Winter Guard: Operation Snowblind

Winter Guard #1-4

by Ryan Cady, Devin Grayson, Michele Bandini (Artist)

Collects Winter Guard (2021) #1-4, Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova (2020) #1.

Winter comes for Yelena Belova and the Red Guardian! When Alexei Shostakov starts hunting down state secrets, he finds himself square in his home country's crosshairs - dragging Yelena along with him. The motherland has new heroes now, and not even the Red Room could have prepared Alexei and Yelena for this terrible retribution. It's a race across Russia as the Winter Guard rush to Red Guardian's hometown in hopes of discovering the secrets of Operation Snowblind. But with the Crimson Dynamo in critical condition, can the Guard keep it together to uncover the truth before time runs out? Bold twists and bombastic action abound as Russia's mightiest protectors dig deep into their nation's dirtiest secrets!

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

132 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2022

Reviews

[Ant Tellez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4/5.0

I thought this story had some cool potential to showcase the real strength of the Red Guardian and Yelena Belova as formidable protagonists; however, I found that I was bored with this story as it progressed.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been very interesting in theory but in actuality it was duller than the wooden spoon babushka uses to stir a pot of borscht, and about twice as laden with stereotypes. I can't even recommend in good conscience for FloPugh stans.


Yeah, that bad.

[bri 🧸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

BUCKY AND YELENA YUP!

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun romp of a story involving Yelena Belova (who I guess we are now calling the White Widow) and Red Guardian, and their interactions with the new Winter Guard over whether or not "Operation: Snowblind" should be revealed to the people. The operation involved killing people and destroying evidence that incriminates the Russian government. It's slightly hilarious (at least to me) that Dracula and the Vampire Nation, whose capital is Chernobyl, has to get involved.
Overall, the story was quick and entertaining, but nothing to go crazy about. I would like to see more from the characters in the future though.
Recommend, but with reservation.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Red Guardian and Yelena Belova team up to steal some data discs from an old mission that Red Guardian completed. Along the way they cross paths with the recently reformed Winter Guard.

Attempting to ride the hype of the recent Black Widow movie Marvel put out this series to further re-establish Yelena and to a lesser extent Red Guardian to the comic audience. It’s a somewhat lacklustre effort.
As with most stories featuring ‘ground level’ characters the supernatural elements take the story out of its comfort zone and somewhat drags it down. Whilst characters like Chernobog, Perun and Darkstar are fine in their own way they are made to look ineffective against characters without powers.
I appreciate the Winter Guard are essentially the Russian Avengers but they aren’t treated with the same prestige here and having Yelena one up them at every moment just doesn’t really do them any favours. The story is fine, if not a bit obvious. I would have preferred the story be more spy espionage driven. It would’ve allowed for more tense and fun scenarios.

The art is a mixed bag. Overall it’s fine but when Marvel has multiple artists on a four issue run of anything it’s rarely a good thing.

Marvel continue to build up Yelena, which I’m OK with, I just wish the stories they had her in were more entertaining. Kelly Thompson is doing more with Yelena as a side character than here.

2/5.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel kinda bamboozled by this, no joke. I didn't know anything about this before I went in besides Yelena but the font of the title with "winter" in it AND the star and the fact it looks metal? You know who I was expecting who wasn't actually here. 😭😭

This was pretty interesting though. Very Russian, I don't know if I actually liked it?? There were some parts I liked but then others I was so confused. Red Guardian is working with Yelena aka the White Widow to get hard drives on something called Operation Snowblind. The Winter Guard is then sent after them.

The story starts with Yelena in Avenger's lockup and is framed one way as her explaining what happened but then... it never catches up or explains how she got there? I guess this is all part of a bigger story because everything is cliffhanger and half assed explanations.

The whole team gave me Thunderbolts vibes as is, I don't know who the fuck any of these people are nor have I ever heard of them before BUT I feel like some relationships between them were shown well. Unlike the Thunderbolts comic I've read, this has a singular story and plot and at least it follows that even if that story isn't the best. So many things were just... not explained and some characters were so shady and they absolutely do not elaborate on that.

I loved seeing Black Widow in this for a hot second and I loved seeing White Widow but it just makes me wish she had her own comic instead of being in this for seemingly no reason. What were her motivations? Idk. She looked great though and I loved when she put her hair in a bun and when she had discount Falcon wings.

It peaked with Dracula and his base for his vampires in Chernobyl.

I liked the art a lot and I loved Red Widow's design (but probably because she was giving Elektra). Also how many more Widows we gonna get lol we're getting close to making a full Power Rangers team.

Idk, three stars because I like Yelena.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just didn't work for me. It seems like this was written to capitalize off the Black Widow movie, hence the White Widow/Red Guardian team up. But it does that at the expense of the Winter Guard. They're meant to be the Russian equivalent of the Avengers, and they have the theoretical firepower to back it up. Including two literal gods. And yet, two characters without powers are getting the better of the team at every turn. It also feels kind of weird knowing that all of this was apparently happening at the same time that Jen Walters was being held captive and tortured in Russia. The prequel story, that is for some reason printed at the end of the book, after the issues that it chronologically preceded, was much better for me. Mostly because the threat level was appropriate for the characters. I do wish that Marvel would lay down an editorial edict about exactly how broken Yelena's English is, though.

