Preview: ‘Battle Action’ #7: The Major’s Taking His Shot

The latest issue of Battle Action brings terrific tales of war – more Johnny Red taking to the skies and Major Eazy bringing the cool:

Yep, more Battle, more Action, as this 10-issue series heads into the home stretch. You know the drill by now – each issue starts with Garth Ennis and Keith Burns giving us the 10-issue final tale of Johnny Red, following the Brit air ace who’s spent his war fighting alongside the Soviets. And alongside Johnny Red, we get a done in one back-up each issue. This time it’s Major Eazy, the oh so cool creation of Alan Hebden and the great Carlos Ezquerra, looking as wonderfully laconic as always in Allies by Rob Williams and PJ Holden.

In Johnny Red, Ennis and Burns are playing a long game, working up a war story full of all the true horrors. We’ve two threads happening, the rescue of Nina Petrova and Johnny’s mission to stop the Nazis unleashing a biological weapon in what’s turning out to be more and more suicidal, an off-the-books thing where it’s unlikely anyone’s coming out of it alive.

We’ve had plenty of storylines in this one so far, but here we get the calm before the storm, Johnny finding out how truly dangerous this one is, whilst his comrades bluff their way into getting Nina out of the hellhole Mother Russia put her in. There’s just three episodes to go in what’s been a fittingly grim and dark war tale, and it’s only going to speed up from here.

As for the back-up tale, we get a Major Eazy story of an American’s take on the iconic Major by Rob Williams and PJ Holden.  Allies finds Holden doing his very best homage to Ezquerra right from the very first page…

Yes, it’s the war’s coolest soldier in the first invasion of Europe, 11 months before Normandy, with Eazy involved in the parachute drop into Sicily in 1943. He’s there with the cigar and the Bentley and the impossible cool. Yeah, Major Eazy of the long range desert group was always ridiculously cool when Ezquerra drew him, and here Williams and Holden tap into all that cool to give us something that goes to those classic Brit war comics where the unconventional heroes were all the rage.

They’ve tapped into the essential cool of Major Eazy here, an unconventional Brit hero brought to life once more here by Williams and Holden that evokes all that was so, so special about the original.

This Battle Action series, with its mix of the longer Johnny Red tale and all these one offs really is doing great things. It’s paying homage to all that went before and also bringing it all into the now. These are Great War stories, full of action and adventure, showing us both the horrors of what war brings and unashamedly giving us thrilling adventures to boot.

BATTLE ACTION #7 -PUBLISHED BY THE TREASURY OF BRITISH COMICS ON 26 FEBRUARY

JOHNNY RED: A COUPLE OF HEROES – PART 7 – BY GARTH ENNIS AND KEITH BURNS. COLOURS BY JASON WORDIE, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

MAJOR EAZY: ALLIES – BY ROB WILLIAMS AND PJ HOLDEN. COLOURS BY MATT SOFFE, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

Now, how about a couple of previews to show you just how good this one looks and reads…