The Enemy Ace Archives, Vol. 1 by Robert KanigherThe Enemy Ace Archives - Volume one collects stories from Our Army at War 151, 153, 155; Showcase 57-58; and Star Spangled War Stories 138-142 by Joe Kubert and Robert Kanigher.
Not long ago, I read Black Hammer '44 and was hugely underwhelmed. I decided to read one of the works that inspired it and saw this Archive for sale for less than $20. I'm not made of money, damn it!
For those keeping score at home, Enemy Ace is Hans Von Hammer, a German fighter pilot in World War I. Known as a killing machine to his fellow soldiers, he is a lonely man with only a wolf for a friend. And he's an ace pilot.
Anyway, the stories in the first half are repetitive, short air battles for the most part. The second half features Hammer's rivalry with The Hangman, a masked French pilot. The second half yanks the book up a couple notches, giving Enemy Ace a little more dimension. One observation: in the Silver and Bronze Age, most comics were written to ease first time readers into things. As such, Hammer is called a killing machine in every story.
The art is by far the main attraction for me. Joe Kubert was in his prime and went in with guns blazing. His figure work and planes were top notch but the guy really knew how to draw aerial battles, using empty space to convey the vastness of the sky, as well as using shifting perspectives and odd shaped panels to great effect. The small panels showing Enemy Ace's reactions gave the battles a human touch. I recently read a Harvey Kurtzman omnibus and I noticed Kubert reached into Kurtzman's bag of tricks a couple times, using his multiple panel zoom technique.
While the stories didn't blow me away, the art in The Enemy Ace Archives hit me like a pair of Spandaus. Four out of five downed German pilots.
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