Calum Petrie reviews Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #4…
The Trauma Team series so far has been a rather tense affair. The main character of Nadia has been on an emotional rollercoaster, and the short but frantic journey that the reader has been taken on has been enjoyable, if not horrific.
The three previous issues have brought us to this finale, and while it it picks up straight after issue #3 I feel like the release has been tainted by the poor Cyberpunk 2077 video game release. However, this is very much a comic review, so we will not delve into the good and bad point of the video game.
Nadia is still focused on the mission; extremely conflicted and wearing her emotions on her sleeve, she is still managing to carry out the job. The scumbag assassin she is contracted to kill appears to be a complex character who easily has the most personality out of anyone else on the page sadly. While Nadia’s conflict played out rather well in the second and third issue, the climax of the series leaves her character rather lacklustre, which is very sad.
Around the mid point of the issue, the action really ramps up with a combat sequence that does bring back some feelings of tension and anticipation. When the fighting begins is when the severity of the situation plays out in the readers mind, though with a sequence that plays out like a blockbuster film. When the issue does reach its end, I was left with a feeling I do not recall having since watched the Sin City films.
The artwork in this series has been beautiful, and the moments of violence have been captured with raw brutality, sometimes enough to make the reader wince. The bold and vibrant colour pallet definitely enhances the world we are inhabiting for the length of time we are reading this issue. Character design is fantastic where the prosthetic limbs are realistically crafted and believable for the world we are in.
The bittersweet aftertaste will have readers wanting to start again and binge read the entire series in one sitting. The passage of time might have slightly killed the pacing for this series, but the story telling is extremely impactful for being condensed into four different issues. The series had a lot of anticipation to shoulder before the video game counterpart was released. Now we have the game at our disposal and so some of the burden has been lifted.
Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team still remains a fantastic combination or story and art, and it is a shame we have to say goodbye to these characters before we truly got to know everything about them… or have we?
Rating – 7/10
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