Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Cyber Force #1Cyber Force #1
Image Comics
Silvestri, Hawkins, Pham, Gho, Regla & Sejic

This is a great way to get your book out there: give it away for free. The first issue of the re-launch of Marc Silverstri 's Cyber Force was free and I am not talking about a digital version. The full length, paper comic book was free and I was very happy to pick it up, read it and review it. Having never read a Cyber Force book I was concerned about my ability to understand all of the inner workings of the characters. While I can't be sure if continuity understanding matters or not, I can say I found this book intriguing enough to pick up the next book – at full price. This was an entertaining science fiction story.

There are certain genres I can always find room for in my reading diet and science fiction is one of them. There seems to be so few science fiction books on the market that separate from the capes and cowls that when I find one I tend to stick with it. I still am not 100% sure what this book is all about but I liked the universe building in this issue.

Basically the book is about a young girl on the run. Her mother is a powerful Chairwoman on a company (CDI) that seems to both save and destroy entire cities by injected laws and providing jobs and necessities. The girl on the run meets up with various things like Shocs, Binders, Ripclaw, Boomer, Series Three all while looking for someone named Morgan Stryker. She is accompanied by a cute little dog named Ninja. Eventually trouble finds her and comes at her from multiple directions with various levels of agendas and destruction.

The book has a good mix of Dune and Blade Runner while making sure the story is unique. Fans of the X-Men will find some level of parallel here as well, but the characters definitely stand on their own. The book's strength is the slow building of the universe and the various characters that play a role in the overall story.

The book struggled in spots, such as providing some grounding with the voices that narrate the entire book. We never get a sense of which characters are telling the story and I would have liked to understand that more. I also wasn't a fan of not understanding the timeline or the scene jumps. It's one thing to jump to another time or place when you turn the page, but to switch scenes at the bottom of a page between panels three and four without a caption was a little frustrating.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsFor this kind of story you need some dirty artwork and that is what we have here. The book is heavily detailed but I was attracted to the grimness of the book as a whole. The universe looked lived in and had a bleak feeling that I enjoyed. I liked the art a lot and definitely helped along the book when the story slowed down.

Cyber Force is a concept that has been around for a couple of decades and yet I have never ventured into the water. This freebie was too good to pass up and I was glad I picked it up. The story was slow and it took a couple of reads before I understood what was going on, but I liked what I saw. Long time readers might find it easier to pick things up, but I hope they find the same level of enjoyment. This is too good to pass up.

3 out of 5 geek goggles