As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Men of War follows young, headstrong soldier Joe Rock (grandson of the legendary Sgt. Rock) as he assumes command of Easy Company–a team of ex-military men turned contractors. Will they survive the battle-scarred landscape carved by the DCU's Super-Villains? Find out in this explosive new series from Ivan Brandon (Viking, Doc Savage) and Tom Derenick (Justice Society Of America)!This volume collects issues #1-8 of Men of War, part of the DC Comics—The New 52 event.
This was not a bad book, but not really what I was expecting. The idea of Sgt. Rock's grandson didn't work at all for me, though the stories wouldn't have been bad if I hadn't expected a little linkage. I much preferred some of the short pieces at the end of the book, "B" sides from the individual issues if you will. Knife Fight and A Last, Full Measure and Survival Mode are all memorable, as is a crazy thing with Frankenstein and his bride and a crazed Japanese robot called Dead Man Flying. Overall not a bad book, but definitely not Kubert and Kanigher.
I was looking forward to reading a "New 52" title that didn't centre around costumes/capes and expected a kind of modern day version of Garth Ennis' "War Stories". "Men of War" is instead a series of semi-realistic modern war stories with superhero elements mixed in.
Ivan Brandon's "Uneasy Company" story arc makes up the first half of the book featuring Sgt. Rock deployed in an unnamed Eastern country fighting a shadowy group of figures amidst wreckage caused by an unknown superhero. The inclusion of superheroes so soon in the book surprised me but if the plan for the series was to show a soldier's perspective of the superhero goings-on in other "New 52" books then that would be an intriguing concept. I was wrong though as the story doesn't really name-check other superhero titles though a few more forgettable characters appear.
The next story arc abandons any pretext of ordinary soldiers' stories as Jeff Lemire's "Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE" makes an appearance, battling a giant monster alongside a manga-esque robot. I've not read Lemire's "New 52" Frankenstein book but I was unimpressed with this story. It was contrived, stupid, and largely boring with its broad strokes and over-the-top action.
The rest of the book is made up of one shot stories, this time (thankfully) minus the superhero element. I enjoyed these the most with stories set in modern day Afghanistan showing the dangers and horrors of urban warfare. There was also a brilliant and muted story that closed out the book showing the reality of a soldier's life post-war where a soldier returns home, honourably discharged after being shot, but unable to find work in a recessed economy or find a place within a society he can no longer relate to.
I felt "Men of War" had potential but due to an over-abundance of writers, the stories, collected together, are uneven and highlight a lack of direction or strong unified artistic vision. It would've been better if DC had dropped the superhero angle for this book as I feel the strongest stories here focused on ordinary men and women rather than colourful and cartoonish characters doing impossible things (the Frankenstein storyline should've been dropped entirely, it was so out of place).
Yes DC, comics readers can handle stories without superheroes and, in a series like this, it would have been preferable. It's just a shame they realised this towards the end of this now-cancelled title rather than from the first issue.
A good thing about the rebooted DCU 52 was a minor attempt to expand past the standard superhero genre. Ergo, among the staples of the 1950s and 1960s for the company was war comics, especially the long running Sgt. Rock character. While almost all past history was thrown out with the reboot, some of it was retained. Here the Rock the readers meet is Frank Rock's grandson. A young army man who starts to rise in the ranks, and then does something to get himself reduced in rank. By the end of the first chapter he is back to being a sergeant because of deaths during the mission.
Part of what the creative team wanted to touch upon was how modern warfare would be changed if superhumans were on the playing field, even in minor roles. Also hinted at are some tragedies in Rock's life, and that of at least of his squad members. The series was cancelled after eight issue, so none of these story lines comes to a conclusion.
Unlike some other DC collections the backup stories from the issues are included. Some of these harken back to the DC war comics of the 1970s where the writers tried to show the human side of combatants, at times showing it from both sides.
There are two parts to this collection to review. The first half (which seems to be the main stories of each comic, as compared to the shorter backup stores) tells the story of Sgt. Joe Rock as he leads his company through mid-east battles. There are plenty of allusions to him being the grandson of the legendary Sgt. Rock of WWII, however, in this case he is constantly coming up against unexpected meta-human and paranormal enemies as he tries to carry out missions. Something about the whole series just failed to grab my interest. I struggled to finish reading it and would have given this collection 'one star' if the rest of the book hadn't been very enjoyable.
