Vanguard (character)

Last updated
Vanguard
Vanguard 01 cover.jpg
Vanguard #1
Publication information
Publisher Megaton Comics
Image Comics
First appearance Megaton #1 (Nov. 1983)
First Image appearance:
The Savage Dragon #2 (July 1993)
Created by Gary Carlson, Erik Larsen
In-story information
Alter egoVanguard Thakka
Species Alien
Team affiliations Brigade
Abilities

Vanguard is an alien superhero created by Gary Carlson and Erik Larsen for Carlson's self-published comics anthology Megaton. Vanguard is a white alien with small antennae who has been given the unenviable job of guarding Earth, which is viewed by the aliens as boring with little chance of anything happening. His sole companion is a sarcastic, hovering cycloptic robot and their morphing androids, though he quickly developed a relationship with a reporter Roxanne Wells.

Contents

Following Larsen's departure from Marvel Comics and co-founding of Image Comics he and Carlson re-tooled the character slightly and re-introduced him as a part of Larsen's Savage Dragon's universe of which he was a close part, via Image he received two mini-series, Vanguard and Vanguard: Strange Visitors and a 1-shot but frequently appeared in Savage Dragon , Freak Force and the third volume of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well being a member of Rob Liefeld's short-lived re-vamp of Brigade before Liefeld's expulsion.

Fictional character biography

Megaton

In Megaton comics, Vanguard has already been watching Earth for sometime, and was already in a relationship with Roxanne Wells. Erik Larsen's first fully professional work was on the title (though Graphic Fantasy pre-dated it).

Cosmo VII, a Soviet Union robot assaulted Vanguard, Wally and Roxanne in Vanguard's space station, drawing him to Earth (as Supreme would in his Image series) and leading to conflict between the United States and the USSR and between Vanguard and the Savage Dragon's S.O.S and Mighty Man.

Vanguard

The initial six-issue series was written by Vanguard creator Gary Carlson and featured a 'revolving door' of artists that included Joe Madureira. In the text of the final issue it was implied that the comic was originally intended to be an ongoing series, rather than a mini-series, but various issues, including the revolving door of artists, led to it being prematurely ended.

Following on from a back-up story, Vanguard began his series fighting Supreme, Supreme had encountered Vanguard's race while in his exile in space. The fight resulted in Earth's first contact with Vanguard, and ended in Chicago with Supreme the victor and Vanguard was left outside the Savage Dragon's police department, arrested and taken to a maximum security prison, which he was swiftly broken out of by his robot aid Wally using their teleporter and one of their shape-shifter robot drones, Lurch. Unfortunately, the teleportation went wrong and sent Vanguard to a science lab, and Lurch had a glitch that made him rebellious. Lurch, posing as Vanguard escaped and fought The Dragon, while Vanguard escaped the space station and accidentally caused the overweight female scientist there to become a super-villain 'Modem' who could control robotics/electronics.

Vanguard was able to intervene with Dragon and Lurch's battle, which led to his first meeting with Roxanne Wells. Wells had found Vanguard's helmet, which he had lost during his fight with Supreme, and had repaired it. Able to speak English once more, the situation was resolved, only for Wally, under the control of Modem, to battle both Dragon and Vanguard. First, in Chicago and then on Vanguard's ship. Vanguard teleported Modem's molecules across the vastness of space.

Issue 5 featured a fight between Vanguard and a time-traveller called Berseker, and Issue 6 featured Vanguard's first date with Roxanne, and his battle with the Imagineer, an old man who used a machine to become various super-criminals.

Vanguard continued to feature in The Savage Dragon and Freak Force series after this, helping Freak Force against their clones, and Freak Force and Cyberforce against alien, metal eating ants. Lurch was particularly crucial in the Savage Dragon, he posed as Lt. Frank Darling and allowed the policeman to fake his death to escape blackmail from Overlord and the Vicious Circle, only for the robot to survive and continue to attack Overlord over and over revealing the man to be alive.

Issue two of Vanguard's initial six-issue series featured a mysterious back-up story; this story was not explained until some time later, when the character appeared in the third volume of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a villain.

Vanguard attempts to assist when reality threatens to fracture into six different Earths. 'Tremors' tear him away. [1]

Strange Visitors

Much of Strange Visitors focussed around a long fight between Vanguard and a giant hulking alien called 'Amok', the series guest starred a number of other characters including Supreme, Glory, Badrock, WildC.A.T.S, The Dragon and Freak Force. Gary Calrson again wrote the series and art was by Scot Eaton.

After Vanguard met Roxanne's parents and defeated Modem again, Amok crashed to earth destroying a NASA space station in the process, this destruction was blamed on Vanguard who clashed with Amok, whom he knew as a slave' on Vanguard's homeworld (yes, on Vanguards planet Slavery existed and this slaves just happened to be brown-skinned people who revolted and were wiped out) and the last survivor of an extinct planet (Radan), Amok kidnapped Roxanne and Vanguard enlisted the help of Supreme in rescuing her, with the final issue dedicated to a long fight between Amok and a number of guest stars. After beating Vangard, Supreme and quite a few of the guest stars senseless, even punching Supreme so hard he was knocked to outer space. Upon regaining consciousness Supreme charged back to earth with vengeance on his mind to deliver his best punch. Amok took Supreme's best punch and flattened him, much to the amazement of the multiple guest stars cowering in anticipation of the coup-de-grace from Supreme. After laughing at Supreme's best shot it was apparent Amok could not be beat physically. Against the wishes of even Roxanne who could now understand Amok as it took him some time to adapt to English, Vanguards robot pal telekinetically gave Amok a lobotomy (even after finding out Amok was not a senseless brute but just crazed from the loss of his family and profiled because of his enormous size and demeanor).

