2 out of 5

The last of the Glenat translations.

I’m not a war comics fan, so I’m not the prime target for these, but the Operation Overlord entries haven’t struck me as prime entries in the genre. Spotlighting – to my understanding – lesser exposed aspects from D-Day, or drilling down on characters, the creators have definitely offered up some interesting bits and pieces and people, but the issues have generally been placed rather clunkily, or are somewhat unfocused in general. ‘Commando Kieffer’ is mostly in line with what’s come before – that is, it’s not great, but it’s definitely not bad, with consistent, followable art from Davide Fabri and pleasing, misleadingly-peaceful colors from Domenico Neziti – but it is the one that felt like it least-fulfilled its m.o. Seeming like it’s going to focus on a particular wartime photographer, writer Bruno Falba and Fabri make constant pauses to have him flashback to his home life, comparing it to his new “family” or army buddies; at the same time, the story is named after another soldier – Kieffer – and his unit (of which the photographer is a part) and the suicide mission they’re on…

Both parts of that are worthy of following, but the comic instead lightly floats between the two, serving neither very effectively and thus not, in my experience, investing a reader all that well. On the plus side, while I’ve struggled to differentiate characters in most of these stories due to everyone-looks-the-same-in-uniform syndrome, because there are only a couple of characters called out here, and we otherwise are just sort of bouncing around the unit, it’s easier to appreciate the art and the well-effected page flow.

I’ll be glad if we go back to non-war floppies after this, but whatever the case, I will persevere to offer you complete useless reviews.