The second half of the book contains shorter, one-shot stories ranging from a Navy SEAL mission to Agent Frankenstein and GI Robot fighting during WWII. I really enjoyed all of these and would have given all of these short stories three or four stars. Unfortunately, they don't make up enough of the collection to bring it all to more than an 'okay' collection.
My favorite stories were two that told the story of how putting the lives of soldiers in danger helped corporations show how they needed more tax money for improvements on tech, and how we truly treat our returning soldiers after they fight overseas and see friends die.
I loved the art of the book; Tom Derenick did a fantastic job of capturing the dark, gritty, and realistic tone of the military setting. The writing was solid as far as the dialogues and narrations go, but the story as a whole didn't seem to have an overall direction. After reading this entire volume, the reader still doesn't know exactly who the super-powered people were or why they were involved in various missions that Easy Company had to carry out. I know the series got cancelled only after 8 issues but I'm not sure if that's why these questions remain unanswered or if it is the other way around. Perhaps Ivan Brandon didn't reveal the plot quickly enough to establish a solid readership and fan base. This is unfortunate because I love military stories and I think it's a great genre for the comic book medium. I'd love to see a really good job done on a military comic book. I'll be on the lookout for some offerings from independent publishers. Marvel and DC still seem to be best at capes for the most part lol, which is great, don't get me wrong. I love my Spidey, GL, etc. (ironically neither of these guys actually wear capes lol), but I'll likely be looking to IDW or elsewhere to see if any good military comic gems are out there :)
This book has kind of a strange ethereal quality about certain stories. I enjoyed the main story of Sgt. Rock leading his commandos against superhumans. Some of the backup stories were good, celebrating the lives of our actual soldiers. Other backup stories were overly preachy. Issue 8 swithces tone entirely and gives us a World War II tale of Frankenstein (Future Agent of S.H.A.D.E.). I enjoyed the Frankenstein section, but it was a definite tonal switch from everything else. The Sgt. Rock and Frankenstein stories deserved 3 to 3.5 stars while the others are definitely lower. I'd recommend this to people who like strange military stories and issue 8 separately for Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. fans.
I really wanted to give this a four because I liked the mix of real world into the DC universe. But the most realistic stories have too many question marks like was Circe the metahuman that harrased the city, who was Prior Hearst working for, and how do they intersect with these more real life situations.
Maybe if the series was not cancelled all would have been revealed!
Reprints Men of War (2) #1-8 (November 2011-June 2012). Corporal Joseph Rock finds himself in the heat of battle fighting a war that is about to get a lot stranger. With the rise of superheroes, a soldier’s classification as a “hero” is about to change and what makes a hero will become in question. Be it Frankenstein and a robot taking on Nazis in World War II or an agent on a secret mission in Afghanistan to take out an opioid smuggler, heroes come in all forms…war is hell!
Men of War Volume 1: Uneasy Company features stories by Ivan Brandon, Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, Jonathan Vankin, James Robinson, J.T. Krul, B. Clay Moore, and John Arcudi and art by various artists. The comic was one of the launch titles of DC Comics’ New 52 universe after the events of Flashpoint. It was cancelled after eight issues.
Men of War was doomed. War comics were a real niche, and like Westerns, the war comics’ time seems to have come and gone. When Men of War was announced as one of the titles being released, it was a really interesting choice in that sense…but the comic failed to fly.
The series is primarily made up of the six issue “Uneasy Company” story that introduces Sergeant Rock into the New 52 (along with some other classic DC war characters like Gravedigger). This story is all over the place and feels really under cooked. They introduce the idea that superheroes exist in this world where men are still fighting with guns and bombs, but it really doesn’t go deeper than that…who are the real heroes? Rock is also indicated to have something special about him that never gets developed due to the series cancellation.
There are two stand-alone issues that represent two different types of war stories. You have “Remembering the Leopard” which is a bit of a “real world” war story with a soldier going on a solo mission to take down the terrorist. The last story “Dead Man Flying” is a “weird war” type of story with fantasy and horror elements featuring Frankenstein (who had his own title Frankenstein and the Agents of S.H.A.D.E.) and the old G.I. Robot character from DC’s character graveyard…neither issue really worked because they were too quickly developed with one-issue stories.
The primary stories of each issue have back-up stories and these stories feel like throwaways. They are slim and really do feel like filler instead of short stories that didn’t have enough meat to carry their own issue. They are a good example of why a comic like this struggles in today’s comic book market.