Aside from the One-Shot Ethereal Warriors, which teamed him with Ethrian, a character created by Frank Fosco (who pencilled the special) Vanguard's appearances since Strange Visitors were mostly in a supporting role, assisting The Dragon mostly and also the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it was revealed by Larsen (source needed) that Vanguard was positioned to watch for the Cosmic Cops that attacked in the Freak Force ongoing series.

Related Research Articles

Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Liefeld</span> American comic book creator

Robert Liefeld is an American comic book creator. A prominent writer and artist in the 1990s, he is known for co-creating the character Cable with writer Louise Simonson and the character Deadpool with writer Fabian Nicieza. In the early 1990s, Liefeld gained popularity due to his work on Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and later X-Force. In 1992, he and several other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which started a wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than by publishers. The first book published by Image Comics was Liefeld's Youngblood #1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erik Larsen</span> Comic creator

Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics. He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics. In 1992 he was one of several artists who stopped working for Marvel to found Image Comics, where he launched his superhero series Savage Dragon – one of the longest running creator-owned superhero comics series – and served for several years as the company's publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savage Dragon</span> Comic book superhero

The Savage Dragon is a superhero created by Erik Larsen, published by Image Comics and taking place in the Image Universe. The comic features the adventures of a superheroic police officer named the Dragon. The character first appeared as the Dragon in Graphic Fantasy #1 and first appeared as the "Savage Dragon" in Megaton #3.

<i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i> (2003 TV series) Animated television series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American animated television series developed by Lloyd Goldfine. It is the second animated series and third television series in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The series premiered on February 8, 2003, as part of Fox's FoxBox programming block and ended on February 28, 2009. A sequel film, Turtles Forever, serving as both the series finale of the series and a crossover with the 1987–1996 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, was released on November 21, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Supreme (character)</span> Fictional superhero created by Rob Liefeld

Supreme is a superhero created by Rob Liefeld and published by Image Comics, followed by Maximum Press (1996–98), Awesome Entertainment (1999–2000), and Arcade Comics (2006). Although Supreme was originally a violent, egotistical, Superman archetype, he was retooled by Alan Moore as a tribute to Mort Weisinger's Silver Age Superman.

<i>Brigade</i> (comics) Comic book

Brigade is an American comic book published by Image Comics and later by Awesome Entertainment, created, plotted, and originally written by Rob Liefeld and first illustrated by Marat Mychaels as a spin-off from the then-popular series Youngblood.

Venus (<i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i>) Fictional character within the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise

Venus de Milo is a fictional superheroine within the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. She first appeared in the television series, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. There, she was portrayed by Nicole Parker and voiced by Lalainia Lindbjerg. She was the only female turtle prior to the introduction of Jennika in the IDW continuity in 2019, and Lita the following year. Venus is currently the only turtle named after a work of art, rather than an artist like the rest of the turtles.

<i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures</i> American comic book series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures is an American comic book series that was published from August 1988 to October 1995 by Archie Comics. The series, which was aimed at a younger audience than other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics at the time, ran for 72 issues. In addition, there were numerous annuals, specials, and miniseries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SuperPatriot</span> Comics character

SuperPatriot is an Image Comics superhero created by Erik Larsen in 1992. He regularly appears in Erik Larsen's titles, whether in his own mini-series or as a supporting character and is currently a member of the Liberty League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vicious Circle (comics)</span> Comics character

The Vicious Circle is a criminal organization of mutants, cyborgs, monsters, assassins, and magicians that serves as the primary opponents for the superheroes in Erik Larsen's comic-book titles, primarily the Dragon.

Mighty Man is a superhero created by comics creator Erik Larsen. He has been a major character in Larsen's series The Savage Dragon and its spin-off Freak Force, as well as in Gary Carlson's Big Bang Comics series. His first appearance was Megaton #2, which was also the first appearance of the Savage Dragon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freak Force</span>

Freak Force is the name of a fictional team of superhuman bounty hunters operating out of Chicago, Illinois. They originated in the Image Comics comic book series Savage Dragon, but subsequently went on to star in their own series. All the characters were created by Erik Larsen, many during his adolescence.

Judgment Day was a limited series published by Awesome Comics from June to October 1997 written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Rob Liefeld, with additional art by Gil Kane. This story features several characters created by Liefeld for both Awesome Comics and the Image Universe, including Supreme, Youngblood and Glory, dealing with the concept of superheroes being tried for murder. The series also features characters created by other Image Comics creators such as Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon.

Gary Scott Carlson is an American comic book writer, editor and publisher, known for his work on his creator-owned comics, such as the 1980s anthology Megaton and Big Bang Comics. He has also worked on books for Image Comics, such as Vanguard, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Supreme, and on titles for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, such as Aquaman and Nova, respectively.

Horridus, born Sarah Hill, is a superheroine created by Erik Larsen for his Image Comics series, The Savage Dragon, as a member of the Freak Force.

Jennifer Dragon, originally Jennifer Wilson and sometimes using the codename Smasher, is a recurring comic book character in Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon and Robert Kirkman's Invincible. The wife of the Savage Dragon and mother of Angel and Malcolm Dragon, she debuted in the first issue of The Savage Dragon: Sex & Violence mini-series, though she had a one-panel cameo prior to that in Savage Dragon issue 40.

The Image Universe (IU) is a fictional universe in which some of the stories published by Image Comics take place. It was introduced in the early years of the publisher, shared by the various creators who formed the Image partnership. The independent, creator-owned nature of their work led to limited interaction between their characters, and little coordination of the Image Universe as a shared setting, with the primary versions populated by a number of superheroes/villains, including Supreme, Invincible, Omni-Man, Spawn, Angela, Atom Eve, the Dragon, Gert, Bomb Queen, and Witchblade, as well as incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

References

  1. Shattered Image #2 (1996)