The Old Guard: Tales Through Time #3

The Old Guard: Tales through Time #3

Image Comics 2021

Passchendaele

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Illustrated by Michael Avon Oeming

Coloured by Taki Soma

Lacus Solitudinis

Written by Robert Mackenzie & Dave Walker

Illustrated by Justin Greenwood

Coloured by Daniela Miwa

All Letters by Jodi Wynne

The superstar POWERS team of BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, MICHAEL AVON OEMING, and TAKI SOMA takes on the immortals! It's the '70s, and Andy stumbles straight out of battle to come face to face with the last person she ever expected to see! Then, DAVE WALKER, ROBERT MACKENZIE, and JUSTIN GREENWOOD (COMPASS) task the team with an assassination on the night of the moon landing!

What a heartwarming and delightful surprise this first story is. I mean the odds are astronomical that she’s stumble into where she did and all this story really makes me do is want to see more of how this all came about. What we see is so well thought out and executed and while Zues calls Andy mamma after the brief flashback we see here opens up a new side to her that I have never seen before.

The interiors here aren’t to my liking but then they don’t really have to be I suppose. They are too chunky and more generic than I care for and Andy could’ve been any woman from anywhere there was nothing discernible about her at all. If anything I liked the flashback moments more than the main story at least those gave us an understanding that it was Andy, The restaurant on the other hand was fantastic with all those lines with a very stylised seventies-ish demeanour to them are fabulous.

The dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances really do wonders in fleshing these characters out. The blast from the past and that Andy didn’t know how to be a mother actually fits with how we see her. I almost wanted to cry when he called her mamma that’s how well this first one is written and just how good Bendis can be when he writes like no one is watching.

Ah a lovers quarrel leads to a little separation during the moon landing. This is the second story. While we never really learn what the spat is about it doesn’t really matter because it is what it is. I do like how we see both these arcs playing out simultaneously as Joe and Nicky are half a world away from one another during such a monumental event happens. I think of the aspects of this team is no one else on the team gives a damn they love each other, they are mishpucha after all, no they do their darnedest instead to get them to patch things up. It really is a heartwarming story and one that showcases what’s possible when you just love your friends and who they love doesn’t matter.

I really like the artwork for this one. The linework is great and the little details such as Joe’s nose is extremely distinctive and makes him extremely recognisable. The linework really is clean, crisp an strong and the attention to detail. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellous eye for storytelling. The colour work too is extremely well rendered.

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I love these and even though each one could’ve been a full-length story on its own makes me long another full-length adventure. These are some of the best characters from different walks of life and different eras and to see them utilised all the skills they’ve learned since become who they are is something I long to see again. These are great little fillers while we wait for a four to six issue arc.