Six months have passed since the release of the add-on Phantom Liberty for Cyberpunk 2077, and I’m still impressed. Against this background, I watched the anime series released in 2022 «Cyberpunk: Edgerunners»and then caught up with the cyberpunk aesthetic in the excellent, but, in my opinion, severely overlooked series «Captain Laserhawk. Blood Dragon: Remix» on the same Netflix.
Naturally, I also wanted to read something about this, so I turned my attention to the already released comic book «Cyberpunk 2077. Trauma Tim», which was published the year before last by Vovkulaka. And they also said that a new comic book «Cyberpunk 2077. Your Voice», so I’ve been waiting for it to come out and plunged into reading and reviewing it. Of course, both drawings will be of interest primarily to fans of the Cyberpunk 2077 game, but all other comic book fans should also pay attention to both publications. Read the article below to find out why they are interesting.
Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team
Scenario Cullen Bunn
Figure Miguel Valderrama
Translation Sofia Shul
Number of pages 96
Format 173×256 mm
Binding Solid
Year of publication 2022
Publisher Vovkulaka
Website vovkulaka.net
Cyberpunk 2077: Your Voice
Scenario Oleksandra Motyka, Marcin Blycha
Figure Daniel Zhezhel
Translation Oleg Kulikov
Number of pages 88
Format 173×256 mm
Binding Solid
Year of publication 2023
Publisher Vovkulaka
Website vovkulaka.net
«Cyberpunk 2077. Trauma Team» tells the story of a girl named Nadia. She works in one of the rescue teams of «Trauma Tim». These are armed medics who travel on flying fortresses and save clients from serious injuries. On one of these missions, her entire team dies in front of her eyes. One by one, they are killed by the mercenary Apex, stuffed with implants. After a while, the heroine returns to work, and on the first mission, her new team has to rescue Apex. Nadia has to decide what to do next — avenge the deaths of her friends, or do the job and save her platinum client.
The story in the comic is as simple as possible, albeit with one big plot point that is revealed to us almost immediately. There’s also an interesting move at the beginning, when one thing is drawn, but in fact it’s a memory accompanied by inscriptions from the present.
But then we have a powerful, long-lasting action movie with hyper-violence and ethical conflicts that weigh on the heroine all the time. The brutal and simple action universe of Cyberpunk 2077 is combined here with a psychological thriller, which ultimately gives the reader an interesting story that is hard to put down.
The characters are ordinary, even Nadia, their motives are clear, and their actions are predictable, except for the ending. But the main thing here is not this, but the heroine’s choice — what will she dare to do if she decides to neglect her job? Or what will happen to her if Apex is rescued and the killer of her friends not only survives, but also goes unpunished.
The unpretentiousness of the plot is also evident in the amount of text on the bubbles. There are few sentences. They are very short and usually reflect some feedback or individual phrases. In other words, as much of the story as possible is transferred to the visuals.
Drawing is one of the comic book’s strongest points. These are detailed images with bright, moderately saturated colors and carefully crafted backgrounds. There’s a lot of red and its shades, both in the form of blood and as the background or various colors.
I really liked the main picture. It’s spectacular and immediately attracts attention. There are also other variants of the covers that you can see at the end. All of them are also detailed and incredibly beautiful.
We also have a wonderful translation into Ukrainian, not only of the text but also of the captions on the picture, etc.
Comic «Cyberpunk 2077. Your Voice» other. His style and rough strokes can be traced on the cover. The story is set in 2023. It seems to be our time, but the universe is different, so it’s the same Cyberpunk 2077, only 50 years in the past. The aesthetics and technology are, of course, the same, so we have chips, augmentations, etc.
The situation with the text is also unusual. At the beginning, it is absent at all, then it appears in short sentences, turns into descriptions and long sentences. At the end, it disappears again, leaving the end of the story to the visuals alone.
The Ukrainian translation here is also good and of high quality, although the translators of the comics are different. There is also more swearing and expressions typical of the game.
«Cyberpunk 2077. Trauma Team» and «Cyberpunk 2077. Your Voice» are easy and fast to read. The 96 and 88 pages, respectively, can be «devoured in less than an hour each. But then there is a desire to go through it again and again. The third time I was looking only at the visuals, absorbing details I hadn’t noticed before.
Both editions are well made. I’ve seen that some people doubted the endurance of comics with frequent use. They say they are so fragile that they might fall apart soon. I don’t agree with this, and they probably got this impression because they are not very thick. But you can’t complain about the quality because of the number of pages. It doesn’t mean that the comic is poorly made, unreliably printed, etc.
I read each of them three times, and I also took pictures of them, translated them, etc. Even now, while writing this text, I keep both drawings next to me, flip through them, recall certain moments, look at something, etc. And they are in excellent condition, despite my active use of them.
Conclusions
«Cyberpunk 2077. Trauma Team» and «Cyberpunk 2077. Your Voice» — are good options for fans of the game to plunge back into their favorite universe. These comics have different moods and paces, but interesting stories, bright, but also different, colors. They also capture perfectly the mood of the atmospheric, yet dangerous and sad future in the reality of Cyberpunk 2077.
At the same time, these publications have every chance of appealing to ordinary comic book fans, as they are full of interesting stories and successful stylistic decisions with the artwork. Of course, there are certain points that will be clear only to players, but in general, we have a very low threshold for attracting new readers. The pictures are simply interesting to look through, they have good print quality, and their covers will definitely decorate a bookshelf at home, in a café or art club.