Wednesday is Comic Day!

Writer: Garth Ennis Artist: Russ Braun Colorist: Tony Avina Letterer: Simon Bowland Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment Cover Price: $3.50

In 1942, the resource starved Russians formed the 588th Night Bomber Regiment - an all woman combat-regiment. It became the most highly decorated unit in the Soviet Air Force, with some pilots flying hundreds of missions. The women flew ancient Polikarpov Po-2 bi-planes. Because the planes had a small bomb payload capability, the pilots often flew multiple missions per night. The Germans called the women Nachthexen (Night Witches). This is the subject matter of Garth Ennis' latest work. Ennis is an Irish writer most famous for co-creating Preacher and revitalizing The Punisher. Currently, he also has the ongoing series The Boys. I have mixed feelings about Ennis' work. When he is on top of his game, he is excellent. I've loved some of his recent works such as Battler Britton and Dan Dare. But he also has a tendency to be gratuitous and write for shock value. Often there are scenes that feature extreme violence, profanity, or sexuality without seeming to add anything to the story. While the Night Witches is definitely mature subject matter, with unflinching and realistic violence and language, so far it doesn't evidence any of Ennis\' weakness - more so it plays to his strengths of cynical realism and storytelling. The story appears to be emphasizing two characters, Lieutenant Anna Kharkova, one of the Russian pilots, and Graf, a young German soldier. Besides being a narrator, Graf's main purpose, so far, seems to be in ensuring that the Germans aren't all depicted as stereotypical monsterous creatures. Both Graf and Kharkova are young, and appear slightly overwhelmed by the circumstances in which they find themselves. Russ Braun is a good choice for this book. His work is very expressive, slightly cartoony, but gritty enough to fit the tone of the story. A gallery of some of his work can be seen, here. Now, by the nature of the story and its title, much of the action takes place at night or in the hours shortly before or after. Simon Bowland does a remarkable job of making the colors reflect this without being too dark or murky by using highlights very wisely. According to the cover, this is a three issue story. Enough story is squeezed into this first issue to make it worth picking up in issue format. If you would like to learn more about the real women that flew these missions, I recommend Bruce Myles' book, Night Witches: The Amazing Stories of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II. I give this book an A-.