Guarding the Globe, Vol. 1: Under Siege

Guarding the Globe #1

by Robert Kirkman, Benito Cereno (Artist), Ransom Getty (Artist)

Just in time for the second volume of the hit series, this volume reprints the first six-issue mini-series, following Brit as he recruits a new, international Guardians of the Globe roster.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2012

About the author

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead, Invincible for Image Comics, as well as Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt. He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of the original co-founders of that publisher.

Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.

In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of Robert Kirkman's Invincible, and this extension of the Invincible universe is good, but not great. The Guardians of the Globe had been established as a JLA pastiche in Invincible, the difference here is Brit and Cecil are literally taking the Guardians global both in scope and membership.

Which brings me to my issue with the volume (which has just started volume two in monthly issues)by Kirkman and co-writer Benito Cereno. The new characters are are poorly defined. Cast Iron looked interesting but ended up being cannon fodder. Outrun was portrayed as a shallow screw everything standing Captain Jack Harkness manner, but she's not written anywhere near as well as Jack. Best Tiger was fun just by his actions. Best Tiger might work best as someone used in brief cameo action scenes.

Probably worth checking out the second volume, but with some questions remaining.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this, was bracing myself for this to be a let down after looking at reviews but I thought this gave a nice background to all of the guardians of the globe that you miss in mainline invincible as well as setting up the order as a big threat. Looking forward to seeing where this leads.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly a collection of done in one stories with an undercurrent of a bigger story growing, which comes to a head in the final issue. Each individual issue delves nicely into the team members of the Guardians of the Globe, and it's nice to get some insight into some members of the Invincible Universe. Everyone's favourites are here, like Brit, Wolfman, and Robot, but there are plenty of new characters around too who are all unique and interesting. The thing that lets this story down is that the final resolution is really, really cheap and comes out of left field, so hopefully the second volume of this series will end better. The artwork is also up and down, due to a relative army of inkers involved in the series, who manage to change the tone between pages and this is sometimes very jarring, plus a different artist on the final issue whose style is completely different to the earlier issues.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guarding the Globe Vol. 1 Under Siege collects issues 1-6 written by Robert Kirkman with art by Ransom Getty and Kris Anka.

Guarding the Glibe spins off from Invincible during the Viltrumite War. The Guaedians of the Globe have been decimated with recent team member deaths and two members being sent to another dimension. The team is forced to take on new member to protect Earth while a new threat makes itself known.

There are some fun moments in the book with returning favorites and some new characters that have cool designs. I really enjoyed Le Brusier, a superpowered French Bulldog. There were some minor and major problems with the arc though. The minor: the inking in the book is extremely inconsistent with at times 4 different inkers altering between pages. The major: the book had a central villain but the goal was never made clear other than "bad guy wants to conquer world." That is fine with a one off villain but for a major villain so far into the Invincible universe, it was just unoriginal and you never really felt any big threats to the world or characters because this in Invincible's world afterall. Another major problem was the ending. It was very sudden, very confusing, and very cheap. Hoping for a better payoff down the road.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was another fun one taking place in the Invincible universe. This book would be best described as like a mix between the Justice League International and something you might watch on Adult Swim. Interested to see how the series wraps up in the second volume.

[Etain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is kinda bullshit, man. It feels really lazy. Some of the character designs suck so bad and there's such an insane amount of characters that some of them only get like 1 page of screen time so none of the emotional moments hit at all.
And like what the fuck is going on with Outrun, she just shows up without an introduction page and does nothing but sleep with as many teammates as she can. She's the most 1 dimensional caricature I've ever seen

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good spin off mini series from the Invincible comics series. Good art and storyline make this a good supplemental read to the main series. Recommended

[Jamie Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Invincible spinoff. Not bad. 4 stars.

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually when you read the "spin offs" of larger stories in comics, they tend to not hold up as well as the main title. Especially if it is not being written by the same writer.

However, I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would.

I would describe the story as smaller stories with an overall theme of "building the team".

For the most part it works. The art is awesome, and the characters still have their "voice" from the original series and it keeps up the pace of invincible, which is no easy task.

The only criticism I have is that at times, you lose focus of the main story as small subplots try to force their way into importance. For example, there are random pages of one of the team members seducing various members of the teams. This never really pays off and kinda just seems like a cheap "thrill". However maybe it will pay off in later volumes. There are a few plot points like that in the book that never really pay off. Again, maybe they are just set up for later on.

If you are a fan of Invincible and you are a completionist, I definitely recommend this book.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this Invincible spin-off quite a bit. I liked that a couple of twists that I thought were "obviously coming" totally didn't come and that when events crossed over into or referenced the main Invincible story it was brief and didn't require the reader to be up-to-date on Invincible. So, in theory, I could suggest this book to someone without suggesting 12 volumes of Invincible first.

I don't know that I would, but I could. There might be someone out there that matches this exact story perfectly in need and reading type. It could happen.

Also, they might have sold me on reading the Brit books later, too. He's not such a bad guy.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Robert Kirkman has done an impeccable job of creating heroes and villains in the Invincible Universe, this series didn't seem like much more than an excuse to make more characters. The plot was very rudimentary and not up to Kirkman's normal fare. While some of the creations were interesting, almost none are given enough time to be fleshed out. The art by Ransom Getty and Kris Anka was really good and creative. Overall, there wasn't enough to hook a reader other than tying into the ongoing Invincible book.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old superhero team needs new members to fight global threats. This book is all about putting that team together and introducing the characters. All of them have their own quirks and its fun seeing them interacting with each other. It also sees an order of bad guys expanding which makes sense to combat the new team. A good read.

