Writers – Garth Ennis, Rob Williams
Artists – Staz Johnson, PJ Holden
Colours – Len O’Grady
Letters – Rob Steen

Garth Ennis and Staz Johnson kick things off with “Cooley’s Gun,” said gun being a water-cooled, belt-fed Vickers medium machine gun which can shoot five hundred rounds of .303 a minute. It is tried, tested and true and it is as much a member of the team as any other soldier, at least according to Cooley. For those that follow him, they know it too and it is a gun that has saved them on many an occasion. As it is on this dark and lonely night, both the men and their Vickers machine gun are going to be put to the test when a force of German paratroopers land looking to take them out. Thankfully, they have grit and determination on their side and more importantly, the man named Cooley leading them. Rob Williams and PJ Holden continue the action in the book’s second feature, one from the point of view of the Germans called “Death Squad”. Starring Grandad, Gus, Swede, Licker and Frankie, they are the men one sends in when something down and dirty needs to get done. Their latest mission is one they do not want to do as there is a very good chance that they will not return from it but do it they must and if they are going to do it, they intend to make it out alive. Said mission has to do with Field Marshal Kiesel and more specifically his son Captain Rolf Kiesel who is behind enemy lines in the Demyansk Pocket. They are given the ultimatum to either retrieve the boy or spend the rest of their lives in Wehrmacht Prison Anklam and seeing as the latter is a fate worse than death, they are off to rescue the errant Captain or die in the trying. Things go about as well as one might expect, perhaps even a little better but when they find out that the Captain is a traitor, the story takes a bit of a turn when it reaches its conclusion. Williams knows how to write a fun tale, the man packing it to the brim with action and a bit of dark humour to lighten it up just a bit while Holden does an amazing job with his pencils. The first story by Ennis and Johnson is a good one and warms things up for the reader, but it is Williams and Holden who bring it home with the Death Squad in a far better tale. While there have been no repeated features in this series so far, and one can see why as the wealth of material is enough to never do so for a good chunk of time, it would be nice to see a little more of Death Squad going forward or at the very least, getting their own series. As it is, this was a very strong issue from a series that can seem to do no wrong.

4 out of 5