WINGS OF THE LUFTWAFFE

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

WINGS OF THE LUFTWAFFE: 1946 #1 REVIEW

Reviewer: Kerry Birmingham, birmy@juno.com

"Better make this ‘sea’ demonstration quick. I’m supposed be back at the bunker, deciding the fate of the Third Reich!"

Story and Art by: Ted Nomura
Lettering by: Doug Dlin
Published by: Antarctic Press

Here’s a quick litmus test to see if Wings of the Luftwaffe: 1946 is for you. Read the following dialogue exchange:

LIEUTENANT: I’m surprised that you guys managed to assemble enough JU-290s and a JU-390 for this [...] Why not just get the A9s?

GUS: The Luftwaffe only have three of that model, and they’re all being used on a high-priority shuttle mission to Japan. The Reichenberg mounts were based on the earlier BF-109 carrier design, but they decided to eliminate the top launcher for endurance reasons [...] We could only get one one JU-390 to carry a fighter escort, so we chose the most advanced one available, the trans-sonic ME-262 HGIII...

This exchange indicates both this issue's leaden narrative and its general style of the dialogue. Set during an alternate World War II where the war continues past V-E Day into the following year, Wings of the Luftwaffe: 1946 shows Hitler alive and well and plotting the Allies’ downfall from hiding. Through his corps of souped-up fighter planes, Hitler aims to strike America where it hurts the most: on its own soil. Alternate histories are certainly nothing new in genre fiction, and this series is, conceptually, one rife with possibility. However, consider the above dialogue: did you make it all the way through? Did it sound natural to you? Did your eyes NOT glaze over at the technical manual-style detail and letter-number designations? If so, then Luftwaffe is for you; all others steer clear. This is not the alternate history you’re looking for.

Luftwaffe is written and illustrated by Ted Nomura, who, if any of the ads in this issue are any indication, has an extensive body of work covering the subject of alternate military timelines (frequently referred to here as "Altered Wars"). Using actual history as a launching point (a lengthy text piece on the inside front cover fills the reader in), Nomura’s continuation of the war is an unusual mix of manga stylings and a level of technical detail on his never-were planes that could be described as porn for military fanatics. Hitler sends out a fleet of planes, mostly piloted by women, to strike American soil in an effort to shake morale. The American fleet, also piloted mainly by women, is there to meet the enemy before they can do too much damage to the Land of the Free.

For someone who has clearly put a lot of thought into his story, Nomura can’t turn it into anything coherent. Much of the story is centered around a nubile young Nazi spy (possibly unnamed), who starts the issue talking with a "Doctor Dumpfkopf" who adds nothing to the plot and most likely works only as some kind of in-joke with Nomura’s fans. It’s further downhill from there: joining up with her Ratzi fleet, the unnamed Lieutenant engages in a series of lengthy, brain-dampening conversations that consist only of technical details of planes, broken up by brief transitions that must necessarily move the plot along. While the inclusion of a mostly-female fighting force seems like a novel and magnanimous story choice on Nomura’s part, feels out of place and, while I hesitate to call his attitude towards his female characters misogynistic, it’s definitely condescending at times, as the women on both sides are treated with bemusement by their male superiors (and the women fail to notice). Even the unnamed German lieutenant, easily the most developed of the characters, ends the story disgraced and turned into a buffoon by a mustachioed American colonel in mirror shades.

The artwork does no favors for the bland and pedantic script. Working in an inconsistent manga style, characters tend to look alike, leading to some character confusion, especially when both American and German forces are engaged in chaotic aerial combat. Nomura, strangely, draws his planes – customized fighters and other modified aircraft, intentional anachronisms– with loving detail. Where the characters are drawn almost as something to get out of the way, large panels and multi-page spreads showcase Nomura’s custom fleets in all their delicately crafted line work. A multi-page sequence of planes being deployed from a larger plane seems masturbatory in the amount of story space it takes up in the issue. It’s a strange combination, the manga-lite art and the extreme level of technical detail; perhaps it’s geared toward the giant-robot crowd. Further hindering matters is occasionally awkward word balloon placement that confuses the flow of what is already a LOT of dialogue ("...Major components were built because they switched to the less risky L-140 project, which became the XP-80...").

This is, admittedly, not the sort of comic I typically read, so there’s the possibility that I’m not picking up on the charms of the sub-genre and this issue in that context. Coming in cold, however, it’s confusing and dull; no one but the converted will find much incentive to keep reading, or seek out other "Altered Wars" titles. It offers little for history buffs, little for manga enthusiasts; its fetishized approach to aircraft and aerial warfare is its only real strength – Nomura really does draw the hell out of those planes– and even that must appeal to a very limited group of people who are clearly into the military far more than I am. Adventurous readers take a pass; there’s bound to be a worthy "alternate history" comic in the future, altered or otherwise.

OVERALL:

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