Death Squad

by Alan Hebden, Carlos Ezquerra, Eric Bradbury

An all-out all-action, complete-in-one brutal war story from the pages of the classic war comic, Battle, hugely influential on Preacher and The Boys creator Garth Ennis.

Meet the deadliest band of fighters on the Eastern Front!

During world War Two the Eastern Front was hell on Earth. German Punishment Battalions were thrown into the thick of the conflict where they were  expected to fight well and die hard. In these harshest of conditions only the strongest warriors survived. Enter the Death Squad – Grandad, Swede, Licker, Gus and Frankie. Alone they were failures and outcasts, but together they were one of the most formidable combat units the Russians ever faced!

 

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

128 pages, Paperback

Published August 18, 2020

Reviews

[Timo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it was kiddiehood when Garth Ennis read these and was "ooh wow" and time has made memories gold. Or maybe I'm not Garth Ennis.
To me, this was fast paced and still boring as the story line dragged on and on. I liked the grim art and very young looking Ezquerra art from Battle Special at the end.
Also, comic book editing must be the hardest work in the world as in this one was a also an error Why did no one notice that the presentation texts of Carlos Ezquerra and Eric Bradbury were mixed up. It is hard job, comic editing.

[Zebulynn Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's even better than it sounds

" what are those dolls doing? Can't they even walk across red square right?"
Definitely my favorite from this collection

[John Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death Squad is a story from Battle Picture Weekly, and it's unusual in that it depicts Germans as the main characters instead of British or American ones. It's not the first story to do so, but it's the one that most resembles the stories of Sven Hassel, who's book at the time were a huge hit with readers everywhere.

The squad is a group of German soldiers in a punishment battalion, basically treated as cannon fodder by the German High Command, and it chronicles their adventures mostly in the war against Russia.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was curious how far the book would go into war crimes after the opening scene of stealing gold teeth but it was scaled back. Not bad, a lot of tropes used (trapped behind enemy lines but can't pass up a chance to shoot Stalin! Stealing uniforms, captured, escaped, split up, presumed dead etc... they even went so far as to stoke a fight between the SS and the army with faked footage...!)
The art was great but without coloring the battle scenes were confusing.