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Home ¦ Reviews ¦ Wardog

28th December 04

Cover by Patrick Goddard, Dylan Teague and Chris Blythe

What to Expect: Jack Wardog woke one day to find a bomb in his head and all his memories wiped. He must undertake a number of missions before the timer runs out.

Review by Gavin Hanly

The first thing you think about picking up Wardog is “now, isn’t this the one that was based on the computer game?” And yes, indeed it is. However, you wouldn’t know that from looking at this latest collection from Rebellion as all mentions of the game itself have been wiped from existence. After some Internet trawling, it seems that it's not only Rebellion that have forgotten about the game, as all mention of the title ceases around 2001. Whatever happened to it? Damned if I can find out.

But if you come to this book with the knowledge of the alleged game in mind (and after reading this review, it’s going to be hard not to) it’s fairly easy to see where elements of the game have influenced the design of the series. The episodic nature of the earlier episodes feels very much like the reader is working through levels in a game – with a set objective at the end of every level. Each one is based in a different setting, which would have given the games makers a chance to show off their lovely design work. This is all well and good for a video game, which can occasionally get away with being a little disjointed, but it jars somewhat here, especially when read as one full-length strip. Wardog may be trying to be a graphic novel, but it’s easy to see where the joins are. And as for the level – sorry, episode - on the train? It’s so clearly modelled on a level in the game it’s not true. And if there wasn’t a train level in the game, then that’s an even worse crime.

Wardog's gun came with the handy onomatopoeia attachment as standard...

At the time of original publication, with the key purpose of the book being to raise awareness of the game, such clear signposting back to the original source seems inevitable. But Rebellion clearly wants us to take this book on its own merits – so how does it stand?

Once you get past the whole “was that bit from the game?” issue, it’s…OK. But there are major problems with elements of the plot. The timer in Wardog’s brain simply isn’t explained sufficiently. Who gives him his orders? Why are the missions undertaken in the first place, and why at such unspecific moments? There are a number of issues raised with the whole ticking bomb concept but then, on top of that, a whole heap more are raised by the character of Jack Wardog himself. Once the strip settles down into actually telling a story as opposed to reeling off facsimiles of a game level, we learn that there’s a whole lot more to the background of Wardog and that there are significant parts of his past that he cannot remember. As these elements are unveiled it does look, for a moment, that the strip will be heading somewhere interesting.

But then it ends.

Wardog remembered he'd left his oven on

We can feel half compensated with the art by Goddard, Teague and Richard Elson. Goddard puts in a decent job all the way through, adding recognisable character to all the main protagonists. He manages action well, keeping things moving fast and in a way so you can still understand what’s happening – a talent sadly lacking in far more artists than you’d think. Being a Rebellion hardback, this is all terribly well designed too, with front and end pieces making the book look much better than the current DC/Rebellion collections (but with a higher price point to match the quality of the production). I should also point out the sterling job that Richard Elson does on the colours here enhancing Goddard’s art, and using computer effects sparingly but to great effect. This raises the question of why the credits for the colourist and the letterer are buried on the “printing credits” page. This seems insulting when the colourist has contributed so much to the overall feel of the book and is something I’d like to see corrected in future collections.

So, in all, Wardog provided an acceptable distraction. However, the incomplete nature of the book makes it hard to recommend. If a sequel was on the way, I’d be tempted to make a cautious recommendation – a well illustrated book with a intriguing plot – if those elements are capitalised on in the sequel. As it stands, I’d recommend you pick up one of the DC/Rebellion line – your money will be better spent.