Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #3 is a fantastic gore-fest

Cyberpunk 2077 may have been delayed to December 10th, but that gives the excellent Cyberpunk 2077 Trauma Team comic series time to flourish. The comic, written by Cullen Bunn, is an official tie-in media to CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077. In this series we follow Nadia, a mercenary for Trauma Team International, who is paid to successfully extricate clients from violent encounters. It does not matter if they are themselves to blame, the team is tasked with exfiltration. Now Nadia needs to help a mysterious client after he killed the head of one of Night City’s gang. Nadia recognizes the client as the one who murdered her previous team, at the beginning of issue 1. The reason for which are unknown. In an unguarded moment Nadia manages to train a gun on the client’s head. However, she is disarmed by her Knapp. And so starts issue 3.

The story of Cyberpunk 2077 Trauma Team #3

The second Trauma Team Nadia has joined has to fight their way out of the apartment complex along with their mysterious client. Nadia is suffering from serious PTSD, thus slowing down the team that is already down a member. Before long a second, Knapp, is also downed. Despite Nadia’s desire to kill the client she is hesitant. She is torn between not knowing why her team was murdered, loyalty to Trauma Team International and the need for manpower against the gang members sent to ice them. In issue 3 the comic starts to bear more than a resemblance to the 2012 movie Dredd starring Karl Urban. After helping up Knapp they hide in the apartment of a young woman and her sick daughter. Knapp dies when Nadia decides to help the daughter instead. This leads her into direct conflict with Stratter.

Since joining the team in issue 2 it was a matter of time before the two would get into conflict. With Nadia no longer caring about the contract Stratter has a hard time to get her to focus on the fact they are about be swamped by the gang. To the reader Nadia’s belligerence appears self-defeating. Not looking after Knapp has meant the team is down to just two + the client. If Nadia does not focus they are down another, which are impossible odds. However, as we have seen from the first issue the client has a few tricks up his sleeve. With stims his implants become hyper attuned. Quickly he manages to dispatch the gang members in the hallway and stairwell. It is an ability that reminds me of the slow-motion scenes from the aforementioned Dredd. With his ability drained they have to escape.

Nadia and the client

Nadia manages to pull herself together by issue’s end. In flashbacks we see how even in her first team she had doubts about the rules imposed by Trauma Team International. Stratter remains on her back, but the client is oddly supportive of her, and appreciates her gesture to leave antibiotics behind for the child. The reader of course wants to know why he was tasked murdering Nadia’s team. Nadia herself appears oddly disinterested. Except for avenging her team, and her lover Dodds. Though I suspect the client will use the secret to somehow enable Nadia, to get her out of her PTSD funk. By the end of issue 3 Nadia, Stratter and the client are once again moving through apartment complex somewhere in Night City. The mystery of why Nadia’s team was killed will no doubt be unraveled in the next issue set to be released in early December.

The Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team comic series is quickly becoming one of my favorite. The fast action-packed sequences is different from Blade Runner 2019. I enjoy the hard-boiled story of a rescue team that operates in the margins of the law. That said, in future issues I do hope to see more of Night City. If you liked this review please subscribe by filling in the widget in the right.