We Stand On Guard by Brian K. Vaughan and Steve Skroce

HongCanucker

HongCanucker

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To the members of the Board who love comics, the Canadian ones in particular, this should be something to pique your interest.

If you guys didn't know already, We Stand On Guard is a brand-new future history comic book series written by Brian K. Vaughan, who previously wrote the Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, Pride of Baghdad, and Saga series, as well as wrote, edited and produced for Lost, and illustrated by Steve Skroce, who was an artist for The Amazing Spider-Man and who also storyboarded the Matrix films and wrote several Wolverine comics. The two created this new series, which revolves around a ragtag group of Canadian resistance fighters battling the United States in 2124, twelve years after the US invaded and occupied the country for its fresh water using giant robots, and centres on a brother and sister whose parents were killed when the Americans destroyed Ottawa in the initial invasion. It will be a six-part series.

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The series was launched in the US on Canada Day 2015, July 1, at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, and its Canadian launch was today, the Fourth of July, at Golden Ages Collectibles in Vancouver. I actually had the pleasure of going there, buying a copy, getting it signed by both fellows, and even having a pleasurable discussion about War Plan Red and alternate history with them. Ironically, I was wearing a shirt I had purchased at Niagara Falls not so long ago celebrating 200 years of peace between the United States and Canada. :p

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Has anyone bought a copy as well, or perhaps is considering getting one? I'll leave major plot details out. It's not very big nor long, and I didn't take too long to get through it, but I found it very entertaining. The artwork is phenomenal too. I highly recommend you pick it up - in Canada it costs CAD$2.89, not including tax, if you're interested.
 
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HongCanucker

HongCanucker

Huh, didn't expect this little interest.

Well, I'll have you know that there is a preview of the second part on the Internet already. Go have a look at it if you will.
 

MernStahl

I guess I'm happy the US is the antagonist I suppose? Makes a nice change.

America is bringing freedom north it would seem.
 

Dragun

Read it. Doesn't explain WHY the U.S. first attacked Canada following a blatant full-out attack on Washington, D.C. (an second attack on the US capital since the War of 1812, as specifically mentioned by the father and son). As stated by the characters, the U.S. apparently invaded Canada because of being probably the only nation on Earth to contain the last source of fresh water. Clearly, it implies that in the 22nd Century the world has become very polluted and natural resources are become harder to collect. Also, the U.S. military has robot dogs and humongous mecha (with artificial sound-dampeners which silent their loud footsteps). Furthermore, does anyone remind this of the Fallout series, where the Pre-War U.S. did invaded Canada but only for allowing a long-ass oil pipe to pass through from Alaska?

The story goes forward to the protagonist finding herself among a group of civilian resistance fighters (which include a French-Canadian actor and a mechanic who strongly insisted that she was not a salesperson who sells tires, among others) and then joining them after executing a captured U.S. soldier in order to prove that she is not some quisling or American. But to back up, her goal was to looking for her brother who was captured by the Americans.

Frankly the story does put its tone on the gray-scale of things, as there is the aforementioned U.S. soldier who was executed before pleading for his life by reciting the "Treaty of London" on how to treat prisoners of war, and the resistance fighters themselves arguing over killing the guy (which one of them was really open to stating the fact that they had done this kind of thing before) until the female protagonist does the honors unexpectedly.
 
HongCanucker

HongCanucker

I have a few theories as to what casus-belli the United States used to justify its invasion:

1. a Canadian ultranationalist group, possibly linked to extremist crazies in Parliament, actually did commit an attack against the White House, and got their cover blown
2. a non-Canadian group did it, but leaked false information that it was CSIS or whomever, so that group got off scot-free while Canada faced the consequences
3. it was an inside job, some elements of the US government, with or without the consent or knowledge of the White House, launched the attack, then framed Canada, leading to the declaration of war.

The details are so vague, however, that we know nothing beyond the fact that the US is after Canadian water. And there can be many other theories too. My guess, however, considering how parallels might be drawn to Afghanistan and Iraq, is that it's number 1. Then again, my gut tells me it's number 3. I'm not excluding number 2, however, because there was talk about Algerians and anti-American terrorist groups in the prologue when the family was mulling over who could have done it.
 

Dragun

I can guess that Canada was actually blameless for the attack on Washington.

But the premise of Canadian fresh water that the U.S. seemingly and very desperately desire indicates that (as I previously mentioned) Earth's environment is heavily damaged and probably, at worst, uninhabitable for humans and any wildlife. An inside job to frame Canada seems likely... though Vaughn does some plot twists in his other stories like Ex Machina that time will tell on who really attacked the U.S..
 

Dragun

Read it. Pretty cool the resistance outfit a huge mining truck armed to the teeth, and their HQ.

Judging from the flashback intro, the US occupation forces are taking things too seriously and being paranoid and judgmental when they arrested that old couple for allegedly hoarding weapons when they only possess a hunting rifle, and explicit mention of internment camps.

Furthermore additional background revealed that there was a war between China and the US, and a space warfare that left lots of excessive space debris fouling up spy satellites. Also, the occupation had been using less boots on the ground in favor of robots for years, which the occupation authorities have finally decided that it is becoming ineffective when the resistance are able to take down and capture their robots such as depicted in the last issue. There is even of piracy problems.

