By Bruce Campbell & Eduardo Risso, coloured by Kristian Rossi & lettered by Rob Leigh (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-20654 (HB/Digital edition)
This book includes some Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.
Sgt Rock and Easy Company are two of the great and enduring creations of the American comic book industry. The gritty meta-realism of Robert Kanigher’s ordinary guys in life-or-death situations has captured the imaginations of generations of readers, young and old.
Early this century the artist most closely associated with these characters – Joe Kubert – got together with acclaimed modern writer Brian Azzarello (Hellblazer, Wonder Woman, 100 Bullets) to produce a powerful, if simplistic, respectful morality play about the nature of killing. It’s a damn fine read.
Offering a completely different take on the characters is actor, producer, novelist and horror film legend Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead franchise, Sundown: Vampires in Retreat, Bubba Hotep). His far too infrequent comics sallies include The Hire and Man with the Screaming Brain and here he crafts a truly gung-ho genre mash-up taking DC’s least exploited legend in a compellingly novel direction. His partner in crime is Eduardo Risso (assorted Batman tales, Boy Vampiro, Aliens, Logan, 100 Bullets) adding sleek, eerie style to the grimy, gritty proceeding.
It’s 1944 and War is still Hell, but of an utterly different kind, as the near-defeated German army plumbs abysmal depths in its quest to triumph over democracy and tolerance. With resources drained, every piece of materiel must be dedicated to saving the Fatherland, and, thanks to evil genius Dr. Morell, that now includes the reanimated, souped-up bodies of the glorious dead…
On the front lines surrounding Berlin, Sgt. Frank Rock and his battered veterans are catching up to the advance teams closing in on the dying Wehrmacht, when they are urgently seconded for a Level 9 Assignment. The brass have seen what early Nazi zombie units can do, and want their very best men on the job of stopping the rot before it’s too late…
Although this is a pretty commonplace plot for us Brits (brace yourself for a forthcoming Fiends of Eastern Front review!), here, sheer verve and darkly sardonic humour carry the tale across the battlefields and deep into the heart of Hitler’s crumbling Festung Europa, with plenty of action and twisty turns to feed the beast of a tale that just needed telling…
From sinister, portentous beginnings in ‘No Time like the Present’ and ‘What Could Go Wrong?’, through the ‘Belly of the Beast’ to ‘Where the Rubber Meets the Road’, and building to an epic confrontation as ‘Wanted: Hitler – Dead or Alive’ results in armageddon at ‘Target Zero’ this is a riotous, rip-roaring revenant rumble to breeze through and laugh loudly with… just like any well-made B-movie.
With covers and variants by Charlie Adlard, Chris Mooneyham, Pia Guerra, Frank Quitely, Kyle Hotz & Dan Brown, Christopher Mitten, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Ben Templesmith, Elizabeth Torque, Gary Frank, Brad Anderson & Francesco Francavilla, Sgt. Rock and the Army of the Dead is a grimly witty escapade that is certainly not your dad’s Easy Company, but certainly is a fabulously fun fear frolic.
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