WAR... (Page 2)
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The Enemy Ace Archives, vol. 1 2001 (HC TPB) 220 pages
Written
by Robert Kanigher. Illustrated by Joe Kubert.
Colours/letters: various.
Reprinting: Our Army at War #151, 153, 155, Showcase #57-58, Star Spangled War #138-142 (1965-1969) - in the case of issues with multiple stories, only The Enemy Ace stories are reprinted here.
Additional notes: intro by Joe Kubert; covers.
Rating: * * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1 (some stories more)
Published by DC Comics
Perhaps the most unusual thing about the Enemy Ace series -- particularly given these issues are from the "simpler" 1960s -- was that it's kind of a "mood" series. That is: its strength and effectiveness lies as much in the haunting atmosphere as anything.
The concept was a kind of unusual conceit. War comics were familiar staples of the comic racks (if not as ubiquitous as super heroes), generally focusing on WW II American GIs like Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury (and perhaps reflective of a general 1960s nostalgia for WW II that also resulted in a number of TV series). Casting around for something different, writer Robert Kanigher went back to an even earlier conflict -- WW I -- and lifted his sights up out of the battlefields by focusing on the world of air aces and aerial dogfights. And even more unusually, he chose as his hero an enemy combatant: a fictional German aviator named Hans Von Hammer -- the Hammer of Hell (obviously inspired, at least superficially, by the Red Baron).
Part of the idea was to explore the ambiguity of war by telling the story from the other side -- a counterpoint to all the German villains appearing in most war comics. Some reports even suggesting it was a personal exercise for Kanigher (and artist Joe Kubert) who were both Jews and so not exactly accustomed to sympathizing with German soldiers (though Von Hammer represented a pre-Nazi Germany). Of course the fact that the story was set during the first world war, which the United States only entered toward the end, meant that Von Hammer rarely, if ever, faced off against American pilots. American readers might flirt with the moral ambiguity of sympathizing with a German hero shooting down British, French, even Canadian, opponents -- but they might have balked at seeing him shoot down Americans.
And then to top it all off, the series was deliberately -- as I mentioned at the top -- a mood piece.
Von Hammer is a stoic, introspective loner who is regarded sceptically even by his own men as an almost inhumanly efficient killing machine. Or, alternately, he's slavishly adored by sycophants. With no one who can truly understand him, the only friend he finds is an enigmatic wolf with whom he wanders the woods around his air base between missions -- only the lone wolf, Von Hammer thinks, can truly appreciate his situation. The issues themselves often come across as parables, or fables, more than straight war/adventure stories -- which, admittedly, was true of a lot of Kanigher's Sgt. Rock stories too. Only moreso here.
A lot of the plots are pretty simple -- and pretty repetitious. It opens with Von Hammer engaged in some aerial conflict where he might encounter an enemy pilot, their duel resulting in a stalemate. Then an interlude on the ground, or a sojourn with the wolf. Then back into the air for a climactic dog fight -- usually the two foes saluting each other even as Von Hammer sends his opponent to his death. All the while Von Hammer ruminates on war, and honour, the futility of it all, romantically de-romanticizing conflict (thinking how the sky is the killer of them all!)
All of it hauntingly rendered by Joe Kubert. Joe Kubert is, of course, a comics legend (heck -- he founded his own art school!). His sketchy, scratchy style is far removed from the hard lines and hyper-detail of many modern comics, yet it's evocative in ways so many other artists aren't. Evocative of place. Eocative of mood. His evocation of war and battlefields manages to be both beautiful and gritty all at once (aided, of course, by the colourists' subdued hues). His Von Hammer is a lean, aquiline aristocrat. Yet despite the simplicity of lines, there are subtle details (like a paling of his face around the eyes, conveying the effect of constantly wearing goggles). And Kubert's depictions of aerial combat are hard to beat -- or even rival. His composition can alternate between dramatic and kinetic as planes swoop down on each other (some panels can almost induce vertigo) even as in other panels it's all presented in straight forward long shots -- but rarely is it confusing or unclear what's occurring. While the landscape below forms a distant and elusive reality for these knights of the air.
