I'm pleased to see that Todd Nauck's Wildguard property has some sustainability to it. There's a lightness to it that reminds me of the fun and innocence of the genre, but at the same time, the satire is entertaining for longtime readers such as myself. Where the main story goes awry is with its wordiness. I realize that Nauck is sticking with his reality-TV riff here, trying to recreate the one-on-one moments between player and camera that we see in such shows. But the result here is dialogue that's blatantly expositionary and a bit redundant at that. I still enjoy the goofier side of the characters, but the execution of the plot is a little bit off.
Led by supermodel/super-heroine Four, the Wildguard team continues to bask in the limelight, and when they're competing against such super-celebrities as the Ultra Mega Super Five and Power Play, that's saying something. The other female members of the team -- Ignacia and Lily Hammer -- are invited to appear in a jewel-themed fashion show along with Four, and they do surprisingly well... as models. As heroes, they're left stumped when all of the jewelry in the show -- including a dress made completely out of diamonds -- disappears into thin air. Meanwhile, the newest young hero to carry on the heroic American Icon tradition faces off against a deadly foe.
Nauck's art is appropriately light, and his designs are a lot of fun. He pays tribute to what's come before in the genre, but the characters don't look too derivative either. Where the visuals falter is the coloring. I think it's great Nauck is tackling as many creative duties as possible here, but the colors are off throughout the book. They're too garish at times and inexplicably muted and dark at others. Dale's pencils on the backup story are nicely consistent in tone with Nauck's line art, but at the same time, he doesn't just try to ape his style either. Generally, the work here is solid, telling the story clearly. Dale conveys the darker edge of the villain effectively.
One of the problems I have with Nauck's wordy asides to the "camera" is that they all sound pretty much alike. Each character is as verbose as the one before, and not a lot of personality comes through in those moments. Fortunately, that's not true of the dialogue peppered throughout the action scenes.
What shines through in the main story is the creator's absolutely love and enthusiasm for fantastic fiction. Sure, he pokes fun at super-heroes here, but his passion for the genre is apparent. And it's not just super-heroes he loves. The cliffhanger ending makes it clear that sword-and-sorcery fantasy storytelling provides plenty of fun as well. There's not a strong logical flow to the plotting here, but the frenetic quality at play and the goofy charm of it all make it entertaining. 6/10
