Welcome reader!
You may have found yourself here through the Collective of Heroes website/widget. If so, please feel free to check out the eight previous issues of Vanguard before getting stuck in here. To all you regular readers, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear we’re back to the two updates a week now. Hooray!
As for today’s page, it’s a goodbye Gradlon. As it stands, there’s only about 3-4 members left standing. What will be the upshot of this be? How can this webcomic continue without the superteam it’s named after? All will be revealed, soon.
That last panel is a shout out to Gary Cohen, who helps edit/craft Vanguard. He pushed for me to change the interaction between Gradlon and X-Bow. The scene depicted is what came out 🙂
If you enjoyed this page/comic, can you give this page an upvote on Reddit? Thank you in advance!
Dan
MrHades
Edited by
Gary Cohen
1. Damn, right in the eye!
2. Explosive wha-OMYGOD!
3. Course you, social media victims!
All in all, a very impactful page. Cudus to that. ^^
Also: Nip slip. Noticed that on the third reading…
Damn, if you keep this up, you won’t have anyone left to star in your comic!
It’s certainly headed that way!
But… Gradlon was never with her! Even in wacky social media space!
Exactly – X-Bow was and is totally deluded. A serious case of ‘head in the clouds’ with that lady. What she perceives herself and the world around her to be is very different to the reality.
Guessing it’s up to Woden to fix what once went wrong.
I’m starting to think that’s what’s going to happen; Woden’s quest to save “the child” will somehow end up undoing all of this. Either that of there’s gonna be an all-new all-different Vanguard team debut once the dust of this storyline settles…
I don’t think we’ll be seeing too much of “He got better!” in this story.
There are a few members of the team that might yet live and escape. One confirmed to. None of them without injury though.
Any deaths in this comic are for keeps. Nobody comes back. I feel writers who use lame excuses to bring back dead characters ultimately screw over their creations. Lest we forget Superman coming back. Sure, loads of other characters had cheated death before, but I feel as though his resurrection ‘broke’ something.
Coming back from the dead (or supposed dead) can be okay to good if planned and executed well.
But in comics, it usually isn’t. Most often ranges somewhere between bad and mediocre. And more importantly: Used way to often.
If a resurrection is integral to the story, for example ‘The Crow‘, I’m totally cool with it. But having cast members regularly dying, returning from the grave is a real tension killer.
I wish I could comment further without totally borking up the future storyline 😉
Woden will have his chance to set things right – Stay tuned.
Was not expecting that at all!
Neither was he! lol
Man… Gradlon was such a focus in the comic with some of the most developed personality… what a waste 🙁
Yeah, of all the characters, he was the most fleshed out by the time all this happened. Sorry to see him off’d… Hopefully, it’ll all play out for the best.
Holy crap. New reader here btw, I love this webcomic and I’m excited for the 2x weekly updates coming!
It’s good to be back to two updates a week! I feel a longform webcomic should at least update twice a week, otherwise it takes an age to tell the story. Welcome to the webcomic, btw 😉
Have no favorites or they WILL die… Bad guys my fav now.
Gradlon was one of my favs… seeing him go was a little sad, I’ll admit.
THE Body count keeps adding up
He keeps mounting… But we’re nearly done, trust me!
Right in the eye and to the brain. Unless he’s on Wolverine level with his healing abilities, that would have most likely killed him even without the explosion! If he’s on Wolverine level with the healing abilities, it might (and that’s a very, very slim might here) actually not have done the job, but still taken him out of the fight and probably the war as a whole. Unless as a pretty much brainwashed helper for whoever cares enough to gather him up.
My money is on perma-dead though.
Still think this might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for MaXia though. At least when it comes to X-Bow, seeing she could probably get away with offing her (or at least think she would).
As I think Wolverine should be written, a brain injury like what’s happened to Gradlon should be the end of him. The last time I read a comic with Wolvie in, he was virtually disintegrated by being to close to the Sun, yet still survived!
But yeah, Gradlon is dead. And there’s one constant in the Vanguard universe, once you’re dead, you’re dead.
Heh, it’s crazy how Wolverine’s healing factor evolved. Once upon a time, it was “Wolverine got shot in the gut? He needs a minute or three to catch his breath and he’ll be okay.” Now it’s “vaporized down to a small cluster of cells? NO PROB!” And it’s a bit ridiculous, to say the least.
Agreed. I wonder if there’s a story that dealt with if Wolvie lost a limb and a new person grew from it? I’d be surprised if this idea hasn’t been explored somewhere.
I think Maxia is gonna get mad, real mad.
She does deserve a bit of redemption. Of all the characters, I have built up a real empathy with her.
so out of the origional vanguard cast only … 2..? remain alive now. i said it once before but, you will need to rename the comic if this keeps up >.>
Actually to our knowledge there are currently 2 alive and 3 unaccounted for. With however two of the latter heavily wounded at the least and third one slowly dying of a bioweapon.
Yup, there’s still a few of them still knocking around… though in no state to put up any kind of a fight.
I’m assuming you mean Woden and Pendragon are alive (Woden not in danger, Pendragon injured but mobile), Spitfire and Godiva unaccounted for (Spitfire alive, but with both arms broken and really high in the air. Interestingly, Max seems to have forgotten about him and the air launch seems to have removed him from the combat area, so as long as he doesn’t pass out, he can probably fly out just fine. Godiva impaled by an arrow, but maybe not dead; unfortunately she’s in the middle of the battlefield and not moving any time soon. She’s only making it out if someone rescues her, although if she comes to, she could mind control someone to rescue herself I guess). Kingsword being the one dying of a bioweapon, but he’s also dying quickly of a MaXtreme. The only other Vanguard capable of even damaging Max would be Spitfire (potentially Woden?), who isn’t in any condition to. While Kingsword seems more skilled, he’s toast unless Maxia assists him.
You’ll see what has happened to Godiva and Spitfire in a page or two. In regards to Spitfire, it’s hinted that he potentially has what it takes to go up against MaXtreme. Will he ever get the chance? We will see!
Potentially, sure, but unless he can Kamehameha with his feet, I don’t think it’ll be any time soon. Woden’s powers are a bit vague, but if he’s this strong when everyone thinks he’s an ass, he could probably drag Alphas into the earth’s core and spit them into the sun if the whole world thought he was the grand protector of the planet or something.
That’s a great idea on how he could take one on. Probably wouldn’t be able to do it power-wise though. If he had that level of superhuman ability, he could sink nations if necessary. His powers and responsibilities will be explored in the next few issues.
A name change may well be in order. Like you say, with the team almost gone, calling the comic ‘Vanguard’ is a bit redundant!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! *pant pant pant*
At least Gradlion had his major redemption moment.
So what happened to Kingsword?
He’s still hanging in there… You’ll find out what happens to him TOMORROW!
This is brutal… Vanguard seems to be going the way of the dodo bird. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
Glad you’re enjoying it thus far! You’ll like what’s coming up next 🙂
I know of at least one person irl who survived and was functional after having half his brain destroyed so I guess he could survive, but I doubt he’ll be contributing much any time soon.