Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage

[ducklord]

Am I the only one around here who picked this up, or is everyone just too embarassed to admit it?

The Good
-- Even though the Collective Fanboy Hivemind seems to have turned against Howard Chaykin's artwork these days, I still get a kick out of it.

-- Every now and then Mr. Chaykin seems to have a decent handle on Guy's "Uber-Competent A-hole" persona, as best defined by Beau Smith.

The Bad
-- Perhaps my memories of Chaykin's previous works are being filtered by the soft lens of nostalgia, but I could swear that Howard used to be a lot less sophomoric in his approach to sexual content. I realize that Guy's supposed to be a boor, but in this comic he comes across like that "Merv the Perv" sketch on SNL.

-- There are billions of galaxies in the universe, each with tens of billions of stars and untold gazillions of planets. As such, I believe that a moratorium should be placed on stories involving either a) Rann or b) Thanagar for, oh, say, the next five years. The current Hawk-title (whatever its name) can be exempted.

The Ugly
-- I have a confession: I love G'nort. Goofy, good-natured, borderline retarded, happy-go-lucky, essentially heroic G'nort. In a universe with 7200 Green Lanterns, why can't we have *one* silly one? In other words: screw this "dark brooding G'nort" crap. Screw it right into the ground and bury it in the desert.

Gets angry when people mess with the dog,
Mike

[FanboyStranger]

Am I the only one around here who picked this up, or is everyone just too embarassed to admit it?

The Good
-- Even though the Collective Fanboy Hivemind seems to have turned against Howard Chaykin's artwork these days, I still get a kick out of it.

-- Every now and then Mr. Chaykin seems to have a decent handle on Guy's "Uber-Competent A-hole" persona, as best defined by Beau Smith.

The Bad
-- Perhaps my memories of Chaykin's previous works are being filtered by the soft lens of nostalgia, but I could swear that Howard used to be a lot less sophomoric in his approach to sexual content. I realize that Guy's supposed to be a boor, but in this comic he comes across like that "Merv the Perv" sketch on SNL.

-- There are billions of galaxies in the universe, each with tens of billions of stars and untold gazillions of planets. As such, I believe that a moratorium should be placed on stories involving either a) Rann or b) Thanagar for, oh, say, the next five years. The current Hawk-title (whatever its name) can be exempted.

The Ugly
-- I have a confession: I love G'nort. Goofy, good-natured, borderline retarded, happy-go-lucky, essentially heroic G'nort. In a universe with 7200 Green Lanterns, why can't we have *one* silly one? In other words: screw this "dark brooding G'nort" crap. Screw it right into the ground and bury it in the desert.

Gets angry when people mess with the dog,
Mike

I picked it up, and while I'm a Chaykin fan, I found I had a lot of the same problems with it you did, although I'll confess that I could care less about G'nort to begin with.

The art: it seems to me that Chaykin has developed a sort of "Chaykin by numbers" style, which seems to consist of a large "splashy" panel conveying action followed by a small closeup of a talking head followed by another large splashy panel conveying action and on and on. Gone are the days when he'd break action up into smaller, dynamic panels. He was so good at that, and there was a time when I'd have made the argument that he was among the best in the industry in conveying movement and action (with those facial closeups interspersed to make it seem even more emotionally resonate), but what he's been doing since his return to art duties seems so static to me. That's not to say that there's no impressive moments, however; that two page spread of the Guardians should be tacked on to every forthcoming Green Lantern origin retell. (Plus, no one does a smirking face quite like Howard.)

The sexist attitude: Chaykin's characters have always been hounds, but they also had a degree of subtleity and cleverness. Guy, as presented, is just a full blown pig. Now I know it's part of his character, and I guess when you've been all around and saved the universe a dozen times you would have an unbridled confidence/cockiness that wouldn't have much use for smalltalk, but it read very over the top. And while I assume part of the point that Howard's trying to make is that Guy isn't really that successful with the ladies (even obvious groupies), I just couldn't believe that Guy would be that socially inept. It gets more at the supporting character/joke guy from JLI than what he's become over the last few years.

