My Indie Comics Month continues, but for this new guide for all Patrons of CK I’m skipping ahead from my sequential march through Image’s launch titles. Even though this comic launched in 1994, it’s the sibling title of yesterday’s brand new Guide to Cyberforce. It didn’t make sense to have one without the other or to cram them into a single guide. That’s why this new Top Cow Production guide got to skip ahead in line to reach you today: its my Guide to Codename Strykeforce.
Codename: Strykeforce proved the maxim that for every 90s team there had to be an even more extreme version. Even though Cyberforce was full of big guns and cybernetic limbs, we still needed a version of it who were mercenaries for money… right?
Strykeforce was the side hustle of multi-armed Cyberforce member Stryker, who ran this team between his Cyberforce missions. While Cyberforce’s cast had a somewhat uniform steely look and a plot centered on playing defense (at least to start), Strykeforce was a chance to write a more colorful “away team” who didn’t all have to be good guys.
Ultimately, there’s wasn’t much to separate Stryke Force’s identity – visually or biographically – from other early Image titles like Brigade and Stormwatch. Still, it ran for 15 issues before the team was decommissioned in a two-issue mini-event, “Opposing Forces.” Afterward, Stryker continued in Cyberforce full time for the remainder of its run. The title was later revived for a single arc in 2004 during an extended Cyberforce hiatus, though Black Anvil was the only returning member other than Stryker himself.
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