2 out of 5

Yeah, you got me, I just got this ’cause of Gerbie.  But it’s too bad it reeks of 70s hippie lack-of-sense-ness, because the pitch is pretty awesome, and the cover is great.  I wish the premise had whittled together something appealing enough to bring me back for the rest of the run.

Apparently WIH, up to this issue, was just a series for old war comics reprints.  Then, for whatever reason, Roy Thomas and Tony Isabella decided to turn it into a series “starring” Death and a dude named John Kowalski.  And if I’m following the wiki page description, the idea was that Kowalski would be re-incarnated each issue to right some wrong and then die again as punishment for some kind of treason he committed at some point.  (moral: death totes hate treason, ya’ll)  The Dick Ayers / Frank Springer art is great.  Very moody, jagged paneling – some great splash pages – with gothic shadows and ink lines.  I’ve never been a Claremont dude, and though ‘Hell’ isn’t necessarily one of the books he’s known for, my practically Claremont-less collection is reconfirmed by the overly soapy narrative in this book.  I’m assuming the whole reincarnation thing – and maybe, uh, the plot – is developed more clearly in further issue, ’cause #9 is COMPLETELY vague and confusing, Kowalski running around a bombed battlefield in Poland as death hangs around all skeletony and points at things, John’s memory flashing back to when he was sent back to his native land because of some wicked war crimes he done did or something.  There’s a… homeless dude?  Who calls himself ‘The Scavenger’ because it’s a comic book and we do that, and he goes around hitting people with a crutch.

And then there’s a little narrative from Tony Isabella about how war sucks and they’re not gonna’ be pro-American in the book or anything, they plan just to tell it how it is.

This attitude – and the general weirdness of the book – make it an interesting read.  It’s the kinda thing that Marvel (definitely not DC) was doing / allowing in the 70s, and its a style we haven’t really seen since.  So… interesting, but not particularly good, while Claremont (and I guess Gerber) stumble through an uncomfortably paced over-drama to set the series’ general format up for the few issues that would follow.