This entry covers the “Cybernary” stories from “Deathblow/Cybernary” volume one issues 1 through 3, the “Cybernary” story from “Deathblow” volume one issue 4 and “Cybernary” volume one issue 1 by Brandon Choi, Jim Lee, Steve Gerber, Nick Manabat, Jeff Rebner and Richard Friend.
Alright, Cybernary is one of those books that reveals itself over the course of reading it. I’m going to present the story pretty much chronologically, not the order the story is told in. Why? Because I’m as boring as dry toast. Also, I’m imploring you to read these books as presented as Nick Manabat’s art on the first 4 short installments is fantastic and you should really get a look at them. My words will never do justice to that art, so I’m not even going to compete, hence my uninspired coverage!
“Cybernary” is all about how a girl named Kat, in a land of extreme have and have-nots, and how she tried to lead a revolution to save the less fortunate. Katrina, along with her “boyfriend” Cisco intercepts a dairy truck that is carrying weaponry. The idea is for that weaponry to be used to arm her and her fellow revolutionary types. Nothing, of course, can go this easy on Gamorra, and it isn’t long before Katrina and her rebel group are attacked by Gamorran madman Gila and an army of Hunter-Killers to get the weapons that were stolen from them.
While all their partners in crime were getting mowed down, Cisco and Kat are very close to getting free. While Kat makes it out, Cisco is snagged at the last second. Kat manages to track Cisco to the labs of one Dr. Vandalia in a Gamorra Industries building. Like most evil scientists in Gamorra, he’s totally given himself some kind of crazy-ass techno body. He’s doing his evil mad professor thing of replacing Cisco’s body with mechanical parts when Kat tries to stop him. For reasons known only to him, Vandalia takes a shine to Kat and offers her Cisco’s life for hers. He even goes so far as to offer return Cisco to his organic state before letting him go. Kat sheds a tear and takes him up on the horrible deal.
What Dr. Vandalia has in mind is to turn her into a gift for Kaizen Gamorra. He’s reshaped her ears, as well as some other questionable “upgrades” to make her more resemble a high-end Gammoran Nympho-Droid. While working on this “gift” Vandalia has fallen behind on the latest upgrades to the ever-present Hunter-Killers. A man by the name of Mr. Chang goes to confront Vandalia on his slacking off, and takes Yumiko, the bosses daughter, as a power play move. It doesn’t quite go the way Chang would like and he leaves in a huff, Yumiko, however, stays behind.
Yumiko is trying to smooth things over with Dr. Vandalia as best she can, but she makes a simple, costly mistake. She reminds Vandalia and Kaizen Gamorra can have any woman he wants, so what would make even the greatest Nympho-Droid useful to him? Valdalia, always the messed up dick, decides to incapacitate Yumiko, hook her up to a bunch of machinery, remove her consciousness from her body, download it into a computer chip, and then install that computer chip in Kat’s brain. So yeah, now this crazily advanced cyborg now has two distinct personalities in a single body, and one is Kaizen Gamorra’s only child. Oh, and they both HATE Dr. Vandalia now.
Suddenly, a door in Vandalia’s lab is blown clean open as a charred body flies through it. Sensing an opportunity, Kat/Yumiko kick the stuffing out of Dr. Vandalia and make their escape. They find their savior is one Mr. Michael Cray. While they didn’t know him at first, the Yumiko side searched her data banks and noticed that he was a sworn enemy of the Gamorra Clan, and thusly our 2-in-1 heroine, slunk back into the shadows to avoid him.
Once free of the Gamorra Industry building they were trapped in, our gals are suddenly being pursued by a bunch of HKs. The ladies make short work of the green guys, and their little dogs too. But after mistiming a single grenade explosion, the body that the women inhabit crashes to the ground a goes limp. She’s picked up by the underground inhabitants known as the Techno-Dwarves who mean to scavenger the body for spare parts. While investigating their new prize they start to learn it’s history and that it is no ordinary Nympho-Droid. Because of this, one of the Techno-Dwarves accidentally fries his mind trying to interface with it. After this, the Techno-Dwarves send in a small cyborg named Miranda to talk to the Nympho-Droid and get information the old-fashioned way. Come on boys, don’t be scared to talk to pretty girls.
