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“The Old Guard Force Multiplied” #5

By | July 16th, 2020
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Spoilers for The Old Guard movie and “The Old Guard Force Multiplied” #5 ahead.

So over the weekend I watched The Old Guard movie on Netflix. Since this is a comic review and not a movie review I’m going to keep my opinion short: the movie is pretty good, I liked it.

If you watched the Netflix movie you may have noticed that it was setting itself up for a sequel. In a way, “Old Guard Force Multiplied” is the comic book version of that sequel that builds on the heart, drama, and potential that was introduced in the beginning.

So, in a way, if you read this book you get to show off to your friends at parties if they decide to talk about the movie.

Cover by: Leandro Fernandez
Written by Greg Rucka
Illustrated by Leandro Fernandez
Colored by Daniela Miwa
Lettered by Jodi Wynne

Ancient enemies, new allies, a history of violence, and modern warfare all come to a head, as Andy and Nile reconcile the sins of the past with the promise of the future…and carnage ensues. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne, THE OLD GUARD roars back! From the acclaimed New York Times-bestselling team of GREG RUCKA and LEANDRO FERNÁNDEZ and the stellar artistic talents of DANIELA MIWA, JODI WYNNE, and ERIC TRAUTMANN

“The Old Guard Force Multiplied” #5 opens with a character named Andromeda stuck in a car trunk that is filled with water and is at the bottom of the ocean. Fortunately for her, she’s an immortal and can’t stay dead. Unfortunately for her, she has to escape while painfully dying and coming back to life over and over again. She was put there by an old friend of hers named Noriko, who is an immortal just like her and unfortunately seems to have gone insane.

Now, it’s up to Andromeda and her small team of fellow immortals to track down Noriko and bring her down, even if she can’t be killed and has thousands of years of dirty secrets to use against them.

If you’ve watched the Netflix movie, you’ll recognize this as something they teased at the end of the movie.

The writing for “The Old Guard Force Multiplied” #5 comes courtesy of industry stalwart Greg Rucka. The script is a lean, well laid out, well planned, and deceptively simple story that moves along at a brisk pace, provides plenty of entertainment, leaves the audience wanting more, and most importantly it doesn’t feel too intimidating for new readers who decided to pick up the fifth issue in a series instead of starting at number one. This issue has it all: plenty of action, stunning character revelations, a good twist, and most importantly tons of emotional dirty laundry that gets aired out all at once.

Not to give away the emotional hook of the entire issue, but let’s just say that the constant march of history and changing attitudes has one hell of an emotional toll on someone who has lived as long as Andromeda, and she has entire mass graves of skeletons in her closet.

The artwork on “The Old Guard Force Multiplied” # is drawn by artist and long time collaborator with Rucka: Leandro Fernandez. Just like the writing, the artwork is deceptively simple and the longer you focus on it, the richer and more nuanced it becomes.

Now, long time comic book readers who know a bit about comic book history will probably recognize the art style as looking very similar to Eduardo Risso’s fantastic art in the phenomenal 100 Bullets series and at first glance there are some similarities. Both art styles have a very minimalist approach to backgrounds with lots of empty space, simple and effective characters with exaggerated use of shadow, and both of them have a similar take on how gunshots and sound effects surrounding guns are portrayed and incorporated into the panel.

However, while Fernandez and Risso’s art styles are similar, there are some pretty major differences. Fernandez has a more exaggerated approach to his characters, which make them a little bit fuller and more exaggerated than Risso, which makes the characters look a bit more human and a bit more fleshed out. Also, Fernandez keeps the panel count fairly small on each page, which allows the art room to breathe and tell the story instead of creating a mural of action and design. The choices that Fernandez makes for the art can make some of the action heavy scenes a bit confusing at times, but it’s a small price to pay for great character work and reinforcement of the story.

“The Old Guard Force Multiplied” #5 is a story filled with great action, great character development, and great art. In an industry filled with tons of violence and high and mighty superheroes, this is a book that takes a very grounded story about immortal warriors who might have been living and fighting for too long and injects it with just the right amount of spectacle to grab the reader’s attention and while it’s easy to see why it was the right story to be made into a movie, it’s still a great comic that deserves to be treated as its own thing.

Final Verdict: 9.3- It’s not just a quick sequel to a good movie, it’s an awesome comic that deserves just as much attention.


Matthew Blair

Matthew Blair hails from Portland, Oregon by way of Attleboro, Massachusetts. He loves everything comic related, and will talk about it for hours if asked. He also writes a web comic about a family of super villains which can be found here: https://tapas.io/series/The-Secret-Lives-of-Villains

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