really hit his stride with the characters and started infusing some interesting things in the New 52’s past. But rather than let the title continue with its newfound momentum, DC decides to announce its cancellation. It’s unbelievable at this point but thankfully Jordan’s greatness out-weighted the bad news for this issue.

t7n5image1Simultaneously this month, Ravagers is being cancelled. Now as much as I didn’t want it to happen, with declining sales and almost a year’s worth of issues, I can understand that Ravagers’ cancellation ( a little). But Team 7? It just launched in Sept.’s Zero Month, just 5 months ago!!! It did have sort of a rocky start but I thought the creative team pulled it together to give us a great conclusion to the first story arc last month. So how DC can decide to cancel this great title so prematurely is beyond me.

I know one complaint people have had with the title is the lack of a consistent artist. I can see how that would annoy some people. It’s one thing to have a regular artist for a few issues and then have a fill-in artist, but so far it’s jumped back and forth between three artists. No offense to the artists who did work on the title so far, but I wish they would’ve brought on a big name artist to compliment Jordan. That probably could’ve saved the book.

t7n5image2Ok, enough of my moaning. Let’s focus on this issue for a bit. I love how it jumps from the present day New 52, to fives years ago. This is a great way to start transitioning the title to present day and hopefully start answering some questions about all these characters. The solicits have let us know that Ladytron and Spartan will be showing up in this book. I love the set up for how Ladytron gets her name and it involves Caitlin Fairchild. I also love the mystery they’ve set up with who and what Spartan really is. There are also some really creepy elements to the story and I was surprised by some of the horror-like aspects.

The solicits have let us know that as far as Wildstorm characters, we’ve got Ladytron, Spartan, and Majeistc showing up in this arc. Jordan voiced his love of the original Team 7 and the Wildstorm Universe in general when he first got the book so it’s no surprise that he has added so many Wildstorm characters in the book. But it seems the curse of Wildstorm continues as they keep getting their books cancelled. If you haven’t read the news about Jim Starlin taking over Stormwatch, I think that book would’ve been on the chopping block too if not for Starlin coming on board. It’s too bad they didn’t make a similar concerted effort to save some of these other cancelled titles.

But much like Ravagers, the current creative team has been cranking out some great stories. Even if this is the end for this title, I know Jordan is going to end with a bang! There was so much potential with this book and I really think DC dropped the ball on this one.

8 out of 10 (On its way to greatness!)