Which, of course, is at the heart of the series -- the romanticized view we have of WW I air aces. Though the reality was anything but, I think writers tend to look back on the WW I air battles as the last gasp of man-to-man conflict. 20th Century jousting knights upon airborne steeds. On the battlefields below it was all mud and chaos, anonymous armies shooting at foes they can't even see clearly. But in the skies individual fighters fought individual foes, recognizing each other by the markings on their planes -- even getting close enough to see each other's faces.
And that's the thing about Enemy Ace. It is a kind of, well, war pornography. On the surface it is meant to be the antithesis of a gung ho war adventure, being instead of melancholic series of grim faced warriors who rarely cheer even their own victories, cognizant of the cruelty and inhumanity of war. But even that is, let's face it, seeking to romanticize war, to see nobility and heroism in it even as it professes to debunk myths of nobility. As I mentioned earlier: this very de-romanticization is, itself, a form of romanticization.
But that isn't really a criticism -- because I do like the Enemy Ace stories. I like allowing myself to be drawn into the mood, the haunting ambience, the otherworldliness of it all. I'm just self-aware enough to realize that, in its own way, it's cathartic escapism, letting you lose yourself in this distant time.
If there's a weakness with the stories it is the repetition -- one story not especially different from the next. I was reading this book off and on over a few weeks and actually found myself forgetting my place and re-reading an issue. Sometimes only realizing I had read it before simply because an image, or a panel, would be familiar. The plots themselves can kind of blur into each other.
As the issues collected here progress, there is some attempt to recognize that and move beyond it. Toward the end there are a few interconnected stories (involving a recurring French nemesis, The Hangman). Or an eye toward continuity with an issue that ends with Von Hammer arriving at a funeral -- unrelated to the issues' plot -- that then is dealt with in the next issue. Although sometimes Kanigher's attempt to breakaway from the usual proves unsatisfying, like an issue involving a bully among his own men, most of the story taking place on the ground -- but it's a rather simplistic tale.
Obviously, these are 1960s comics -- and Kanigher was never the subtlest when it came to dialogue or motivation, or the cleverest when it came to plotting. But between his fable-like (and fatalistic) scripts and Kuber's elegant, haunting visuals, Enemy Ace is one of those old series that is still regarded highly. And all these years later, it's easy to see why.
Indeed, it's a mark of Kanigher and Kubert's talent and vision that though the character has occasionally been revived by other creators for occasional specials and one shots, it's usually to unsatisfying effect.
Enemy Ace: War Idyll 1990 (HC & SC GN) 128 pages
Written
and painted by George Pratt.
Letters: Willie Schubert. Editor: Andrew Helfer.
Commentaries by Joe Kubert, George Pratt; sketches.
Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by DC Comics
Enemy Ace: War Idyll is a fully painted graphic novel that resurrects one of DC Comics' more unusual -- and critically acclaimed -- heroes from its war comics (from back when it published titles in that genre). Baron Hans von Hammer, a German (therefore: enemy) World War I air ace. Never as successful as, say, Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, as originally written by Robert Kanigher, was a brooding, philosophical character, making him a logical choice for this "serious" graphic novel (moreso than, say, the Creature Commandos).
Printed on heavy paper, giving the book a weighty, important feel, with the story itself comprising some 95 pages, War Idyll begins in 1969, with the elderly von Hammer in a West German nursing home being visited by aa American journalist doing stories on old soldiers. The journalist is a Vietnam veteran, haunted by the war, and seeks some perspective on his experiences through learning of von Hammer's. Through flashbacks, von Hammer relates some of his war time experiences, as does the journalist in one chapter.
War Idyll is a moderately interesting, atmospheric story...but not too much more. It got me thinking a little of the whole nature of comics vs. other narrative mediums, of how comics still struggle for mainstream respectability. I'm the first to argue comics shouldn't slavishly seek to mimic other mediums (such as the common trend of eschewing thought balloons and text captions to more seem like a movie). Comics should take pride in being their own animal. With that being said, I couldn't help thinking that if writer/artist George Pratt had proposed this same story as a movie or novel, it wouldn't have been made/published. Even as a short story it seems a tad wanting.
