Writer – Gary Friedrich
Artist – Dick Ayers
Inker – Mike Esposito
Letters – Sam Rosen

The second issue of Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen is minus a few members, eight to be exact, but that does not stop the team from trying to complete its latest mission which is a good old fashioned prison break. Said prison though is a concentration camp and getting in is much easier than getting out. For the people inside, life is hard and the future but a dream as many of them are near death or at the very least, heading towards it. For three men, American soldiers who also happen to be Native in origin, they will not go down without a fight, will not give up no matter what the Nazis do to them. With things looking grim, they immediately look better when up through the floorboards of their bunkhouse in the guise of Jay Little Bear and behind him, Combat Kelly. They have a plan to get all those within out, but the timing of it all is crucial and when a German soldier comes in for inspection, Kelly and his men know that they have to get out sooner rather than later. Written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by the incomparable Dick Ayers, the story is filled with both horror and action as one can only imagine just how bad those within the camp were treated. Suffice it to say, when presented with a chance to escape, everyone takes it and the story picks up in pace exponentially as they make a run for it. Like The Great Escape before it, one cannot help but root for those who are running for their lives and like that movie, not everyone lives to tell the tale, though heroism is on full display. In one of the best sequences in the book, the Native American soldiers, weak and run down from their time in the camp, refuse to leave anyone behind and when they go to rescue their fellow inmates, they are killed in action with Kelly proclaiming that he will make sure they get the Medal of Honor. Friedrich and Ayers bring them all home and ends it all on a sombre note, slightly disappointing in one respect, but reminding the reader that not all in war is what it seems.

4 out of 5