Enemy Ace: War in Heaven - Part 1 of 2
Apr. 12th, 2015 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyEnemy Ace was one of DC's numerous war comics back in the day, from when certain restrictions to the superhero genre in the mid-1960s lead to the creation of Sgt. Rock, the Losers, Johnny Cloud (Navajo Flying Ace) and others. However, unlike many of his contemporaries, Hans von Hammer's original series was based during the First World War, inspired by such historical figures as the Red Baron, and fitting the morally ambiguous nature of the conflict, he was depicted as a noble, if not good, man who ended up fighting in a war that didn't necessarily have a "right" side.
Skip forward a few decades, and Garth Ennis decided to revive the character and place an older Hans in the 1940s to see how the far less grey nature of the Second World War would effect the character... And this was what we got.
Hans ships out to an airfield outside of Leningrad, and due to his prior experience is automatically made a major. He easily slips back into the routine of being a fighter pilot, but his attitude causes some friction with colleague, Engels, who unlike Hans is very much a dyed in the wool Nazi.
Time passes and winter sets in, Hans has proven himself to be popular with his fellow pilots due to both his skill and the fact that he's manged to save their lives in one form or another since he re-enlisted. One day, after much keruffle, a letter arrives for Hans from Berlin.
Shortly after this, Hans is shot down over the Russian sector of Leningrad, much to Engels' amusement. Injured and freezing, Hans survives crashlanding his plane, and tries to make it back to the front line on foot, witnessing the regular civilians (including children) swarming the invading German armies, and a family reduced to cannibalism due to the lack of food avaliable.
Grimly, Hans realises that his country are the ones responsible for this. Predictably, when Hans inevitably is found by some Soviet soldiers, they promptly try to beat him to death... only for him to hallucinate his "black hound", leading to him beating all three men to death with his bare hands.
Time passes, and Hans' unit gets word that he's still alive.
Hand returns from sick leave, only for his unit to come under surprise attack by a division of the RAF that was moved to the Eastern Front to support their Soviet allies.
Skip forward a few decades, and Garth Ennis decided to revive the character and place an older Hans in the 1940s to see how the far less grey nature of the Second World War would effect the character... And this was what we got.
Hans ships out to an airfield outside of Leningrad, and due to his prior experience is automatically made a major. He easily slips back into the routine of being a fighter pilot, but his attitude causes some friction with colleague, Engels, who unlike Hans is very much a dyed in the wool Nazi.
Time passes and winter sets in, Hans has proven himself to be popular with his fellow pilots due to both his skill and the fact that he's manged to save their lives in one form or another since he re-enlisted. One day, after much keruffle, a letter arrives for Hans from Berlin.
Shortly after this, Hans is shot down over the Russian sector of Leningrad, much to Engels' amusement. Injured and freezing, Hans survives crashlanding his plane, and tries to make it back to the front line on foot, witnessing the regular civilians (including children) swarming the invading German armies, and a family reduced to cannibalism due to the lack of food avaliable.
Grimly, Hans realises that his country are the ones responsible for this. Predictably, when Hans inevitably is found by some Soviet soldiers, they promptly try to beat him to death... only for him to hallucinate his "black hound", leading to him beating all three men to death with his bare hands.
Time passes, and Hans' unit gets word that he's still alive.
Hand returns from sick leave, only for his unit to come under surprise attack by a division of the RAF that was moved to the Eastern Front to support their Soviet allies.
