By d. emerson eddy — The third and final IPC/Fleetway reimagining at DC/Wildstorm was Battler Britton by Garth Ennis, Colin Wilson, Jeromy Cox, and Rob Leigh. It's even further afield from the superheroics and godly reinterpretations of Albion and Thunderbolt Jaxon, following British Wing Commander Robert Britton in the North African theatre of World War II. Much more akin to what we see from Ennis in War Stories and Battlefields.

Set right before the onset of the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942, Battler Britton delves into a rocky tale of British and US Forces attempting to work together as Wing Commander Britton and his squadron are brought in to teach the Americans something about flying during the war. There's acrimony from the beginning with a hotheaded American Major disgruntled over the Brits' arrival. Things just seem to devolve with casualties and recriminations when the Americans fail to follow basic orders, abandoning the British squads, during what was supposed to be a milk run.

I find the tone of this one interesting, since it kind of straddles the two sides of Garth Ennis' writing. It's not quite as serious and somber as many of his straight-up war stories, but it doesn't go quite as over-the-top with the dark humor of something like Dicks, but it still hammers home the harsh, and sometimes arbitrary, deadliness of war and the need to sometimes temper that with a bit of levity. I think doing so shows respect both to the subject matter and to the unique nature of this being a legacy war comic.

The artwork from Colin Wilson also seems to straddle this line between humor and seriousness. His style has always reminded me of Walt Simonson, but with a few grittier European influences like Hugo Pratt and Carlos Ezquerra, resulting in some very fluid, detailed artwork, very much fit for the action and gruesomeness of the war. Complete with some very nice details for the aircraft. Jeromy Cox's colors enhancing it further by emphasizing both the vastness of the Egyptian desert and the dark, bloody side of the battle.

It's a shame that DC/Wildstorm revival of the IPC/Fleetway characters didn't really take off, but it did give us three solid, standalone stories for our entertainment. Battle Britton from Ennis, Wilson, Cox, and Leigh is possibly the most faithful to the original, delivering an adventurous war story of two countries' airmen trying to survive in World War II.

Classic Comic of the Week: Battler Britton

Battler Britton
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Colin Wilson
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Publisher: DC Comics / Wildstorm
Garth Ennis, the writer of the best-selling thought-provoking series PREACHER tells a an exciting tale of World War II in this riveting new graphic novel. In October, 1942, Allied forces are on the run from the unrelenting forces of the Nazis in North Africa. Wing Commander Robert "Battler" Britton of the Royal Air Force and his squadron are dispatched to an American airstrip to spearhead a joint action against Hitler's war machine. Now they must survive taunts, threats, and assaults ... and that's just from the Yanks!
Release Date: May 16, 2007
Buy It Here: Physical

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.