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DC Goes to War
In this new collection, DC is recognizing nearly 80 years of comic book war stories in DC Goes to War. This hardcover edition features historical fiction from both WWI and WWII featuring Sgt. Rock, The Losers and more!
Over the past eight decades, DC has published stories of fictional war heroes to capture what it means to fight for one's country. In this collection, you'll catch a glimpse of what it was like to live through WWI and WWII through the eyes of various characters, including Sgt. Rock. From tales of rebellion to surviving the fight, this book features some of the greatest war stories of its time.
Collects Sgt. Rock Special #2, Enemy Ace: War in Heaven #1, Enemy Ace: War in Heaven #2, Showcase #57, Our Army at War #67, Our Army at War #83, Our Army at War #233, Our Army at War #235, Boy Commandos #1, Star Spangled War Stories #87, Star Spangled War Stories #183, All-American Comics #48, Weird War Tales #3, G.I. Combat #87, Our Fighting Forces #49, Our Fighting Forces #102, The Losers Special #1, Military Comics #1.
Over the past eight decades, DC has published stories of fictional war heroes to capture what it means to fight for one's country. In this collection, you'll catch a glimpse of what it was like to live through WWI and WWII through the eyes of various characters, including Sgt. Rock. From tales of rebellion to surviving the fight, this book features some of the greatest war stories of its time.
Collects Sgt. Rock Special #2, Enemy Ace: War in Heaven #1, Enemy Ace: War in Heaven #2, Showcase #57, Our Army at War #67, Our Army at War #83, Our Army at War #233, Our Army at War #235, Boy Commandos #1, Star Spangled War Stories #87, Star Spangled War Stories #183, All-American Comics #48, Weird War Tales #3, G.I. Combat #87, Our Fighting Forces #49, Our Fighting Forces #102, The Losers Special #1, Military Comics #1.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2020
13 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Robert Kanigher
584 books8 followersSee also as Bob Kanigher
One of the most prolific writers in comics, particularly in the Silver Age. He took over scripting duties on Wonder Woman after William Moulton Marston's death, and handled the character's transition from the Golden to the Silver Age. He also created Barry Allen, the second Flash, for editor Julius Schwartz's superhero revival of 1956, as well as writing and editing DC's pioneering war titles.
His creations include Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier, Barry Allen, Ragman, the Losers, Black Canary, the Metal Men, Poison Ivy, Enemy Ace, the Suicide Squad, and Rex the Wonder Dog.
One of the most prolific writers in comics, particularly in the Silver Age. He took over scripting duties on Wonder Woman after William Moulton Marston's death, and handled the character's transition from the Golden to the Silver Age. He also created Barry Allen, the second Flash, for editor Julius Schwartz's superhero revival of 1956, as well as writing and editing DC's pioneering war titles.
His creations include Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier, Barry Allen, Ragman, the Losers, Black Canary, the Metal Men, Poison Ivy, Enemy Ace, the Suicide Squad, and Rex the Wonder Dog.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 21, 2022
Excellent selection of the DC war comics I remember reading as a kid. Many great artists and writers on these stories. Very nice read. Very recommended
Want to read
June 25, 2020I haven't read this yet but wanted to make a note on the contents. This really should have collected the final Sgt. Rock story from Joe Kubert that was originally published in DC Universe: Legacies #4 from 2010. It's probably the best Sgt. Rock story there is and it will bring a tear and a smile to any Sgt. Rock fan. If you're a fan of war comics, please do check it out.
November 13, 2022
This is an eclectic collection of short illustrated stories from DC about combat. Most are set in WWII, although not all. There are some WWI tales, and even a Vietnam tale. Many involve grunts on the ground, while others are concerned with the air war. For some reason, the first three stories selected for the collection were weak both in story and art (Particularly in story), but starting with story 4, "Push-Button War," they got very good on both counts. I noticed that the first 3 were published in the time frame from 1941 to 1943, during WWII, while story 4 was published in 1958 and the rest after that. So, maybe that led to some of the weaknesses.
