(No Spoilers)

Well, the release of this trade is bitter-sweet as it comes with the news that the series will be cancelled soon.  Stormwatch PHD has got to be on the “most underrated titles of the year” list.  Writer Ian Edginton and artist Leandro Fernandez seemed to be channeling the aura of Warren Ellis during their run because right off the bat it was a case of role reversal for Stormwatch and The Authority.  Those of you who followed (or picked up the recent trade of) The Authority know that they were the team most affected by World’s End.  Essentially the most powerful team in the WSU was stripped of their power.  However, Stormwatch quickly filled that power void by utilizing the resources that they preserved when Armageddon hit, including but not limited to, their fully operational space station- Skywatch III.  From there, they were able to stage guerilla style rescues of refugees back on Earth.  But where Edington shines is the moral dilemmas he puts the team through.  It’s the old adage “The needs of the many out weight the needs of the few” with the team now, specifically with team leader Jackson King.  When King makes some questionable choices in order to ensure the overall welfare of the team and the station, for a moment we forget the horror of some of his actions while we wonder if we wouldn’t have done the same.  Although pretty much every new character introduced in the first 12 issues of this series when Christos Gage was writing it is absent, we do get several of the original Stormwatch members back in action.  We even get Flint who has been absent since the end of Stormwatch: Team Achilles, although her presence makes you question what happened to rest of Team Achilles (which is answered in the World’s End backup stories).  My personal favorite addition to the team was Deathblow, whose presence raised the question of how he’s alive after the conclusion to his 2^nd solo series (which is also answered in the World’s End backup stories).  Issues 13-17 are chock full of meaningful stories that’ll make you think and there are also some old WSU characters that haven’t been seen in a while.  Issue 18 & 19 is a crossover with The Authority.  Overall I thought the crossover was ok.  What bothered me most about it is that it was obviously written with the trades in mind.  Which I’m sure will work great for those reading the trade but it was kind of awkward following it monthly. 

Overall, a great series and one that I’m sad will be gone soon.  But hopefully we’ll get a final trade so people can at least own the complete series with 4 trades.  So give this one a try.  I’d put it right below The Authority in order of the best World’s End titles.