I don’t know if Men of War failed because it was a war comic or if it failed because it wasn’t that good. The art was average and the story should really have been about exploring this real dichotomy of the everyman fighting a battle in a world where there are men can fly, aliens invade, and the heroes were spandex instead of fatigues. Men of War didn’t explore this enough…if it had, I might have kept reading.
One of the New 52 DC books which almost sounded interesting enough for me to buy the collection - and I'm glad the library got it in instead. Yes, the main story has an interesting mood, exploring life for ordinary soldiers in a world where the strange new phenomenon of superhumans makes battlefields even more unpredictable - but the storytelling isn't great (even if it's a deliberate effort to capture the fog of war, it was a poor choice). The other stories in the anthology are a mixed bag, but none of them's better than OK, and it's not hard to see why the book got cancelled (and yet the complete collection is still called 'Volume 1', which is puzzling). Essentially, if you want war comics, read Garth Ennis' ones.
Not very good. The main story isn't very well-developed or very clearly defined. Seems like there's a lot of stuff missing, between the lines. And the artwork is just pretty blah, for the most part. The interesting stuff is in the one-shots that feature a wide variety of different characters, writers, and artists. There's a pretty good story about a knife fight by Matt Kindt, and I liked the Civil War re-enactment story, with Richard Corben artwork. But it's hard to see where this might have gone and why, exactly, anyone thought this title was a good idea from the get-go.
The stories about Joe Rock were decent, but they couldn't stick to normal military action, they had to throw in superhumans and supernatural beings. The side stories were just silly, other than the always entertaining stories of Frankenstein and the Agents of SHADE. There's no surprise that this is the only volume in this title. Just not enough to sink your teeth into, and for trying to be away from all the superhero stuff, they sure liked to use powers and weird stuff instead of just focus on a group of soldiers and tell stories and build characters.
The idea behind some of the new 52 titles was to spotlights different corners of the DC Universe that were never highlighted before. Sadly, here we're given an incomprehensible mess. The first arc involving Sgt. Rock made little to no sense. Most of the rest of the book involved throw away tales or misplaced ones (Frankenstein). The art was decent but not spectacular. The book's individual covers were fantastic but overall the book was pretty forgettable. Just not worth the time.
Idiotic. Nonsensical. Just Plain Bad. Amazed it lasted three issues let alone six. They rape the memory of the classic Sgt. Rock by trotting out his grandson as a not-sergeant and adding supervillians to his world, and then have a bunch of b-stories, any of which is better than the lead - -which isn't saying much. Mercifully canceled.
Sgt. Rock's grandson in lead feature, more like a techno-thriller. Backup stories are much better, especially one drawn by the always-amazing Richard Corben. Second read, having forgotten all in the interim, I give this one more star for professionalism. Mildly recommended.
UN cómic bélico bastante pobre dentro de la tradición de la editorial DC. La saga principal, protagonizada por el nieto del ilustre Sargento Rock, presenta algún interés que termina diluyéndose en la insipidéz de un guión mediocre. Las historias secundarias: altamente olvidables.
I'm giving this three stars but I wanted to note that the very last story in this collection is very good but far too short to bump up the overall rating of the collection.
This is a collection of few war stories. Most of them are not exactly good ones. The first one, Uneasy company, I couldn't make head or tail of it. It feels like missing out pages here and there. Next, Remembering the leopard is quite good. Classic one on one, its flow make sense and the art is interesting. It's short and not total fantasy as the previous one. The third one is by Lemire and his bro Kindt. It's on the superhero side (because none of them can't write "plausible" war stories. And it's shit anyway. Let's continue with Navy SEALs - human shields. This one is a plausible modern combat story (Afghanistan-ish battleground), the story is nice, with good turns and I enjoyed that one. Next, Skull & bots. I don't know if it's war industry critics, or just humorous story about malfunction mech suit, or satire or what. Next one, Knife fight by Kindt - again anything else but war story. It's more like Bond mixed with Mr. & Ms Smith. But it's fun and the concept is interesting. Next one, A last, full measure by Arcudi is fun. Civil war reenactment turns wild by ghosts of South soldiers. Especially with Corben's art. And the very last one is Survival mode. Melancholic about the well-known struggle of troopers coming back to home to mundane lives. I enjoyed this one, not a forceful story about the struggle you sometimes gets, it says a lot with decent tempo and nice but appropriate ending. But overall this didn't help to raise my rating. The primary story was disappointing late GI Joe stuff, Lemire & Kindt underperformed here (what a surprise...) and that few silver linings can't hold 8 issue book together much firmly...