I bought the collection because I remembered the very few Sgt Rock comics I'd read and enjoyed as a kid, and there were several of those in here that I really enjoyed. There was also a Haunted Tank tale or two, and a group called The Losers. The real find for me, though, was "Killer of the Skies," a tale told from the point of view of a German fighter pilot called The Hammer of Hell. The first story, written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Joe Kubert, was set in WWI and featured a sky duel between The Hammer and a great French Ace. The book then ended with a long set of tales featuring the same German flyer now fighting in WWII, and discovering over time what was going on behind German lines in the concentration camps. This was an outstanding ending to the collection, written by Garth Ennis and Illustrated by Chris Weston, Christian Alamy, and Russ Heath.
I bought the collection because I remembered the very few Sgt Rock comics I'd read and enjoyed as a kid, and there were several of those in here that I really enjoyed. There was also a Haunted Tank tale or two, and a group called The Losers. The real find for me, though, was "Killer of the Skies," a tale told from the point of view of a German fighter pilot called The Hammer of Hell. The first story, written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Joe Kubert, was set in WWI and featured a sky duel between The Hammer and a great French Ace. The book then ended with a long set of tales featuring the same German flyer now fighting in WWII, and discovering over time what was going on behind German lines in the concentration camps. This was an outstanding ending to the collection, written by Garth Ennis and Illustrated by Chris Weston, Christian Alamy, and Russ Heath.
July 10, 2020
A nice kellogs variety pack.....
It would be better if each feature had their own individual book.
Certainly Sgt Rock and Unknown Soldier are worthy of bronze and silver editions!
It would be better if each feature had their own individual book.
Certainly Sgt Rock and Unknown Soldier are worthy of bronze and silver editions!
June 11, 2020
I didn't get into DC's war comics until I was a teenager, and then it was Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier, and Code Name: Gravedigger that I followed, with the Blackhawks becoming a favorite when their series was published between 1982-1984. (Pay attention, DC: I'd buy collections of any of those series.)
This is a nice selection of stories from the DC archives. I might have chosen a few different stories, but these all feature solid storytelling.
Recommended!
This is a nice selection of stories from the DC archives. I might have chosen a few different stories, but these all feature solid storytelling.
Recommended!
June 4, 2022
An excellent selection of DC Comics' War stories, starting in the 1940s up through 2001's Enemy Ace: War in Heaven.
Though I would not have minded this volume being a little thicker to include a Weird War Tales selection and an example of the solo adventures of both Captain Storm and Johnny Cloud, what is included gives us a great overview of why DC War Comics were classics. (A U.S.S. Stevens story would also have been appropriate, but they were reprinted in their entirely a few years ago in another excellent hardback.)
Included are the origins of Blackhawk and the Haunted Tank, several strong Sgt. Rock tales, Mlle Marie, the Unknown Soldier and a Gunner & Sarge story. There's a story from 1959 giving us an example of the sort of stories that appeared in DC's war comics when they were pure anthology books. The Boy Commandos and Hop Harrigan represent the 1940s (along with the Blackhawk story I already mentioned.)
More recent stuff is an excellent Sgt Rock story published in 1994 to honor the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.
Enemy Ace gets two stories--a WWI tale from his original run in Star Spangled War and the relatively recent War in Heaven. This last was written by Garth Ennis, whom I'm not usually a fan of. But this intelligent story (about an honorable man fighting for a dishonorable cause) is superb.
There's also a Civil War story to remind us that the war books sometimes departed from the World Wars to show us other conflicts from throughout history.
Great storytelling supported by some of the best artwork ever to grace the pages of a comic book.
