Star Spangled DC War Stories Issue 169: February 1976

The DC War Comics
1959-1976
by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook

Kubert

Blitzkrieg 1

"The Enemy"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

"The Huns"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Jack: A Polish DJ on Radio Warsaw announces over the airwaves that, as long as listeners hear the national anthem playing, Warsaw has not fallen to "The Enemy." Nazi soldiers make their way through the city, being shot at by civilian snipers and returning fire, killing all in their path. Though the civilians seem to have little chance against the Nazi guns and a tank, the resistance fighters still manage to leave casualties in their wake. Eventually, the Nazis reach the radio station, killing the DJ and smashing his record, but in an apartment overlooking the street, an old Polish man puts his own copy of the national anthem on a record player.

"The Enemy"

The first story in DC's new war comic is not bad at all, with Kanigher's plotting and writing somewhat better than Estrada's usual, simplistic art. He's not a bad artist, it just seems like he doesn't put much effort or thought into his panels. Compare the interior art to the Kubert cover, which illustrates a scene from this story, and you'll see the difference between a competent, workmanlike job and something with real feeling.

Fifteen hundred years before the Nazis, Attila and the Huns swept across Europe, leaving death and destruction in their wake. A young boy who cleans Attila's sword is sent out by the leader to return with the head of an enemy, and he uses the sword to murder the first Goth he finds. As the boy stands above the corpse, about to behead it with his blade, the victim's sister rushes at him with an ax and delivers her own blow of vengeance. Attila marches on to conquer more land while the girl swears that her people will never fall to the Huns.

More good Kanigher plotting and scripting, more pretty good Estrada art. Big Bob makes a nice comparison of Attila to Adolf, especially in a panel where the Huns salute their leader with the familiar Nazi salute, and the story is unstinting in its violence. Blitzkrieg is off to a promising start!

"The Hun"

Peter: February 1976 sees the first new DC war anthology title to be introduced since 1971. The question is, of course, "why bother?" Why not integrate these stories into the five ongoing books rather than fight for spinner space amidst a glut of Marvels and DCs (not to mention a decline in sales of the war line)? Well, the funny thing is, I liked both of these stories quite a bit (I suspect "The Enemy" will find its way onto my Best of 1976 list), whereas I pretty much can't stand the nonsense being peddled in WWT, OAAW, OFF, and GIC in this era. What is it about Blitzkrieg that floats my boat? I guess it's a sense that Big Bob saw another chance to tell gritty, grimy, violent stories without worrying about cute catch phrases or whether a hook or plot would fit within Sgt. Rock's universe. It also carries the novelty of being presented as "the enemy's POV." For some reason, "Enemy Ace" never got resurrected and his "Gallery of War" feature had become scarce. We were left with Vanilla Battle, some distorted landscape of warfare where none of our heroes die or where they turn up in different countries from issue to issue. The Quality Baton, seemingly, had been handed over to David Michelinie and Kanigher had just settled into his office chair to plonk out the same ol', same ol' until the pink slip shows. Blitzkrieg gives me hope. That's the good news. Bad news is that readers obviously didn't warm to the blood 'n' guts approach and Blitzkrieg will be ambushed after five issues. I sure hope the rest of the run matches up to the premiere effort.

Kubert

G.I. Combat 187

"The General Died Twice"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Sam Glanzman

"Round Trip to Hell"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Peter: After Jeb Stuart (the Civil War General) tells his descendant (the commander of the Jeb Stuart) that he's coming back from the dead for one last battle, the 20th-Century Jeb Stuart gets a nasty crack on the head and imagines the General really has come back from the dead. Trouble is, the General (who is actually General "Two-Guns" Gannon) orders the boys on a suicide mission: blow up a dam and flood an underground Nazi headquarters. The crew are decidedly upset about their mission but pull it off with nary a hitch, other than the death of "Two-Guns" Gannon.

"The General Died Twice"

One of the best Haunted Tank adventures of the last couple years, "The General Died Twice" is an engaging and exciting little drama that has a couple of pleasant surprises. I was almost certain, when General Jeb told our Jeb he was going to requisition the tank for an unfinished battle, that we were going to see another of those dreary "Battle of Two Centuries"-esque fantasy pieces but, thankfully, Kanigher had a second surprise up his sleeve. You still have to wade through Glanzman's muck, but at least we get a more-than-serviceable script this time out.

