WetworksThis is a featured page

WetworksFirst Appearance: WildC.A.T.s #2
Wetworks created by Whilce Portacio & Brandon Choi

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Overview
Colonel Jackson Dane, an original member of International Operations military unit Team 7, was allowed to recruit specialists to form a modern-day incarnation of the team. Team 7 had always been used for covert operations and the new team rose to meet every expectation and complete every mission with extreme precision. During one of these missions, they encountered symbiotic life forms. The symbiotes are a liquid gold medium filled with highly advanced nanodroids that merged with them and gave them powers.

The entire team went rogue once they realized that, from the beginning, it had been designed as a suicide mission. Wetworks battles supernatural threats with the use of their powers.


Publication History

Image Comics
From the start, Whilce Portacio was the least well-known of the founding seven Image creators (the artistic-minded grouping which consisted of then superstars such as Larson, Liefeld, and Lee). Youngblood #1 launched the Image invasion, but that was followed in rapid succession by Spawn, Savage Dragon, WildC.A.T.S., Shadowhawk, and Cyberforce, flagship titles representing six of the seven former Marvel men... all except Portacio. While Wetworks #1 was heavily advertised, solicited, previewed, re-solicited, and re-heavily advertised, numerous factors (including a health crisis in his family) prevented that issue from reaching readers for two full years.

When Wetworks finally reached comic shelves in 1995, the Homage fanbase seemed split between those who had been eagerly awaiting this long-rumored missing component to the original Image launch, and those pushed to indifference by the multitude of delays. However, Portacio won over readers with his unique spin to the modern superteam.

Thanks to their gold symbiotes, the Wetworks team all initially shared the same abilities and basic likeness, virtually unthinkable in a time when costumes occasionally defined characters. Though they were all yellow on the outside, ethnic diversity was well represented on this particular squad, which included a Filipino member... not coincidentally, Portacio's nation of origin. Surrounded by straight superhero faire (sometimes with a sci-fi twist), Wetworks straddled the line between War and Horror, avoiding the demonic stomping ground of Spawn, instead nestling itself amongst the Universal monster roster, including wolfmen, vampires, and even Frankenstein's Monster, who was still bitter about the whole persecution thing.

Wetworks managed to survive for forty-one issues, outlasting most of the other Image stalwarts (and even some of the founding creators), but the title slipped into the past history of the Wildstorm universe. In 2003, Portacio taunted fans with the first hint of his return to Wetworks in the Eye of the Storm Annual. The following year, the Coup D'Etat: Afterword saw Portacio paired with new series writer Mike Carey, laying the groundwork for what would become Wetworks Volume Two.

WorldStorm
A relaunch of the same title began in 2006 by writer Mike Carey and creator Whilce Portacio. It follows the original team leader, Dane, as he reforms the Wetworks team minus all the previous members save Mother One, to continue combating supernatural forces. As of issue #10 the creative team changes to writer J. M. DeMatteis and artists Joel Gomez and Trevor Scott, with Portacio remaining on as cover artist. The new series was cancelled with issue #15.

World's End
Wetworks reappeared as one of the one-shots in Wildstorm: Armageddon, but it is not one of the series listed as restarting following the World's End events, however, there will be a series of backup stories featuring the team.


SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!

History:
Wetworks is a covert operations team in the, designated Team 7, led by Colonel Jackson Dane, who was a member of the original Team 7. Team 7 was sent on a (suicide) mission by International Operations' (I/O) Director Miles Craven. The mission was to enter a terrorist enclave on the Raanes Peninsula (Eastern Europe) and extract a biological agent the terrorists had in their possession. Once the team reached the target, they found out that someone had raided the enclave before them. While investigating, the team found several big transparent tubes containing some kind of golden fluid. At that moment, the explosives they were carrying were activated by remote control, displaying a ten-minute countdown. That was when the team knew they were double crossed.

A hidden sniper shot at one of the tubes when team member Clayton "Claymore" Maure was examining it. The tube broke and the golden fluid jumped on Claymore as if it were alive, covering his whole body. If that was not enough, they were attacked by some terrorists. The terrorists started shooting, but the bullets bounced off Claymore's gold-covered body. Time was ticking and Col. Dane decided the team should open the remaining tubes to use the golden symbiotes as protection against the detonation of the explosives.

After the detonation, the enclave was destroyed, but Team 7 emerged from the fire unharmed. That was when I/O's cleaners (three aircraft) were ordered to enter the site to kill the surviving team members. The field leader of the cleaners, Mother One, double crossed I/O and shot down two aircraft before destroying her own. Mother One also had a golden symbiote, although it was not shown how she acquired it.

Mother One explained to Team 7 they were double crossed by Craven and I/O and asked them to accompany her to her boss, industrialist Armand Waering.

Col. Dane reluctantly accepted and they started to work for Armand Waering. Waering told them that he wanted to kill the Vampire Nation because they wanted to take over the world from the humans. What he did not tell the team was that he was actually the Jaquar, leader of the Werenation.

Two members of Wetworks died early in their battles with the undead - Flattop and Crossbones. Later Pilgrim's brother, Nathaniel Blackbird joined the squad, and they learned that both he and Pilgrim (unknown to her) were both werewolves. Several members of the squad died during a major mission some time later, including Dozer and Claymore, and Wetworks broke up. Recently Dane has reactivated the team to deal with breaks in reality caused by another superteam, which have been turned into portals for forces from another dimension.
World's End
Following the world cataclysm due to the events of Number of the Beast, Wetworks were contacted and offered by John Lynch, head of the former Team 7, into rejoining the Team, in an attempt to reverse the devastation and restore Earth to its former state. However, Dane refuses his proposal since he doesn't believe anymore in a simple solution, and prefers tasking the Wetworks of defending humanity from the vampires.


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