Men of War przeczytałem już kilka lat temu, ale jako że nie mam dobrych wspomnień to nieśpiesznie sięgałem po nią ponownie. I w sumie wiele się nie zmieniło. Całość to zbiór opowiadań z przewijającym się motywem wojskowym, ale nie jest to emocjonująca lektura.
Zaczynamy od wnuka niejakiego sgt. Rock, który babrze się w żołnierskich sprawach i szybko zostaje sierżantem. Misje są z reguły trudne do wykonania, zwłaszcza kiedy po niebie śmigają przeciwnicy z mocami. Zresztą na przedstawicielkę wzmocnionych tu trafimy. Men of War stoi na szablonie. Nie ma tu zaskoczenia, choć są momenty obiecujące, jak chociażby pojawienie się Frankensteina.
Mamy tu mechy, mamy zasadzki wroga, mamy tu króciutkie opowiadania, z których najmocniej podobało mi się o duchach z wojny secesyjnej. Niestety nie ma za to ognia, jak na tytuł traktujący o potyczkach zbrojnych. W sferze wizualnej też nie ma fajerwerków, choć efekt wyblakłych kolorów bywa miejscami całkiem fajny.
Tytuł zdecydowanie na zapchanie oferty jakąś tam pozycją. Poprawny, ale też miejscami monotonny, a to zaskakuje, bo różnorodność opowiadań jest całkiem spora.
This was actually one of the New 52 books I was most intrigued about, but went off the rails so quickly. I was expecting a Sgt. Fury/Rock or Garth Ennis style War book, but instead found a "normal person" in the world of superheroes kind of tale. It definitely had a lot of potential, and I was happy that DC was attempting to tackle some other genres with the New 52 initiative. (And understood how they had to tie it into superheroes, at least a little).
It worked well, as a "somewhat" realistic narrative, but then it started to get a tonal extreme tonal shift. It was also one of the first comics cancelled in the New 52, which is disappointing. With a variety of writers and artists, it just never gelled.
Buena americanada. Una historia de soldados en las que meten a un par de personajes con poderes para decir que es parte de DC. Sigo sin entender el capítulo de Circe la verdad.
En la segunda mitad, unos villanos inmortales les secuestran y amenazan y cuando se consiguen salvar, el protagonista deja una frase para las posteridad "Os he perdonado, porque no he venido aquí a matar americanos". Dos páginas después de reconocer que no saben cual es su misión, pero supongo que poner de villanos a "terroristas" estándar es más fácil.
Ty příběhy, které se braly vážně a kapal z nich patos a zápal byly těžko zkousnutelné. Naštěstí tam bylo i pár chytřejších a na druhou stranu i okatě hloupých, které to ozvláštňovaly.
Způsob výběru příběhů do kolekce moc nechápu. Z komentářů vidím, že každého štvala jiná část a asi se nenajde nikdo, komu by se líbila jako celek.
Brando delivers a good story in his "Uneasy Company" arc, helped by Derrenick's art (better than his stint on Injustice), and the backup stories serve as an example of a good war book this could have been if given its proper time, but trying to mix super-heroics with war combat and stuff didn't helped.
Unfortunately I missed this comic when it initially came out. The first half is a series of stories with Sgt. Rock's grandson as the main protagonist. I found those stories the most compelling and hope to see The modern Sgt. Rock come back into continuity. The other stories aren't bad, but they're not great either.
This is a good refresh section from the new 52 DC comics it's a nice modern style of the 1950s era of the SGT rock comics from World War II. I've been reading these since I was small and love the new modern feel of the series of Grew up on.
I'll call this a sort of mediocre addition to the New 52 titles. It follows a particular soldier in "Easy Company" and ends up being a kind of run-of-the-mill set of army / soldier stories. Nothing really makes the series stand out.
Not bad for what was essentially an anthology series. Sadly, it ended on Frankenstein rather than Sgt. Rock, but there were a few stand out stories that bump it up to a good series.
Not bad storywise, a few visual choices that stand out. Facial hair in uniform is a definite inaccuracy, especially when it isnt just scruff from the day.