Team Stryker by Andrew Grieve (Review)

http://www.teamstrykercomic.com/

Team Stryker is a biweekly online indie comic by Andrew Grieve that lovelingly mocks the beefcake action war heroes of computer games, films and comics. Featuring a fun mix of hard and soft boiled characters the first two full missions (or issues) have been released and feature insane situations, I get the feeling they could end up literally anywhere and as issue three points out any when, as they end up fighting a dinosaur with a phd back in the past.

The comic clearly focuses on exploiting the characters for brilliant comedy which is spot on my taste so I have found every issue and pretty much every page a laugh. I think my favourite character is the strong and silent Jeffrey... The butterfly...

Although Jeffrey aside all of the characters are fantastic, I love the dynamics off the group and despite them being based (loosely) in real people the characters feel very influenced by lots of pop culture. Every time Eagleheart shouts Eagle Punch! I have to try not to say it in Captain Falcon's voice although I'm sure Eagleheart would never be as camp as Cap' Falcon. Dead Eye makes me think of Snake from MGS, I love that he seems to be the most competent and blood thirsty of the group. Casanova is always a laugh although I can't see how he got into the group, shouldn't he be... getting laid? And V Scope, well I love the concept for his character, a snapshot typical character that is easily distracted and never convering the team when he should be... Sneaky Jeffrey! Although no Jeffrey in #3 :( I hope he becomes a big villain, you read it here first, Jeffrey will be the mastermind behind the first big arc, the Moriarty to Eaglehearts Sherlock... a perfect analogy...

The art and colouring as well as writing is all done by Andrew himself which is always a commendable feat and I have to say the comic looks pretty sweet, I have only read it online, it would be nice to buy a paper copy sometime so I can really inspect the artwork. The slightly cartoony panels work really well and all the art is real nice, the pannelling is pretty basic but always works well, I think the page above is my favourite panellling wise. As for the look of the characters, they are all decent beefy action heroes that can appropriately kick ass.

Team Stryker is a definite one to watch, I will be keeping my ye on the new pages every week for sure! The satirical angle on action heroes isn't exploited enough and especially not in comics. I think what I would personally like to see would be a few slightly closer parodies of characters that we know really well. Perhaps a Gears of War or Halo reference and even more some Marvel comics piss takes would be great to see and god knows some of the beefier characters deserve it, Im thinking Hulk, Punisher, Hercules. I would like for the webpage to have a slightly easier page browsing system but I have no idea how that would work, I can barely work blogger! Anyway a wicked effort and an inspiring one too, its really nice to see someone with an idea and a little skill put together something as coherent and professional. Well Done Andrew!
7.5/10

If you want to get more info you can follow Andrew @TScomic
https://twitter.com/TSComic
or on FB
http://www.facebook.com/TeamStryker?fref=ts
To read the comic itself go to
http://www.teamstrykercomic.com/mission001page00/