4 out of 5

While I’m admittedly only getting select issues of this series in favor of certain creatives, the level of quality of what I’ve sampled would be enough to encourage reading the rest. We know Garth Ennis (who’s organizing this) has long-standing war comic interests, but the blend of celebratory and contemplative writings, and the addition of text pieces explaining the pieces, and the high caliber of contributing creatives – all of it points to this being quite a pinnacle of the many labors of love Ennis has given to this genre.

Because this iteration of Battle does seem to encourage shedding a spotlight on some lesser-known strips (sometimes characters only having appeared once previously), we do sometimes get a blurry line between standalone stories and something that requires some in-built reverence, but that’s where the text pieces (written by the stories’ authors) can help.

In issue #1, Keith Burns returns to work with Garth on another Johnny Red tale. While Burns’ style here is a bit less gritty than in the previous mini-series – a bit looser, a bit less detailed – this is a world the duo are comfortable in, and Garth weaves a story that balances the action hero nature of Red with the seriousness of war (as ever), as Red’s crew faces a change in power. John Wagner and Dan Cornwell take up the latter half of the issue for H.M.S. Nightshade, offering a somber piece of work that has a war vet reflecting on the good times and tough times with his shipmates.

Issue #2’s Ennis story – he leads off each issue – pairs him with Chris Burnham, and does a crossover of Crazy Keller and ‘Hot Wheels;’ this is one of those where pre-existing awareness of Hot Wheels may have helped, as the interactions between the characters feel slightly in-jokey, but it’s a good romp in which some post-war Nazi efforts are foiled. Burnham may have been channeling a heavy-lined style true to Battle, as his work here seems a bit ‘thicker’ than elsewhere, but it’s got good energy and characterization. The back half has Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade trying to tread a line between war glorification and storytelling, bringing back a character named D-Day Dawson, who has a tendency to black out during battles due to an injury. The line is a little shaky, but I’d say Dan was also going for a “classic” type of writing; the real highlight here is Winslade, whose work looks phenomenal in color, and who delivers probably some of his best figurework and action to date, which, stacked next to Lawless, is no small feat.

War comics generally aren’t my bag, and though I’d say Ennis has earned his place as one of the best authors in the genre, I’d tired of his somewhat recycled tales of brotherhood some years back. However, very recently, the writer has hit another grand upswing in content by my opinion, with his 2000 AD Rogue story proving to be a career great, and these Battle comics using inspiration from the past to give Ennis a whole new avenue for exploring one of his favorite topics.