We Stand on Guard

Locations
Call Number: Adult Graphic Novel / We Stand On Guard, Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / General / We Stand On Guard
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Adult Graphic Novel / We Stand On Guard	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / General / We Stand On Guard	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Cover title.
"Originally published in single magazine form as We Stand On Guard #1-6"--Title page verso.
"Set one hundred years in our future, We Stand on Guard follows a heroic band of Canadian civilians turned freedom fighters, who must defed their homeland from invasion by a technologically superior opponent ... the United States of America."--Page 4 of cover.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

So much to love submitted by eknapp on June 30, 2017, 9:51am In 2112, the USA invades Canada for its water supply, having destroyed its own over the course of two centuries of suicidally short-sighted anti-green policies. (And no, this wasn't written after Trump and brazen destructobot Scott Pruitt came to power. I checked.) This is the story of one small Canadian resistance group.
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There's so much to love here:
--Vaughan's 22nd century war technology is both plausible (best depiction of a laser weapon I've ever seen) and just a joy to look upon. It's kind of like watching a really good kaiju movie.
--The violence is realistically gory without being pornographic. Weapons (and remarkably creative torture programs, ugh) do terrible things and it annoys me when violence is oversanitized.
--There's an entertaining and pointed debate over who has the better poetic claim to pull the trigger on a blow for the resistance: a First Nations native American, or a 2nd-generation Syrian refugee whose parents were two of many turned away by the US but accepted by a Canada with a fraction of America's resources. (I'm noting again that this book was written months or years before the Trumpocalypse.)
--It is decidedly uncomfortable seeing Iraq/Afghanistan occupation tactics and rhetoric applied to Westerners (eg a peaceful elderly couple beaten and arrested as terrorists just for having an old hunting rifle like every other rural Canadian).
--In the long tradition of derogatory military nicknames, Vaughan cleverly gives us 'nucks' and 'moosef*ckers'. Heh.
--Just look at that cover. I can't remember the last time the front of a book made me want to read it this badly.
--The most Pyrrhic of victories, which is probably the best that could realistically be achieved.

My one big complaint is that this is an epic story, and it suffers for being squeezed down into one slim volume however gorgeous it is. We Stand On Guard cries out for room to breathe.

powerful submitted by shumoon on October 22, 2021, 3:14pm This was a moving graphic novel, but it's not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of violence and torture depicted. This is one of Brian K. Vaughn's best works.