That said, it's not a total loss. There are some interesting moments in it, and I will probably pick up the second issue because I've become something of a completist when it comes to Chaykin.

[mrpoizun]

, although I'll confess that I could care less about G'nort to begin with.
What do you mean? How MUCH less?
I have to say I generally like Chaykin's art, but his recent habit of drawing huge lantern-jawed heads on petite bodies (male and female both) has become annoying in the extreme. I haven't looked at Guy Gardner yet, so can't say if I'll pick it up or not.

[Gingold]

I thought this was fun enough, and Chaykin's art was pretty good - though G'Nort looked a bit...off.

Did we really need the presitge format for this though? I could've sworn DC had abandoned the format- and I'd like this a lot more for three bucks instead of six.

[saintsaucey]

saddly i bought this. i din't care for it and didn't finish it. when is the second part coming out

[AaronJ]

I enjoyed it.

I am rather new to the whole GL game, so I don't really know what G'Nort is supposed to be like. I just hear people talking about him a lot.

What I found funny was that Guy is such a totally obnoxious jerk-off, but in the end, he is insightful and smart. He can figure out what everone's angle is, and at the same time insult them repeatedly.

Anyway, it was fun. And I like the Prestige format. I'll take 48 pages of content and no ads for $5.99 any day. Two issues gets you 96 pages, which is 4.37 comics. And you don't have ads. I mean, I've got nothing against David Beckham (though I wish they had a "Ace by Sharapova. Body by Milk." ad instead; topless would be a bonus), but I see him 10 times a week, at least.

[ChairthrowerLad]

The Ugly
-- I have a confession: I love G'nort. Goofy, good-natured, borderline retarded, happy-go-lucky, essentially heroic G'nort. In a universe with 7200 Green Lanterns, why can't we have *one* silly one? In other words: screw this "dark brooding G'nort" crap. Screw it right into the ground and bury it in the desert.




Agreed....three words: Justice League Antartica

I thought that the book overall was just "meh" but I will be picking up the second one.

[Sean Whitmore]

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

Angry, mournful G'nort. Heh. Congrats, DC. Way to anticipate your audience.

Beyond that, the story was pretty good. Guy as arbitrator is a fun idea, and I like that his past as Warrior is being tied up.


SEAN

[BeastieRunner]

The most reecent issue of Ion portrays Guy as a pig, too.

[CaptainAwesome]

This was the return to the Guy I know and love. I like GLC, but Guy comes off as being too soft sometimes. I want the sexist, speciest, loud-mouth that endeared me in Justice League International.

Chaykin's art was better than it has been in a while. I think it fit perfectly with the character, as I believe it should because he designed Gardener in the first place. I enjoyed this immensly and I cant wait unitl the next issue.

[Taskmaster]

Personally I think G'Nort has been possessed by a yellow fear monster, it's the only explanation of why he's so different than usual

[ducklord]

Rather than the Yellow Fear Monster, I believe that G'nort has been possessed by the Ochre Peevishness Monster. With luck, a few bowls Purina One Dog Chow (specially formulated for peevish pets) will flush that junk out of his system before his next appearance.

This comic makes me almost as annoyed as "The Fountain,"
Mike.

[SKETCHSANCHEZ]

I'll concur with you cats, even though he gave a reason that could make sense I still wasnt too keen on "serious" g'nort.

"Die in pain, gardner"? Como-wha?

[Taskmaster]

G'Nortollax will be the next major villain folks, you've heard it here first

[Bloody Thumb]

I can understand that a galactic war destroying his home world could make G'Nort "Grow up" a bit..... That being said it appears to have made him Smarter too. If you kill an idiots family, he's still an Idiot albeit a sad idiot. I really don't like the new G'Nort. Worse part of the book. I enjoyed Guy in it, and the art was good.

[astronato]

Just read part 2 and I say overall it was mostly good with a couple of things I didn't like.

