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The DC War Comics
1959-1976 by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook |
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| Kubert |
"The Ace Who Died Twice!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Joe Kubert
"Diary of a Fighter Pilot!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Irv Novick
(reprinted from Our Army at War #45, April 1956)
Peter: Lt Steve Savage, the Balloon Buster, must face the notorious Undertaker, a German ace who shoots down his opposition, then dumps miniature coffins over the enemy airfields. When Steve steals a motorcycle for a little r 'n' r, he heads into a nearby village just as it's bombed by the Undertaker. He rescues a gorgeous French maiden named Denise, who bemoans the "shelleeng" but takes comfort in the fact that her two brothers, both Neuport pilots, are far from the fighting. Ze lass recommends that she and Steve dance while waiting out the bombing but their budding romance is interrupted by the entrance of one of Denise's brothers, who explains that he and sibling Henri were shot down "over zis town" by a stinkin' zeppelin. Henri was killed and now Raoul desires vengeance. Steve tells the Frenchman he can help and, together, they travel back to the base where they steal a plane and head for the skies. Raoul, mortally wounded, makes Steve promise him that they will not land until the Undertaker is blasted out of the sky. Raoul expires but Steve lives up to his promise.
Speaking of living up to promise, this is a series that is sorely lacking in that department. From a very strong first chapter to a so-so sophomore effort to "The Ace Who Died Twice," a very weak, by-the-numbers snoozer. When the pair of aces steal the plane, Steve is forced to sit on the wing for the entire sky battle. A little far-fetched, I'll admit, but it's been done before (in fact, some would say it's been done to death); here it's delivered in such an outlandish manner that the reader has no recourse but to laugh out loud rather than gasp. The two main characters, Steve and Denise, are the victims of Bob Kanigher's pidgin English style of writing: Steve peppers his dialogue with "thuh"s and "yuh"s and Denise is laden with gobbledygook sentences like "Eet ees like ze fair lady's scarf ze knight of old wore when he went into battle." Eet's tough enough gettin' through thuh story without having tuh pause every sentence to try to figger out just what it ees they're sayin'! Two thumbs up as usual for Joe's illos, though. Time and time again, this guy would deliver and elevate a time waster into maybe something just a little bit more. |
| "The Ace Who Died Twice" |
Peter: "Diary of a Fighter Pilot" is an average war tale built around the hook of a pilot who starts a journal as a means of keeping track of all the "excitement" he encounters. Beginning this month (and lasting for quite some time) vintage reprints will dot the landscape. I'm assuming this was put into place to buy Kanigher time between deadlines. How this guy was editing and writing the war titles as well as a handful of the DC superhero books is beyond my understanding. Anyway, the policy around here is that we'll cover (or at least mention in passing) any of the reprints that appeared before our time period (pre-June 1959) but, despite excellence, these reprints won't appear on our Best Of lists.
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| Kubert |
"Half a Sergeant!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Joe Kubert
"The Joker is Death!"
Story by Howard Liss
Art by Jack Abel
Jack: Knowing that it's a suicide mission, Rock sends his men up Bloody Hill, following an order to take it by dawn. The shelling is so bad that he calls the men back and secretly rips up the order, but this makes him feel like "Half a Sergeant!" Rock decides to head up the hill alone and, after taking out a few Nazis on patrol, he finds a frightened dog (Pooch was busy in the Pacific Theater) that leads him straight to the Nazi machine gun nest on the hilltop. When the pup is killed, Rock loses his temper and takes out the gunners; he then uses their gun to continue his upward advance. Just when all looks bleakest, along comes Easy Co. from below to save the day.
Kubert's "floating eyes" panels really impressed me, as did the tenacity of the sergeant who is willing to do a job he would not send his men to do. It's a good thing the mutt got shot, though, since the chocolate bar Rock fed to it could have made it very ill.Peter: I thought "Half a Sergeant" had a very strong first third (with its firing squad images and Rock's first real wavering when it comes to orders), but it was all downhill from there. Who thought the emaciated Pooch was really dead? "Half a Story" is more like it.
Jack: Jinx Jordan is a soldier who is bad luck for everyone around him. Whenever there's an attack, everyone but Jinx gets clobbered. He uses this to his advantage and gets close to the enemy, demonstrating that the jinx works regardless of which side is near him. A dud from any angle, "The Joker is Death!" should have stayed in the foxhole.
Peter: If I didn't know better, I'd say Howard Liss (who showed a lot of promise with "No Dream--No Death" in last month's G.I. Combat) was actually a pseudonym for Hank Chapman. "The Joker is Death" is one of those stories about the likable schlub who has no luck or friends but manages to find both in the end. And the Joker never even shows up!
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| Kubert |
"No Mercy in Vietnam!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Irv Novick
"Odds on Death!"
Story by Howard Liss
Art by Jack Abel
Jack: Major Nick Hunter is captured by the Viet Cong and his identical twin brother Phil comes looking for him. He saves a local waitress from a terrorist's bomb in a Saigon bar, so she offers to lead him into enemy territory to look for his brother. Phil knows that there is "No Mercy in Vietnam!" but decides to trust her, and he finds and rescues a raft full of wounded American soldiers. Nick is not among them, so Phil vows to keep looking.
Kanigher again relies on the twin brother angle to set up this series, but the novelty of the Vietnam setting intrigues me. Robin Moore's best-seller, The Green Berets, came out in 1965, so it's no surprise that Capt. Hunter sports a green beret once he heads into the jungle. The story ends with him promising to keep looking, so--despite some lazy writing by Kanigher and middling art by Novick--I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.
Peter: Capt. Hunter became DC's first regular Vietnam War character but his fame was fleeting, lasting only eight chapters, and the writing is pretty slapdash. It's all very "one man army fights insurmountable odds but comes out the winner in the end," but for that climax. Bob Kanigher couldn't have known how on the money he was when he wrote this bit of dialogue for Hunter:"How're we going to finish off characters who think nothing of turning themselves into human boobytraps . . . this is going to be a long war!"
Jack: In WWII, Private Harry Clay likes to bet money that his brothers in arms will get killed. He always wins because it's "Odds on Death!" where war is concerned. Finally, Harry bets on himself and is killed in action; his fellow soldiers dump his cash winnings in his empty helmet and move on. This is a grim, nasty little story that repeats the catch phrase "sucker's bet" over and over but ends on a grim note. Jack Abel's art is passable but the script is above average.
Peter: "Odds on Death" is one of the oddest ducks we've read yet on this long, long journey. It's got a protagonist so unlikable, the reader wishes for his death (until it's revealed that Clay was "motivating" his partners with his disgusting actions). I don't buy that climax for a second; I believe Clay was really a nasty individual, who couldn't hide his smirk when fellow G.I.s were being blown to bits for his paydays. Howard Liss is back on track though; this is a solid, if very offbeat, read.
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| Next Week... |
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