Random Happenstance

I had Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine's War Story: Archangel on one of my comicon bingo cards, but had marked it with a question mark since I got a batch of Ennis's Battlefields series on a download from Humble Bundle. I thought it may have been reprinted in that, but no; and I had picked up Johann's Tiger at the con. Damn, I'm missing another three there! I may only have two issues of the eight Ennis did for Vertigo. The second being today's book: from 2003, War Story: J For Jenny, written by Garth Ennis, art by David Lloyd.

The titular J for Jenny is an Avro Lancaster bomber, and one that has made several successful runs over Germany, although not entirely unscathed. Their success is largely due to their pilot, Lt. Page, who lost his family to German bombs. His co-pilot, Stark, has misgivings about their bombing campaign and civilian casualties; putting the two at odds: Stark thinks Page is a monster, while Page considers Stark a whining ponce. Despite their mutual hate, the two are surprisingly able to work together: Stark may not agree with it, but knows something has to be done, and couldn't abandon his crew either way.

I don't think it's a spoiler to say Jenny's luck eventually runs out, but I can't say more about the ending except that like many of Ennis's war stories it's sad, but in an unexpected way. I'm sorry I don't have more of these, but that just gives me something to keep an eye out for. There's a pretty solid review of Archangel here, so that's still top of the list.