Preview: ‘Battle Action Issue 10’ — The Grand Finale To Johnny Red

The finale of this third volume of Battle Action brings us a double-header of Johnny Red by Garth Ennis and Keith Burns, concluding a tale years in the making…

Ennis and Burns have a long, long history with Johnny Red, the disgraced RAF officer who found his war in the East, fighting with the Russians throughout WWII. Now, after many adventures, they bring us the conclusion to his saga.

Each issue of this volume of Battle Action has stuck to a familiar format – the first half of the 36-page comic follows the final Johnny Red storyline, with a back-up strip featuring a classic Brit comics character from either Battle or Action, two iconic Brit comics titles.

But here, with the final issue, we’re doing things differently, and quite rightly so. Instead of two strips, this one is all Johnny Red. It’s a fitting finale, seeing as Ennis and Burns have been chronicling the adventure of the Brit fighting for the Russians for many years now. And they give this iconic Brit comics hero a fitting send-off here, on his most dangerous mission to date.

So far, we’ve had Johnny launching himself onto a possible suicide mission to stop a new Nazi biological weapon threat, Nina’s plane’s been downed and rescued by the allies, and Johnny’s in a dogfight to end all dogfights with Erich Von Jurgen, doing his best to stop Johnny getting to see out his mission.

It’s every bit the ending this one deserved. A fitting finale to the long-running saga of Johnny Red that Ennis and Burns have been telling for years now. Of heroes and sacrifice, of friendships and lovers, of mourning lost friends, and of choosing to live instead of dying.

The bitttesweet ending to the first part here is perfectly fitting, Ennis knows how to tell a thrilling war tale for sure, but he also knows that war tales need to show all sides of a conflict, the excitement followed by the inevitable acknowledgement of the horrors that war brings with it. And that comedown carries on into the epilogue, the second half of this issue.

It’s 1945 and Johnny and Nina are back in Liverpool, the war done for them, just time to reminisce and remember those lost. Although there’s still a moment for Ennis to give us a little comedy along the way…

Yes, the pint and half pint gender gap, something we all remember here from our parents.

But this is all about the quiet moments after the war, of two people in love finally given the chance to enjoy themselves, be themselves, a whole world of peacetime in front of them. It’s a happy ending, and so it should be. Every soldier deserves that, and Ennis and Burns give Johnny and Nina their own happy ending here. After all, despite all the trappings of a damn good war story, Ennis and Burns have also been giving us a love story. And I, for one, couldn’t be happier to see them raise a glass and look forward to what life brings for them.

So, we reach the end of the 10 issues of this third volume of Battle Action. Garth Ennis, Keith Burns, and a host of other creators have given us everything I could possibly have hoped for, celebrating the very best of some classic characters along the way.

BATTLE ACTION ISSUE 10 – JOHNNY RED: A COUPLE OF HEROES – PART 10 – STORY BY GARTH ENNIS, ART BY KEITH BURNS, COLOURS BY JASON WORDIE, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

JOHNNY RED CREATED BY TOM TULLY AND JOE COLQUHOUN

PUBLISHED BY REBELLION ON 11 JUNE 2025