I know, this isn’t a cheerer-upper by any means but this was WW2 and this particular episode is set in one of the darkest times of the darkest war so buckle up: it’s a grim read, to say the least!Īnd, while the subject matter couldn’t be bleaker, Steve Epting’s there drawing it all so incredibly beautifully. The details are compelling: the ever-present party adjutant hovering at the edges of Sara’s team, always listening for a stray word of dissension to report back on, the dogs with mines strapped on them, trained to charge under the enemy tanks. Stalin is rightly mentioned in the same breath as Hitler (though not at the time) for his insanely savage tactics that began even pre-war but went on, bafflingly, even as the Nazis were invading. We see not just the brutality of war and the Nazis, but just how horrendous the Russians - Sara’s own people - were to their countrymen. The action sequences are mesmerising as we find out the order in which a sniper is meant to take out a German squad, to seeing Sara’s team being targeted by German tanks and having to figure out an exit.Įnnis provides no less a realistic portrait of war than he does in all of his war comics. From Sara’s training, where she learns the trick of booby-trapping corpses to lay on live grenades so when their comrades turn the bodies over the grenades are activated, to the battle scenes, and the bloody finale in the tundra. This is another astonishingly high quality comic from a master of the medium on his favourite subject - war - alongside two other top tier creators, artist Steve Epting and colourist Elizabeth Breitweiser, the art team behind the excellent espionage series, Velvet.Įvery part of this story was amazing. Garth Ennis is a big name in the comics world for a reason: because of books like Sara. Who will win the duel - Russian or German snipers? Sara is the best sniper in a team of female Russian snipers doing what they can to push the Nazis back - and it turns out she’s so effective that the Nazis have dispatched their best marksmen to take her out specially.

1942, the Eastern Front and the wolf is in the door and advancing further into the Motherland.

Garth ennis sara