Fun fact is that the resistance's coyote-wolf hybrid was the result of how the environment is becoming worst that forced the wolf and coyote population to interbreed.
 
shiftygiant

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Read the first two issues. It's a series with a lot of potential, however at the moment it feels muddled and focused on the wrong area; it's trying to have it's cake and eat it, if you follow my drift.

It's not that We Stand on Guard is bad, it's just a bit off. So as we all know, the book is Red Dawn, but in the Great White North, and is all about Canada being the victim of a War on Terror style invasion. It's an interesting concept, however I feel the biggest misstep was setting it in 2124, instead of 2024. Nothing in the series apart from the set dressing indicates to me that it should be set so far in the future. They allude to Drone Warfare, and make references to Superman. The most futuristic things we see are the Giant Mechs and holograms, both of which are irrelevant to the story. At the end, the books lacks teeth. It's trying to tell a story rooted in whats happening today, but because they decided to set it in the future, it's lacks the weight and teeth this story needed. Compare/contrast Red Dawn. Set in the 80's, about the 80's. With this, it's set in the 2120's, and about the 2010's. It goes for an allogory, but by setting it so distant in the future, I can't related to jack. And that, I feel, is part of the issue.

My other issue is the George RR Martian level of murder. Characters are introduced, characters are killed. I won't spoil who, but this happens. Also, the main hero is unrelatable, as we see her jump from youth to early adult hood, her character changed off screen, lacking any establishing moment outside knowing century old pop culture and failing to shoot a robot dog. The most interesting we see are the flashbacks to the early days of the invasion (when the story really should have been set) with her and her brother watching as America encroach. The group the Hero is with are one note and rather boring. Yes, they have a cool underground base, but they're just the average 'we fight because they're bad'. There is not ideology, other then 'invaders out our country'. I though the bit about Superman was interesting, but it, and the character it comes from, are completely wasted. Additionally, the most interesting thing in the whole lot comes from a brief part in Issue 2, where a First Nation Aboriginal is being detained and hauled off to Guantanamo level torture. That would be interesting, each issue a little vignette about the invasion and how it effects people, but we cut from that to big underground base and naked ass. I guess next issue is about all that, but the first two were just so... disappointing, I don't really see myself forking the money over for it when I could just buy that Louisiana Flood Series.

Verdict: Bit of a mess, but eh, if you like future stuff, go for it. If you like a solid allegory that makes sense, wait for the collected edition.

Also, the art seems stiff at times. I think it's just me, but sometimes the characters seem a little dead, like marionettes.
 

Color-Copycat

I pirated both issues when they came out. The best I can say about it is that the art direction is kind of interesting, with the US military using very retro WWII-style national insignia and armored division emblems. I don't think it's very compelling story yet because the US hasn't been established as a very convincing antagonist. The US occupation is depicted as harshly targeting suspected resistance sympathizers and rebels, but it doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary for a run-of-the-mill 20th century police state. Since it's set in the future, I figure there would probably be more insidious stuff going on like electronic surveillance monitoring dialed up to 10.
 

Dragun

The art sort of remind of Vaughn's other work, Ex Machina - the story about a real superhero who saved one of the towers of the World Trade Center in 9/11 and became Mayor of New York.

I generally agreed with the reviews, it felt the story composed of snippets and doesn't broadly expand on the characters. We have a pop-culture geek who is suddenly killed in the very first issue, a French-Canadian actor, and a guy who owns a coyote-wolf hybrid and is gay whose boyfriend was very likely killed in service while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force. My opinion is that Vaughn would have flashbacks on each character's background and how they became to be in the present.
 

Dragun

Issue 3

The resistance learns that The Chief (Vic McFadden, former police chief of Saskatchewan) is caught. They debate on whether to leave or stay and fight from their HQ (Giant Mine). Amber became the tie-breaker in deciding that they should "take a stand." Also the resistance have (somewhat) managed to repair the captured giant mech.

Meanwhile, The Chief is interrogated via virtual reality simulator in which in her inner psych she is repeatedly being burned alive in a vat of oil before she finally caved in when she sees the VR version of her dead father and the implications underlying that likely mean seeing him being tortured or worst. The antagonist, Colonel Storz, command to have a commando team to take care of the resistance while she continues with her real goal of advancing into the unoccupied Northwest Territories (her forces are now advancing into Great Slave Lake).

The issue also reveals the state of the war. Canada isn't completely occupied and the Northwest Territories is just the recent military campaign in the war. In 2116, a map shows that the Americans have occupied from Alberta to Nova Scotia. There is a flashback to where Amber and her brother Tommy hitch a ride on a supply train and meets a hobo named Wolchuk, who is planning to flee to Greenland. Wolchuk teaches some history lesson about the real-life War Plan Red and it became relevant when the Americans used the same war plans: taking control of the Great Lakes through Ontario, pinning naval strikes on Victoria and St. Margaret's Bay.

Personal observations on the use of VR technology in torture: the good thing is that prisoners won't be physically harm, but the exception is their mental state. So no matter what torture is torture.
 
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