InsaneJournal

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As an alternative to Rape Week (people, people, if you do that, Fred Van Lente wins), how about War Week? It's alliterative and it gives me an excuse to post Enemy Ace.

Now, we probably all know about Sgt. Rock, the Howling Commandos, and their ilk. Enemy Ace is a different breed entirely, centering on a flying ace during WW1. The rub being that he flies for Germany.

It's rather interesting to see the approach that the creators use to get it away with this. The keypoint is that Hans von Hammer (or the Hammer of Hell, as he's known in "holy fuckballs, this guy is crazy" circles) bears no malice toward his enemies. Pilots on both sides treat each other with an almost chivalrous sense of honor, and the real enemy (as von Hammer muses at length) is the sky, which will one day claim them all. In the first Showcase volume, the only real villain (not antagonist) is Bull, a treacherous pilot in von Hammer's own squad.

Now you may think the lack of any real boo-hiss villains would limit the story, but by putting von Hammer on "the wrong side", Robert Kanigher is able to write him with a sense of moral ambiguity that it's hard to imagine him getting away with for, say, Sergeant Rock. The series toys a lot with whether von Hammer is a war hero or a sociopath, generally in (admittedly formulaic) scenes where von Hammer is whispered about behind his back, imagines his plane as an accuser, and seeks the comfort of another "killing machine," a wolf he encounters on his hunting trips.

But enough from me, who wants to see some Joe Kubert art?

First, a quick primer on how badass von Hammer is. How many times have you thought "oh, thank God, I've only been shot in the head"?



And to reiterate, the theme of honor that defines Enemy Ace. In von Hammer's world, it's the height of heroism to salute your killer as you crash.





Skip ahead to an entirely different story, since that nurse freaked me out. Damn, girl, you know goths won't be invented for decades, don't you? Poor Hans...









Geez, Sgt. Rock, passive-aggressive much? So how 'bout it, S_Ders? Would YOU like to see more of Rittmeister Hans von Hammer, the Hammer of Hell?