Though I would not have minded this volume being a little thicker to include a Weird War Tales selection and an example of the solo adventures of both Captain Storm and Johnny Cloud, what is included gives us a great overview of why DC War Comics were classics. (A U.S.S. Stevens story would also have been appropriate, but they were reprinted in their entirely a few years ago in another excellent hardback.)
Included are the origins of Blackhawk and the Haunted Tank, several strong Sgt. Rock tales, Mlle Marie, the Unknown Soldier and a Gunner & Sarge story. There's a story from 1959 giving us an example of the sort of stories that appeared in DC's war comics when they were pure anthology books. The Boy Commandos and Hop Harrigan represent the 1940s (along with the Blackhawk story I already mentioned.)
More recent stuff is an excellent Sgt Rock story published in 1994 to honor the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.
Enemy Ace gets two stories--a WWI tale from his original run in Star Spangled War and the relatively recent War in Heaven. This last was written by Garth Ennis, whom I'm not usually a fan of. But this intelligent story (about an honorable man fighting for a dishonorable cause) is superb.
There's also a Civil War story to remind us that the war books sometimes departed from the World Wars to show us other conflicts from throughout history.
Great storytelling supported by some of the best artwork ever to grace the pages of a comic book.
June 4, 2020
I really wanted this to be a five. I've been waiting for DC to release their excellent way comics - mostly Sgt Rock, which was far superior to Marvel's Sgt Fury, which was way too comic book - for years. Sadly, dinner if the stories in here, like the Boy Commandos, which I know was written to boost morale, don't belong. Stuff like that should get it's own volume. However, there are 3 stupendous stories in here which deserve to be read - one is a Sgt Rock where the main character is private Doe, a soldier who will kill anyone. Really a brilliant character study. The second is a classic Enemy Ace, which really deserves a collection of it's own. As with all the Enemy Ace stories, it's not black and white. The last, written by Garth Ennis, is another Enemy Ace story. The War in Heaven has von Hammer return to fight for Germany in WW2. His usual outspoken self, von Hammer has nothing good to say about Hitler and the morals of this brilliant story are gray. The volume is worth reading for these three.
September 16, 2021
I grew up reading these comic books. Many of these comics books were discovered at our local barbershop that had a bunch of comics available to read alongside motor trends, fishing, gun magazines.
Sgt Rock became a favorite WW2 comic for me alongside the Sgt Fury books from Marvel.
Began to collect the books and I would buy them with the Haunted Tank, and others each month.
Loved each book and now to recaptured those youthful days was very nice in this collection
Sgt Rock became a favorite WW2 comic for me alongside the Sgt Fury books from Marvel.
Began to collect the books and I would buy them with the Haunted Tank, and others each month.
Loved each book and now to recaptured those youthful days was very nice in this collection
April 6, 2021
DC is notoriously bad for not reprinting their less mainstream works, and their gritty War comics have been this policy's most tragic casualty. But DC seems bent on redeeming itself with this epic collection of their best war stories.
The collection starts with DC's roots in the 1940s, containing stories featuring the characters Hop Harrigan, Blackhawk, and Boy Commandos. These stories are rife with cliches, ethnic stereotypes, and old-fashioned melodrama. I guess 40s war comics aren't my thing, but I respect their inclusion for posterity.
Then the collection gets whipped back into discipline by the legendary Robert Kanigher and his creations Sergeant Rock, Enemy Ace, and Captain Hunter.
Three Sergeant Rock stories are included here and each one is a page-turner. The first is a fairly sentimental yarn showing Rock put into a friendly rivalry with a cocky new-comer who ends up realizing just how cool the "old rock" really is.
The second tale also puts Rock into conflict with a cocky new-comer, but this time there's nothing friendly about it! Johnny Doe is a bloodthirsty soldier who shoots first and asks questions later. His cavalier attitude towards human life saves Easy Company more than once, but Rock nurses his doubts throughout leading to an unsurprisingly ambiguous conclusion.
