MEN OF WAR #1
Written by Ivan Brandon
Art by Tom Derrenick
Men of War is strange. And not good strange. The book is split into two parts, with the first part following Corp. Joseph Rock through his assignment on a special ops mission to retrieve a missing senator from a war zone. Everyone except for Rock seems to die in this siege after a superbeing flies through the area, destroying everything in sight. We’re left with an image of Rock cradling his dying Sergeant. This story was okay.
We then abruptly shift gears into another story, Navy SEALs Human Shields (Part 1 of 3). This story (shockingly) follows a squad of SEALs hanging around a tattered street for reasons I still don’t understand after two readings. After they’re attacked, we follow two of them through a building until they confront the sniper, a young girl, forced to shoot upon the Americans by a terrorist holding her at gunpoint. The end. Everything, from the banter of the troops to the twist ending of the little girl sniper to the art direction of the book feels cheap, overdone and overdramatic. Five minutes of “Band of Brothers” will give you a much more authentic feel and image of real-life soldiers. Hell, five minutes of “Toy Soldiers” feels more authentic than Navy SEALs Human Shields felt.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The book tells you everything you need to know, and wish you could immediately forget.
VERDICT
Skip It – The first half had some potential, but Navy SEALs will make you wish you could rewind time and prevent anyone from having ever written it.
