Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #1 is a fantastic tie-in

On November 19th the most anticipated game of all time will be released – Cyberpunk 2077. Developed by CD Projekt and based on the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG. With all of the hype it was inevitable there would be some tie-in media. So from Dark Horse Comics we now have a comic series – Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team. The writer of the series is Cullen Bunn with art by Miguel Valderrama and coloring by Jason Wordie. Together they create a Cyberpunk comic that convinces me it is set in the hyper-violent and hyper-capitalist Night City of the upcoming game. The story toys with the suitably dystopian idea for the necessity of armed EMTs to extract wounded gang members and unscrupulous business executives. So below is a short review that will hopefully convince you to pick up this series. Either that or the drool-worthy cover will.

What is Cyberpunk 2077 Trauma Team all about?

Trauma Team follows the character Nadia, who is an assistant ‘armed’ EMT with the privately owned Trauma Team International. Through flashbacks we see how her entire team got killed extracting a client from Night City‘s Westbrook, its exclusive entertainment district. Nadia’s team was ambushed by unknown gunmen as well as an augmented samurai wielding assassin. The blood and gore set against the neon illuminated Night City provides the perfect Cyberpunk atmosphere. In the debriefing Nadia is asked how she feels and what motivates her, with her answers being important for the future value of the company rather than her personal well-being. From the debriefing the reader obtains the impression Nadia is thrill-seeker who fails to deal with her personal demons. Her evaluation clears her for active duty. Nadia’s next team treats her as a rookie until one is reminded about what happened in Westbrook.

Her new team is called for another extraction, this time in the Pacifica district which is run by gangs. They land on the apartment complex and in Dredd fashion clear the hallways of gang member. The order is given to kill anybody who gets in their way, innocent or otherwise. When one of the team members is wounded Nadia freezes, thinking back to what happened to her weeks before. Nadia snaps out of it and after dealing with the wounded team member continues to extract the client. When she reaches him she discovers it is the samurai wielding assassin that killed her team. And so issue #1 ends on a perfect cliffhanger, with plenty of questions for Nadia and the reader. How can a client kill members of Trauma Team and get away with it? And why did her team have to die? Most importantly, will Nadia kill the assassin?

Worthy of picking up

Any comic book issue is short and sweet. The first issue of Trauma Team is no exception. It has the unenviable task of setting up the world of the comic series as well giving the protagonist a meaningful story, all in 22 pages. It achieves that handsomely. Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #2 is set for release on October 7th. Don’t forget to subscribe using the widget on the right if you do not want to miss that review.