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.
