Issue Annotation by Michael J. Ahlers

Team 7 (1st mini-series) #1
Cover Date: Oct 1994

Story: Chuck Dixon
Pencils: Aron Wiesenfeld
Inks: Trevor Scott
Colors: Monica Bennett
Letters: Bill Oakley
Cover: Aron Wiesenfeld & Trevor Scott
Variant Cover: Whilce Portacio & Alex Garner*1

Issue Title: Gone Animal

Cast:
Team 7
    (Berckmann)*2
    Stephan Callahan, aka Wraparound - recruited for Team 7 from the Marines
    Cole Cash, aka Deadeye, aka Grifter - recruited for Team 7 from the Army
    Stewart Chang, aka Bulleteer - (not Army)
    Michael Cray, aka Deathblow
    Jackson Dane, aka Arclight
    (Alexander Fairchild, aka Slaphammer)
    (Johnson)
    John Lynch, aka Topkick, aka Jack
    (Ricard McNamara, aka Boloround)
    Marc Slayton, aka Backlash
    (several other unnamed members of Team 7)
Others
    Miles Craven

Summary:
        Team 7 parachutes into hostile territory on a hostage rescue mission. Right from the start its obvious that their intel from I/O is wrong. They were expected and several unnamed members of Team 7 die as they fight their way into the building where the hostages are. Only there are no hostages, only dummies which Cray and Cash blow away leading to a confrontation with Lynch. We see here Lynch's devotion to I/O (& Craven) even when he's obviously being yanged around by them. With enemy reinforcement on their way an evac isn't possible, so Lynch has Team 7 fight their way into the reinforced basement of the building and calls for the area to be carpet-bombed. Team 7 survives but are on edge.
        Back at I/O, Craven shows Lynch a video (with no sound) of a unknown bio-chemical weapon being tested on prison inmates in an unnamed African country. Team 7 is being sent in to shut down the lab. They H.A.L.O.*3 in and soon encounter massive pits filled with bodies.*4 They fight their way into the "lab" which turns out to be an abandoned building. Just as they start complaining about being jerked around again, they hear a sound. Lynch realizes too late that the devise he saw on the video is being used on them.

Notes:
    *1) 1994 Puzzle Cover includes: Team 7 #1, WildC.A.T.s #11, StormWatch #10, Gen13 LS#5, The Kindred #3, Deathblow #5, Union #0, and Wetworks #2.
    *2) Names listed parenthetically are assumed to be present based on the events of Team 7 #2.
    *3) High-Altitute, Low-Opening parachutes.
    *4) If you look close, you can find Snoopy laying dead in the pit.

Quote:
"But we didn't go so easy. Maybe our number wasn't up yet. Maybe we got lucky. Maybe Hell wasn't ready for us."
--John Lynch