W0Rldtr33 Vol. 2: Network
James Tynion IV, words; Fernando Blanco, art; Jordie Bellaire, colors; Aditya Bidikar, letters
Image Comics, 2024

Before Gabriel Winter became a famous tech CEO he met another famous tech CEO named Gregory Bell and convinced him they needed to work together to save the world. In 1999, Gabriel and his teenage friends had recently discovered the Undernet. They could only contact Bell by ambushing him at night and blowing out his car’s tires. A jump to 2024 finds Bell testifying at a Justice Department hearing. He tells the Director that he thought what they were doing was necessary then and gives up the first names of Gabriel’s friends, along with dossiers that should help investigators identify them.  Bell becomes a central character in this arc, including a shocking revelation at the end.

Meanwhile, the original members of WoRldtr33 have been presented with Gabriel’s last will and testament. They are now all rich, but they have a job to do: they have been given a map showing the location of caches of weapons which they can use to make sure the Internet stays offline by destroying the servers that support the Internet as we know it. Everyone is looking for Ellison Lane, the brother of  the first of the Undernet’s victims, who has gone into hiding with his surviving family members. Special Agent Siobhan Silk struggles to understand how it all fell apart, seemingly alone in her understanding of the situation. She finally catches up with the “naked Grim Reaper,” a woman who has been revealed to be Gabriel’s sister Samara–who attempts to introduce her to the PH34R infection. Samara is wounded during her fight with Silk and her protector Vicky, and goes to ground at Gregory Bell’s place, the headquarters of his tech corporation Angel.

So there clearly is a team supporting the Underworld in opposition to Gabriel Winter’s crew. Everything in the story points to his death, but I will not be surprised to find him alive after all. In either case the plot is definitely thickening: lots to look forward to. I have to say that the artwork is the weakest aspect of the book for me. It is effective from a storytelling perspective, but a bit too sketchy and minimal (especially the backgrounds).