The New Guardians (1988-1989) #6

The New Guardians (1988) #6

by Cary Bates (Writer), Joe Staton (Illustrator), Mark Farmer (Illustrator)

The battle against alien invaders is fierce on the Sino-Soviet border…right near Gloss's home in China. The New Guardians get into the action…and before it's over, one of them will die.

25 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1989

About the author

Cary Bates (born 1948) is an American comic book, animation, television and film writer. He is best known for his work on The Flash and Superman.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B+) 78% | Good
Notes: Quaint, quirky, fairly perky, albeit story's dark, bit dated and hokey, outmoded when jokey (stereotypes quite stark).

*Progress update

[Cybernex007 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ONE thing this series had going for them was the HIV subplot and having heroes truly explore the physical and emotional tolls that puts on someone, every time that is brought up a bit of my sanity feels like it has returned for daring to read this series…only for it be ripped away. Additionally there is one thing I realized only AFTER reading this…Arisa, former green lantern, has been in this issue the ENTIRE TIME! She is even on the cover, but doesn’t get a single line of dialogue other than questioning there is an invasion going on. But she’s there the entire time, just hiding out in the background doing jack shit. Speaking of not doing anything, do you know where the new guardians were during a literal invasion…dicking around doing squat in Moscow, while living in Olga’s apartment playing board games, lmao. Who is Olga you may ask? You clearly don’t remember the last issue and the very happy assistant to the rocket red program who thought it went too far and was ecstatic that they saved them all. It took forever for them to turn on the tv and find out that there is an alien warship lead by the Okaaran’s ripping its way across mainland China bound for the Soviet Union border. As I mentioned with Arisa being here, Kilowog is also here and has a way bigger part even with his arm still injured. The team immediately gets ready to head out and face the invasion, ONLY because Gloss got them to go due to the threat posed to millions of Chinese innocents. Yes finally, the purpose of the new guardians to be a force for good for everyone across the planet, everyone but Jet let’s kick it into high gear and get on the plane out of here! Jet is currently bedridden and sleeping from the massive amount of pills she has to take for her HIV treatment. The group bids farewell to Olga only to get a last unexpected passenger as Jet climbs aboard. She is stronger than all of them combined. Fighting for everyone else while oneself is actively fighting against them.

As the new guardians approach the last sighting of the alien warship, they suddenly come across a village that was decimated with no signs of organize life left. It takes the new guardians WAY too long to simply look up as it turns out the warship is literally just right there within view as it continues in its course and is now bound directly for Ning Po, which also happens to be Gloss’ home town and the full explanation for why she rushed the new guardians out to fight vs playing more board games, lol. But the new guardians can’t simply just walk up, can they? No they must disguise themselves in local dress to blend in because…why? They just came across a decimated town, what’s the use in not rushing in full force? Like you see what happens when the warship approaches a town, and it seems like they wasted more time walking from that town to the next instead of just super heroing their way over. Fortunately for them, the Okaarans are actually trying out a surrender policy. I’m fairly certain it’s so the can cull as many humans into one camp to wipe them out even faster vs wiping them out town by town and giving them a chance to resist, but it literally takes two seconds for the group to get into town for Kilowog to blow his cover and fight some aliens and reveal the floronic man in the process. The rest of the new guardians fully dipped out and hid leaving the two to fend for themselves. Only for the fight to be broken up by some of the Okaaran commanders who identified Kilowog and FM as non humans and led them leave or die as they have no interest in them. Without much choice the pair left with the full lab to circle around and mount an attack from the rear, but at the moment the floronic man is also having a very difficult time with the inhospitable air templates for his natural body.

