Canada Vs USA: Round 1
THE GOOD: Well folk, the Canadiana drips off this comic like maple syrup off of bacon. Which is odd because Brian K. Vaughan isn’t even Canadian. Don’t get me wrong; Vaughan working on something that even remotely involves my home country is win-win for me, but is seems like an odd choice of subject matter. Who knows, maybe he’s the Canadian equivalent of a Japanophile.
He points out in the letter column that his wife is Canadian (from my hometown actually) so I guess he’s spent enough time soaking up the stereotypes to know what would please a Canadian reader, because there’s an abundance of patriotic fan service throughout. Personally I loved that aspect but I doubt anyone outside of Canada would care for it, plus I’m slightly worried it’ll wear thin at the rate he’s using it.
The writing is what you’d expect from Vaughan. Plenty of profanity and real world dialog keeps the script authentic and engrossing. The story itself seems to move pretty fast. We see the attacks that start this war then jump 2 years later to see how people are living. Those people are actually what carry this issue for me. The word rag-tag doesn’t do these freedom fighters justice. Pulling a wide range of lovable Canadian stereotypes into a bad-ass crew of freedom fighters (amusingly referred to as the Two Four) could have completely backfired, but these guys were awesome! They felt like an authentic Canadian G.I. Joe team complete with different combat specialties, unique weapons and fighting styles. I’m really hoping some of these guys will stay alive long enough to be completely fleshed out. As it stands they’re very one dimensional, but likeable nonetheless.
The art is great. Steve Skroce (a certified Canadian) delivers his usual, unique art style with some great splash pages and reveals. The colours used give the art a nice, natural look.
THE BAD: As I mentioned earlier, dumping patriotic fan service all over your comic can be a pretty risky venture. I liked it but I wouldn’t hold it against you if you don’t. I also found a few of the action scenes to seem a bit off. For example a splash page of missiles raining down terror on Canada’s Capital looked a bit more like missiles falling randomly onto Canada’s Capital, but that’s nitpicking.
THE VERDICT: This was a really cool book that could get even more exciting if the characters are given time to grow. With Vaughan on the helm I don’t think that will be a problem but I worry it could end up getting lost in a sea of SCTV references.