Enemy Ace

Enemy Ace is the title of a series of comic publications by the US publisher DC Comics .

Enemy Ace is about the war experiences of a fictional German fighter pilot named Hans von Hammer in the First World War , who also Enemy Ace or as a result of his outstanding ability as a fighter pilot The Hammer of Hell ( The Hammer of Hell is called). The series belongs to the so-called "war comics" genre, which is almost unknown in Germany .

Origin, background and role models of Enemy Ace

The character of Enemy Ace and the first stories about the character were conceived by the writer Robert Kanigher and visualized by the artist Joe Kubert . The model for the character of Hans von Hammer, as well as the scenario in which he has to survive his adventures (the First World War) were the historical personality of the German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen , also known as "The Red Baron", and his life story.

The first Enemy Ace story appeared as a feature in the February 1965 comic book Our Army at War # 151.

Enemy Ace series releases

Enemy Ace initially appeared for a few months as a popular back-up feature in the war series Our Army at War , before the series switched to the showcase anthology series as a test feature . Issues # 57 and # 58 of August and October 1965 were dedicated to Enemy Ace .

After Showcase sales turned out to be insufficient for a series of its own, Enemy Ace was integrated as one of several feature series into the Star Spangled War Stories war comic series , which for several years - starting with # 138 in May 1968 - Enemy Ace - Brought stories. Up to number # 151 from July 1970, Enemy Ace took the top spot on the first pages of the magazine, before the series was relegated to a back-up series in favor of The Unknown Soldier and placed in the back of the magazine.

Since 1989, DC has occasionally published so-called graphic novels , which contain new, artistically more ambitious stories about the character. In 1989, for example, the volume Enemy Ace: War Idyll , written and drawn by George Pratt , appeared , in which Hammer - now an old man - vigorously opposes the Vietnam War .

In 2001 the volume Enemy Ace: War in Heaven , written by Garth Ennis , was published, which reports on Hammer's experiences during the Second World War . The latter volume received widespread critical acclaim for its lifelike, critically disillusioning approach to war.

content

From an artistic point of view, it is particularly noteworthy because - although it is an American product - it focuses on a German and makes him the hero or at least protagonist of the plot. While it is extremely unusual in the American entertainment industry to focus on non-Americans at all in a narrative entertainment product, it is almost a rarity in the artistic approach to war, a member of the side opposing the United States as an enemy to the hero of the narrated To take action.

The Enemy-Ace stories depict the major historical event of the First World War from the control of the German pilot Hans von Hammer, a somewhat old-fashioned son of an East Prussian aristocrat, who as a "knight of the air" with his Fokker Dr.I in daring flying duels ( dog fights ) Pilot against pilot against fighter pilots of the Entente states bravely and honorably fought for a victory for the Central Powers in the world war. Other stories also told adventures beyond the battlefields of the "Great War", such as Hammer's hunting tours in the Black Forest together with a wolf friend.

Later publications shed light on Hammer's experiences in the 1920s, when he went on a treasure hunt with the aged Wild West hero Bat Lash and ended up on an island inhabited by dinosaurs ( Guns of the Dragon ), his reactivation as a pilot in World War II , in which he gradually built an increasing distance from the National Socialist regime in order to finally - in view of the atrocities he experienced on the Eastern Front (cannibalism, mass executions, kidnappings) and the discovery of the events in the extermination camps of the regime - a mutiny of his To put the squadron against the Hitler state into action, to destroy the aircraft of his unit, to induce the pilots to renounce the leadership and to surrender to the Allies under Sergeant Rock.