Things went right back to plan as they left as the new guardians slip in with the populace to be captured by the Okaarans to find a place to attack…and Gloss immediately dropped her cover once she saw her parents and the rest of the new guardians said screw it and dropped their covers as well. WHY?! Gloss is the only Chinese member of the group, she actually fits in with the local populace useless disguise or not, why would they possibly drop their disguises as well just because she did? It’s just so idiotic. So gloss’s parents haven’t see her since her transformation and barely recognized her or her “disrespectful” outfit, lol, but they did believe her. And with the message that she is here to fight back, their response was to kick rocks. They have already given up and they currently see a chance for the young people of their town to live if they do not cause a disturbance. The entire last town was killed because one person tried to rise up, so screw off new guardians we don’t want to die! What’s funny is that if you are reading invasion in order, like me, then you also read swamp thing 81 last. That message the alien gave Abby about full blown genocide seems really important information to give to all of the people of earth right about now, huh? If only any of these people were aware that their surrender would still only end in death. All the while, the floronic man is fully about to freeze to death as they wait around doing nothing, but luckily Kilowog snuck a laser in his sling that he can use to keep FM warm. One of the only moments of this issue that stands out to me is Extrao reminding Jet to take her pills even amidst all of this chaos. I’m not exactly sure where Jet was storing the pills, but there is a legit emotional moment here where she admits that the invasion made her realize that dying is not what she has dreamed the most, but knowing that with all the good her powers could do for the world…that it could be meaningless and gone in a moment.

Remember how Gloss’s parents said they want to surrender for the future of the young…well in a barn the young people of the town are currently planning in suicide bombing the Okaarans. They have one of their crashed ships and plan on giving it over as an offering only for it to be really filled with dynamite. The new guardians somehow pay enough attention to their surroundings for once to discover this plot and end it before it begins on the mere fact that dynamite will have no effect on the Okaarans defenses and that the aliens would immediately retaliate. But they don’t hate the plan and decide to steal it and modify it for themselves. Instead of the youth, Gloss is the one to follow the plan and deliver the crashed ship as an offering only to reveal that they didn’t just steal one part of the plan…but both parts of the plan, as they turned it into a Trojan horse and filled it with the new guardians to attack as soon as they got in the Okaarans camp! Why did they need to do this instead of just attacking, where in the world is Arisa, and why didn’t they tell Kilowog or the floronic man…don’t worry about it, thinking that out would be too hard, just enjoy the mindless fighting as the new guardians attack the aliens and Kilowog and floronic man see the arm toon and join in. But surprise surprise, the Okaarans whole plan to suppress the humans and force them to surrender was just a small plan that has now failed so they are now reverting back to their original plan…decimate all life! Extraño is the one to hear this command before he could take out the Okaaran who sent it. He immediately ran back to warn the other new guardians of the aliens preparation…but there is one member missing from the group…Jet! Oh wait, there’s Arisa, she finally showed up, lol. But I’m distracting from the point, as this is the real juice of the issue. Jet pulled together all of her energy and flew into the invasion fleet head on. The others actually made a dumbass comment about how she must have dementia due to her insane actions, but suddenly they see her face the entire fleet and activate her biosphere powers to pull on the magnetic propulsion that allows all of the Okaarans engine to propel their ships. She bled all of the ships dry, resulting in all of the ships self destructing before their eyes!! But even as the last ship fell, jet’s power continued. The energy was too much and she is no linger able to reverse her is internal polarity to stop it and prevent the overload…from ending her life. Before their eyes…jet overloaded and died in a flash. Her greatest fear was that all of her power would be gone like dust in the wind…and now that is true. But she will not be forgotten for as long as the new guardians live…oof, sorry jet, maybe there is another lesson here about putting all your eggs in one poorly made basket? I jest, but the moment at the end of this issue was extraño gives a eulogy for their lost member and his courageous she was and how her beautiful spirit remained indomitable even against the agony she endured was quite touching. But they can’t mourn for long as only moments later RAM gets a transmission from Captain atom ordering them to come to the US at once. Funny enough, the new guardians literally represent the threat the alliance fears from humans and is planning genocide because of the potential of their power, and it feels like none of that is explored here. Maybe they are saving it for the pages of invasion, but honestly I’d rather just drop these characters off the face of the earth, lol.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Invasion! tie-in was way better than I expected. The New Guardians came about during Millennium. They are supposed to be advanced humans. Here they try and save a Chinese town along with the Green Lantern Kilowog. Three of the members are HIV positive after fighting a vampire. That's some bold writing there, especially for the 80s.