2 out of 5

While Gerb’s other Strykeforce work got the job done, this reads like the quick wrap-up job it is.  It actually doesn’t start out too bad, with recent problems causing one of the Force guys (I forget which Force is which, okay?) to cry foul at Stryker for mishandling his double-leader duties between the one covert team and the one government team and this coming to a head while a team member takes off his mask and reveals he’s an alien and geez there’s an alien invasion on the way…  …Although if you thought that sounded like a pretty unwieldy sentence, consider how one would wield such unwieldyness across a small two-issue series.

The answer is: a co-writer in the second issue (Wein) and a bucketload of assistant artists and colorists in the second issue as well to assist Billy Tan.  Also: anti-climaxes where unbeatable villains essentially stub their toes and go home, and pretty shitty dialogue.  Book one actually feels like it has some effort behind it, and although Image-era Tan looks like an Image-era artist, he was one of the notable few and the issue attests to that.  Gerb does a bit of Cyberforce Meet Strykeforce cuteness, and the bonkers setup rings true of Steve’s approach, it’s just that second issue where it’s like everyone panicked and started pooping themselves and then wiped it on a comic.  3 pencillers, 5 inkers (I think – they’re mislabeled as pencillers as well in the credits) vs. one guy doing both in issue 1.  Something happened.  And whatever it was results in a rushed and inconsequential battle with those aliens.

Opposing Forces effectively closes the book on both Stryke teams in its hasty final page, so we can only assume that was the point, and I guess we’re ‘lucky’ this got two issues and wasn’t jammed down into one, although everyone seemingly had other tasks to do, thus requiring the buddying up of tasks for that second issue, churning out an all-too-obvious mess.  (Seemed fitting to close things out with another unwieldy sentence.)