Winter Guard #1

Winter Guard #1

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Ryan Cady

Main Story Illustrated by Jan Bazaldua

Prelude Story Illustrated by Djibril Morissette-Phan

Coloured by Federico Blee

Lettered by VC’s Ariana Maher

WINTER COMES FOR THE WHITE WIDOW & THE RED GUARDIAN!

Russia is cleaning house! And when the Red Guardian starts hunting down state secrets, he puts himself right back in his home country’s crosshairs — dragging the White Widow along with him. But the motherland has new heroes now…and not even the Red Room could have prepared Alexei and Yelena for the Winter Guard’s retribution. Bold twists and bombastic action abound as the Winter Guard tracks down two of Russia’s dirtiest secrets!

I could’ve done without the opening here or at least without Carol Danvers, she’s never been that great a character and she’s proving that here or at least Ryan is proving that here. You’d think after all she’s been through she’d be much more personable, she gave birth to her rapist, suffers from being an alcoholic and other massive insecurities and here she’s and angry well bitch and her involvement doesn’t do much other than tell us She-Hulk is a prisoner of the Winter Guard. I think it could’ve been much more effective to start off with Natasha and Yelena alone talking.

Now once we get into the story itself this is where the book really shines. I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continue to bring their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we are pulled into the mystery of what is occurring here.

I have to say that I really appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. It is within these layers that we see the characterisation and plot twists and more all of which add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceedingly well.

The interiors here are very much in the vein of the traditional comic book style work. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work throughout the book is phenomenal. I do wish we’d see more backgrounds in use but how we see the composition within the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story makes up for that. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is bloody brilliant. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a master colourist at work.

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We never do get see enough of the Winter Guard and they are Russia’s answer to the Avengers and regardless if they are considered good or bad or indifferent by the rest of the world it would be something amazing to see more of their adventures including how Red Widow is brought down so the team has a chance at redemption. What Ryan is doing with this main story is giving us a chance to see this team , the individuals who make it up as well as the dynamic they hold and it’s pretty freaking glorious. With some strong writing and incredible characterisation alongside some superbly solid interiors we’re finally getting to see other aspects of Earth’s heroes.