It's well named, since one of the definitions of the word idyll is a poem, and, story wise, that's more what this resembles. There's very little in the way of an actual plot, per se. Von Hammer's reminiscences relate a time when he, an air ace usually above the fray, crashes in no man's land and wanders through the true horrors of war. That's not much of a story, exactly, not in the sense of scenes building on each other, or that questions are presented that need answering, or that we're heading toward anything. Even the relationship between the ageing von Hammer and the journalist never quite evolves into a character drama.
All of those criticisms might seem a tad...crass. After all, what Pratt is trying to do is a brooding reflection on the horrors of war, a serious and worthy treatise to be sure. But that's the same thing you would expect from a movie or novel on the same topic, and yet you would still expect it to be told in the context either of a story, or as a richer character exploration. Or, at least, through more unusual scenes, with Ace's journey perhaps becoming a Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now odyssey (not that I regard Apocalypse Now particularly highly -- an over-inflated music video masquerading as a "serious" movie).
Pratt falls into the conceit demonstrated by other creative types (in all mediums) of seeming to think he's the first person in the world to tackle a subject. Most of what he depicts is pretty standard -- there were few sequences that made me go "Oh my God, I never realized it was like that." Ironically, the scene in the tunnel in Vietnam came close to that, to evoking a sense of nightmarish claustrophobia and terror. That's ironic because Vietnam has been so thoroughly mined by American storytellers, the familiarity of the milieu makes that sequence, overall, less interesting than the W.W. I scenes.
Of course, is all that fair? Perhaps one can assume that a comic -- even an adult-aimed graphic novel -- will touch a different audience, an audience who has previously shied away from gritty war movies. As well, the first world war has, maybe, been less depicted in recent years by Hollywood, so scenes of trench warfare and gas attacks will take on a shocking newness for many readers (being Canadian as I am, and Canada having participated in that war more fully than did the United States, maybe I'm more familiar with it, through school and even movies, than might be this book's main, American audience).
Pratt's dialogue is surprisingly strong, with scenes between von Hammer and the journalist convincing. I use the word surprising because my understanding is that Pratt is first and foremost an artist.
The painted art is both powerful and effective...as well as problematic. Pratt (a painter with work in galleries) paints in, basically, an Impressionistic style. Often it's atmospheric, with a sequence of von Hammer wandering through snowy woods broodingly effective, or even the scenes of von Hammer and the journalist have a haunting ambience. But his style gets so impressionistic, it actually starts to become Expressionistic at times, with panels where I couldn't quite make out what I was supposed to be looking at. I wondered if that was on purpose, the art creating its own subtext by getting more chaotic and confusing as we get more into the thick of conflict...but I don't think so. There isn't enough of a change for me to believe that.
On one hand, through the art, Pratt can accomplish something a movie can't. He can diverge from reality just enough to (perhaps) create a more penetrating reality than a more literal motion picture can (or even a novel). There are striking scenes and images in the book that no movie, no matter the budget, could duplicate. On the other hand, Pratt can also lose the edge, the horror of his setting through the art. Showing a mass grave doesn't necessarily shock as well as it might, when the corpses don't entirely resemble corpses. Far from crystallizing the horrors of war, he can actually soften them.
Of course, even as a philosophical/socio-political essay, War Idyll doesn't have much to say beyond the usual: that War is Hell. Pratt stops short of actually denouncing war, or suggesting alternatives, nor does he delve at all into any of the motives for the wars. Granted, I didn't expect him to and I'm not really criticizing him for the lack of a bigger (and controversial) stance.
And for fans of Enemy Ace, and the whole sub-genre of aviation stories, the fact that much of the story takes place on the ground will be disappointing. But then, Pratt's intention isn't to tell a frivolous adventure.
This is certainly a decent enough read, a brooding look at one of humanity's greatest follies. But it seems undeveloped, needing a stronger plot or character stuff to provide a foundation for the ruminations. In a sense, it reminds me of the later Uncle Sam -- also a fully painted, "ambitious" comics story that believed its worthiness overrode much need for it to meet conventional narrative expectations.
Cover price: $18.95 CDN. / $14.95 USA
Enemy Ace: War in Heaven 2003 (SC TPB) 128 pages
Written
by Garth Ennis, with Robert Kanigher. Illustrated by Chris Weston, Christian
Alamy, Russ Heath, with Joe Kubert.
