Okay, there don't seem to be that many people that went through all seven episodes. But still...
If the original 'Watchmen' was a deconstruction of superhero TV tropes, with a "What impact would superheroes other than vigilantes, and one blue guy with omnipotent powers, have on the real world?". Then 'Guardians' takes the approach of' "What if the Justice League existed in the 'Watchmen' universe"? So it's basically a deconstruction of a deconstruction. :)
If you get rid of the expies and the gender swaps... if you made Batman even more of a jerk, and had him weaponize Captain Marvel, And had Barry Allen investigating. And turned Black Canary and Green Arrow into drug addicts. And had Aquaman have an affair with Lois Lane, and not much else Then you'd have a decent Otherworlds story.
Okay, there's Superman as Marvelous Man. But like 'Watchmen' and Comedian, Marvelous Man's apparent suicide is more of a red herring then anything. Sure, it's starts everything in motion, but other than the homosexual subtext (which becomes pretty much text around ep. 6), and drag out the plot, his suicide doesn't _do_ anything. At least Comedian more-or-less let himself be killed once he realized the enormity of what he was up against. MM, not so much.
Or to put it another way, if not for Knight Hawk's induced amnesia, how short would the series be? Rewrite episodes 1 and 6, eliminate 2-5, and Bob's your uncle. It's only a mystery because Knight Hawk forgot he knew the solution.
As for the episode itself, most of it is taken up by Speed fighting... well, everything. Since either as style or a low budget or both, it's mostly done as Claymation and video game side-scrolling. After six episodes, you either accept this or you've probably abandoned ship. Count me in the former. There are a couple of weird shots, like a distant planet with a face. Which... I guess represents the coming force of destruction.
None of this is really explained, which is the major flaw in the story. Speed is drained of her power, but she reconnects to the Fast Force and she's as fast as she ever was. Didn't Awesome Man say she would be weaker in space? Not here, she isn't. And how does Knight Hawk plan to fight off the coming menace with human soldiers. Even if the world were unified, how much good would it do against, say, Galactus? He'd take one look at the hundreds of soldiers arrayed against him and say, "Num. Send. More. Soldiers." President Nukem isn't particularly mentally stable, and it's not clear if nuclear missiles would stop this galactic force in any cases. You don't need unity, you need power.
It seems like the most effective forces against any intergalactic threat would be... Speed and Awesome Man. By the end of the story, Knight Hawk has engineered Speed's death at Awesome Man's hands. That seems like the worst way to get Awesome Man on his side. That leaves Golden Goddess, who from what little we see of her, doesn't have much of an interest in humanity, much less saving it. I suppose Black Bow could shoot a few arrows at the threat.
There's also stuff that comes out of left field. Like Little Wing being revealed as Awesome Man. Umm, foreshadowing? Galacron doesn't come across as a world-uniting threat, just because we never see him except in some of the show's goofier animated sequences. Ditto with the art style making the cast all look fat. What was the point of that? I didn't mind the animation, but that particular style was a step too far.
Okay, I suppose the production staff did some half-ass hinting that Little Wing was Awesome Man. In an earlier episode we saw Little Wing doing... something with his chest glowing with power. And Knight Hawk called Awesome Man a "good soldier". Any the bedtime story Knight Hawk told Little Wing about how Guardians should never fall in love might have been precautionary. But then... Little Wing turned into Awesome Man to talk to Knight Hawk. Why? If you look at it sideways it might work. But not really.
So 'Guardians' doesn't really change at the end. It still uses cheap-looking graphics to disguise a lack of budget as style choices. Or maybe it's style; Claymation isn't that cheap. And an odd Watchmen-parody. Or pastiche. Or deconstruction. Or whatever you want to call it. It's not bad. But it's not the height of televisual art, either.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
If the original 'Watchmen' was a deconstruction of superhero TV tropes, with a "What impact would superheroes other than vigilantes, and one blue guy with omnipotent powers, have on the real world?". Then 'Guardians' takes the approach of' "What if the Justice League existed in the 'Watchmen' universe"? So it's basically a deconstruction of a deconstruction. :)
If you get rid of the expies and the gender swaps... if you made Batman even more of a jerk, and had him weaponize Captain Marvel, And had Barry Allen investigating. And turned Black Canary and Green Arrow into drug addicts. And had Aquaman have an affair with Lois Lane, and not much else Then you'd have a decent Otherworlds story.
Okay, there's Superman as Marvelous Man. But like 'Watchmen' and Comedian, Marvelous Man's apparent suicide is more of a red herring then anything. Sure, it's starts everything in motion, but other than the homosexual subtext (which becomes pretty much text around ep. 6), and drag out the plot, his suicide doesn't _do_ anything. At least Comedian more-or-less let himself be killed once he realized the enormity of what he was up against. MM, not so much.
Or to put it another way, if not for Knight Hawk's induced amnesia, how short would the series be? Rewrite episodes 1 and 6, eliminate 2-5, and Bob's your uncle. It's only a mystery because Knight Hawk forgot he knew the solution.
As for the episode itself, most of it is taken up by Speed fighting... well, everything. Since either as style or a low budget or both, it's mostly done as Claymation and video game side-scrolling. After six episodes, you either accept this or you've probably abandoned ship. Count me in the former. There are a couple of weird shots, like a distant planet with a face. Which... I guess represents the coming force of destruction.
None of this is really explained, which is the major flaw in the story. Speed is drained of her power, but she reconnects to the Fast Force and she's as fast as she ever was. Didn't Awesome Man say she would be weaker in space? Not here, she isn't. And how does Knight Hawk plan to fight off the coming menace with human soldiers. Even if the world were unified, how much good would it do against, say, Galactus? He'd take one look at the hundreds of soldiers arrayed against him and say, "Num. Send. More. Soldiers." President Nukem isn't particularly mentally stable, and it's not clear if nuclear missiles would stop this galactic force in any cases. You don't need unity, you need power.
It seems like the most effective forces against any intergalactic threat would be... Speed and Awesome Man. By the end of the story, Knight Hawk has engineered Speed's death at Awesome Man's hands. That seems like the worst way to get Awesome Man on his side. That leaves Golden Goddess, who from what little we see of her, doesn't have much of an interest in humanity, much less saving it. I suppose Black Bow could shoot a few arrows at the threat.
There's also stuff that comes out of left field. Like Little Wing being revealed as Awesome Man. Umm, foreshadowing? Galacron doesn't come across as a world-uniting threat, just because we never see him except in some of the show's goofier animated sequences. Ditto with the art style making the cast all look fat. What was the point of that? I didn't mind the animation, but that particular style was a step too far.
Okay, I suppose the production staff did some half-ass hinting that Little Wing was Awesome Man. In an earlier episode we saw Little Wing doing... something with his chest glowing with power. And Knight Hawk called Awesome Man a "good soldier". Any the bedtime story Knight Hawk told Little Wing about how Guardians should never fall in love might have been precautionary. But then... Little Wing turned into Awesome Man to talk to Knight Hawk. Why? If you look at it sideways it might work. But not really.
So 'Guardians' doesn't really change at the end. It still uses cheap-looking graphics to disguise a lack of budget as style choices. Or maybe it's style; Claymation isn't that cheap. And an odd Watchmen-parody. Or pastiche. Or deconstruction. Or whatever you want to call it. It's not bad. But it's not the height of televisual art, either.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
