4 out of 5

And the series concludes on a respectable note.  ‘Archangel’ is probably the best balanced out of all the War Story books, covering quite a berth of emotional territory and time without feeling choppy or too heavy in any particular portion for the sake of a point.  Which does prevent it from having a real lasting impact, as it is probably the most ‘friendly’ entry of the series, not really plunging into the fringes of humanity to explore the effects of war, rather telling a story of one particular soldier, before and after any drastic disasters which may occur (or may have occurred) in his time in the service (or, uh, his daily life).  It ends with a wink, and though its absolutely told its tale by that point, this is the only book out of the two volumes that doesn’t feel like it needs a conclusion, per se, acting more as a tribute to the life of a soldier without getting wrapped up in historical specifics or terminology.  It’s closer in spirit to the future Battlefields series Ennis would write, but more successful since it boils it down to one issue whereas those minis space it out unnecessarily, it seems.

In ‘Condors,’ pilot MacKenzie owns up to maiming his superior’s plane during a dogfight and is summarily sent to man a camship, a one way flight that gets literally catapulted from a ship into enemy range and then the pilot either has to drift to a landing point or bail and wait in a tiny raft for pickup.  He has a lass whom he refuses to marry since he might day on any one of these missions and doesn’t want to leave a widow.  It is in their relationship that Garth whips out some of his exploratory dialogue, trying to dig out what kept couples together or apart during the war, and he successfully reigns it in to just the point of getting silly with their back-and-forths.  It’s a believable interaction, and a believable crux for MacKenzie to have to ponder as everything that can go wrong leading to his camship flight seems to.  This is the nicest part of the book – as he often does let things go wrong and does like to poke at authority, Garth trails things out where we feel like we’re leading to some horrible something or other or some tirade against the people who design these ships and missions, but it never arrives.  Whether or not this was a purposeful turnaround for the last of the series or not, it successfully works to leave us in a good spot when we turn the last page.

Erskine’s art is odd.  Erskine has a very stiff style, and it works wonders on men in uniform – they automatically look important, stoic, and revered.  It doesn’t work as well on the nude form, as when the couple are in bed, it honestly looks a little amateurish, the bodies not falling quite naturally onto the 2-dimensional plane.  But when we’re in the sky, when we’re shuffling between reaction shots, every character has just a little bit of personality added to their whole figure.

‘Condors’ moves through quite a bit of narration with ease.  It’s not riddled through with any particular aim, but it’s an incredibly solid one-shot and proof that you can tell an effective and far-reaching story between the covers of one comic.