Task Force One Aims Its Sights at Image
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 (17:03:00)

Posted by Jenn

This Summer, Image Comics takes you to the next theater in the war on terror -- a near future where every soldier is a weapon of mass destruction. ShadowHawk creator Jim Valentino brings you TASK FORCE 1!

A generation after 9/11, the world is paralyzed by terrorist sects of every persuasion, from armed religious fundamentalists to militaristic environmentalists. In this bitterly divided, terror- struck United States, General Abigail Rhodes takes on the thankless job of heading up the Department of Homeland Security. She intends to put a stop to the reign of terrorists once and for all by ordering "Operation: Damocles," a top-secret project too risky for any of her predecessors to try. Now Rhodes has created a top secret unit of super soldiers, Codename: TASK FORCE 1

Written by talented newcomer Jeffery Stevenson with art by former ShadowHawk penciller Carlos Rodriguez, TF1 introduces a unit of soldiers who are enhanced as government weapons. Each of them is infused with deadly abilities for combating terror, but plagued by a fact that the government neglected to tell them: if the terrorists don't kill them, their new bodies will.

Valentino says, "TF1, for me, is what would happen if the Avengers met Delta Force. I wanted each soldier to be a three-dimensional character with superhuman abilities, but with the conscience and tactical know-how of a frontline combat soldier.”

Valentino calls out the team roster: "MASS leads the team. He can increase his molecular density, giving him great size, strength, and near invulnerability, but as he uses this power, the strain on his heart is becoming too much. RUSH can run at subsonic speeds, but because of her powers she's trapped in a bodysuit that holds her molecular structure together – if she takes it off, she dies. BLAST wears huge gauntlets that create concussive blasts, but they've fused themselves to his hands, making him a hostage in a world where he can't touch anyone or anything without destroying it. ALPHA wears a helmet that increases her mental powers, giving her telepathy, super intelligence, and telekinesis. Unfortunately the human brain wasn't made for that purpose, and the strain is giving her progressive migraines that will eventually stop with a brain aneurism. KLONE was transplanted into a prototype android body made of an indestructible alloy. It makes him stronger and possibly immortal, but it also makes him a living action figure who craves the sensual world but can no longer experience it."

He adds, "These are career soldiers, prepared to die if need be to protect our country. With the abilities they've gotten from Operation: Damocles, the test is whether they are willing to live so they can do their patriotic duty."

TASK FORCE 1 will be available for preordering from the April PREVIEWS and the first issue of this full-color ongoing series is set to hit stores in July 2006.