Review: The Guild – Fawkes

Felicia Day’s popular webseries The Guild has seen numerous comic additions at this point (the trade of which you’ll find a quote from yours truly on), and it’s all been a rather fun and endearing way to put us into the individual lives of the characters more so than we’ve always generally been. This month, however, peels back the curtain on the Guild’s primary antagonist Fawkes, his fall and “rise”, and his segue between villain to furry in the last series of the Guild.

Written by Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton
Illustrated by Jamie McKelvie

Felicia Day and The Guild are back, along with costar Wil Wheaton, for a brand-new story spotlighting Fawkes, the dashing, debonair, and douchey leader of the evil guild Axis of Anarchy! His relationship with Codex threatened to tear the Knights of Good apart until he was thrown off a balcony for his treatment of her. Set after season 4 of the show, this issue reveals how Fawkes deals with his split from Codex and navigates the aggressive personalities of the Axis, and follows his journey to his surprising state when he returns in season 5!

* Cowritten by Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton!

– Art by Jamie McKelvie (Phonogram, X-Men, Secret Avengers)!

Join the Axis of Anarchy!

Wil Wheaton has always been one of those pop-culture figures whose popularity I truthfully never quite understood. On the one hand, I “get” it: he’s Wesley from Star Trek: The Next Generation and one of the cast members of Stand By Me, but how he moved from actor to videogame culture icon is a bit beyond me. I myself am not a big gamer and am fairly picky and choosey when it comes to games I may or may not ever complete these days, so my knowledge of the entire culture stems from what I knew about it in high school/early college to watching G4 now and again or The Guild. Basically: limited.

And yet, Wheaton has always managed to exude a certain amount of indelible charm. Whether it be from his keynote speeches at Penny Arcade Expo to his guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory, Wil Wheaton has always seemed like a fairly likable guy — which, in turn, was why it always entertained me to see him play such an unforgiving and despicable character like Fawkes. Fawkes seemed like the basic antithesis of Wheaton (assumedly, of course) and not too much more than that. He was a character who didn’t need depth; his motivations were always clear and selfish, but he was a bad guy you couldn’t help but root for in a peculiar way.

This issue seeks to humanize him a bit more than that. Given the changes Wheaton’s character saw off-screen between the past two seasons of the Guild, there was always a lot left unsaid. How did this former leader of the world’s best guild fueled by anarchy fall to such incredible depths, and how is it all Codex’s fault? This issue answers that and more in a story that matches the amusing tone of the webseries and offers up a substantial crossover point between gamers, both current and potential, and comic readers, again both current and potential. It’s an astonishing feat, and yet I feel more compelled to play videogames after reading this issue than I’ve felt in looking at my XBOX in the past month.

It all comes down to the book being a strong representation of not only the series and character, but also the culture as a whole. Wheaton’s writing here with Day is astonishingly heartfelt and amusing. Even if you’ve never read The Guild before, this book will give you a strong feeling for what the series is all about and perhaps make you grow to love the despicable Epicurean villain that much more. Fawkes immediately becomes a more three-dimensional characters with clear motives and history that make his scattered maneuvers seem plausible no matter how ostensibly dickish.

However, just as you’ll be given time to grow to the character, The Game sees no less affection. A decent amount of story time is spent in-game, as the characters interact with random players in a scenario that seems familiar in its universal accessibility. The inherent point of the Guild, beyond being a humorous look at a group of friends, was to show the positive aspects of gaming and how it can connect people, and this issue – while focusing on villains and their unruly behavior – still manges to bestow that inherent sense of camaraderie that being a member of a guild affords. It’s a view askew in so many words, but it never the less gets that original point across in a new and amusing fashion.

And it all comes down, in the end, to the strength and beauty of the artwork. McKelvie’s clean-line style and ability to evoke real people in his characters is a great strength towards the effectiveness of the story overall, as you really develop the notion that you’re reading a book starring Fawkes/Wil Wheaton and not just a book with a reasonable facsimile. The Dark Horse “Guild” one-shots have always boasted an impressive array of artists, but this one issue puts McKelvie right at the top of the list. Truthfully, McKelvie has always been a perfect artist for this series as his art is very evocative of pop-culture aesthetic (or maybe that’s just an imposed belief of mine given his past work on “Phonogram” and “Suburban Glamour”), and with this issue in particular he shows off the talent he’s been refining over the last few years with a bevy of varied work.

Ultimately, Fawkes’ one-shot is a solid entry into the Dark Horse series. It’s full of witty but not alienating show references and remains accessible to anyone who has never seen the show or read a “Guild” comic before, as all good stories about characters ultimately are. The Guild has always made a good comic book, and the Fawkes one-shot doesn’t end that winning streak any bit. If anything, this makes me want to see more from Wheaton and McKelvie together (Day assisting being optional), but given time constraints from both I would imagine that’s a pipe dream for now. Regardless, given the inherent strength of an issue, you’re left wondering why Wheaton isn’t writing a comic regularly, as you could imagine given his books that a solo comic series would suit him quite well, especially after this one issue.

But hey, you never know. “Adventures of Fawkes Part 2: Furious Furry Fandom” could be around the corner.

Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy.

Oh, and how about that Emma Rios variant? Just lovely.