[kami · Rating 3 out of 5]

another spin off series, i think its alright. finally kirkman does something with the guardians of the globe, even tho they're lowk weak asf and cant do anything. little upset about the female characters here, like damn, we get it, out of the two girls here, ones a sex freak and the other is dog girl... all and all, its alright. very much justice league vibes

[Doug Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was pretty solid, and it's always nice to have an excuse to return to this universe at the end of the day. I get the vibe that there is certainly more to come, but this was good in its own right and kind of had an "avengers 1" feel to it where a lot went in to assembling the team. there's certain characters I wasnt huge on but overall I'm down for more and to see where things are headed.

[Alex Memus · Rating 1 out of 5]

The team of ripped-off heroes are having ripped-off adventures. This time around Kirkman is trying to copy 'Batman, Inc' run by Grant Morrison. And even Morrison's run wasn't the best of his work.

[Ewan Clements · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off...fine but does start to pick up near the end. I'm interested to see if they can make Set interesting in the next volume as I found him mostly generic and boring but he showed promise near the end.

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get in to this. The tone is different than the main Invincible book.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly recruiting, but still fun.

[IvanBat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, no es tan entretenido como me habría gustado.

[Eugenio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the view on the other not quite superpowered heroes on the team.

[alternBRUNO°° · Rating 3 out of 5]

The circle of underworld criminals doing coordinated attacks seemed nice. All the new characters are a bit overwhelming. Also, there is a serious lack of charisma overall.

[Santiago Gª Soláns · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

Resulta interesante y entretenido, por encima de la calidad media de los anteriores spin off de la serie madre.

[Filmkiller Zoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is really good, Reminds me of Avengers 2012.

[Lordlight · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

[Jota Houses · Rating 2 out of 5]

Para completistas de la saga Invincible. No aporta nada a la serie principal y es un comic de supergrupo generis extruído sin apenas desarrollo de personajes y dinámicas y con villanos porque sí.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book. With great art.

[MatiBracchitta · Rating 2 out of 5]

La verdad, no me gustó.

Objetivamente creo que el guion es bastante pobre y me extraña que Kirkman haya escrito algo tan alejado del espíritu tan disruptivo de Invencible. Supongo que delegó mucho en Cereno y bueno, no salió demasiado bien.

A nivel gráfico también se nota la falta no solo de coherencia estética, sino de un buen artista que acapare los focos como Ottley o Walker.

Puntualmente, con qué nos encontramos al leer este cómic: Para empezar vemos la reestructuración que Cecil realiza en el grupo después de los eventos de Invencible. Con Robot fuera del equipo (y del mundo) se encomienda a Brit la tarea de encabezar el grupo, a su vez que se hace un poco una Liga de la Justicia Internacional. Todo pésimamente llevado, con un montón de personajes desconocidos de los que no sabemos nada y no sabremos nunca.

Ningún personaje adquiere peso narrativo ni un desarrollo que lo vuelva interesante. Hay pequeñas puntas de lo que podría ser una historia, pero que no se desarrollan al menos en este volumen. Por otro lado, La Orden se establece como principales antagonistas de la historia, pero con un discurso tan fuera de lugar que uno no puede creer que Kirkman esté involucrado en esto. Por momentos sentí que estaba leyendo un cómic de Garth Ennis... Dios... que horror.

Estuve muy tentado a ponerle solo una estrella, pero creo que tiene algún que otro momento rescatable, aunque mejor dejo la reseña aquí que no creo que este cómic merezca que se le dedique más tiempo que esto.

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just an all-around fun book with some great familiar characters from Invincible (Cecil Stedman, Bulletproof, and the Shapesmith stand out) and a whole lot of new ones! Plot-wise, there's not too much going on: the Guardians of the Globe goes recruiting after losing a large number of its members in the pages of Invincible, this time setting its sights on being truly global with small response teams located all around the world; meanwhile the world's villains are also teaming up to... something something because they're evil. They fight! Kirkman-standard blood, carnage, chaos, etc etc; in the end, despite catastrophic losses, the heroes come out on top. And that is the plot.

I rated it more highly than the plot probably deserves because of the character interactions that really show the growing pains of this new team. Some of them immediately bond, some of them clash, some aren't so great at teamwork... I adore this stage in superhero teamups and I always want to read more team drama. Plus, the new characters themselves are beyond great. My particular favorites are Yeti, Japandroid, Pegasus & Le Brusier, and the single greatest character in the Invincible U, Best Tiger. Let's be honest, you barely need a plot when you have Best Tiger onscreen. :)

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Image does a lot of good to great titles in all kinds of genres. But their mainstream super hero titles, with the requisite events and crossovers, doesn't stand up as well to the comparisons with the big two. Guardians of the Globe is a case in point - this attempt for a Justice League/Avengers team suffers from a couple issues - no real standalone heroes to support the team (you've got Bulletproof and Brit, everyone else appears to have basically been created for the title), and no strong rogue's gallery to oppose them. Although actually, the villains are probably more memorable than the new heroes here. It does a good job covering the trouble of having a global team, and does introduce some interesting new characters and fun situations, but it feels overstuffed with characters and action beats, and doesn't bring anything particularly new to the table. It's enjoyable, but not memorable. It rises to the quality of the Big 2's biggest titles, but for Image, that's actually a step down...

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

The pacing on this was all wrong; the beginning seemed too slow and the rest of it too fast. It took me awhile to figure out why, and I realized it's because I never really cared about most of the characters. Too many of them are lazy stereotypes--e.g. Kaboomerang, an Australian who eats Vegemite and says "mate" a lot and and throws boomerangs (exploding boomerangs, but still).

At any rate, this is basically the Alpha Flight of the Invincible universe: mostly C-list characters in D-list stories.