3 out of 5

The main struggle with these Operation Overlord entries has been balancing character with story; there’s a desire to show encapsulated moments of the Op from a historical, narrative standpoint, but then writer Bruno Falba has also been trying to add in character hooks to personalize things.  Alas, there’s just not enough room to really develop the depth that’s needed for that perspective, and combined with the often confusing ‘all guys in uniforms look the same’ issue, the stories never achieve the desired synergy of these elements.

In ‘The Merville Gun Battery,’ characters are the story, focusing on a rivalry between Allied soldiers Norman and Adrien, showing us plenty of the former’s impulsive, destructive side, and the latter’s poetic, artistic side.  What’s interesting is that this blankets a much more interesting premise that gives the tale its title: a fully constructed replica of a particular Gun Battery that’s used to plan out an upcoming assault; it’s almost strange how little face time this piece of history gets in the tale, though if I were being favorable, I’d mention how this constructed facade maybe parallels something regarding Norman’s / Adrien’s connection.

…I don’t actually think the story is written at that level, and the roundabout way Falba explains the characters’ actions is stretching things – in a longer story, it wouldn’t have worked – but having the focus more squarely on these two is overall to ‘Merville’s benefit.