Sgt. Rock:Between Hell and a Hard Place

After a nearly 10 year absence, Joe Kubert returned to his best known character, Sgt. Rock. With Brian Azzrello writing, Kubert plotted and illustrated this 2003 graphic novel under the Vertigo imprint. Meant to be more edgy and adult, other than maybe a bit more violence, I could not tell a difference from this and the stuff my father used to read in the 70s and 80s.

I'm going to make a stunning confession here. Most of you know me as a big DC fan. Yet, when it comes to the World War II characters, I prefer Sgt. Fury and His Howlin' Commandos over the guys of Easy Co. I always felt that the Commandos had more personality. In contrast, I felt like Easy Co. was just a rotating group of grunts that had very little personality and even less chance at staying alive than a red shirt on Star Trek.

I bought this book more for the something extra inside it than the art and story. Along with this book, there was a piece of DC Comics stationary that was meant to drum up business for a book seller into buying multiple copies of this book. This volume I purchased wasn't a proof, but it was sent out in advance. Seeing as DC stationary is considered a holy grail among DC fans, I had to have this book if only for that treasure piece of comic book history.

Between Hell and a Hard Place was an okay read. The story has Sgt. Rock and his men finding a group of Nazi officers. Rock decides to take the men back to base in hopes of gaining some valuable information that might put an end to the war. But on the journey back, 3 of the officers are murdered at point blank range, during an assault from another group of German soldiers. With a fourth officer on the run, Rock must play detective as one of his own soldiers may have been who shot the other Nazis in cold blood.

I felt that the main storyline gets gobbled up in other elements, like the origin of the Ice Cream Soldier and the introduction of new recruits to Easy Co. I was fine with the ending but I did feel that elements of the murder mystery tied themselves up in just too neat of a bow.

My favorite part of this book was the art. I love Joe Kubert. His work on Weird War Tales is just fantastic. His images of Rock adorned in red, white and blue tipped bandoliers was awe-inspiring. It also felt nostalgic as I feel like that is how I grew up seeing Sgt. Rock in the comics as a kid. But I cannot find any evidence on this on Google.

A good read but if not for the stationery treasure contained within, I wouldn't keep this book as a part of my collection.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.