Stormwatch #2
Stormwatch #2 is the pivotal cast-expansion issue of one of the most consequential team books to emerge from the early Image era, introducing the entirety of Stormwatch Two — Cannon (Mitchell Saunders), Fahrenheit (Lauren Pennington), Ion (Pieter Van Tuig), and Lancer (Manuel Gutierrez) — alongside the interdimensional villain Regent (Rijian), all in a single issue. By deploying two simultaneous crisis threads — the Mercs' street-level assault on Malcolm King in New York and the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl — writer Brandon Choi and creator Jim Lee established the globe-spanning, operationally stratified structure that would define Stormwatch's identity as a UN superhuman response force operating across multiple fronts at once. Several of these debut characters (Fahrenheit in particular) would survive into Warren Ellis's critically transformative run years later, making their first appearance here the origin point for a lineage that fed directly into The Authority. The issue also carries immediate narrative weight: Cannon's team is routed so thoroughly by Regent that the cliffhanger ending — with Cannon teleporting back to Skywatch alone, his squad defeated — deliberately dismantles the invincibility expected of freshly introduced heroes, a structurally bold move for a 1993 Image title.
In "Once More Unto the Breach...", Stormwatch regroups after a brutal clash with the Mercs, bringing Jackson’s injured brother Malcolm back to Skywatch to face the aftermath of his powers. When a mysterious radioactive anomaly surfaces at Chernobyl, Stormwatch Two is dispatched—only to be nearly wiped out, leaving Cannon as the sole survivor. With his brother still recovering and the fate of his teammates uncertain, Jackson must choose whether to walk away or step back into the fight. Written by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee, with art by Scott Clark and inks by Trevor Scott and John Tighe, this pivotal issue features a cover by Jim Lee and Trevor Scott.
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Stormwatch was created by Jim Lee and co-written with Brandon Choi under Lee's WildStorm Productions studio, which published through Image Comics and was, in fact, the origin of the WildStorm imprint name — a portmanteau of Lee's two flagship titles, WildC.A.T.s and Stormwatch. Issue #2, cover-dated May 1993, was the second monthly installment of the series, scripted by Choi and Lee with interior pencils by Scott Clark and inks by Trevor Scott, while the cover was provided by Jim Lee — the same split-production arrangement used on the flagship issue. The series was produced as part of the creator-owned Image model, meaning Lee retained ownership of the characters even as they were distributed through Image's cooperative publishing structure. Early in the book's run, writing was gradually handed off to work-for-hire contributors including H.K. Proger and Ron Marz before Warren Ellis overhauled the title entirely beginning with issue #37 in 1996.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Cannon (Mitchell Saunders), a plasma-projecting 'seedling' appointed field leader of Stormwatch Two — his brash, insubordinate personality is established immediately when his team is crushed on their debut mission.
- First appearance of Fahrenheit (Lauren Pennington), a pyrokinetic seedling and member of Stormwatch Two; she would survive into Warren Ellis's 1996 revamp and later lead her own squad, Stormwatch Red.
- First appearance of Ion (Pieter Van Tuig) and Lancer (Manuel Gutierrez), both members of Stormwatch Two; subsequent issues (Stormwatch #3) confirm that Ion dies and Lancer is killed by Regent during the Chernobyl engagement introduced here.
- First appearance of Regent (Rijian), an interdimensional entity who emerges from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor; the issue reveals — in the follow-up issue — that the original Chernobyl meltdown was caused by Regent's first attempt to cross into this dimension.
- Written by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee with interior art by Scott Clark (pencils) and Trevor Scott (inks); cover by Jim Lee.
- Published May 1993 by Image Comics under Jim Lee's WildStorm Productions studio — the studio whose very name was a portmanteau of 'WildC.A.T.s' and 'Stormwatch.'
- The dual-theatre story structure — simultaneous Mercs battle in New York and Chernobyl crisis — formally establishes Stormwatch's signature operational concept of multiple active squads (Stormwatch One and Stormwatch Two) deployed concurrently under the satellite command of Weatherman One, Henry Bendix, aboard Skywatch.
- Malcolm King's latent seedling powers, forcibly activated by Synergy in issue #1, are shown manifesting uncontrollably at the issue's opening, and his transport to Skywatch at the end sets up his ongoing role as a supporting character in the series.
Cast · 24 characters
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Stormwatch drives off the Mercs and takes Jackson's brother, Malcolm, back to Skywatch to recover from his wounds and come to grips with his newfound powers. When a radioactive anomaly registers at Chernobyl, Stormwatch Two is sent in to investigate. The team is decimated and only Cannon makes it back to tell the tale. With his brother in a delicate state and friends possibly dying in Russia, Jackson decides not to retire from Stormwatch.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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