[Alex Sarll]

A spin-off from Jason Aaron's Avengers run, which has not been without its own problems, but this has a whole heap of extra ones. Most obviously, even if you make clear that a superteam working for the Russian government is a long way from being straight heroes, a series which might have seemed acceptably conflicted and anti-heroic published in 2021 still feels far too kind read in late 2022. Subsidiary issues spiral out from that; having Dracula establish a vampire kingdom in the Chernobyl exclusion zone was a pretty cool idea, but becomes far less fun when you've got another undead tyrant drunk on dreams of ancient glory seemingly bent on creating a new nuclear wasteland of his own in that neck of the woods. Speaking of which: it's never entirely clear whether this comic knows that Chernobyl isn't actually in Russia, and where last year that was just what one expects from American comics set in Europe, now it inevitably rankles.

Even aside from a changed climate which isn't exactly the creators' fault, though, this never makes much of a case for itself. There's a hunt for some plot tokens which turn out to do something predictable, complicated by a hunt for a possible mole which doesn't really catch light when we're given so little reason to care about most of the team. Hell, even the one team-member I normally like (the drunk bear, obviously) feels uncharacteristically flat here. About the best one can say is that, unlike the Devin Grayson-scripted one-shot in the back of the collection, at least it's not narrated in the style of a Russian from sixties US TV: "That man? He is Justin Cask. Worth more than 30 billion, but not work single day in his life. Yet still, I tell you, he is wanting more. Not for to buy something special. But just because money is only worth he know." Boris and Natasha called, they want their accents back. Also, the Red Guardian's politics seem to have entirely flipped in the year between that story and the main series? Though I suppose that takes us back to where we came in, given a year has turned out to be more than enough time to cure some people of nostalgia for the USSR. Although, alas, not everyone.

[TR Naus · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so confused. I understood the basic premise, but the execution was rough and hard to follow. The story was written for fans who already know the backstories which isn't necessarily a bad thing except when attempting to understand the various motivations of the team -- when there is a potential traitor in the midst. The plot feels like it was deliberately extended to extend the page count, add vampires, and incorporate scattershot locales (under the guise of learning more about Red Guardians -- which we don't). I liked the Soviet Super Soldiers (Vanguard, Darkstar, and Ursa Major) and hoped to see them stand out as an independent team to be reckoned with. Instead, they are background characters in a forgettable run.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

They keep trying to build the Winter Guard back up and make them a team equal to the Avengers. Even with the benefit of the Black Widow movie and good writers, this still falls short. I can see why this made it to 4 issues and ended. This might've been a better B-story in some Avengers annuals. This does nothing to build them up before Avengers #750...

Worse? It's a team based on secrets that hope to lure you in and keep you invested. It's never engaging enough. The breadcrumb tale never quite gets going.

Bonus: I got nothing. Winter Guard is still meh...

[ElsaMakotoRenge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this tpb up because of Yelena. I got lots of Yelena. And Bucky appeared. So I am satisfied lol

I am, however, more than a little baffled at just how incompetent the Winter Guard team is in this run. I am not particularly familiar with them honestly, but it seems like they should have given Yelena and Alexei a LOT more trouble than they did considering power sets and all. I love Yelena, but she’s still a normal human haha...anyways. I’m intrigued and will try to see what else they’re in so I can read more about them.

[Jessi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read this because I had seen one panel that someone said was part of this comic.


Really liked getting to see Yelena and Red Guardian though I cared more about Yelena. I know Alexei in the comics is Natasha's ex-husband but I can't seem to shake the image I have of him as her poor attempt at a father figure.
Would love to see more Yelena in future.

For now I'm gonna look up more info on Darkstar aka Laynia Petrovna.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yep, another digital floppy catch up by me, so the start and read dates will be off.

I've had a soft spot for the Soviet Super-soldiers (i.e. Winter Guard) since they were first introduced. I even like what Jason Aaron has been doing with Ursa Major over in The Avengers.

The plus here is that Cady weaves in both a feeling for little bit of what is happening in Russia in RL (political corruption, etc.) with the Russian politics of Marvel Comcis (see Dracula's vampire nation).

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different reading for me. I do like the action. A quote worth sharing - "Do you want to kill me? Kiss me? Eat me?" As a stand alone, it's hilarious. It also makes sense within the story. Remnants of cold war ideologies, and characters are quite interesting. Don't want to provide spoilers, so all may enjoy it.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly typical comics story. It feels a little even more awkward with the whole Ukrainian war. Also it ties into the Avengers arc that I forgot was actually happening.

[mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

finally read the last issue! it was alright

[Thomas Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun premise that doesn’t get the space it needs to really let the story and characters breathe

[Velhala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such good writing!!

[Anika Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a bit confusing to follow at times but it was still enjoyable. Loved Bucky Barnes at the end, because I love Bucky Barnes.