The third, and most contemporary Rock story is not written by Kanigher, but by Chuck Dixon of Batman fame. It tells the wrenching story of a typist who looks death straight in the eye to save Rock and co.
But Sergeant Rock isn't the only thing to love this collection for! It also features the first appearance of the Unknown Soldier which left me hungry for more. The story places him undercover in a Nazi compound and piles on moral dilemma after moral dilemma.
The book ends with a bang called Enemy Ace: War in Heaven! Written with gusto by Garth Ennis. Ennis is always controversial with me, but this mini shot down all my doubts and crashed them in a blaze of glory! It takes the honorable WWI German fighter pilot Hans von Hammer, the legend himself, and throws him into the more morally grey (at least on the surface) skies of WWII. Too much of a gentleman to support the Nazis, Hammer nevertheless rationalizes himself into flying for them. In addition to his doubts, he has to fight off a greedy, goose-stepping lieutenant and Russian winters. These bits are straight out of Ennis's childhood fav, Johnny Red, as is the attention to historical detail. The dialogue is loaded with interesting tidbits about fighter pilots and dogfight tactics and harrowing imagery that quickens the pulse.
Of course, all morally dubious things must come to an end and Hammer is forced to confront the horrors he's fought for. This leads to a climax that showcases Ennis's penchant for dark wit, graphic violence, and intriguing historical hypotheses.
I first heard about this collection a year ago, and it was worth every day of the wait. DC has my salute. Here's hoping they'll turn this victory into a successful campaign of reprints.
The collection starts with DC's roots in the 1940s, containing stories featuring the characters Hop Harrigan, Blackhawk, and Boy Commandos. These stories are rife with cliches, ethnic stereotypes, and old-fashioned melodrama. I guess 40s war comics aren't my thing, but I respect their inclusion for posterity.
Then the collection gets whipped back into discipline by the legendary Robert Kanigher and his creations Sergeant Rock, Enemy Ace, and Captain Hunter.
Three Sergeant Rock stories are included here and each one is a page-turner. The first is a fairly sentimental yarn showing Rock put into a friendly rivalry with a cocky new-comer who ends up realizing just how cool the "old rock" really is.
The second tale also puts Rock into conflict with a cocky new-comer, but this time there's nothing friendly about it! Johnny Doe is a bloodthirsty soldier who shoots first and asks questions later. His cavalier attitude towards human life saves Easy Company more than once, but Rock nurses his doubts throughout leading to an unsurprisingly ambiguous conclusion.
The third, and most contemporary Rock story is not written by Kanigher, but by Chuck Dixon of Batman fame. It tells the wrenching story of a typist who looks death straight in the eye to save Rock and co.
But Sergeant Rock isn't the only thing to love this collection for! It also features the first appearance of the Unknown Soldier which left me hungry for more. The story places him undercover in a Nazi compound and piles on moral dilemma after moral dilemma.
The book ends with a bang called Enemy Ace: War in Heaven! Written with gusto by Garth Ennis. Ennis is always controversial with me, but this mini shot down all my doubts and crashed them in a blaze of glory! It takes the honorable WWI German fighter pilot Hans von Hammer, the legend himself, and throws him into the more morally grey (at least on the surface) skies of WWII. Too much of a gentleman to support the Nazis, Hammer nevertheless rationalizes himself into flying for them. In addition to his doubts, he has to fight off a greedy, goose-stepping lieutenant and Russian winters. These bits are straight out of Ennis's childhood fav, Johnny Red, as is the attention to historical detail. The dialogue is loaded with interesting tidbits about fighter pilots and dogfight tactics and harrowing imagery that quickens the pulse.
Of course, all morally dubious things must come to an end and Hammer is forced to confront the horrors he's fought for. This leads to a climax that showcases Ennis's penchant for dark wit, graphic violence, and intriguing historical hypotheses.
I first heard about this collection a year ago, and it was worth every day of the wait. DC has my salute. Here's hoping they'll turn this victory into a successful campaign of reprints.
