TEAM 7 (first miniseries)
release date: 1994-5
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Penciler: Aron Wiesenfeld
Inker (issue 1): Trevor Scott
Inker (issues 2-4): JD & Scott Williams
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Monica Bennett
#1: Gone Animal
In an unidentified and hostile country, Team 7 inserts by copter, and hits the ground running and shooting. Their mission is to rescue hostages, but as it turns out, there aren't any - the intel was bad. Conditions preclude a helicopter pickup, so Lynch orders a complete firebombing of the area; the team will take shelter in a reinforced sub-basement. It works, and they live while hundreds of enemy troops are burned to a crisp.
Craven assures Lynch that the failed mission won't be blamed on his men. During the team's downtime, Cray draws a knife on Callahan (who he caught looking through his kit; Cash breaks it up.
Craven briefs Lynch on the team's next mission; they watch a videotape showing some prisoners being exposed to a gas which makes them lethally violent. Craven stresses the secrecy of this op, and Lynch goes to regroup the team.
The mission takes place in a "friendly African nation" and the team HALOs in at night. They quickly close in on the objective, and anyone who gets in their way is terminated with extreme prejudice. They fight their way to the chemical weapons building, but quickly find that they've been tricked again. Gas - the same gas in the video that Craven showed Lynch - seeps into the chamber, and they all lose consciousness.
Lynch: "But we didn't go so easy. Maybe our number wasn't up yet. Maybe we got lucky. Maybe Hell wasn't ready for us."
#2: The Damned Don't Die
Craven and his psychic-powered associate, Gabriel Newman, fly out to the site while discussing the secrecy and importance of this experiment. It was all a set-up - th "enemy" troops were supplied by a foreign general Craven had under his thumb. The members of Team 7, all in deep comas, are being bagged and tagged for return to the "Enclave."
Berckmann
Johnson
Cole Cash (Deadeye)
Michael Cray (Deathblow)
Stephen Callahan (Wraparound)
Jackson Dane (Arclight)
Stewart Chang (Bulleteer)
Richard McNamara (Boloround)
Marc Slayton (Backlash)
Alexander Fairchild (Slaphammer)
John Lynch (Topkick)
Lynch wakes up, frantic, but is calmed down by Alicia Turner. She tells him that he's been in the Gen-lab for seven days, under observation due to the chemical agent that the team was exposed to. Craven fills Lynch in, while Alicia goes to check on the others; not all of them are doing as well as Lynch. Berckmann, for example, gouged his own eyes out. Down the hall, McNamara exhibits intense bursts of energy, frying numerous guards who are trying to stop him. He grabs a pistol, and saying he can't hold in the pain any more, he shoots himself in the head.
In a penthouse office, Gabriel tells Craven that he's taking a leave of absence from the Genesis project, due to the unbearable pain he's in whenever near the test subjects. Craven tells him tough shit, he's staying; they don't want any more mistakes like the poor bastards down on Level Nine, which doesn't even officially exist.
Later, Craven, Gabriel, Alicia, and Lynch debrief the surviving members of Team 7 (Johnson, Cash, Cray, Callahan, Dane, Chang, Slayton, Fairchild.) While Craven lays down his lies, he is mind-probed by Cash, until Gabriel blocks it; this is the beginning of the manifestation of the team members' psychic powers. Well, all of them except Cray, who shows no signs of having gained anything from the virus.
Although Cray gained nothing, the others have. It appears that Lynch will be "mildly prescient", but Chang disassembles a pistol in midair, the parts floating about, all with the power of his mind. Lynch doesn't believe that Craven would lie to them, despite Cash's ideas based on his mind-probe of Craven.
Gabriel visits Level Nine, briefly looking at a rotting humanoid in a cell before the thing makes his nose bleed and drives him away.
