4 out of 5

PERFECT.  EXCEPT FOR THAT EPILOGUE.  NICE ONE.

So by volume 2 of War Story, we sort of know what to expect – variations on exploring the ‘value’ of war from different perspectives, whether it’s an aerial view of an event, or a more personal take.  Depending on Garth’s mood, the ‘none may ride without prerequisite knowledge’ bar goes up and down, jargon or expectations of knowing vehicles and battles and dates and name sometimes getting in the way of easily sinking into the tale, though most can be understood from context.  A couple of the books hit the exact right balance of emotional and stoic, letting the reader in but making the cold aspects of war still chill the pages.  The majority of the series, though, being written at a high point in Garth’s career, is chock full of moments of striking dialogue or depth, but gets skewed into the ‘okay’ pile by short-sighted plotting or the extras tossed in confusing the overall message.

But Condors is perfect.  (aaallmost)  Which would seem horribly impossible, and speaks to how well Ennis can write when all gears are ‘go,’ because we have 50 pages to make four different points of view sympathetic and believable while balancing the reader’s need to understand the how and why of their current situation.

It’s the Spanish Civil war.  Four soldiers dive into a pit to wait out the bombs, and it turns out it’s two on two, a Nazi and an Irishman fighting for the same side, a Spaniard and a socialist Brit.  But they’re all there for the same purpose – shelter – and besides, no one has any weapons, so a quick truce is agreed upon for the night.  Some time passes, and then, as humans are ought to do, people get to talking and telling their tales.  The German starts, and Ennis uses this as a method for quickly getting the “but why are they all in this particular hole?” question out of the way, providing enough info for the reader to accept it and allow it, via one of the smoothest executions of “thanks for that info but that’s not what I asked you” in narrative history.  And thereafter we get four well-paced, very different experiences that turned men into soldiers.  The idealist, the fighter, the follower, and then the voice of reason.  All are valid, all feel absolutely real, and though Ennis can’t avoid some pokes here and there, because they are delivered by the appropriate parties (different nationalities, different sides of a war) they just liven the story and enrich these character’s realism.  It all just works in wonderful concert, and summarizes each point of view the War Story books have covered in a compressed format that nonetheless feels more informed and patient than some of the other entries in the series.

The art has the same level of polish as the whole line of ‘Story’s.  I associate Ezquerra with a certain ‘dumb’ face that he uses in a lot of the Ennis stuff he works on, but god damn does he deliver some great work here.  Everyone reads, you can hear the character’s voices through the combination of design and dialogue.  And the vignettes of past endeavors are well planned, clear, and cover an amazing breadth of locales an events with ease.

Even the jokey ending to the story follows with what’s come before.  So it’s perfect.  …But.  Why… why were the “so and so went on to” epilogues put in?  It’s overkill.  It’s an opportunity for one crude joke and a few over-sad endings that just aren’t necessary.  Four pages bring this amazing tale down to a sillier level.  It’s such a bummer.  Not every panel has to sing to get a five star rating from THIS glorious reviewer, but endings are pretty important.  Harumph.