Colours: Matt Hollingsworth. Letters: Bill Oakley.
Reprinting: Enemy Ace: War in Heaven #1-2, Star Spangled War Comics #139 (2001, 1968)
Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Recommended for Mature Readers
Published by DC Comics
Enemy Ace was an usual property. Created in the 1960s by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, it was set during WW I (while most war comics were set during WW II), focused on a German air ace (hence the "enemy"), and above all was often treated as a brooding, existential exercise. It was perhaps such a singular creation it has only been revived sporadically -- and usually with disappointing results.
Which brings us to this TPB of a two issue, prestige format mini-series, War in Heaven (plus a vintage Kanigher/Kubert story).
It's written by Garth Ennis who seems to have two creative facets: a bad boy provocateur with foul-mouthed series like Hellblazer and Preacher, but also the more earnest Ennis who seems to want to inherit Kanigher's mantel as a war comics scribe, Ennis writing a lot of war comics (often gritty and foul-mouthed, but not simply frivolous gung ho adventures). So, in a way, it might seem a logical fit to unleash him on Kanigher's Enemy Ace.
But instead of Ennis trying to write for the Enemy Ace, he seems to simply adapt the character to his pre-existing style and interests.
The story is up-dated from WW I to WW II, with a middle-aged Hans Von Hammer living in relative seclusion but recruited by Peter, an old air force buddy, to head up a German squadron. On one hand, moving the story to the next war might be seen as an interesting variation, a chance to explore the character later in life. And maybe Ennis felt there was no more water to draw from the well of WW I.
But it means the character looses the milieu that distinguished him from other war-era series -- all so Ennis could place him in a more commonplace era.
And while the original comics were defined by their sombre introspection, Ennis' story (in keeping with modern styles) dispenses entirely with text captions or thought balloons, essentially robbing the story, and the character, of his signature brooding. (Funnily enough, an earlier Enemy Ace graphic novel, War Idyll, skewed too far the opposite -- it was ALL introspection lacking any plot).
The result is Hans Von Hammer doesn't entirely come across as Hans Von Hammer. And this applies to the visuals.
It isn't that the art isn't good, it is. Though it's odd that the two issues are drawn by two different artists (though Russ Heath is a long time war comics artist, and had drawn some vintage Enemy Ace stories). It's straight forward and realistic -- and deliberately undynamic and unstylish. But it lacks the palpable nood of Joe Kubert's scratchy style. And Von Hammer isn't instantly identifiable as himself. This is particularly true in the second issue where Heath draws him and his air force pal sufficiently similar I sometimes had trouble telling them apart.
Because this is a modern comic, it's gritty and R-rated, with some gory violence and some coarse language. Ennis also writes the German characters using very British colloquialisms. I understand doing that in British stories (you write the "foreign" characters in such a way as to erase their foreignness, so we better identify with them). But in an American comic, aimed primarily at American readers, surely the Germans should speak in American English.
But even ignoring how much, or little, this evokes the original comics, it's problematic even just on its own.
It's 100 pages and yet frankly can feel like it has less plot than the old Enemy Ace single-issue stories.
Ennis clearly takes his war-comics-scribe gig seriously -- and one suspects that means he feels coming up with a "plot" would trivialize it. So the story just meanders about, cutting between scenes of the aerial combat with scenes of the characters on the ground, talking about the war. There are really only three characters in the whole story --Von Hammer, his friend, Peter, and a snivelling Nazi loyalist named Engels. None of whom develop much over the story. Engels is just there to provide conflict with Von Hammer (who is contemptuous of Nazi ideology) but to no real impact. There's no particular mission they have to complete, no specific adversary they have to beard (a difference between WW I and WW II aerial combat is the former could have more of a sense of individual opponents duelling each other in the air). There's nothing unusual in the story or what occurs.
By shifting the story from WW I to WW II Ennis turns a story about a guy simply fighting for the opposite side into a guy fighting for Nazis -- a regime so monstrous its legacy scarred the 20th Century. Which raises questions about whether defending your country-- right or wrong -- applies to a Nazi regime.