April 2, 2021
Um mergulho nos personagens de comics de guerra da DC, durante anos uma importante vertente editorial no género. Tem os suspeitos do costume - Blackhawk, Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, Unknown Soldier ou Haunted Tank, mas também personagens mais obscuros como The Losers ou Mademoiselle Marie. A temática é o esperado - histórias de aventura em combate. Mas é interessante ver a evolução de algo que se pedia que não passasse do elementar, do herói que combate os inimigos, para textos mais complexos (dentro dos limites dos comics), muitas vezes com fortes mensagens pacifistas e uma vontade de mostrar que a guerra não é aventura, é tragédia e desespero. Algo inesperado em títulos para entreter adolescentes. Isso é o efeito Robert Kanigher, cujas histórias para Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace e Unknown Soldier mostram soldados amargurados, com dúvidas sobre o dever negro que cumprem, que convivem com a morte dos camaradas e amigos, ou mal sobrevivem a aventuras que se esperaria que fossem empolgantes. Isso é particularmente notável na história de The Losers que o livro reproduz - personagens que têm em comum ser os únicos sobreviventes das suas unidades, mas que não irão sobreviver a uma missão. Uma excelente introdução aos comics clássicos de guerra da DC, que nos dá um panorama da evolução e temáticas do género, e surpreende pela inesperada profundidade de algumas histórias.
January 9, 2021
I sure would love to see a better collection of DC's war comics than this one, which is focused on first appearances and key stories of DC's roster of war heroes. Like Atlas/Marvel, DC published hundreds of war comic stories in the 50s that have never been reprinted, many of them illustrated by great artists. The art in this volume is definitely its strength. Joe Kubert was an absolute master of the genre, though most of the Sgt Rock stories are better if one doesn't actually read the words. Robert Kanigher, who wrote at least 2/3 of the contents of this volume, was insanely prolific over several decades, but his stories are, for the most part, hack work, lacking even the goofy edge that the Atlas publications display, so what one gets here are some beautifully drawn graphic stories that are terribly told. The contents however extend into the 3rd millennium, with Garth Ennis' and Russ Heath's impressive epic of "Enemy Ace" in the second world war, War in Heaven, which may not be a masterpiece but sure reads better than anything else in the book. It's not really fair to compare this with Atlas at War! because the two books have entirely different goals, but I enjoyed the Atlas volume vastly more.
November 9, 2023
Superhero comics from this era can be pretty tough to get through. However, there's a shocking amount of war comics that hold up really well, especially those by certain authors, such as Robert Kanigher. This collection showcases a couple stories from every publishing era in DC, so you get a pretty wide spread. The first couple are, admittedly, not great, due to their very outdated writing styles. But after that, it's mostly smooth sailing, with stories ranging from decent to fantastic. Obviously as with any anthology, your mileage will vary by story, but I think everyone will find something to enjoy. I personally thought the Unknown Soldier story was the best, though also the saddest and most brutal. The Sgt. Rock, Losers, Enemy Ace, and Mlle. Marie stories were also highlights.
August 3, 2020
It’s a nice mixture of different World War I and II stories. Sgt. Rock, Losers and Unknown Solider were the best in this collection.
May 11, 2021
Classic DC war comics. Some good stories, some not so good.
January 18, 2022
Fascinating look at propaganda during the war and post the war. It’s dark, gritty and brutal at times. It does pull any punches nor try to shy away from things post sone of those wars.
October 8, 2022
This use to be DC bread and butter. Ii was Haunted tank and Unknown soldier fan. I thought Gravedigger was great. Great collection.
December 30, 2022
Wonderful samples from many of DC’s most recognizable war comics including several first and last appearances of key characters. Spans the 1940s to the present. A very fine collection.
May 9, 2025
Some really poignant and tragic stories in this collection, especially “Losers Die Twice!”.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews