Stormwatch: Team Achilles

Stormwatch: Team Achilles

Issue #1 (Art by Whilce Portacio)
Publication information
Publisher Wildstorm (DC Comics)
Schedule Monthly
Format Ongoing series
Genre
Publication date September 2002 - August 2005
Number of issues 23
Main character(s) Stormwatch: Team Achilles
Creative team
Writer(s) Micah Ian Wright
Penciller(s) Whilce Portacio
C. P. Smith
Clement Sauve
Carlos D'Anda
Mark Texeira
Tomm Coker
Inker(s) Scott Williams
Letterer(s) Comciraft
Rob Leigh
Colorist(s) Whilce Portacio
Creator(s) Micah Ian Wright
Whilce Portacio
Editor(s) John Layman
Collected editions
Volume 1 ISBN 1-4012-0103-2
Volume 2 ISBN 1-4012-0123-7

Stormwatch: Team Achilles is an American superhero series, the second incarnation of the Image comics Stormwatch. This version was penned by Micah Ian Wright, with illustrations contributed by Whilce Portacio, C. P. Smith, Mark Texeira, Tomm Coker, Carlos D'Anda and Clement Sauve. The longest run for a penciler on the book was by Smith, who drew issues 11-19. The title featured covers by Portacio, Jason Pearson and Michael Golden.

Characters

Assault Team

Benito Santini - American of Italian Descent, Catholic. Was previously a field leader of International Operations' Black Razors. When John Lynch defected from I.O., he became the Director of Operations, only to lose his post when Ivana Baiul became the Executive Director. After various events in the Wildstorm universe, Santini was later assigned to be the new "Weatherman" to the Stormwatch team, although it's later revealed he has his own agenda to the matter. Despite this, he holds his team members in high regard. Married to Flint.

Blake Coleman - Santini's second-in-command of Stormwatch, field leader and best friend since their Black Razor days, Coleman is the chief on-the-ground commander for the team's early missions, until his untimely death.

Luis Cisco - A close friend of Satini and Coleman who served with them during their Black Razor days. He was scheduled for a leave of absence due to his impending marriage, but ended up joining the team for one last mission on his wedding day. During the course of the mission, the same one that saw the death of Coleman, he received injuries that resulted in his leaving the team.

Victoria "Flint" Ngengi - Formerly of the original Stormwatch team and of the same generation as the Authority's Swift, Flint is only the second superpowered individual on the assault team. Possessing superhuman strength and a high level of resistance nearing that of physical invulnerability, Flint is the team's door kicker. She later falls in love with and marries Santini.

Jukko Hämäläinen - Finnish, former member of the Osasto Karhu (Finnish Anti Terror Squad). One of the last survivors of a superhuman holocaust in that country, and initially the only superhuman-powered member on the assault team. Jukko's powers are more of a curse than a blessing: he feels the pain of any individual within a certain radius. This is one of the reasons this team operative is incredibly caring towards injured hostages, while highly lethal against enemy targets. He also seems to have a profound dislike of the Authority's Midnighter.

Jaeger Weiss - A member of the German GSG 9, Weiss is an incredible handsome, suave, and more often than not sarcastic, but highly reliable team member. He is easily recognizable by the face mask he wears to protect his face when on missions. Being a member of GSG 9, Weiss is often depressed when hostages are injured during operations. Because his entire family was killed by superhumans he harbors a distrust of the superpowered individuals on the team. Nevertheless, he is still good friends with Jukko — the pair often engaging in witty banter on and off mission.

Galena Golovin - Russian sniper, one of the more aggressive team members, is a perfectionist of few, often harsh words. Shares an 'interesting' relationship with her spotter, Pickney.

Charles Cottsworth Pickney - Formerly of the British SAS, his military career stopped dead after he shot his CO in the head in front of the Queen. It didn't seem to matter that his CO was possessed and attempting to assassinate the Queen, his upward mobility ceased and he ended up assigned to Team Achilles. Pickney is almost stereotypically British in demeanor. As spotter to Golovin, he and Golovin share an odd, often argumentative relationship with Golovin either commenting on Pickney's degrading vision or less-than satisfactory manhood.

Ajeet Singh - A Sikh Indian, Ajeet Singh was one of the last "official" Stormwatch members to join the group. He was called into service following Citizen Soldier's attempt to over throw the US government, and first saw action during the groups raid on Baron Chaos' castle. He was given the option of leaving the group following The Authority's take over of the United States, the idea being that he was so new The Authority would be unaware of his existence. He refused and remained with the group until the series cancellation.

Frederick "Alias" Ngebe Braumholstein - Frederick is a post-human with shape-changing abilities, and is one of the few metahuman members of Team Achilles. He was brought in following Santini's removal of Senator Sonny Terns, using his shapechanging powers to impersonate the Senator. In a rather ironic twist the Senator was a white conservative racist while Frederick is a liberal mixed-race South African. During his time impersonating the Senator he helped get through various liberal bills and financial aid for various African American organizations. During Citizen Soldier's attempted over throw of the US government his true identity was revealed, forcing him to abandon his mission and join the Team Achilles field team for the first time. He was given the option of leaving the group follow The Authority's take over of the United States, it was thought that due to the covert nature of mission and the fact that he had never worked with the field team, that The Authority would be unaware of his existence. He refused and remained a member until the series cancellation.

Support Team

Khalid Tefibi - Stormwatch's resident tech geek, and the individual most often made the butt of jokes by the more masculine, hard-charging members of the team. Nonetheless, Tefibi's technological skills and wit prove vital to the teams' success and later their ultimate survival. Further, Colonel Santini reveals in Stormwatch: Team Achilles #16 that he is grooming Tefibi to be his replacement. In Santini's words: "That's why I'm prepping you now, Tefibi...I need someone capable of taking over if I get greased." Tefibi then expresses utter despair at the prospect of such responsibility. Santini recruited Khalid Tefibi from a federal prison where he was spending time for hacking into the Pentagon.

Avi Barak - A member of the Israeli Defense Force, Barak is an "inductive telepath" first introduced in issue 4: his powers are such that, if he asks you a question, and you do not answer truthfully, he instantly absorbs the information from your mind. Through Santini's efforts, his power level is raised to a much higher rating, although it has left the psi a little less than balanced.

Dr. Marie Grunier - Recruited from the French Gendarmerie, Grunier serves a dual role as the teams medical doctor and, when needed, as the teams hostage negotiator. She was romantically linked to Hämäläinen.

Buzz Dixon - Originally a StormWatch reservist, the creature known as Buzz Dixon was later recruited by Colonel Benito Santini as his chief scout and gatherer of difficult-to-get information on the Achilles team. Dixon handles nearly all of the team's recon work as Team Achilles' scouting specialist and primary intel-gatherer. He is often the first on the field, as he reconnoiters mission targets and locations pre-insertion. Buzz Dixon is a quadrupedal being possessing compound eyes, large, fan-shaped ears, and chameleon-like skin that allows him to become nearly invisible. Due to his unique optical, olfactory, and auditory physiology, Dixon possesses super-human senses. He also has a "sixth sense" in the form of low-grade telepathy (He can mentally "speak" in others' heads and receive thoughts, but generally only if they are nearby.). Further, Buzz Dixon can cling to walls with the sucker-like pads on the bottoms of his feet, and he possesses a prehensile tail. Despite his completely inhuman appearance, Dixon's personality suggests that he is human, or at least possesses a psyche very much like human beings. He is loud-mouthed, boisterous, swears quite a bit (he is partial to "fuck"), uses current slang, and has the sort of stereotypical mannerisms of a cowboy-type or jarhead-type character. Due to his personality and human name, it can be argued that Buzz Dixon is a super-powered meta-human who was once human, but whose powers are manifest through a strange physiology that also stripped him altogether of his human appearance. However, he shows no distress over his esoteric physiology. Dixon had very little "screen time" in the StormWatch: Team Achilles series, and his origins can only be conjectured.

Other notable characters

Deadhead - A superhuman with the ability to animate the dead and a skull for a face. He was captured and later placed in the Project Entry Universe along with Sonny Terns and Dhul Fiqar.
Jumpmaster - A superhuman with the ability to create star shaped teleportation portals. He escaped Stormwatch and would later be seen acting as an intermediary between Senator Terns, Baron Chaos and Citizen Soldier.
Emoticon - A powerful telepath who was also hideously deformed. He resemble a giant mutant fetus and during his first and only appearance in the series was shown to be floating in a giant liquid filled tube. He was killed by Golovin.

Bibliography

Series & one-shots

Significant stories

Collected editions

See also

References

    External links

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