Ennis establishes Von Hammer as anti-Nazi right from the get go. But it feels like an easy out. A way for Ennis to ignore the question (rather than making it a source of Von Hammer's brooding). And it doesn't allow much character development (maybe Von Hammer could've been ambivalent about the Nazis, only growing to despise them over the course of the story). Then toward the end Von Hammer has an eye opening experience in a concentration camp (depicted off the page) leading him to boldly state he will no longer support the regime. Except then he seems to get talked put of it almost immediately. So the one stab at character growth, and a plot twist, is quickly stamped out by Ennis.
In Ennis' view, I guess, the highest morality is simply doing your duty.
And maybe that's the problem with Ennis' approach to war stories (here and elsewhere) -- his interest in the topic can almost border and fetishtic, and his devotion to and admiration for the troops (on whichever side) seems to override any larger issues. So a comic like this isn't really about a plot, or an adventure, as if that would be too crass (even as, clearly, the aerial combat scenes are meant to be cool and exciting). Yet it's not really about character, or character growth.
It is about combat, and about showing what life was like, with failing machines and limited rations. Yet gritty stories about life during war are not uncommon -- hence why you should wrap them around a proper story and characterization.
This TPB also reprints an old Kanigher/Kubert comic. I'm guessing it was chosen simply because it filled in a bit of Von Hammer's background and introduced an adversary who would recur in a few more old stories -- a French aviator called The Hangman. And it's nice to include a "classic" tale for readers to contrast with the newer interpretation.
Cover price: $__ USA
Sgt. Rock: Between a Rock and a Hard Place 2003 (HC & SC GN) 140 pages.
Written
by Brian Azzarello. Illustrated by Joe Kubert.
Suggested for mature readers
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by DC Comics
Reviewed: Nov. 2017
Sgt. Rock was one of innumerable WW II-themed comics that came to prominence in the 1960s (Marvel had Sgt. Fury). I guess it being almost two decades since the end of the conflict it was felt enough time had passed for the war to become entertainment (likewise Hollywood movies and TV shows in the '60s also revisited that war). But Sgt. Rock stood out from some because writer Robert Kanigher (especially when in collaboration with artist Joe Kubert) seemed to be going for something a bit deeper than just gung ho war adventures. His tales having an at times dream-like aspect of fable, as well as an underlining grittiness and melancholy (again, I emphasize especially when Kubert was pencilling, Kubert having a moody style that somehow mixed gritty realism with a dream-like ambience).
Of course, a lot of the time the stories were still just gung ho war adventures -- it's just an edgier vibe lurked in the corners.
Jump ahead a few decades: Kanigher is long dead, but the comics industry has moved into higher end and more ambitious presentations. And so comes this lavish Sgt. Rock graphic novel -- a whopping 120 pages of original art and story, presented in both hard and soft cover, with Joe Kubert back on pencils. Kubert, a guy so respected in the biz he actually had his own art school! Joining him is comics scribe and novelist, Brian Azzarello.
For Sgt. Rock fans this held out the promise of being Rock done right -- the equivalent of doing a big budget movie of a fondly recalled old TV series (with the same cast -- given Kubert's art means everyone looks right).
And it sort of succeeds -- and it sort of doesn't. Or I should say: it succeeds at what it wants to be. But is that enough?
Clearly what Azzarello and Kubert want to do is a "serious" war drama, an evocation of life on the front lines and not just a silly comic book adventure set during the war. Basically the equivalent of all those "serious" war movies that are meant to land Oscars and win accolades from historians.
The kind where story/plot is kind of secondary.
It's a kind of rambling, meandering tale of Sgt. Rock and the familiar characters of Easy Company out in the field, taking some ground, falling back, moving forward. There are sequences of them traipsing through the forest, getting into fire fights, and other scenes of them back at camp, nursing their wounds.
The main arc/story thread involves the company taking some Germans prisoner, but during the confusion of a fire fight, the Germans end up dead (save one who is missing). And Rock is faced with the possibility they were murdered by one of his own. But it's a fairly simple thread, frequently pushed to the background as the comic progresses, and it feels like Azzarello and Kubert want to act as if they are tackling a dark, even controversial idea (of asking whether the "good" guys can be the "bad" guys) even as it's not hard to guess they aren't really interested in actually dealing with such themes (and therefore risk alienating some readers by suggesting it's OK to murder POWs or alienating others by insisting it's wrong to do so).