"Round Trip to Hell"

The back-up, "Round Trip to Hell," is written by Robert Kanigher under the pseudonym, Bart Regan. I'm assuming that's because Big Bob's plot, the ace who swears to his plane ("I'm not going to let those bandits get at you, beautiful!") that he'll bring her back in one piece no matter what, then dies in the air and still lands the plane somehow, has been done to death by Bob over the last twenty years. Seriously, this is one hoary old hook that needs to be retired. Ric Estrada's protagonists always look like they're hooked on heroin, with their anime eyes.

Jack: I can't recall another story where the ghostly general was this involved in the action. "The General Died Twice" was fairly entertaining, despite Glanzman's near inability to tell a coherent story in pictures. I must admit that I did not realize Jeb was mistaking the living general for the ghost till you explained it. As for "Round Trip to Hell," I agree that we've read this plot before, with the dead pilot landing the plane safely.

Our Army at War 289

"The Line"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Frank Redondo & Joe Kubert

"The 4th G.I."
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Jack: Easy Co. is in Germany, out ahead of the front line and given the task of entering a city that is not yet clear of the enemy. After sending Ice Cream Soldier and Little Sure Shot ahead to do reconnaissance, the rest of the men of Easy Co. march in and are met with German machine gun fire. Some grenades knock out the machine gunners, but soon a German tank appears and Rock tries to plant a grenade in its treads. The explosion renders him unable to move and he lies in the middle of the street, right in the path of the oncoming tank.

Suddenly, the tank is blown up, and Rock sees that he has been saved by a Russian sergeant wielding a bazooka. When Nazis emerge from the tank and try to make a run for it, they are mercilessly gunned down by Russian soldiers. Rock receives a message from headquarters telling him that they are now in the Russian zone and must fall back to the American zone. Little Sure Shot and Ice Cream Soldier are pinned down by gunfire on the edge of town and Rock defies orders to leave, instead marching off to rescue his men. He sees them being attacked by a Nazi tank's flamethrower, so he distracts the tank and finds himself a target once again until the Russian sergeant returns with his bazooka to blow up the tank and save his life. Rock and his Russian counterpart agree that sergeants the world over will gladly cross "The Line" for their men.

"The Line"

What a terrific story! It's always interesting to try to figure out where in the war these stories are set. This one seems to take place in Germany in 1945, not long before the end of the war in Europe, when U.S. and Russian forces were racing through Germany from opposite ends. I really like the depiction of the Russians, since it seems consistent with what I've read about their mixture of humanity and brutality. Redondo's art follows Kubert's layouts and, for the most part, he does a nice job. I hope we'll see more good stories like this in the rest of 1976!

Three G.I.s have to try to take a big German gun that is perched atop an icy cliff, shooting at all below. They shoot and kill Nazi soldiers who are hidden behind a frozen waterfall, then start climbing the side of the mountain as the Nazis above hurl potato mashers down at them. Well-placed machine gun fire empties a cave of Nazi soldiers and the G.I.s reach the top, where they use grenades to destroy the big gun. What is "The 4th G.I." of the title, you may ask? It's the sentient helmet of one of the U.S. soldiers and it comments in the last panel about how it protected the man's head from flying lead.

"The 4th G.I."

Just as a great ending can elevate a fair story, a moronic ending can sink one that was not special. That's the problem here, as Kanigher falls back on his old standby of the talking object. There's no real indication during the story that the title refers to anything in particular or that we're seeing events from the point of view of a helmet, other than one panel where there is a question mark that, in retrospect, seems to come from the headpiece. I guess we should be grateful that the helmet did not narrate the tale from start to finish!

Peter: Another month, another chronicle of how Rock defied the odds and defeated every stinkin' Nazi in his kill zone. The Russian sergeant was a nice diversion but Big Bob missed out on delivering one of his trademark final panels. No Mickey Mouse watch? "The 4th G.I." has to be the weakest "Gallery of War" entry of the dozens we've seen; there's no plot to speak of ("let's get up that hill!") and the final panel hearkens back to the bad old days when jets, dogs, horses, and grenades all narrated their own adventures.

Kubert

Our Fighting Forces 164

"A Town Full of Losers"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada & George Evans

"Patrol to Hell"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by E.R. Cruz

Jack: The Losers parachute into Italy and walk three hours to a town that they have been assigned to protect from an enemy attack. The local priest tells the Losers that their beloved golden mirror has been looted; for five centuries, whenever they were threatened, St. Sebastian would appear in the mirror and inspire them to fight. Without the mirror, they have lost all hope.

The Losers head out of town to retrieve the mirror and locate it just as it's being loaded into a plane. They kill all of the Nazis around the plane, grab the mirror, and head back to the town, defeating various Nazi menaces (foot, plane, and tank) along the way with the help of the glass. Finally returning the mirror to the town, the Losers are surprised to see that their own reflection is heralded as signifying the presence of the inspirational saint!

"A Town Full of Losers"

Easily the best Losers story in recent memory, "A Town Full of Losers" benefits greatly from the return of George Evans, who is credited as co-artist. I really can't see any evidence of Ric Estrada here, so perhaps he did layouts and Evans did the finishing work. It seems a bit silly to go to all this trouble for a mirror, but Kanigher and Evans manage to make the story interesting and to use the object in creative ways to help the Losers defeat the enemy.

Captain Storm is riding across the English Channel on a rescue boat when the boat is called to aid a pilot who is going to eject from his plane ten miles away. The boat arrives just in time to see an enemy plane shooting the descending pilot; Storm takes over the gun and blows the enemy plane out of the sky, but it crashes into the boat and sinks it. Storm and the enemy pilot both end up clinging to a buoy, but Storm gets the upper hand when he unstraps his wooden leg and uses it to knock off the other pilot.

We haven't had a solo Captain Storm story in ages and "Patrol to Hell" is a lot of fun! E.R. Cruz's art is quite nice to look at, and enough happens in this story to keep it interesting. I especially like the surprise ending where Storm whacks the Nazi with his wooden leg!

"Patrol to Hell"

Peter: While the plot is lightweight (one step away from rescuing the town cat from a tree) and Big Bob populates his script with bad one-liners, the art, at least, has stabilized a bit. I'm not saying this work is on par with Kubert or Heath, but at least we can tell the difference between Storm and Gunner; Evans and Estrada seem to balance out each other's weaknesses and produce something that's at least competent. I'd consider the bullet Storm takes in his wooden leg a wink to the days when that event took place on a monthly basis, but I'm not sure Kanigher had a sense of humor. I'm comfortable with my supposition that the "New" Losers will live out the rest of its existence as just another average funny book series, no better or worse than the original Johnny Cloud or Gunner and Sarge strips. Much better is the back-up, with fabulous graphics by Cruz. The final panels reveal that I'm wrong; Kanigher did have a sense of humor now and then.

Kubert

Star Spangled War Stories 196

"Target Red"
Story by David Michelinie
Art by Gerry Talaoc

"Just One More"
Story by David Michelinie & Steve Skeates
Art by Tenny Henson

Peter: In the exciting conclusion to last issue's story, the Unknown Soldier heads to Odessa, where he links up with Russian Army brass to search for the elusive Count Witschenbach. It's not long before the forces discover that the Count is hiding out in Villa Griefswald, high atop a spooky German mountain. Disguised as Nazi bigwig Ulrich Gerner, US infiltrates Griefswald and encounters an ally in Gerner's sister, Anna, who's being held prisoner by the infernal Count. Earning the trust of the Count, US is introduced to a boatload of German spies, all disguised as Soviet brass! The Unknown Soldier must feel at home with a room full of make-up artists, but duty calls and he rescues the captured Anna and blows the Nazi castle to hell. Resting on the beach with a wounded Anna, US wonders how he'll tell the girl that he's actually the murderer of her brother.

"Target Red"

Another snappy (if a bit complicated) chapter in the David Michelinie/Gerry Talaoc dazzler that's quickly becoming the best DC war series of all time. Lots of twists and turns and irony galore (I really wish we could be a fly on the wall when our hero tells the gorgeous (but delicate) Anna that he's not the hero she thought he was. The greatest compliment I can lay upon Michelinie's throne is that his Unknown Soldier could actually supplant Joe Kubert's Enemy Ace in my eyes as DC's finest battle saga. Those were huge shoes to fill.

"Just One More"

Rafe Donner seems like "Just One More" Yankee, but he's actually one of history's first "conscientious objectors," which doesn't sit well with his brother, Ben, a fellow Yank who lives for killing Rebs. When Ben catches a musket ball in the back, he makes Rafe promise he'll nail a Reb for him. But Rafe finds it impossible to kill, even for his dead brother. That's a fatal mistake. An anti-war tale that really doesn't cover anything but old ground. We're on Rafe's side (well, most of us are) but we've also read tons of anti-war stories and the climax is a tad predictable.

Jack: I was a little bit fuzzy about what was going on in the Unknown Soldier story but enjoyed it nonetheless; the art is excellent and the pacing rapid. I have noticed the the Unknown Soldier does a lot of leaping and kicking for someone in the early 1940s and I think some of the action in this series was influenced by the 1970s' Kung Fu craze. "Just One More" is very much of its time, with Vietnam-era sensibilities grafted onto a Civil War tale. Tenny Henson's art is always nice to see, though it strikes me as more promising than polished.

Kubert

Weird War Tales 44

"Photo Finish"

Story by Jack Oleck

Art by Ernie Chan

"Fear No Evil"

Story by Jack Oleck

Art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

"The Emperor of Weehawken"

Story by Sheldon Mayer

Art by Alfredo Alcala

Peter: Hanson is a blood-thirsty war photographer who knows he can become famous if he can just catch a soldier on film at the moment of his death. The other men in his squad spurn him but he doesn't care; Hanson is after fame and fortune. The vulture follows new recruits around and witnesses their deaths but just can't catch the right moment until death shows up (scythe and all) and promises Hanson that the day will come when that famous shot will come, but it will be the day he dies. Sure enough, very soon after, he photographs a green recruit at the moment of death but the Grim Reaper has a surprise for him moments later. Wonder of wonders, a decent Jack Oleck script, one with a bit of pathos (though it does have a predictable final frame) and serviceable art by Chan. "Photo Finish" is just about as close as you're going to come to a good story in this title.

"Photo Finish"

"Fear No Evil"

The Sergeant can't wait to parachute into Germany and kill as many Ratzi-Bastards as he has ammo but, damn it all, the wind takes him off course and he finds himself hanging from the high branch of a tree inside a cemetery. A handful of Germans, passing the graveyard, see the Sergeant and approach, guns raised, but a kindly caretaker takes them out of it. Grateful, our "hero" heads for a nearby mausoleum with the old man, who seems happy to hide the American. That's because the crypt is not empty; it's full of his friends... the vampires! Oh no. After a bit of a reprieve from the usual Oleck dreck, we get a "classic" reveal like this one. It's like just as Jack was reaching for quality, they pulled him back in to the tripe zone. Garcia-Lopez is not one of the better artists brought over in the DC Spanish Armada; his graphics are just as pedestrian as those of Estrada and Chan.

In the third and final chapter of "The Year 700: After the Bomb!" (titled "The Emperor of Weehawken," but aka "The Epic No One Paid Attention To"), Barry of Bleeker Street finishes telling his fantastical story to the Security Chief at Lacy's Department Store and we learn that Barry never really had much of a story to tell. With a little planning, editor Joe Orlando could have stretched this dirge to four chapters, since a third of the running time was given over to a retelling of the first two parts. Alfredo Alcala is completely wasted here on a story that goes nowhere.

"The Emperor of Weehawken"

Jack: The art in "Photo Finish" hardly looks like the work of Ernie Chan, who we know from our journey through Batman in the 1970s. There are a couple of unusually graphic panels where characters get shot, but other than that I didn't think much of this story. "Fear No Evil" is worse, as you point out, and "The Emperor of Weehawken" is yet another confusing, badly-written tale. I do like Alcala's art, especially the skeletal narrator in rotting Robin Hood garb!

All told, not a bad month for the DC War comics. Losing Jack Kirby on The Losers was a huge step forward and Kubert's covers are better than ever. I'd go so far as to say that Kubert's work is what's probably most responsible for any sales these books continued to have by 1976.

Next Week...
Sutton starts heating up!