Guardian, The Distinguished Colleague

With Amazing X-Men's World War Wendigo recently completed, I turn my attention back to Guardian's past appearances.

Today, we're having a look at Wolverine (volume two) #91.  The book has a publishing date of July 1995.

The story takes place shortly after Wolverine has lost the adamantium that laced his skeleton (and from which his claws were made, of course). As a result, it appears that he's losing control of his "beast mode", something which happens about as frequently as Mac dying, but is worrisome nonetheless. It seems that he drove one of his claws through Sabretooth's head in the previous issue which, saying it "out loud", doesn't seem like such a terrible thing, when taking into account what a colossal asshole Sabretooth is.

A significant portion of the issue is your standard X-Men hand-wringing about how they should handle the situation. But as part of his fact-finding mission Professor Xavier takes the time to check in with "a distinguished colleague in Ottawa".  Nice rub, to appropriate a wrestling term.

I'm not sure that makes any sense even when applied as "comics science" but whatever...We'll let Wolverine bloggers deal with that.

Larry Hama wrote the book, and I appreciate how frequently he included Mac (and/or) Heather in the Wolverine series while it was in his care, even if it was in small roles. They're supposed to be among Logan's best friends so involving them is entirely logical. As I write this, Wolverine is supposedly dead and they have no significant involvement in the aftermath of his murder.  That doesn't seem right.

In the above page, I like the use of the proper honorific for Beast ("Dr. McCoy") while being on a more casual first-name basis with Storm. Not only would Mac know Ororo better, but the respect shown for someone's status is consistent with past meeting with Namor, Reed Richards, etc.  Nice touch, Mr. Hama.

There was another surprise in the credits.  Duncan Rouleau pencilled this story.  About two years later, Rouleau would take over pencil duties for the back half of the second volume of Alpha Flight (issue 12, then 14 through 20, which concluded the series).

I found his Alpha Flight work difficult to follow and personally disliked the exaggerated features on some characters (bulbous noses, protruding chins, huge flowing hair, etc). Comparing his AF work to the above, perhaps he changed his style to be more distinctive, but it may just be that some inkers are a better match for him. The inker for the Wolverine issue was Joe Rubinstein.

Guardian sticks it to Tamaraq

The final part of the World War Wendigo storyline, guest-starring Alpha Flight, was released yesterday and while Guardian's panel-count is small, his contribution is quite significant and spectacular.

The book starts with a hybrid X-Men/Alpha Flight team confronting the Great Beast Tamaraq. And our man stands tall. Briefly.

Yikes. Whatever plan Mac may have worked out in his head, I'm fairly certain that wasn't it.

So Guardian appears to die, and of course, no one really reacts beyond Firestar's exclamation above. In fairness though, when you've died so many times, people might get a little jaded.

But as we know, it takes a whole lot to kill this guy off. And the manner of his demise makes the manner of his eventual return rather obvious. So we bear through idiotic dialogue from Iceman and Rockslide, as well as the Wendigoverine bit, for our money shot several pages later:

That's got to hurt.

So Mac ultimately drops the killing blow on Tamaraq, and the X-Men are understandably impressed. It was almost worth slogging through all five issues of their book for that one glorious moment alone.

We later find out that Heather "turned up' (oh, OK...) when the Wendigo curse was eliminated, that Mac has been by her side since her reappearance (yet the panel which states this displays Mac as bed-ridden with Heather by HIS side) and, according to Wolverine, that they haven't looked happier in quite some time. They'll probably be even happier when (if?) they remember they have a daughter together.

So that's that.  As much as I found this story sloppy and irritating overall, viewed from the perspective of a Guardian fan specifically, I can at least be pleased with his part in it.  Looking forward to seeing what the future brings for him.

Art Page Additions

Guardian did not have much of a presence in the most recent issue of Amazing X-Men, #11, the fourth part of World War Endigo.  He was around, but didn't get in on the action so much, and only had a few lines of dialogue (though one was pretty comical, to the effect that he's never doing Dept. H any favours.  Sure you're not).

So while we're waiting for that story to finally come to an end in October, I've added some eye candy to the Art page.  Specifically, the works by Brett booth, Mike McKone and "Spiderguile"/Pascal Verhoef are new. To the page, that is.  The first couple have been floating for a while, but have very few views on the comic art forums that I visit which makes me think that perhaps they're not as frequently seen as I might have thought.

Also pretty great is the warm up sketch below by Geraldo Borges. I'd be ecstatic if I could make that my final product, never mind a "warm up".  Splendid.

Guardian as Inspiration

While sorting through Marvel Comics solicitations for November recently, I came across a mention of a Deadpool variant cover for one of the books to be released that month (or perhaps Deadpool variants are a cover theme in November, I don't recall).

It reminded me of a cameo appearance by Guardian from 1998 in an annual called "Deadpool and Death". Much of the book's content is flashback of a terminally ill Wade Wilson visiting a Weapon-X facility.  During his visit he is given an unusual pep talk by a military figure, with the cherry on the sundae being a convenient Guardian (then Vindicator) fly-by.

Wilson agrees to join, taking one of the first steps to becoming Deadpool.

Nice to see a character referred to as Canada's version of Captain America serving as inspiration.  In typical Weapon-X fashion, it's with a dark edge, but it's inspiration nonetheless.

I Guess He's OK!

When last we saw Guardian in X-Men #8, he had been taken by surprise by a Wendigo in Forrest, Ontario, and not heard from by friends, family or employers since.  Or at least, that was Wolverine's interpretation based on how the town of Forrest...smells.

It was easy to assume that he had been bit and became a Wendigo himself, but that's not the case.  He was apparently busy doing what Heather was unable to do, and Puck was too stupid to do despite a direct instruction to do so; he gathered Alpha Flight.

He's been in a fight, that much his clear.  I guess we're to assume that he took two days to recover, based on the amount of time that Heather said he'd been gone.  But he did take the time to change his suit before joining the X-Men later in this issue (got one with a bigger leaf).  A leader's got to look good in front of his troops!

On a side note, Aurora at some point tells Northstar "They told me you were married...".  Did they?  Did they tell you that YOU WERE AT THE WEDDING?

While they were chatting, Guardian decided to put on his red pants.

Anyway, for the most part, this book blows.  It's nice to see the characters but there's very little consideration for their recent history.  Heather and Mac being together goes against the former's last on-page appearance, when she drove off with their daughter to parts unknown.  Aurora "forgetting" that she attended Northstar's wedding, mentioned above, is further evidence of shoddy research.

At least Guardian wasn't killed again (yet).  Apparently writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost have a history of killing off characters but so far so good for our flag-bearer.

The premise is pretty cool, though like the rest of the non-X-Men portions of the book, I'm not sure that it's supported by past events.  I don't believe that "accidental" cannibalism qualifies one for the Wendigo curse.  For that matter, I'm not sure that the Wendigo curse is transferable through biting or scratching. Bah, why be burdened with continuity when you think you have a neat idea?

Oh, and that kid the X-Men saved in the previous issue?  I predict she'll be revealed to be vegetarian.  I haven't somehow read ahead, it's just as predictable as the rising sun.  Otherwise, her parents are starving her, because she hasn't eaten in almost two days.  But these writers don't seem too concerned with details, so who knows?