(It's actually worth noting there was a well-regarded old Kanigher-Kubert Sgt. Rock story callerd "Head-Count" that did tackle a similar theme head-on -- and I reference in my Great Comic Book Stories page).
Now the idea of doing a war story (in books, movies, or comics) simply meant to portray what it's like in the field (rather than wrapping it around some sort of narrative plot) is quite common, and often is what some audiences and critics like (I've sometimes seen stories get panned because they dared to throw in some sort of storyline, or a romance, or something). But I come down on the other side. Whatever your intentions, whatever the idiom you wish to explore -- you should still wrap it around a plot, a character arc, something. Although I suppose, especially given it's a comic, maybe it will seem fresher, edgier, because at least some of its audience won't have read/seen similar stories.
Still, there's no doubt Kubert is very much at the top of his game here, delivering his trademark rough sketchiness that somehow translates into evocative, atmospheric realism. I mean visually, this certainly lives up to the promise of being a lavish, high-production Sgt. Rock epic. And Azzarello certainly delivers solid dialogue and scenes.
Although the cast of Easy Company end up seeming a bit bland and anonymous here -- whether a fault of Azzarello (maybe deliberately sanding off their eccentricities to make it seem less "comic book-y") or simply that characters intended to fill out a few panels in 12 page adventures lack much nuance and dimension when asked to tramp across over 120 pages! Strangely enough, one of the gimmicks in the old comics was that almost all the characters had nicknames (I'm not sure we even knew their given names) yet here Azzarello shortens their names (essentially giving them nicknames for their nicknames) making it even harder to identify them with the semi-familiar characters...and robbing their names of their quirkiness. So in this story, I don't think you'd realize that the guy referred to as "Ice" is actually known as "Ice Cream Soldier" or that "Shot" was "Little Sure Shot."
Anyway, for what it sets out to be, Between a Rock and a Hard Place is fairly effective. It's moody and atmospheric, and if you're looking for a comic book version of "Saving Private Ryan" or something, it pulls that off credibly. But if you were hoping for a more story driven (or even character driven) epic, with a plot that develops and unfolds, and offers twists and turns...there's less of that on display.
Kubert would return to Sgt. Rock at least once more before he died, a few years later both writing and drawing the mini-series, The Prophecy (which was collected in a TPB).
Cover price: $__
War
Stories, vol. 1 2002 (SC TPB) 220
pages.
Written by Garth Ennis. Illustrated by Chris Weston &
Gary Erskine; John Higgins; Dave Gibbons; David Lloyd.
Colours: Pamela Rambo, David Lloyd. Letters: Clem Robins.
Collecting: War Story: Johann's Tiger, War Story: D-Day Dodgers, War Story: Screaming Eagles, War Story: Nightingale (2001-2002)
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Additional notes: afterward by Ennis; bibliography.
Recommended for Mature Readers
Published by Vertigo / DC Comics
War Story is the umbrella title for a series of one shots written by Garth Ennis and drawn by various prominent (usually British like Ennis) artists. These aren't your usually blazin' combat action-adventures, not even of the slightly melancholic, thoughtful variety Robert Kanigher might have turned out for DC Comics years ago. These are bleak, bitter, and bloody.
Vol. 1 collects the first four such stories. Johann's Tiger chronicles the journey of a Germany panzer tank unit in the waning days of the war, as, tired and fed up, they've deserted their position, hoping to find some Americans to surrender to (rather than the more vicious Russians moving in from the East). Along the way they must grapple with their own memories of what they've done and with German military police hunting deserters. D-day Dodgers follows a fresh lieutenant joining up with a battle weary British regiment in Italy -- a regiment not just worn out by fighting, but demoralized by reports from back home that those fighting in the bloody Italian campaign have been labelled D-day dodgers by those erroneously thinking Italy is a cakewalk. Screaming Eagles chronicles an almost idyllic interlude as four American G.I.s, isolated from their c.o., decide to indulge in a little r and r when they come upon a deserted rural estate and are joined by some friendly local girls. The final story, Nightingale, focuses on navel conflict, and a British destroyer that develops a cursed reputation after surviving a mission in which so many others perished, and of the crew's final attempt at redeeming their honour and reputation.