I have always like Mr Chaykins art style and still do. But I thought Kilowog looked wonky and Guy and the two womens faces looked too similiar.

I did like his G'Nort. Serious or funny, I'd like to see G'Nort in the GLC book.

I like Guy the crude smart ass but he was too much of a "complete dick". He came off as unlikeable when insulting G'Nort. I'm not saying the story shouldn't have gone there, just that it could have been better.

Also, not to sound like a parent or anything but was it really neccessary to use the word dick? It's not the worst thing in the world but it also didn't seem needed or seem to fit the tone of the story.

Plus there really wasn't a lot of plot.

I'd really like more Guy Gardner mini's or one shots like this, in addition to the GLC monthly.

I never read the Beau Smith Guy Gardner mini. I wasn't into comics then. But I have read Cobb:Unleashed and Batman/Wildcat and I liked them. I keep reading posts from fans who say he wrote the best Guy. I'd be interested to check that out.

[OzBat!]

Beau Smith took over the Guy Gardner ongoing series after Chuck Dixon. Between them, they took Guy light-years beyond his JLI days. He was still rough around the edges, absolutely HAD to insult anybody and everybody, but all the facets of his personality (including the sickly-sweet phase with Ice after he was bonked on the head!) were accounted for and blended into one complete character. He could pay someone a compliment if he had to. He came to a sort of mutual respect for quite a few heroes, including Superman. It was his series that brought Lady Blackhawk into the present day, which was one bright point in the Zero Hour mess. The best part of the series as it came to an end, was that Beau had turned it into equal parts pulp homage and pulp pastiche, with buck Wargo and the monster hunters and Lady B and Arisa and a couple of others as the swashbuckling party ready to go anywhere, anytime. The book was FUN, dammit!!

I got this two-parter, and I appreciated it not ignoring the whole Vuldarian/Tormock backstory Beau was forced to come up with after Guy lost both his GL ring and then his Sinestro yellow ring in quick succession. But it managed to totally lose track of all of Guy's growth. I like that in GLC, particularly the mini and then the opening story arc, this growth wasn't ignored and Guy acted like the experienced hero he is, still beligerent and cocky and supremely self-confident, but with the knowledge that he'd grown into the role and had reason for his self-confidence. The prestige regressed him back to the blow-hard who had to be over the top utterly rude and crude to make people notice him, when he'd outgrown that years ago.

I agree it probably didn't deserve the prestige format. It could even have been included as a fill-in story in GLC. But then we probably wouldn't have gotten the Chaykin art, which did do a great job portraying Guy's personality as written for this book.

[Karl O'Neill]

Am I the only one around here who picked this up, or is everyone just too embarassed to admit it?

The Good
-- Even though the Collective Fanboy Hivemind seems to have turned against Howard Chaykin's artwork these days, I still get a kick out of it.

-- Every now and then Mr. Chaykin seems to have a decent handle on Guy's "Uber-Competent A-hole" persona, as best defined by Beau Smith.

The Bad
-- Perhaps my memories of Chaykin's previous works are being filtered by the soft lens of nostalgia, but I could swear that Howard used to be a lot less sophomoric in his approach to sexual content. I realize that Guy's supposed to be a boor, but in this comic he comes across like that "Merv the Perv" sketch on SNL.

-- There are billions of galaxies in the universe, each with tens of billions of stars and untold gazillions of planets. As such, I believe that a moratorium should be placed on stories involving either a) Rann or b) Thanagar for, oh, say, the next five years. The current Hawk-title (whatever its name) can be exempted.

The Ugly
-- I have a confession: I love G'nort. Goofy, good-natured, borderline retarded, happy-go-lucky, essentially heroic G'nort. In a universe with 7200 Green Lanterns, why can't we have *one* silly one? In other words: screw this "dark brooding G'nort" crap. Screw it right into the ground and bury it in the desert.

Gets angry when people mess with the dog,
Mike

No, I got these two books also, i really like guy gardner, he's so funny