Issue Annotation by Michael J. Ahlers

Team 7 (1st mini-series) #2
Cover Date: Nov 1994

Story: Chuck Dixon
Pencils: Aron Wiesenfeld
Inks: JD & Scott Williams
Colors: Monica Bennett
Color Assists: Wendy Fouts
Letters: Bill Oakley
Cover: Aron Wiesenfeld & Trevor Scott

Issue Title: The Damned Don't Die

Cast:
Team 7
    Berckmann
    Stephan Callahan, aka Wraparound
    Cole Cash, aka Deadeye, aka Grifter
    Stewart Chang, aka Bulleteer
    Michael Cray, aka Deathblow
    Jackson Dane, aka Arclight
    Alexander Fairchild, aka Slaphammer
    Andrew Johnson
    John Lynch, aka Topkick, aka Jack
    Ricard McNamara, aka Boloround
    Marc Slayton, aka Backlash
    (two other unnamed members of Team 7)*1
Others
    Miles Craven
    Gabriel Newman - psychic (from limited exposure to the Gen-Factor)
    (General Herrera - presumed military dictator of the country where Team 7 mission took place)
    Alicia Turner - I/O psychiatrist, mildly telepathic

Locales:
I/O Headquarters in McLean, Virginia; includes the Gen Lab, and the secret Level Nine where other Gen-Active "casualties" are kept.

Summary:
        Craven personally oversees the extraction of Team 7, whose surviving members are comatose, with Gabriel Newman, a psychic whose abilities came from limited exposure to the Gen-Factor. Eleven of the team are shown to have survived but, back at McLean, Berckmann has to be kept restrained after he claws his own eyes out. McNamara can't contain his power and starts to explosively release it killing several guards and staff members. Convinced that death is better, he commits suicide in front of Alicia Turner.
        Craven meets with the nine remaining survivors and blames the team's exposure on bad intel. Cash reads Craven's mind until stopped by Gabriel and confirms what everyone except Lynch had already accepted: that Craven had done this to them on purpose. Everyone, save Cray, has gained some psychic powers: presencience (Lynch), telepathy (Cash), telekinesis (Chang).
        Soon, Team 7 is sent back into the field. Their mission is to ensure the turnover of the government of an unnamed east African country by taking out the current Dictator. Lynch, Cash, and Johnson storm the "President's Mansion" where Johnson goes charging off alone. When the others catch up, Johnson is using telepathy to get the Dictator and his staff to kill themselves. As Johnson celebrates their easy victory, Cash executes him, fearing what he and the rest of Team 7 have become.

Notes:
    *1) We know that at least 11 members of Team 7 survived exposure. There is some evidence to suggest that at least two more were exposed but died. Page 4, bottom panel shows 11 container but the way they are stacked implies that there are two more just off panel. Page 13, top panel, Craven says that some of Team 7 died at the scene.

Quote:
"That's what I hate most about I/O, the lying. To the men. To each other. To ourselves."
--Gabe Newman