Meanwhile, all manner of creature are out looking for Kat/Yumiko. Minotaur is on the hunt at the behest of Kaizen. Mr. Chang is on the case because he knows that something crazy is up with all the destruction of Gamorra Industries property brought on by both Cray and Kat/Yumiko, and he means to find the party still on the island. For all his troubles Chang finds a scavenger named Guggen who lets him know that there’s no body here for him to retrieve, even if he wanted to get mixed up in all this mess. At this point, Chang gives up, but Minotaur and his crew won’t be stopped and will continue to pursue our girls for as long as it takes to capture them.
Continuity Corner:
- Vandalia’s lab and even the “man” himself is very reminiscent of the HK lab that Cannon found in “StormWatch” volume one issue 18’s backup story.
- While it was originally intended that when the “Deathblow/Cybernary” flip-book was coming out, they were occurring at the same time (this was in the letter pages) we now see that that cannot be the case. Those issues open with a Cybernary free of her creators running around before being captured by the Techno-Dwarves and having her origin recounted. It’s not until her proper series begins that we even see the conclusion of her story concerning her escape from her creators. She recounts the escape story as happening in the not too recent past, but based on Chang’s yelling, at the start of “Cybernary” volume one issue 1, her escape happened the night before, so these stories happen sooner than I’d previously thought! Like, right after Cray’s adventures in Gamorra in “Deathblow” volume one issues 17 through 19.
NEXT: “Gen13” volume two issues 6 and 7 by Brandon Choi, J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee and Scott Williams.
Reporter Karl Woodbern has info on Kaizen Gamorra. It’s information that Kaizen does not want to get out, in fact, the Gamoran leader wants him dead. Who’s a hotshot reporter supposed to turn to for protection? Why Rayna Masters of course! Not that Woodbern wants Rayna to protect him, or even her main dude the Sergeant-Major. Nope, Woodbern wants the protection of Micheal Cray more than anything! Here’s the kicker, Cray and Woodbern have a past and in the past Woodbern’s actions resulted in the death of one of Cray’s soldiers. Thusly, Cray hates Woodbern and does not want to work for him. Woodbern gets Cray to come around once Woodbern mentions that the information he has concerns Cray and is tied into files about Project Genesis.
Rayna and the Sergeant-Major get into Gamorra by plane as Cray parachutes in, because that guy is bad ass always takes the hard road. Rayna pretty quickly gets taken in by more of Kaizen’s goons. And while the Sergeant-Major thinks he’s hot on the tail of these kidnappers, it turns out he’s been faked out too. Time to break into Kaizen’s compound. Not that he’s alone in that action.
So the Sergeant-Major, Mai-Li and Cray are hacking into Kaizen’s system to try and find exactly where Woodbern and Rayna are being held. First hurdle, they’re not together. Second hurdle, they’ve been noticed and the chief of security is throwing his big guns at the three of them. The Minotaur, Borgia, and Gila have been dispatched. They are the toughest of the tough, and come with their own Hunter-Killer army!
We clearly see that Trance is in the shadows of Craven’s office. Posed much like when we saw him during “Gen13” Vol. 2 issue 2. And just like in that appearance he’s willing to give out information on the whereabouts of John Lynch. This time he’s seeking information about Kaizen Gamorra from Craven, where as before he was asking for information on Craven from Defile. Because he is in silhouette I’ve never really put together it was Trance before, but yeah, it’s totally Trance and I’m totally dense.
We have a small cameo by Cybernary in this run. While it was originally intended that when the “Deathblow/Cybernary” flip-book was coming out, they were occurring at the same time (this was in the letter pages) we now see that that cannot be the case. Those issues open with a Cybernary free of her creators running around before being captured by other curious parties and having her origin recounted. It’s not until her proper series begins that we even see the conclusion of her story concerning her escape from her creators. She recounts the escape story as happening in the not too recent past, which means for best reading, we should still put her books off a bit more to build some time between this appearance and the next. But how cool was it to see her and Cray in the same book again?
weathering wildstorm 