Clearly these projects are labours of love for Ennis and seem fairly meticulously researched -- in some cases (like with Nightingale) the fictional incidents are even inspired by real life ones. Shifting in tone from the gritty and violent, to, at times, witty and whimsical, Ennis handles things well. Johann's Tiger is pretty much what you'd expect, in that it starts out in a combat zone and continues that way for its 50-some pages, but D-day Dodgers is equally effective starting out more relaxed and even witty as the tenderfoot lieutenant joins up with the battle-hardened troops, much of the story set before, rather than during, a conflict.
But I'd argue a problem is maybe that Ennis is too sincere. Clearly he feels strongly about the men who fought and died, and just as clearly he doesn't want to do some gung ho adventure that reduces the brutal combat to a, well, comic book adventure. Though Ennis employs a bitter, "war is hell" mentality, rather than an "anti-war" philosophy. I'm not "anti-war" totally myself, feeling some fights have to be fought, some enemies -- like Nazis -- have to be stopped. But in his desire to act as an advocate for the "boys" Ennis can get a bit reactionary (although, maybe he's just trying to be true to the characters, not necessarily himself), such as a scene where characters belittle those who participated in a pacifist debate that took place at a university...years before anyone knew a war was coming!
As well, in his afterward commenting on Screaming Eagles, Ennis says that if such soldiers did take liberties and engage in looting, who can blame them? Again, that's showing his soldier bias. After all, if the story was about Germans, we would see it as showing how vile they were. And imagine how someone would feel, returning to the home the fled, only to find it looted and wrecked, not by the enemy, but by the guys supposedly sent to liberate you?
But the chief problem, to me, is that in his desire to be realistic, and in his desire to not trivialize the events, Ennis has put his sincerity and good intentions ahead of storytelling. Not too far ahead, perhaps, but enough ahead that the actual plots of the various books can seem a bit weak or meandering. Heck, in three of the four stories, almost everyone dies, making for kind of fatalistic, unsatisfying endings from a story point of view.
Ennis treats us to some good scenes, though often those stray into diatribes as characters start spouting monologues about war and the callous brass that seem too scripted and contrived, but the whole is often less satisfying. Probably the strongest, narrative wise, should be Johann's Tiger and Nightingale. Johnann's Tiger delivering a reasonably suitable ironic end, and Nightingale with its premise of a crew in search of an imagined redemption. But in the case of the latter, Ennis fails to really make it stand out as a human drama, at least for me. With the characters more just there to occupy a page -- heck, I was part way through before I even figured out who was narrating! The art by David Lloyd doesn't help. Lloyd, best known for drawing V for Vendetta, is a striking artist, with a great flare for realism, and moody, shadow drenched images, perfect for the tone of the piece, and the opening scenes of conflict in the perpetually gloomy Arctic. But as with V for Vendetta, Lloyd is a bit weaker if you actually need to tell what's going on, or in clearly distinguishing characters from each other. Ennis' script combined with Lloyd's art makes for a moody war story...that falls short of scoring as a human drama.
Ironically, the most memorable of the tales is Screaming Eagles -- ironic because it's the lighter one, the one where almost no one gets killed. Funnily, I'm not sure it would work as well read on its own. As the story of soldiers taking a break from the war, when we don't actually see them fighting, it maybe is more effective when sandwhiched in between these other, bloodier tales. But Ennis is eschewing the flamboyant or an larger narrative theme, so this lacks the high concept of, say, the whimsical, semi-classic film Le roi de coeur (the King of Hearts) about a soldier stumbling upon a town deserted by all save the inmates of an asylum.
The art throughout is well-done of a realist, meticulously researched variety. It should also be emphasized that this is a "mature readers" book, with some brutal, gory violence and plenty of profanity.
The bottom line with War Story, vol. 1 is that these are good, well researched tales, meant to plunge you into the unvarnished thick of a brutal and uncaring conflict where everything doesn't end happily and the hero doesn't engage in heroic, Saturday matinee daring do. But no one story quite stands out as a well crafted story, with the parts (scenes, dialogue, art) often greater than the whole.
Cover price: $30.95 CDN./ $19.95 USA
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