Cash talks with Alicia about how he doesn't like getting fucked over by his own people. The next day, the team goes to East Africa for its next mission: elimination of an enemy general. They reach the general's mansion with ease; Lynch, Cash, and Johnson go inside. Johnson goes berserk - a possible side-effect of the Gen-Factor - and uses his powers to kill the general's guards and then the general. Because he does it sadistically and takes joy in it, Cash ventilates him with his handgun. Lynch is furious, and doesn't understand, so Cash explains it to him: Johnson was out of control and had to be dealt with.
Cash: "Craven wanted super-soldiers. He should have expected a few monsters. That wasn't Johnson anymore. And we're not heroes anymore."
#3: Loyalties
Cash has just shot and killed Johnson, and Lynch has a gun to Cash's head. Cash usges Lynch to kill him, since they've all become something less than men but more than monsters. Lynch can't do it, and he tells the others that Johnson was KIA. As they dust off by chopper, Lynch begins to have his own private doubts about the "accident" that gave them their powers. His reverie is interrupted by enemy attack from a 40 mm gun on the ground, but Dane uses his power to destroy the thing. Cray alone remorsefully reflects on what the team has become.
Back at HQ, Craven and Gabriel debrief Lynch, who tells them the same lie about Johnson that he told his men. Gabriel probes him, and knows he's lying but can't discern the truth. Craven dismisses Lynch, commenting that the team is closing ranks to protect itself.
At a local bar, some of the team members unwind. Fairchild uses his powers to force a woman to pay attention to him, and Cash knocks him on his ass, making the point that while it may be okay to use the power while on duty, it's wrong to use it at other times.
Somewhere in Africa, a Soviet advisor named Rostov informs a General Mbong that the mass carnage they're looking at was caused by a small group of men with peculiar talents - and that he'll find and kill every one of them.
Alicia Turner tells Cray that he'll be involved in the next mission - from afar, in a support role. He's furious, having realized that this is because he hasn't demonstrated any powers like the others.
Sometime later, the team inserts into some unfriendly country; their mission is to destroy a nuclear reactor. However, the only thing they find in the area of operations is an ancient monastery inhabited by old Coptic monks. Cash argues with Lynch that this isn't a reactor, and Lynch gets angry, pulling a gun on Cash. Bad idea. Cash uses his power to hurl Lynch into a wall and ram a log into his face. Their battle levels the monastery, and Cash wins; Lynch is unconscious.
Back at base (a support ship off the coast) an uplink is set up, connecting the team with Craven. Cash asks about dustoff, and Craven tells him to stand by on site. After breaking contact, Craven orders the ship's commander to initiate Operation: Spoilsport. Cray, on hand for tactical support, questions this, and Craven orders him arrested. The ship launches a cruise missile; its target: the monastery.
Craven: "It's just a low yield nuke, Gabe. If Team 7 can't walk away from this one, they were no good to me anyway."
#4: The Furious
Aboard the support ship which waits off the coast, the missile has been launched and Cray is en route to the brig. He breaks free, however, and reappears on the bridge, his arm clenching a shotgun which is tied to the captain's head. Cray radios the team and warns them about the incoming nuke.
Cash realizes that the only way they might survive is to combine their powers and work together - all of them, including the unconscious Lynch. After he's awakened, the seven men begin building a shield, using every bit of their concentration and power. The missile zeroes in...impact.
Elsewhere, in the middle of Russia, Rostov awakens with a start, as if from a nightmare. He babbles about how something significant has just happened. Back in the desert, the inferno rages - and at its center, the members of Team Seven remain, within a bubble of power.
Hours pass; Cray won't give up the gun and the captain until he knows for sure that his teammates are dead. Suddenly, their signals come in; they're all alive. Cray surrenders to the Marines, who proceed to hand him a serious beating. In the desert, the chopper arrives to pick up the team. Only Lynch and Slayton, however, are going; the others have decided that they're powerful enough to quit working for Craven and I.O.
Epilogue 1: In the brig, Craven tells Cray through a monitor that he's never getting out unless he helps Craven find the team.
Epilogue 2: In Nicaragua, the five fugitives are laying low and discussing whether it's time to start making their own rules, instead of playing by Craven's.
Rostov: "Something has changed in the world...something terrible has happened...terrible and...magnificent..."