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Battlefields #5
Battlefields, Volume 5: Firefly and His Majesty
The Tankies' Sergeant Stiles returns, recently promoted and angrier than ever! He's got a new crew and a new tank - a Sherman Firefly with a high-velocity gun capable of taking out even the fearsome German Tiger. Too bad the enemy have a new tank of their own - the mighty King Tiger, with twice the armor and firepower of the original. As Stiles and his men join the Allied advance into the Nazi homeland, they soon realize that every inch of ground will be bitterly contested by the foe... and that there are worse horrors than Tigers lurking in the gloom of the last German winter. Reprinting issues #1-3, with a complete cover gallery.
80 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
6 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Garth Ennis
2,621 books3,167 followersEnnis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 6, 2021
The Tankies Sgt. Stiles returns for a story set in Germany towards the end of the war. It's a great tale of cat and mouse as Stiles goes after a King Tiger German tank. The King Tigers had twice the armor and firepower but nowhere near the mobility and speed as the Shermans the Brits used. Tank battles in stories are a hard thing to get right but I think Ennis and Ezquerra nailed it. They do a great job of going through the strategies involved.
February 13, 2018
Alright so I didn’t know this at first but this is actually a sequel to one of the other volumes... both the first story and the sequel are really impressive!
What’s it about?
This story is a sequel to the Tankies volume and in it the tank crew are faced with battling the German’s new King Tiger tank!
Pros:
The story is very well done and well written! I like how there’s some more background given to the characters. Another thing I love about this series in general is how they show both sides of the story.
The art is fantastic as Ezquerra’s art always is.
The characters are interesting.
There’s a lot of great tank-related action throughout the book. I always love great tank battles!
This book is very suspenseful.
There’s some one liners that got a chuckle out of me for slight comic relief here and there.
The ending is messed up but bad-a**!
Why not 5 stars?
The dialogue is not good. The leader is hard to understand (which is strange since I didn’t have that problem in the first Tankies story), I had to think about the lines to figure them out a few times and there’s a few lines that even if you can understand them are pretty bad including some fart jokes and lines like “I’m begging you, you f***ing worthless b***h-c**t-wh*re.” (the character saying this is referring to a tank I’m pretty sure) that were just pretty bad.
Overall:
Great volume! If you want a great tank story with awesome action scenes and great art this is definitely a good pick! Just change the dialogue a bit and you’d have a 5-star book but since the dialogue could use work I’m gonna go ahead and give it
4/5
What’s it about?
This story is a sequel to the Tankies volume and in it the tank crew are faced with battling the German’s new King Tiger tank!
Pros:
The story is very well done and well written! I like how there’s some more background given to the characters. Another thing I love about this series in general is how they show both sides of the story.
The art is fantastic as Ezquerra’s art always is.
The characters are interesting.
There’s a lot of great tank-related action throughout the book. I always love great tank battles!
This book is very suspenseful.
There’s some one liners that got a chuckle out of me for slight comic relief here and there.
The ending is messed up but bad-a**!
Why not 5 stars?
The dialogue is not good. The leader is hard to understand (which is strange since I didn’t have that problem in the first Tankies story), I had to think about the lines to figure them out a few times and there’s a few lines that even if you can understand them are pretty bad including some fart jokes and lines like “I’m begging you, you f***ing worthless b***h-c**t-wh*re.” (the character saying this is referring to a tank I’m pretty sure) that were just pretty bad.
Overall:
Great volume! If you want a great tank story with awesome action scenes and great art this is definitely a good pick! Just change the dialogue a bit and you’d have a 5-star book but since the dialogue could use work I’m gonna go ahead and give it
4/5
May 15, 2019
On the last leg of the war, the Germans can feel their defeat coming. The Allies are closing in from all sides. Stiles, the Geordie from two volumes before is still around. His luck is holding, but he has gained a bit of an obsession with the crew of a German Tiger with several Allied tank kills. Even with the tank blown up under him, Stiles doesn't stop until he has his revenge.
November 6, 2016
Angry Geordie Popeye returns, now with a whole new crew and an even bigger hateboner for nazis than ever. Fantastic cat-and-mouse story in which Esquerra expertly sells the sense of scale between the little Anguirus that is the Firefly and the Destoroyah that is the King Tiger (King Tiger would be a good kaiju name as well).
The final showdown in a collapsing cathedral (!!!) is truly something to behold.
The final showdown in a collapsing cathedral (!!!) is truly something to behold.
February 18, 2015
Good story telling and far more realistic than the war comics I read in my youth. Intense ending!
June 2, 2022
Just like the last volume I wasn’t much invested in the protagonists but I will say I hated the antagonists more. The plot was a bit tighter and the art didn’t stumble anywhere, though it wasn’t quite as beautiful as the aerial battles from the previous volume. Good stuff, definitely worth checking out if you’re into WW2 or war comics in general.
March 10, 2017
The same tank commander from Volume 3 of Battlefields is back with a new crew, a new tank, and a score to settle with the Germans.
The action and pace were better in this installment, though the language from Sergeant Stiles is still a little thick, I still found myself pronouncing some of the words to see what it might sound like. I could just picture him sitting in a bar in the middle of England rambling on with war stories nodding along with what he's saying, and understanding nothing of what he's saying.
The action and pace were better in this installment, though the language from Sergeant Stiles is still a little thick, I still found myself pronouncing some of the words to see what it might sound like. I could just picture him sitting in a bar in the middle of England rambling on with war stories nodding along with what he's saying, and understanding nothing of what he's saying.
December 31, 2011
The weakest link in Ennis' Battlefield series. Too much like a straight forward Commando-story.
Although, the art by Esquerra saved a lot.
Although, the art by Esquerra saved a lot.
May 13, 2019
These Ennis war books are pretty dang amazing!!! Done three now gotta find more!!!
November 23, 2021
Brutal, nasty and very good
March 10, 2016
The volume 5 of the series is again a stand alone volume, the action is WW-2, European theater. The sergeant from volume 3 is back, frankly his lingo is difficult to understand and that kind of puts a damper on the reading experience. The plot is the most straight one yet in the series, a cat and mouse game among tanks. The confrontation leading between the two tanks seem realistic, loved the way the allies practice shooting against a abandoned tank, made the King Tiger look like a monster, would have loved a series focusing on its exploits.
October 9, 2010
The characters from volume three return to continue their fight against the Germans. Good, but at times the tanks and characters look enough alike that I got confused.
February 19, 2013
Another tank GN, the art was really good. More random Graphic Novels are up next as I am just ordering anything the library buys and putting them up on a Graphic Novels for adults shelf.
January 10, 2016
Enjoyed this...hadn't read this series before
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews