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Enemy Ace: War in Heaven

Enemy Ace: War in Heaven

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: method to the madness
Review: First of all even though this is not a vertigo imprint it is still what everyone has come to love about the style of garth ennis.there is humor,action and drama.moves at a face pace and is very enjoyable.i have not read anything by garth i have not enjoyed.maybe there is a sgt. rock story in the future.for all us garth ennis fans this is enjoyable,highly recommended! you can always be sure garth will hold your attention with whatever he writes,he's like no one else and you just get into the story and forget everything else around you.cheers mates!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Hammer Of Hell
Review: The ENEMY ACE: War In Heaven trade paperback will please old time fans of Hans Von Hammer and DC's war titles of yesteryear. Undoubtedly, those who worship Garth Ennis will also find it to their liking.

At 46 years old, Hans Von Hammer a.k.a. The Hammer Of Hell due to his fantastic World War I military record is called upon by the Nazi regime to join the battle against the Russians. Von Hammer does not share Hitler's vision but the chance to fly a fighter aircraft to protect his homeland and fellow countrymen overcomes him. Although he has not flown a military plane since 1918, Von Hammer is still able to outmatch Germany's opponents with his keen mind, skill and impeccable air fighting strategy. With his competence, courage and legendary status, Von Hammer earns the respect of his fellow pilots and blatantly defies not only his superiors but allows himself to openly disrespect Hitler alongside many Nazi officials. After inadvertently finding himself in the Dachau concentration camp, Von Hammer questions his role as a soldier of The Third Reich. When Nazi Germany finally succumbs, Von Hammer gracefully surrenders to Sergeant Rock(!) in an honourable fashion but not before he manages to destroy the air fighter planes in the field so that the Allies cannot use it against his homeland.

Ennis does the insurmountable by making the reader sympathetic towards Von Hammer and his friend, Peter. They both know that they are fighting for one of history's most diabolic community but like the reliable soldiers that they are, they follow orders. In a peculiar fashion, I even found myself "rooting" for these characters even if they fought for one of mankind's prominent evil empire. Ennis levels out the script by injecting a touch of humour in the way Von Hammer constantly defies an ass kissing Nazi officer. It does somehow stretch the suspension of disbelief too far at times considering the nature of the story. I doubt that any soldier or citizen, no matter how important they were to the Nazi cause, would have been able to get away with insulting high ranking officials and members of the party in such an audacious style for the better part of three years.

Chris Weston alongside Christian Alamy's art work in the first half of the book captures all the intensity and action of a war being fought in the skies. The details, background and realism of every panel is a pure cinematic delight. One really gets a glimpse of the horror and adrenaline of warfare in the facial expressions of the air fighters in their cockpits.

Although I am extremely disappointed that Weston & Alamy were not aboard for the second half of the book, it was agreeable to see veteran penciller Russ Heath's work on a war tale again. Alongside Joe Kubert, Heath pencilled an immeasurable amount of DC's combat books such as Our Army At War. Nevertheless, I did find the change of artists irritating considering that it was originally a two part mini-series. The styles of each artist on their specific chapter does not particularly harmonize well to make this undertaking a cohesive one visual wise. In other words, imagine an X-Men monthly issue where Jae Lee pencils the first half of the script and Steve Dillon does the other. Great artists in their own right but this would certainly break the flow of the story that is intentionally one chapter.

Despite my reservation about this questionable artist switch, Heath, Weston and Alamy effectively render Ennis' saga about Hans Von Hammer a mesmerizing one. I hope that the high quality story telling in ENEMY ACE: War In Heaven reawakens a passion for war tales and creates a demand. A genre that has practically vanished since Marvel Comics' cancelled The Nam in 1993.


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