Showcase Presents: Enemy Ace VOL 01 [Paperback]

The DC Showcase books are a way for fans of classic work to enjoy many of the rare and expensive stories in one or two volumes. The way DC comics reprints these stories in black and white in a 500 page treasury edition is a great service to those fans that can not afford reading classic DC comics. With a price tage under twenty bucks , it is a great buy for those comic readers.

Enemy Ace has been a staple in the DC Comics war library. His Character was part of the DC stable 1960-70's mode of war title, which included such characters as Johnny Cloud Navaho Ace, PT boat commander Captain Storm (wish that the Storm and/or Cloud stories would be reprinted in a future Showcase edition) (NOTE Both Cloud and Storm would later become part of the Losers comic series in the 1970-80, also which not been reprinted), The Haunted Tank, Sgt Rock and the Unknown Soldier

These tales of Erich Von Hammer were not a PRO-AMERICAN book like Sgt Rock was. It was a story of a complex persona, fighting a war he did not want to be in. His honor was his sense of duty in a time of war. These stories are character driven, not like major DC comics superhero fare. Most of this character stories from the 1960 and 1970's are collected in this over 500 page volume. What amazes me is the body of work that this volume has within its pages. What is missing from this collection is a few 1980 stories and beyond and the character's graphic novels.

Some naysayers will say the Black and white comics takes away from the art of Joe Kubert. Some suggest that these tales should be in color... I say it does not need color to make these classic works sparkle. Those who need comics is color, i suggest The Enemy Ace Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Archive Editions).

The stories showcase what great work DC comics did in the sixties and seventies, I only wish they would do such work these days.The storytelling from the pen of Robert Kanigher and the art of Joe Kubert is still as sharp today as it was in the 1960's when these stories appeared

This showcase collection is exactly what is says a COMIC SHOWCASE. It is worth having in any true comic collector's library

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

During the 1960s, as I was getting into serious comic book reading and collecting, my interests were mostly centered on following the super hero offerings from Marvel and DC. This period had a diverse mix of other genres such as romance, mystery/fantasy, funny animal, and war comics. While I enjoyed contemporary TV programs like Combat and the Gallant Men, war comics didn't attract me. The "War Comic for those who hate war comics," Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, was too much like a Marvel super hero book, only with tommy guns. Sgt. Rock tended to be too predictable and the Haunted Tank was too implausible.

But in 1965 a new war strip appeared, produced by DC, that was truly intriguing. This strip dealt with a World War I German Fokker triplane fighter pilot named Hans Von Hammer. Enemy Ace was something original. This was a war strip done from the viewpoint of the enemy. Von Hammer, roughly patterned after the real life Red Baron, was a noble Prussian aristocrat. The creator and writer, Robert Kanigher, eschewed politics and centered on one man caught up in the horror of war. Von Hammer is racked by guilt and conflicted by a sense of duty. Von Hammer is described by his squad members as a merciless killing machine. He is a loner whom women find both attractive and repellent. His only "true friend" is a large wolf that he meets with on periodic hunting trips in the forest. Kanigher is careful to show that the Enemy Ace, while very formidable and the best at what he does, is not invincible or invulnerable. He engages in frequent aerial duels, is sometimes shot down, and is seriously wounded several times. Von Hammer also shows his inherent sense of nobility and fair play by letting his French or English foes go when they run out of ammunition rather than mercilessly shooting them out of the sky.

Kanigher developed a roster of notable opponents for the Enemy Ace including the Hangman, the Bull, St. George, and the Balloon Buster (who had his own DC war strip).

The volume also includes an excellent Neal Adams illustrated Batman tale from a 1970 Detective Comics featuring a bogus Enemy Ace.

Joe Kubert does some of the best art of his career on Enemy Ace. The blending of his early influences such as the classic draftsmanship of Hal Foster (1930s Tarzan) and the gold standard story-telling dynamics of Milton Caniff combined with his sense of grim and foreboding made Kubert's work a comic book tour de force. Kubert's atmospheric yet gritty art endowed with heavy spotting of blacks, evocative yet crystal-clear layouts, fitted perfectly Kanigher's sense of fatalism. Enemy Ace was one of Kubert's signature strips. His work on Rittmeister Von Hammer was a tough act to follow. This volume also contains work by other artists. None of them successfully capture the dark mood created by Kubert. Russ Heath comes closest but while he imitates Kubert's line quality his panel/page layouts are much less innovative. John Severin's very stable and clear story-telling works well but lacks the energy of Kubert's work. Howard Chaykin's over- inked strips are crude, showing that he was still developing as an artist. Several years later he would get it together on First Comics' American Flagg.

As good as the Kanigher and Kubert Enemy Ace stories are, the strip eventually became repetitive. Plot elements that were fresh and interesting in the first few stories were repeated again and again and again. The Enemy Ace being described by his comrades as a "human killing machine," Von Hammer's sense of fatalism, his conflict of conscience, his nobility toward his foes, his amazing survivals from near fatal dangers, the "killer sky" being the only winner, his talks with his wolf friend, and his depressive moods cropped up in most of the stories. In some ways Kanigher wrote himself into a corner with Rittmeister Von Hammer. While these elements in the beginning made the Enemy Ace fresh and provocative, it also cast the character into a cycle of predictable redundancy. For Von Hammer to have a happy ending or "get the girl" or come to terms with his sense of fatalism would have ended the strip. Or would it have? Kanigher seemed unable to move the story line (or character development) beyond these elements. His Enemy Ace eventually became a johnny-one-note.

All of that notwithstanding, the Kanigher/Kubert Enemy Ace stories are some of the best adventure comic book stories to come out of the 1960s. This volume is highly recommended for the Kanigher/Kubert work alone. The rest is a nice bonus.

Enemy Ace never had his own mag but had a distinguished career in the pages of several war comics. Robert Kanigher wrote universal tales of war's cruelty and randomness, as well as the efforts of certain noble individuals to rise above its savagery. The titular character does his best to be a honorable soldier, and treats his opponents with respect... even as he brings them down in flames -knowing full well that some day, it will be his turn.

Joe Kubert does a stellar job here, using the vertical dimension of the page to great effect to suggest the immensity of the sky (or, more precisely, how very far the ground is for men without parachutes). He is not known as a master for nothing.

Lucky for us, the stories that are not drawn by Kubert are more often than not done by other brilliant artists : John Severin and Howard Chaykin, most notably. Quality-wise, this is a very consistent book (and said quality is very good indeed).

I feared the stories might get repetitive over time, since they are basically a variation on a theme... but no, they somehow managed to remain enthralling for the entire 500+ pages.

Highly recommended, especially since there are very few opportunities to see these stories anywhere else.