Set in the shared Marvel Universe, Dark Guard follows a team of heroes (and antiheroes) assembled by the mysterious Time Guardian. The membership is drawn from Marvel UK's other books - Death's Head, Dark Angel, Albion from the Knights of Pendragon, Motormouth & Killpower, and Liger and Stacy of the Warheads. They're accompanied by one new character - the futuristic Ultra-Marine - and sent to stop a war on an alien world.
The series was Cut Short with issue #4 due to the wider cancellation of the Marvel UK line. The final issue was also intended to lead into the first of a quarterly series of Dark Guard Gold specials, which were never published.
Dark Guard provides examples of the following tropes:
- Actually a Doombot: Mys-Tech's immortal wizard Tyburn seems to confront the heroes directly, but she's actually sent a shapeshifting duplicate in her place.
- The Alleged Boss: The Time Guardian apparently told the Ultra-Marine that he'd be leading the Dark Guard team. In practice, nobody follows his orders. He's even more disgruntled when he notices that they do follow Dark Angel's orders and she's become the leader by default.
- ...And That Would Be Wrong: Played with. In the midst of a huge battle that's going badly, Motormouth asks Gun Nut Killpower if he brought the horribly dangerous tactical mini-nuke launcher and "fission thingumies" that she specifically told him not to bring.Killpower: Of course I didn't, Harley. You said they wuz dangerous.
- An Ice Person: Permafrost has ice powers and switches between a normal human form and a monstrous ice creature.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Downplayed. Collapsar seems utterly unscathed when Colonel Liger repeatedly shoots him, but Motormouth's enhanced vision lets her see tiny fractures in his containment suit afterwards. Once she points them out to Death's Head, he focuses his blade attack on them and breaks the suit.
- Big "NO!": Dark Angel's response when Permafrost punches through rubble to grab her is a big "NO!". That initial reaction changes when she realises he's going to use his cold powers to freeze her to death - which, due to her own powers, has absolutely no effect.
- Bizarrchitecture: The 'Crossroads Chamber' In the Time Guardian's fortress, Refuge, has the chaotic architecture of an Escher drawing, with stairs in all directions.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Governor Trusivor's superhuman bodyguards, Sunder and Permafrost, are actually working for Tyburn and Mys-Tech. They don't directly attack him before the Dark Guard destroy them, but they have been conspiring to start a nuclear war on Eopia, kill everyone on the planet, and steal the souls of the dead for Mephisto.
- Containment Clothing: Collapsar's Powered Armor contains his energy powers and maintains his humanoid form.
- Cut Short: The series abruptly ends in the fourth issue. The final page even claims that it'll be continued in Dark Guard Gold, which was never published.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Sunder is made of rock and his powers can create miniature earthquakes or reshape earth and stone.
- Energy Beings: Collapsar is a mutant with an energy form. His Powered Armor also acts as Containment Clothing.
- Freak Out: Stacy reacts very badly when the Time Guardian summons the team to Refuge, panicking and trying to escape. Unfortunately, there's nothing to escape to and she's lost to the Void Between the Worlds.
- Identity Amnesia: Stacy returns from apparent death in the Void Between Worlds remembering her name, but seemingly nothing else. Although the abrupt end of the series leaves the details unclear - it's also hinted that she Came Back Wrong.
- Kill It with Ice: Bad guy Permafrost, who's An Ice Person, tries to use this on the heroes but ends up on the receiving end. His touch can reduce someone's body temperature to far below freezing but Dark Angel, used to the absolute cold of space, doesn't care. On the other hand, when she takes Permafrost himself down to that temperature, it leads to Literally Shattered Lives.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Sunder and Permafrost, whose bodies are respectively stone and ice, get smashed to pieces when they fight the heroes. In Permafrost's case, it's also a Kill It with Ice situation, with the temperature dropped so low that his powers can't cope. With Sunder, brute force simply shatters him.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Discussed. Other Marvel UK comics previously established that Tyburn and the other Mys-Tech immortals had woven themselves into reality in a way that would cause cataclysms if they're harmed. Dark Angel points this out when the team confront Tyburn.
- Loyal Phlebotinum: A variation. Tansteele tries to use Liger’s gun Clementine, but Liger verbally switches on her self-defence mode. Tansteele gets shocked into unconsciousness.
- Meaningful Name: For Demogog Tansteele of the Technarchy, it's more of a meaningful title - with Demogog echoing ‘demagogue'. For his enemies, the Egalitern nation echoes 'egalitarian'. It's played straight with the conflict - the villainous aggressors are the Demogog and his Technarchy.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Technarchy's army is largely composed of robot soldiers ("robonerds", as Motormouth describes them). There are clearly some humans and cyborgs as well, though.
- Mutants: Whereas Sunder and Permafrost are Human Weapons created by Mys-Tech, Collapsar is stated to be a human mutant. He's not any nicer than the other two, though.
- No-Sell: Two clear examples.
- Permafrost tries to freeze Dark Angel to death, dropping her body temperature to -60°C. Her powers allow her to survive in the absolute cold of deep space and she doesn't care.
- Liger hits Collapsar with a volley of shots from Clementine, his sentient gun. Collapsar's only reaction is a pithy comment. Later subverted with the reveal that it did leave tiny fractures in his armor - which Motormouth and Death's Head target with a follow-up attack.
- Painting the Medium: The debut of the 'crossroads chamber' is presented with some characters and dialogue rotated to reflect the Bizarrchitecture of the room. This works well for the original paper edition, but can be challenging to read in a digital reprint.
- Robot Maid: Superconductor is the Time Guardian's robotic assistant, and introduces himself as the housekeeper. Dark Angel directly describes him as the butler.
- Soul-Powered Engine: Mys-Tech has placed soul-trap machines across Eopia. When the planet dies in nuclear war, the souls of the dead will be harvested and used to repay Mephisto.
- Speech Bubbles:
- Superconductor and the Technarchy's robots and cyborgs all get rectangular speech bubbles with rounded corners and a different font.
- Speech bubbles are generally all capitals, but much of Motormouth's speech is in sentence case with many, many words and few gaps between them.
- Super-Power Meltdown: When Death's Head breaches Collapsar's Containment Clothing, the resulting explosion levels the Technarchy's fortified military base and, on the other side of the world, the Egalitern wonder if the looming nuclear war has just started.
- Symbol Swearing: Notably averted. This is usually one of Motormouth's defining traits, to the point where it was included on several covers for her own series. Dan Abnett instead writes her as talking non-stop, sometimes in lower case with no gaps between words, but not swearing.
- Void Between the Worlds: Refuge, the Time Guardian's fortress, hangs in no-space, the void outside the universe.
- Wall of Text: Some of Motormouth's Speech Bubbles are presented this way, with masses of text and few gaps between words. It's in sentence case rather than the usual capitals, too.
