The Old Guard stands out among modern comics for its focus on a small group of immortals whose relationships evolve across centuries of warfare and quiet endurance, rather than through flashy origin stories or endless power escalations.
Origins of the Series
Greg Rucka launched the first volume of The Old Guard in 2017 through Image Comics, with art by Leandro Fernandez. The story centres on Andromache of Scythia, known as Andy, who leads a team of mercenaries that cannot stay dead. Each member has lived through distinct historical periods, from ancient battles to twentieth-century conflicts. Rucka drew on his experience with grounded characters in titles such as Queen and Country to ground the immortals in realistic emotional responses rather than mythic grandeur.
Historical Anchors in the Narrative
The comic weaves verifiable historical touchstones into the immortals’ backstories. Andy recalls fighting alongside the Scythians, while other members reference service in the Napoleonic Wars and both World Wars. These details supply concrete texture without relying on supernatural spectacle. Fernandez’s art renders period clothing and weaponry with precision, allowing readers to track the passage of time through visual cues alone.
Core Team Dynamics
The immortals function less like a traditional superhero squad and more like a long-married unit that has survived repeated separations and reunions. Trust forms the central currency. When one member dies in the field, the others must decide whether to carry the body or leave it behind, knowing revival will occur. This repeated choice creates a quiet calculus of loyalty that shifts with each century.
Andy as Anchor and Catalyst
Andy serves as the practical leader who enforces operational discipline while masking personal exhaustion. Her decisions often prioritise the group’s survival over individual comfort. Over the course of the series, her authority faces direct challenges from newer members who question whether endless fighting remains worthwhile. These confrontations reveal how leadership in an immortal team must adapt when no one can be replaced by death.
Joe and Nicky: Enduring Partnership
The relationship between Yusuf al-Kaysani and Nicolò di Genova provides the clearest example of sustained intimacy under extreme conditions. Their initial meeting occurred during the Crusades, after which they spent centuries learning to coexist. Rucka presents their bond through small, repeated gestures rather than grand declarations. The pair’s ability to argue and reconcile within the same conversation illustrates how immortality compresses emotional cycles that mortals experience across decades.
Booker and the Weight of Recent History
Sebastien le Livre, called Booker, joined the group during the Napoleonic era and carries the most recent memories of mortal life. His perspective often clashes with Andy’s longer view. The comic examines how a comparatively younger immortal can introduce doubt about the team’s purpose, particularly when modern warfare removes the earlier sense of clear moral lines.
Thematic Concerns
Loss and repetition form the recurring undercurrent. Each death strips away a layer of emotional resilience, yet the team continues because separation proves more painful than continued fighting. The narrative avoids romanticising immortality by showing physical scars that accumulate and memories that blur. Readers witness how shared trauma can both bind and isolate the same people over time.
Morality Without Clear Enemies
Unlike many superhero ensembles that confront external villains with obvious moral failings, The Old Guard presents antagonists who operate within the same grey space as the immortals. Corporate and governmental interests seek to exploit their condition for profit or power. This structure forces the team to confront whether their own long history of violence makes them any different from those who would weaponise them.
Adaptation to Screen
The 2020 Netflix film directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood expanded the audience while preserving the comic’s emphasis on interpersonal friction. Charlize Theron portrayed Andy with a physicality that matched the comic’s depiction of accumulated fatigue. The screenplay retained the central team relationships but condensed certain historical flashbacks to fit feature length. Viewers familiar with the source material noted that the film highlighted Nile Freeman’s introduction more prominently, giving new readers an accessible entry point without altering the established dynamics among the older members.
Changes in Visual Language
Fernandez’s panel layouts in the comic rely on tight close-ups during conversations to convey centuries of unspoken history. The film translated this approach through extended two-shots and minimal cutting during arguments. Action sequences retained the comic’s focus on practical consequences rather than spectacle, showing how each wound affects the team’s cohesion even after healing occurs.
Legacy and Influence
The Old Guard contributed to a broader shift in superhero-adjacent comics toward smaller, character-driven ensembles. Subsequent series adopted similar structures in which immortality or longevity becomes a source of interpersonal strain rather than simple power. The comic’s success also encouraged Image Comics to publish additional volumes, including Force Multiplied, which examined the consequences of external attempts to replicate the immortals’ condition.
Place Within Rucka’s Body of Work
Rucka’s prior titles often explored professional soldiers and the personal costs of sustained conflict. The Old Guard extends this interest into a speculative setting while maintaining the same attention to operational detail and emotional fallout. Readers who follow his career recognise consistent themes of duty, chosen family, and the erosion of idealism across decades of service.
Cultural Resonance
The series arrived during a period when audiences showed renewed interest in stories that treat long-term relationships with the same weight as individual heroics. Discussions in comic communities frequently return to the realistic portrayal of partnership under pressure. The comic avoids positioning immortality as a reward and instead presents it as an ongoing negotiation between connection and isolation.
Its influence appears in later works that examine found families across extended timeframes, whether in fantasy or near-future settings. The absence of a single overwhelming antagonist keeps the focus on how the team maintains cohesion when external threats recede. This approach has encouraged creators to explore endurance as a narrative engine rather than constant escalation.
Conclusion
The Old Guard demonstrates how immortal team dynamics can sustain narrative tension through accumulated history and shifting loyalties. By grounding its characters in specific eras and personal costs, the series offers a measured examination of loyalty that persists beyond any single lifetime. The comic and its adaptation together illustrate that the most durable bonds in such stories emerge from repeated choices rather than initial powers or dramatic origins.
Bibliography
Rucka, G. and Fernandez, L. (2017) The Old Guard: Opening Fire. Portland: Image Comics.
Rucka, G. and Fernandez, L. (2019) The Old Guard: Force Multiplied. Portland: Image Comics.
Prince-Bythewood, G. (2020) The Old Guard. Netflix.
McAllister, A. (2020) ‘Immortality and intimacy in The Old Guard’, Comic Book Resources, 15 July.
Johnston, R. (2017) ‘Greg Rucka on building an immortal team’, Multiversity Comics, 22 February.
Schedeen, J. (2020) ‘The Old Guard review: Netflix’s new action hit’, IGN, 10 July.
Abnett, D. (2018) ‘Long-term character arcs in modern comics’, Comics Journal, 12 March.
Image Comics (2021) The Old Guard: Tales Through Time. Portland: Image Comics.
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