DARK GUARD

Membership: Albion, Stacy Arnheim, Dark Angel, Death's Head, Killpower, Colonel Tigon Liger, Motormouth, Ultra-Marine (Kith Nasca)

Purpose: To fight the evil of Mys-Tech throughout the universe - past, present and future!

Affiliations: The Egaliterns (Governor Trusivor), the Technarchy (Comcorder, Demogog Montano, Tansteele); Superconductor, the Time Guardian

Enemies: Battletide, Mys-Tech (Collapsar (deceased), Permafrost, Sunder, Tyburn (Golem duplicate))

Aliases: Butt-Kickers of the Fantastic

Base of Operations: The Refuge

First Appearance: Dark Guard#1 (October, 1993)









History:
(Dark Guard#1 (fb) - The Time Guardian began to foresee that Mys-Tech posed a considerable threat to the future of space-time and decided to gather a team to oppose them.

(Dark Guard#3 (fb) - BTS) - The Time Guardian witnessed how Albion, Dark Angel, Death's Head (Minion), Killpower ,and Motormouth managed to thwart Mys-Tech's schemes with the UnEarth and decided to recruit them for his purposes.

(Dark Guard#1 - BTS) - Killpower, Motormouth, and Ultra Marine were the first of the Time Guardians recruits to arrive at the Refuge.

(Dark Guard#1) - The Time Guardian notified Killpower, Motormouth and Ultra Marine that the others were beginning to arrive. Death's Head found himself in the Arrival Suite along with the Warheads Stacy and Colonel Liger, and the three immediately began to fall out. Although their weaponry was non-functional while in the Refuge, there was nothing to stop them getting down to fisticuffs. The arrival of Albion, followed by Dark Angel ,brought a stop to the fighting. Coming to the conclusion that only Mys-Tech had the resources to snatch them all out of time and negate their weaponry, they agreed on a temporary truce. However, the arrival of Killpower, Motormouth, and Ultra Marine didn't help to diffuse the tension. Liger smacked Ultra Marine around the face with his gun, as Death's Head and Stacy took on Killpower and Motormouth. Fortunately the Time Guardian arrived and explained his plans to them. Many of them seemed dubious, particularly Stacy, who attempted to flee the Refuge. Failing to understand the warning signs (written in an arcane scrawl unknown to her), she opened a no-space shutter. Upon contact with no-space she appeared to explode. The team were noticeably upset, particularly Liger, but the Time Guardian advised they turn their anger against Mys-Tech. They began to realize they had little choice but to go along with the Time Guardians plans. Except Death's Head still wanted to call the group the "Butt-Kickers of the Fantastic." The team where then dispatched on their first mission, finding themselves teleported onto an alien battlefield and hopelessly outnumbered.

(Dark Guard#2) - After a couple of minutes of intense action, but little significant progress, Dark Angel suggested the Dark Guard retreat. Motormouth located the gateway that had teleported them there, and most of the group managed to reach it. However, a superbeing called Collapsar appeared on the scene at the last moment and decked Killpower, Liger, and Death's Head. Death's Head was carried through the gateway by the force of the blow, but Liger and Killpower remained trapped on the other side. The rest of the Dark Guard were unable to return to help them, and attempted to find the Time Guardian. Instead they found Superconducter, Time Guardian's robot housekeeper. Superconducter briefed them on their mission. He told them that the alien world they had found themselves upon was Eopia, a world on the brink of civil war between the Egaliterns and the Technarchy. Apparently Mys-Tech had been sending agents to the planet to ferment and kindle the situation, and drive it over the edge into thermo-nuclear war. The Time Guardians intent was for them to diffuse things before the two factions destroyed their own planet. The team argued about what course of action to take and ultimately they split into two smaller groups. Death's Head and Motormouth went to rescue Killpower and Liger, who were being tortured by Collapsar and Tansteele. Meanwhile Albion, Dark Angel and Ultra Marine went to find Governor Trusivor of the Egaliterns. Unfortunately Trusivor thought they were Technarchy assassins, and ordered his bodyguards to obliterate them. The two burly men morphed into their combat forms as Sunder and Permafrost.

