Comic Review - Guarding the Globe #1

            Guarding the Globe #1 by Phil Hester and Todd Nauck takes the characters made popular by Robert Kirkman in his “Skybound” universe (along with the help of Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker) and gives them their own book.  For fans of Invincible, or some of Kirkman’s lesser known titles like Brit or Capes, this book is the coup de grace.  It brings all of those characters together in a comic that is very reminiscent of the aforementioned Capes comic that Kirkman penned back in 2003.  The whole premise is a global group of superheroes that look like they work for the United States government (if the inclusion of Invincible stalwart Cecil Steadman is any indication) instead of a private corporation of superheroes as was the premise of Capes.  Regardless of the similarities, this book tries hard to be a Kirkman/Ottley/Walker creation, but falls flat in areas that those creators would have most likely succeeded.

Cover:

            The cover is a wrap-around, very reminiscent of many of the superhero comics of the nineties.  It is obvious that Kirkman has a soft spot for nineties comics, based on his past collaborations, but this takes a lot of the bad things in comics from that decade and throws them together.  That starts with the cover itself, which is a decent cover that tries to look like an Ottley or Walker cover but fails by not doing the little things right.  The cover itself is made up of figures of the individual Guardians, but all of those figures look very stiff and many have wonky proportions.  Just look at the girl with the goggles on the front cover for an instance of that.  It looks like her torso has been stretched and curved.  I like the coloring on the cover as they tend to get softer as they recede into the background, as they should.  The logo for the book also pops out quite well, and is just well designed overall. 

4/10:  Good coloring and logo design does not save a good but generic cover that suffers from stiff characters with strange anatomy.

Story:

            There are certain parts of the story that really work, such as the side story that involves Brit being notified that his son may have autism and the aside with Donald trying to come to grips with the fact that he is now more machine than man.  That is something that would almost be expected from a Kirkman comic and Phil Hester does a great job of implementing that.  Hester also does a decent job of introducing the characters throughout the book as well, which is a pretty high order considering the amount of characters that are present in the book itself. 

            Where the story falls flat is that the whole story seems very generic, from the collection of heroes, to the main hero (in this case, Brit) getting pissed about the inclusion of a member that he deems a loose cannon, to the last page introduction of the villain.  Instead of a nice feeling of nostalgia that has done a good job of creeping in to many titles of late, this feels like a retread of an early nineties X-Men comic.  It is also fairly obvious that Hester is trying to write clever dialogue, which is one of my favorite things of Kirkman comics.  He hits on the dialogue in the smaller, more emotional moments (like the aforementioned autism scene), but scenes that Hester tries to write as lighthearted or funny (such as the seemingly useless smoking dog scene that really goes nowhere) fall completely flat.  Would someone else have been able to write that scene better?  Would someone even bother to try and fit that scene in when it does not seem like it has any significance to the story itself?  I really couldn’t tell you, but regardless, taken at face value it was something that didn’t work. 

3/10:  Being able to show the human side of superheroes is a nice touch, but it is the only touch that works here as the rest of the story is generic and uninspired.

Art:

            There are some good things done here.  Nauck doesn’t go crazy with strange panel layouts, and the storytelling is pretty well done.  Also, the facial expressions and general acting of the characters are very well done and actually lend a lot to the story.  The same quality coloring by John Rauch that was on display on the cover is going strong in the interiors as well, and I can’t tell you how much that makes this book more enjoyable than it could be.  The reason I say this is because on nearly every page, there is something in the art that just makes you go “huh?”  The same proportion problems that Nauck had on the cover rear their ugly heads in the interiors as well.  This is sad because as is previously mentioned, the storytelling is actually pretty good.

Between "Bobble Head Girl" in the top right panel and "Rubber Leg" in the bottom panel, this page is a mess.

Heads do not turn like that, not without the body moving more.

I just thought I should throw in the smoking dog, and there is something about that girl's torso that doesn't look right but I'm having trouble putting my finger on it.

Very nineties villain reveal with the tilted image and the lack of feet, but if this guy is supposed to be a major threat, he should probably at least be fully on the page.  And I must say that his character design is incredibly generic (now I suuuuuuck at character design so I can honestly say that I would have done no better).

4/10:  This could have been a high point of the book, but the proportion issues are a big blemish that solid storytelling can’t overcome.  +1 for the coloring though, that was actually really good, I would like to see more of Rauch’s coloring now (and I’m not a follow the colorist kind of guy).

Overall:  4/10:  I expected more, and who knows, maybe this will improve as the series moves along, but at this point it is not a title that can stand with Kirkman’s other creations.