Earlier this week, on Nov.11, it was Remembrance Day in Canada... Veterans Day in the U.S. So I thought it fitting that Garth Ennis returned to his War Stories line this week. The writer's appreciation and presentation of war and the people caught in the middle of it have always proven to be insightful and poignant. That insight is to be found here as well, but the storytelling for this special isn't as strong as what I've come to expect from this series of one-shots.
A unit of S.A.S-trained soldiers -- the elite of the British military -- is causing all sorts of trouble for the Germans in Egypt in the middle of World War II. They strike blow after blow to the Germans' air operations in the desert, and in their spare time, they raise Hell in the various watering holes of Cairo. One among their number, though, explains to a friend that the reason he's signed up is that he loves to fight, revels in the chaos. At heart, he's a Reiver, the latest in a line of savage Scottish warriors, and he's ready to lead his unit down the same dangerous, foolhardy path.
Cam Kennedy's art here reminds me of the work of Joe (E-Man) Staton. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly a big fan of Staton's work. This story's greatest strength is its connection to a dark reality from six decades ago, but Kennedy's exaggerated and inconsistent style doesn't fulfill that need for realism. I also find it difficult to tell the characters apart, and colors don't go far enough to differentiate between the S.A.S soldiers and the other forces. Hell, it's not that easy to pick out the Axis soldiers from the Allies.
The dialogue here is dense, as it contains a great amount of detail about the soldiers' circumstances, as opposed to the larger picture of the war. Ennis seems to go to great lengths to capture the kind of dialogue these men would exchange, attempting for the most faithful approximation of how S.A.S. men at this time would sound and act. But that eye for detail goes too far in the recreation, making for an inaccessible and confusing read.
Nevertheless, at its heart, this story explores some of the darker personalities that thrive in the middle of a war, that relish the opportunity to kill regardless of cause. This is easily one of Ennis's darker War Stories efforts, as the protagonist is also the antagonist. It's not about examining humanity in the middle of inhuman circumstance. It's about the wrong personality being dropped into a dangerous situation that he can manipulate to serve his darker needs, and how such a situation can destroy everyone and everything that surrounds it.
