3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
THE WALL: Guardian’s Redemption by Some Guy is advertised as a graphic novel and is volume 1 in the WALL series. It tells the adventures of five mercenaries who call themselves the Wrecking Crew. Recruited by the United Nations, they used to do the nasty, off the record kind of jobs, until they had a terrifying experience with a demon in Afghanistan. Having left the UN, they are now providing protection for the President of the United States who has just finished building a huge wall between America and Mexico.
Finding parallels? Yep, I found parallels. Perhaps real, perhaps imaginary. I found that four of the members of the Wrecking Crew appear to correlate quite nicely with the A Team. Terminator to B. A. Baracus, DMoney to Face and Bananas to Howling Mad Murdock. Forge/Gunns corresponds to Hannibal and though he doesn’t chew on a cigar, he does chew on a toothpick. Mind you, even Freud says that sometimes a cigar is just a toothpi... I mean a cigar. There is a fifth member called Scorpion, but he didn’t play an awfully big part. In fact, he reminded me of poor old John Tracey who spent most of his time alone and forgotten on Thunderbird 5 because Gerry Anderson didn’t like him.
There may be other parallels. Well, there’s the president and the wall for starters. No parallels there. The suspicious death of the front running opposition candidate, Hilary Dixon. Move along, move along, no parallels to be seen here, haven’t you people got homes to go to?
It’s a mixed-up world. Set in the near future (perhaps), in a dark alternative reality where it’s difficult to work out who, if anyone, is on the side of the angels. The Wrecking Crew are not nice guys. They talk about honour but they will kill before they establish who you are; they will kill because you got in the way, and they kill because you’ve just given them a headache. But that’s hardly a surprise since we are in a universe where debriefing your own people might require torture.
I enjoyed the book with its parallels to current politics, and I liked the comicstrip-style illustrations. I also enjoyed the parts where Gunns wrestles with his conscience, though I was surprised to find that he had one to wrestle with. The story was graphic, but not in the sense that it was advertised. There were only seven illustrations, so it fell well short of what I would describe as a graphic novel. It’s well written but it needs to be edited because even good writers make mistakes. There are also some problems with the integrity of the story. In chapter one, they start in Pakistan and end up in Afghanistan without crossing any obvious borders. Bananas releases a drone, then puts it in its protective pocket, and then catches it as it returns.
The story ends on a cliffhanger which is to be expected as this is the first in a series. At the end, there’s a glossary describing the protagonists. There is very little description of the characters during the story and I think the glossary may be there to mess with the brain of anybody who has made clichéd racial assumptions.
This book would appeal to anybody who enjoys graphic novels. While I would argue that it’s not a graphic novel itself, it nevertheless has the feel of one. The story is violent and would appeal to people who enjoy gung-ho heroes who carry so much weaponry that it’s hard to imagine where they keep their food and bedding.
If I could give half stars, I would give this 2.5 as there were quite a lot of typos that need to be sorted. However, I’m giving this 3 out of 4 stars because I know people who would really enjoy this book, so I would recommend it to them.
******
The Wall
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Helen_Combe's review? Post a comment saying so!