(Dark Guard#3) - Trusivor was unaware that Sunder and Permafrost were actually Mys-Tech constructs, but Albion, Dark Angel and Ultra Marine defeated them and then managed to convince him of the truth. Confronted by a Golem duplicate of Tyburn, they discovered that Mys-Tech had buried three hundred empathic receptors deep within the continental crust of Eopia. The receptors would be used to absorb the death screams of the planet. Mys-Tech intended to synthesize a raw, emotive force of pure death-agony that would entirely pay off their debt of souls to Mephisto. Meanwhile Death's Head and Motormouth had managed to break into the Technarchy legion encampment where Killpower and Liger were being held captive. They managed to free them, but encountered some major league resistance in the form of Collapsar. Back at the Refuge, the Time Guardian and Superconducter were shocked by what appeared to be the return of Stacy, somehow alive again but amnesiac (see comments).

(Dark Guard#4) - Death's Head, Killpower, Liger, and Motormouth continued to struggle with the seemingly invulnerable Collapsar. Liger discovered that his body was in fact a material container for a being of pure energy, and Motormouth detected micro-fractures across his torso from a bullet impact. Using that knowledge, Death's Head managed to pierce Collapsar's outer shell with his blade configuration at an ultra sharp setting. Collapsar exploded violently, leveling most of the Technarchy complex. Dark Angel destroyed the Tyburn golem duplicate, and convinced Trusivor to begin peace negotiations. However, Demogog Tansteel launched two cruise missiles upon the Egaliterns. Albion and Major Nasca raced to stop the missiles, while Liger and Killpower stopped Tansteele. Demogog Montano replaced Tansteele, and peace negotiations were restored. The Dark Guard returned to the Refuge to discover the inexplicably revived Stacy.

(Die-Cut vs G-Force#1 - BTS) - Some time later, Albion warned his friend Professor Daniel Jones (G-Force) about the risks of working for Mys-Tech. However, the Time Guardian insisted that Jones should take the job, in the hope he would discover something that might help ultimately destroy Mys-Tech. Albion reluctantly allowed Jones to take the job, providing him with a trans-warp communicator so he could contact him should he need any help.

(Battletide III#1-4) - The Dark Guard (Albion, Dark Angel, Tigon Liger, Motormouth/Harley Davis, Ultramarine) fought the Battletide.

Comments: Created by Dan Abnett, Carlos Pacheco, and Oscar Jiminez for (Marvel UK).

faces

    And that was it, or so we think.
    There were supposedly plans for a follow up to the series called Dark Guard Gold but to the best of my knowledge it never came out. If anybody knows better please let us know! Although it's never been revealed exactly what happened to the team, some of the members did appear again and return to their regular adventures (most notably, Death's Head). To the best of my knowledge it's never been explicitly stated that the team was disbanded, so it could be that there is still a Dark Guard to this day.

    There was no explanation given for Stacy's reappearance, so I was reluctant to refer to it as a definite resurrection or rebirth or anything like that. That is, of course, ASSuming it was the real Stacy and not a clone, shapeshifting imitator, android duplicate, or even the Stacy of an alternate timeline. In fact, given the nature of the Refuge, I would imagine the latter is a distinct possibility. Whoever it was, she certainly caused a stir, as you can see in the picture to the right!

There's some extra info on what was planned for the Dark Guard here.

Battletide III art    Battletide III was underway when in 1993 when the bubble burst for Marvel UK, and had been at least partially written, pencilled and inked, though not it seems colored yet. Per the credits page, it was written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, pencilled by Geoff Senior, inked by John Stokes, lettered by Alan O'Keefe, and was intended to be colored by Louise Cassell, and from the art page available, the Dark Guard were going to fight the Battletide.
--Loki

Profile by Changeling

Clarifications:

Dark Guard have no known connection to

And shouldn't be confused with:

images (not including advertisements):

Dark Guard TPB (Spanish), Cover
Dark Guard#1, p14, pan3, 4 and 5
Dark Guard#1, p15, pan3
Dark Guard#4, p21, pan3
Dark Guard#4, p21, pan5

Dark Guard#1-4 (October, 1993 - January, 1994) - Dan Abnett (writer), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Oscar Jimenez (inks), Stuart Bartlett (editor)

First posted: 08/10/2005
Last updated: 08/16/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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