Peacemaker by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

Oh shit, is it the 10th already? Oops, here you go...

This is the recent six issue mini-series that just wrapped up, and as a comment on the state of the market today, consider this an advance review of the trade paperback. I commented briefly on this book before, but at the end of it, I thought it worthy of a slightly more thorough assessment.

Darick Robertson, best known for his run on Transmetropolitan, is here joined with Garth Ennis best known for his own famous Vertigo series, Preacher. While this series lacks the flash of the former, and the substance of the latter, it does bode well for their upcoming ongoing series from Wildstorm/DC, The Boys. These guys work well together, and Robertson mostly plays to Ennis's strengths by illustrating page after page of talking heads in a comfortable and illuminating way. I know I sound like a broken record, but he does make the mistake of falling off model for some of the characters. Considering this story stars a pre-eye patch Nick Fury, this can cause difficulty in reading a story about military boys, but at least I can tell the "Jerrys" from the "Yanks" thanks to their uniforms. Robertson seems to me to be a journeyman. You can take that in the pejorative sense, but I don't necessarily mean it to be. Most creative fields are filled with men and women who may be striving for the singular, yet end up with years and years of solid storytelling, consistency being their singular contribution.

Garth Ennis, on the other hand, set the bar very high very quickly with the singular. A seventy-five issue story that, along with the aforementioned Transmetropolitan, and the needs-no-introduction Sandman, defined the current Vertigo generation. He hasn't yet been able to live up to this standard, but at least it has enabled him to do what fits what I assume is his joy, telling stories about badass former soldiers (The Punisher) and soldier badasses (his War Story series and the present Fury title to name a few of many). I've mentioned before that I don't know my ass from a foxhole, but the stories have a sheen of authenticity that makes me assume that they are fully, thoughtfully and lovingly researched.

The present story allows Ennis to put Nick Fury in a pivotal time of World War II and shows the "secret history" of a pivotal event in Fury's life. The story feels takes its time in the telling over the six issues, but he packs in enough military minutiae to prevent it from feeling thin, and instead it feels detailed. The story hinges, in its second act, on a great hook, the kind you can only get from an imaginary world where you know that famous historical events can have different interpretations, even an event that you assume must have happened the way it did in "our world." In the interest of avoiding spoilers I will say no more, but the cliffhanger that ends chapter four provides just the minor thrill that you hope a potboiler can provide, without the idea feeling forced in for the sake of shock, and with the comfort of having it wrap up nicely enough in the end. Minor story, major character, major research. Ennis provides a nice change of pace from most Marvel comics in simply moving the plot from superheroes to war heroes.

I just hope he achieves the singular again with his next title.