Battle Action vol. 3
Proving to be the British comics anthology revival that could, “Battle Action” has reached its third volume of strips featuring characters from the title’s original run. While Garth Ennis wrote the entirety of the first volume, the second saw new creators, and one great old one, tackle these strips to mostly good results. That trend continues with vol. 3 as the collection front-loads itself with a contribution from a surprising A-list creator.
Kids Rule O.K.: The Septic: Or maybe Brian K. Vaughan’s involvement shouldn’t be considered a surprise as he talks about his love of the British Invasion of American comics that happened in the late 80’s in his foreword. It’s what led him to tackle one of the most infamous strips of “Battle Action’s” original run with this story of the last surviving Yank in London. Look closely and you might be inclined to think Vaughan is offering up some social commentary, but it’s mainly just a bit of mean-spirited fun that also benefits from Chris Burnham’s gritty and gnarly art.
H.M.S. Nightshade: Original writer John Wagner returns with (returning) new artist Dan Cornwell for another story of the title ship again set in the margins of the original story. This time the Nightshade and her crew are playing nursemaid to a stalled freighter and wind up having to deal with a German u-boat and worse. Wagner’s efficient scripting and Cornwell’s detailed art mean a lot of ground is covered in these thirteen pages, but it never feels rushed and it results in another satisfying return for this venerable series. If we do get a vol. 4 in the future then I’d sure like to see them go for the hat trick with these.
Hook Jaw: Hunter Killer: An ambitious TV presenter winds up getting more than he bargained for when he tries to get footage of an orca that’s reported to be killing great white sharks and eating their livers. Sure, the group of researchers showing up to get in his face are bad, but they’re nothing compared to the living legend of the sea he’s about to come face-to-face with. You don’t read a story featuring the titular shark for anything resembling subtlety and writer Steve White delivers some entertaining nastiness as bickering humans find themselves in the middle of a gory orca-vs-shark battle. It’s great for what it is, emboldened by the appealingly chunky art featuring layouts from PJ Holden and finishes from John McCrea.
El Mestizo: The General: Writer Rob Williams gives us this revival of a short-lived strip that made an impression on him about a black bounty hunter working both sides of the Civil War featuring some appreciably bombastic art from Henry Flint. The story sees El Mestizo being hired to track down one Mister Saul who is in the middle of trying to steal a locomotive known as The General for a Union officer. It seems straightforward enough, though, Mister Saul may be pursuing his own agenda above all here. While not a bad story, it does seem to be more concerned with delivering its big twists than anything else, as well as with its perplexing desire to have El Mestizo continually refer to himself in the third person.
Death Game 1999: It’s pinball played by real people by way of “Rollerball” in the world’s deadliest and most popular sport. Joe Taggart was once one of its greatest stars but he’s lived past that to see a new, more vicious, breed of champion come up after him and now has to decide what to do about it. This Dan Abnett-written story appears to be an exercise in seeing how much cynicism you can pack into a story before it implodes on itself. Surprisingly, between the blithely self-aware commentary from its commentators and Taggart’s own dejected internal monologue, the writer manages to find just the right amount with an ending that had me wanting to see more of this world, and Tom Foster’s detailed and action-packed art.
Hellman: A Walk in the Woods: The archetypal “Good German” character gets something of an origin story from Garth Ennis and original artist Mike Dorey. Major Hellman is urged by his crew to get some rest and goes for a walk in the woods to clear his head. What he finds shakes him to his core and changes his life forever. It’s a very straightforward story, but no less effective for it thanks to the tight script from Ennis and Dorey’s expressive art. Yet one more reminder for me why I should get around to reading the original series one of these days.
Major Eazy: Allies: It’s July 9, 1943, and the joint U.S., Canadian, and British forces are storming Sicily and a couple of those American soldiers find themselves right in the thick of it. Fortunately for them, they encounter the most awesome of Majors after their paradrop onto the island and are quickly swept up into his effort to preserve a strategically important bridge. Rob Williams again and if you liked his take on the character from the previous volume, it stands to reason you won’t have a problem with this. For me, this is starting to wear thin and not even PJ Holden’s capable art can help with that.
Nina Petrova and the Angels of Death: The Lucky Ones: The most capable Angel of them all finds herself with a very personal challenge: Getting her wounded friend Masha out from a local hospital as Russian forces withdraw in the face of the German advance. While Nina may best be known as the significant other of “Johnny Red,” she once again proves to be a compelling protagonist on her own. Returning writer Torunn Gronbekk serves up some appreciable challenges for the two to face throughout the story with Patrick Goddard once again rendering them with decided skill.
Dredger: Motherhood of the Wolf: Have you ever wondered how government agent Dredger and his mother turned out the way they did? Well, Garth Ennis and returning artist John Higgins have an answer for you, and it’s very much at odds with the very un-PC fun that they delivered in their previous stories featuring the character. It’s a starkly dramatic story about domestic abuse that’s actually quite good on its own terms. Taken in context with the previous “Dredger” stories from this team, however, and you really have to wonder what they were thinking here. The clash in tones between what we get here and what we’ve been given does make for a bum note to end this volume on, but not one strong enough to make me hope that this is the last we see of this “Battle Action” revival.