Writer – Simon Furman
Artist – Jose Delbo
Inker – Mike DeCarlo
Colours – Nelson Yomtov
Letters – Janice Chiang

It is a new day and Dr. Pierce has sent Brute Force out on a reconnaissance mission, to observe the ways in which humanity is polluting the planet and they are not happy with what they observe, most especially Soar. While Soar wants to put the polluters out of business, that is not why they were sent out, at least in this instance. Soon Pierce gets word that a ship is under attack, though the circumstances sound strange and he sends Surfstreak to investigate. Arriving on the scene, he finds Heavy Metal is there trying to sink the ship and with the evil team of animals having a little trouble doing so from above, they send Bloodbath the heavily armoured shark into the waters to sink it from beneath, not realizing that Surfstreak waits below. As of this point, the book is highly amusing, seeing how these animals fair out in the big wide world with a far more advanced sentience and Simon Furman seems like the perfect guy to chronicle their adventures. The action soon picks up though when Bloodbath and Surfstreak battle it out in the water below and while it is short-lived, one has to know that it will not be long before it picks back up again. In between this action, Furman puts the focus back on Pierce who starts to put the pieces of the puzzle he has gathered together and he realizes it must be his boss at Multicorp who has been causing all the trouble. When he confronts the man, Pierce discovers it to be true but also finds the tables turned on him as the villain is just that and now the FBI is after Pierce instead of the real culprit. As previously stated, the action soon picks back up as Brute Force runs into Heavy Metal again, the latter trying once more to sink a tanker full of oil so that Multicorp might profit from the disaster. Jose Delbo who once again lends his talents to this series, does a great job on the artistic front, creating some exciting visuals as these two groups of bio-enhanced animals battle each other, not only because they have been told to do so, but for dominance as well – some of their animal instinct kicking in. In the end, Heavy Metal makes a retreat and manages to get away while Pierce may very well find himself in trouble with the law. A good book that entertains from start to finish.

3.5 out of 5