CDI is a corporation bent on world destruction, which it slowly accomplishes with the help of cybernetically enhanced soldiers called SHOC troops; however, some of these cyborgs rather like the world and have banded together to save it through the power of brute force.
As compared to the first five issues, #6 succeeds in several ways, both providing an easy-to-follow story and the series has finally started noting the year and location of when flashbacks take place! While these are important improvements, Cyber Force #6 suffers by trying to tell too many stories. In 20 pages, parts from four different stories are told with half of the issue devoted to flashbacks detailing the “origin story” for some of the characters. While these glimpses into how some of our heroes were made into the mechanical men they are today in this timeline is appreciated, the timing is off by several issues, with these origin stories coming across as more filler than necessary at this stage.
The modern-day story suffers from some of this filler mentality as well, slowing the action down drastically and dragging out the situation that should have been resolved before this issue; however, in spite of its slower pacing, the story does proceed forward, wrapping up the end of the first arc carefully while laying the seeds of the second.
It’s worth noting that the new artistic team, Marco Turini, Arif Prianto, and Andy Troy, do a fantastic job capturing the look and feel of Cyber Force. I have some reservations about the way Turini draws action, which was the highlight of the first five issues and which #6 minimizes in many respects, but would like to see something more in the style of the first arc before passing judgment.
Three Awkward Decontamination Sequences out of Five